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Dateline: 22nd June, 2003

EdFringe 2003 Preview (6)

The A1 Queen Show
A1 return for their fourth year at the Fringe (previous productions: Under Milk Wood, The Shakespeare Revue and Moll Flanders) to present a world premiere inspired by the music of Queen.

Drama Queen was conceived by director John Cooper and takes, as a starting point, his experiences and memories as a young actor in London of the "swinging sixties".

The show includes four musical numbers choreographed by Eric Carpenter who hails from Staten Island, trained with Ballet Rambert and the legendary Bob Fosse and now teaches at Northern Ballet School and other prestigious dance colleges across the country.

The show plays from 11th to 23rd August at Venue 18, Rocket @ Apex City Hotel.

Red Bessie
An American play that explores the theme of the international volunteers who fought Hitler, Mussolini and Franco in pre-WWII Spain, will open at the Gilded Balloon's Cave I space from 1st to 25th August. Red Bessie is having its European premiere and the two-character "play with songs" about radical labour troubadours from the Spanish Civil War to the cold war will play every day from 1:15 to 2:45.

"Bessie is based on a radicalized labor organizer from the garment trades and a recruiter for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade which was the American equivalent of the British Brigades," says playwright Jack Gilhooley. "She was instrumental in sending her two young relatives to fight for la causa and they never came back," he continues, "Though the family is devastated and puts the blame as much on her as the fascists, Bessie sees their deaths as a noble sacrifice for a great world-wide effort."

Meat
Nutshell are pleased to announce the world premiere of Meat, a new play by Edinburgh-based writer Sarah Colvin, which is appearing at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2003.

Things aren't going so well for Mr Grotius the butcher. Business is tight, his beloved daughter is permanently tired and his wife always seems to think a cup of tea will make everything better. When the mysterious Jack Black enters Mr. Grotius' shop and presents the butcher with an offer he can't refuse, he sets in motion a chain of events that will permanently change the world not only for Mr Grotius, but also for his nearest and dearest.

Set during the Falklands war, Meat is a blackly funny tale of a twisted Faustian pact between the unlikeliest of collaborators. Accompanied by a powerful soundtrack, this new play serves up an unusual perspective on war and rising consumerism in early 80s Britain.

Meat plays at the Smirnoff Underbelly (Venue 61) from 31st July to 25th August.

The Bear - Chekhov Meets Walton
Mahogany Opera and Edinburgh Studio Opera have teamed up to put on a bold, new production of The Bear by Sir William Walton at this summer's Edinburgh Festival Fringe. This is a rare chance to see the hilarious opera based on the play by Chekhov. It opens on 18th August at the refurbished Roxy Art House Studio One in collaboration with the Demarco European Arts Foundation.

The cast for all six performances will be soprano Helen Bruce, baritone Henry Deacon and bass Andy Pugsley under the accomplished baton of Oliver Gooch and directed by Freddie Wake-Walker. Together with an orchestra of fifteen, this 'extravaganza in one act' promises to be this year's Jerry Springer and the Fringe's answer to the International Festival's Ring Cycle!

Theatre Workshop Has Guts
Guts is the latest work by Manchester writer/director, Karlton Parris. It is a harrowing story of eight lives threaded together by the words of gay teenager Connor Jackson. Escaping from life outside the sanctuary of his imagination, Connor retreats into a world of poetry and verse. Encouraged by his teacher to share his writing with his class mates, Connor prepares to read his latest poem, a barely disguised love sonnet to his hero, David Beckham.

Guts runs at Theatre Workshop from 7th to 18th August.

Gogol's Underdogs
St. Petersburg, the graveyard of dreams, where men claim to be Kings and noses masquerade as Government Officials, where phantoms with a fetish for Overcoats terrorise the upper crust. In a reworking of Nikolai Gogol's fantastical tales Madman, Nose and Coat, Rogue State descend into a Gogolian universe where reality and dream clash so that it's impossible to distinguish the true from the illusory.

Smirnoff Underbelly (Big Belly) Previews: 31st July and 1st August. Performances: 2nd - 24th August

Mafioso
The Hill Street Theatre is the final venue in the successful UK tour of The Last Train which has been specially renamed Mafioso for the 2003 Fringe.

The play was originally premiered in Liverpool in June 2002 where it closed to standing ovations.

This is the story of a fearless, ruthless Gangland boss who rules his manor with an iron fist. He's cornered a member of the Shaughnessy gang down in the disused Jordan Road Tube Station. There's a score to settle and he's here to sort it, personally.

Mafioso plays at The Hill Street Theatre Studio from 3rd - 12th & 14th - 25th August

Now That's What I Call a Karaoke Musical
It's just another night at Blazers Fun Bar for barmaid Becki. Her dead mum is haunting her dad for his sordid encounter with her best friend. Their bar is about to be taken over by a rival chain. Her objectionable 'ex' reckons he'll put her love life in order and her cat is nowhere to be found. Will everything turn out Kara - ok?

Now That's What I Call A Karaoke Musical is a lively, bittersweet comedy musical featuring a string of familiar hits, a diverse collection of randy/quarrelling couples and a cast that includes members of last year's NSTC hit musical I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.

Created by This Lousy Theatre Company - six acting graduates from Sir Paul McCartney's Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts - the show charts events on the closing night of Huddersfield's karaoke capital. For the town it is the end of an era. For Mike, Becki's licensee dad, it's the end of everything!

Pleasance Cabaret Dome from 3rd to 25th August.

Index A-F
Index G-K
Index L-Q
Index R-Z

News Archive A-L
News Archive M-Z
Production News Archive

Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.

 

 

©Peter Lathan 2003