The free Kings Heath Street Festival is back with street food, bands, DJs and circus acts
Still photos are a crucial element of the show’s scenography. The organisation delivers an arts development function for Great Yarmouth Borough Council, developing the town as an International Centre of Excellence for circus and street arts creation, training and delivery. Their focus on circus and street arts grows naturally from this seaside town’s rich performance heritage, providing an accessible medium to support their work. Marcin also flags up the ongoing heritage training and outreach programme for the Ice House, which once played a crucial role in Great Yarmouth’s fishing industry. They are working with 11 schools and three local colleges, running workshops and enabling participants to create art work in response to the site’s heritage.
An abundance of physicality and frolics
Then they see a drop-dead gorgeous hunk of guy with a moustache turn to look at them with an alluring eye before disappearing into the night. Later, they see a man by the distant bushes doing something that should only be carried out in private. Jane captures the event on her camera and a black cat also takes an interest in what is going on. Rank, at the Lantern Theatre, is the debut play from Goldie Majtas who also plays Gemma opposite Paige Cowell as Jane. To say more about the plot would risk giving too much away, but the loose ends are brought together in a neatly crafted story that is packed with humour. Playing drunk is an acting challenge but Cowell shows exactly how it should be done.
A Wee Dram at the Fringe
This phosphorus pinpoint of total pleasure, alone, is worth all the horrors and mope of the week after the festival. The crowds here are so, so up for it, willing the performers to give all. Maybe it’s those invisible Atlantis energy connections old John Mitchell wrote about in ’69. Down the hill, the bars are jammed in the heat, Everyone’s after Margarita slushies but most of the machines onsite are bust. Which is lucky as it’s a culture shock heading into West Holts where Bob Vylan are playing.
The Company and its designees shall be free to copy, disclose, distribute, incorporate and otherwise use such material and all data, images, sounds, text and other things embodied therein for any and all commercial or non-commercial purposes. 3.1 – While the Company endeavours to ensure that the Website is normally available 24 hours a day, the Company shall not be liable if for any reason the Website is unavailable at any time or for any period. Penny was so beloved of so many people within the puppetry and visual theatre community. There follows a number of further reminiscences and appreciations from the people she worked with, taught, mentored and supported. Penny Francis was born Penelope Ann Elsdon-Smith in Kolkata in India on the 17th of April 1931.
Presented initially as a lecture on the paranormal by self-confessed skeptic, Dr Ouida Burt PhD, Piskie is really about one person’s struggle with childhood trauma and the easily blurred lines between fantasy and reality when the mind is in turmoil. Written and performed by Lucy Roslyn, this is a charming, funny and thoughtful play about hope.Dr Burt is portrayed by Roslyn with an affable, if awkward charm; a likeable Alan Partridge with a PhD. As she works through her prepared notes on three historical paranormal reports whilst dealing with errant slides and electrical issues, she drops in jokes and asides that belie her expressed confidence in the non-existence of sinister magical creatures.
Hurtful truths and conflict are underpinned with charming Scottish sarcasm that indicates endearment, and nobody does it better than the young Campbell. Duff’s harmonies are beautifully compelling, and the family song, Peace In This House (Kaset/Gill) is moving. Yet there is no mention of the absent male parental roles and everything falls to the responsibility of the matriarch. Under the meticulous direction of John Tiffany, transitions are seamless and Chloe Lamford’s set design is simple and functional. Who doesn’t love a breakfast bar that doubles up as a stage to dance on? All the best parties happen in the kitchen after all…Which is also where the clash of the classes happens.
Gracie and the Start of the End of the World (Again)
A proper golden-age-of-musicals show, the Broadway version of Hello Dolly! Has arrived for a limited season at the London Palladium.Imelda Staunton appears to be the go-to choice for leading ladies in the West End of late. Having had great success with Sally (Follies), Momma Rose (Gypsy) and Mrs Lovett (Sweeney Todd), she seems the obvious choice for Dolly Levi, an upstate New York match-maker who is trying to find a wife for miserly storekeeper Horace Vandergelder.
It was Sybil who led off the grand parade for the Community Carnival on Saturday evening, in celebration of the Ice House, and honouring 20 years of The Insect Circus – a wonderful finale to Out There Festival 2024. This year, Friday and Saturday were the key days for the outdoor programme, rather than the usual Saturday and Sunday of past years – with the Party in the Park nights kicking off on Thursday evening. As it was spring half-term holiday, Friday and Saturday saw the main sites for the shows – St George’s Park, Trafalgar Road and the Marina Centre Car Park – packed with family audiences out and about despite the squally weather. Thankfully, regardless of wind and occasional spots of rain, all shows went ahead, and a good time was had by all.
As the hour progresses, disparate images and expressed thoughts link up. Once again her breathe is held for a Funk Fest Bonanza horribly long time, the sensation of choking overwhelming. Once on the plane, the scarf is discarded, then deliberately left behind on her seat as she disembarks and jumps into a taxi speeding away to a new life. A life that is painfully lonely for a long time, but eventually it is food that forms the bridge to community. She may have eschewed cooking as a young women, but now she loves it, and loves sharing her Persian meals with her neighbours.
The material just keeps building and building, as she creates this kind of layered sense of arbitrary nonsense to the point where what she’s saying is both extremely profound and/or the most off-the-cuff quip ever. We’re always on-edge and just waiting to see what she does next. She constantly keeps us on our toes with each new gag, that really the chaos and hysteria that unfolds is just bursting out the seams, making us think it’s one thing when it’s actually the other.