Secondary School Shows Autumn 2016
Show and tell with Gary McNair
A Gambler’s Guide to Dying
Winner - The Scotsman Fringe First Award 2015
What are the odds of living an extraordinary life? This is the story of one boy’s granddad who
won a fortune betting on the 1966 football World Cup and, when diagnosed with cancer,
gambled it all on living to see the year 2000.
Written and performed by Gary McNair. Directed by Gareth Nicholls.
Wednesday 21 September, 7:30pm
Tickets £10/£8 concessions
Ages 14+/60 mins
Chris Dobrowolski
Antarctica
Antarctica is the most inhospitable climate in the world. It’s the driest, windiest place on
Earth, synonymous with lack of life, failed expedition attempts and the crisis of climate
change. A place with no artists for miles around. A place that Chris Dobrowolski decided was
perfect for him.
For three and a half months Chris lived and worked alongside the medical professionals,
researchers and scientists at the British Antarctic Survey, trying to experiment creatively
whilst (crucially) trying to survive. He discovered that sometimes it’s very difficult to justify
your position as an artist whilst everyone around you is a Hero.
Thursday 29 September 7:30pm
Tickets £10/£8 concessions
Ages 14+/70 mins + post show Q&A
Soho Theatre and Francesca Moody
Spine
From fast-rising Channel 4 playwright Clara Brennan, comes the Fringe First and Herald
Angel award winning SPINE, a hilarious and heart-breaking call to arms for our modern age.
Spine charts the explosive friendship between a ferocious, wise-cracking teenager and an
elderly East End widow. Mischievous activist pensioner Glenda is hell-bent on leaving a
political legacy and saving Amy from the Tory scrapheap because ‘there’s nothing more
terrifying than a teenager with something to say’.
In this era of damaging austerity cuts and disillusionment, has politics forgotten people? Can
we really take the power back? Amy is about to be forced to find out.
Thursday 20 October, 7:30pm
Tickets £10/£8 concessions
Ages 16+/65 mins
Cardboard Citizens
Cathy
By Ali Taylor
Directed by Adrian Jackson
Settled …. Until suddenly you’re not…
Candid, poignant and intimate, this new play by award-winning playwright Ali Taylor offers a
timely reflection on the social impact of spiralling rents and forced relocation.
Acclaimed Theatre Company Cardboard Citizens presents this powerful and emotive Forum
Theatre show, provoking discussion and debate, inspired by Ken Loach’s pioneering drama,
Cathy Come Home.
Tuesday 15 November, 7:30pm & Wednesday 16 November, 1:30pm
Tickets £10/£8 concessions/£5 schools
Ages 14+
Anna Braithwaite and Michael Betteridge
In Their own Words
Anna Braithwaite follows up her Normal? festival premiere Brainsong by teaming up with
composer Michael Betteridge to present a brand new piece of verbatim musical theatre
tackling loss and survival. Setting the stories of two people facing life-changing diagnoses
with honesty and humour against a backdrop of classical, pop and folk, these are musical
portraits told In Their Own Words.
Friday 16 September, 7:30pm
Tickets £8/£6 concessions
Ages 14+/55 mins
Chinese Arts Space presents
Project New Earth
100 years ago, 140,000 Chinese men were recruited by the British and French armies to work
behind the Western Front during the First World War. They were the Chinese Labour Corps
(CLC) who made a vital contribution but have since become ‘the forgotten of the forgotten’ in
WW1 history.
As part of the commemorations for WW1, Project New Earth celebrates the CLC’s memory
within the context of British Chinese communities living in the UK today. Commissioned artists
have created four short works: two films, one dance work and one piece of music drama for
Folkestone, Plymouth and Liverpool, where the CLC are buried in local cemeteries.
SONG UNSUNG features CLC stories and songs. MISSING PARTS charts their physical and
psychological journeys through contemporary dance. LUNAR CORPS excavates labyrinthine
warrens of lost memories and bodies, bringing them into the light. HEROS WITHIN peels back
the layers of an historic WW1 painting to reveal the CLC underneath.
The performance will be followed by a post-show talk between David Tse from Chinese Arts
Space and a local historian.
Thursday 13 October, 7:30pm
Tickets £10/£8 concessions
Ages 12+
Manjeet Mann
A Dangerous Woman
Work in progress
Work in progress of a new play by writer and performer Manjeet Mann. Through
interweaving stories of four female characters; a burlesque dancer, an army cadet, a
prisoner, and a young girl wanting to go to drama school, this new show explores what it
means to be considered a dangerous woman.
A 30 minute scratch performance will be followed by a Q&A.
A Dangerous Woman is supported by Folkestone Quarterhouse, Arcola Theatre, London
and Birmingham Rep.
Wednesday 14 September, 7:30pm
Tickets £3
Ages 14+/30 mins + 30 min Q&A
In celebration of John Betjeman Edward Fox in
Sand in the Sandwiches
By Hugh Whitemore
Directed by Gareth Armstrong
Designed by Fotini Dimou
John Betjeman was the nation’s favourite poet.
Sand in the Sandwiches celebrates a man famous not only for light verse and laughter, but
for his passions, his sense of purpose and his unforgettable poetry.
Edward Fox stars in this brand new stage play, bringing Betjeman’s poetry and his vivacious
personality to life.
Embracing his delight for nostalgia and delicious irreverance, Sand in the Sandwiches
travels through Betjeman’s boyhood, his adolescence, to life as Britain’s Poet Laureate,
presenting a hugely entertaining insight into the world of this much-loved poet
Thursday 24 November, 8pm
Tickets £18/£16 concessions/ Earlybird £15