Our Friends from Further North come for a visit

CaroleW Productions, which launched with a season of plays from the Prague Fringe in November and December last year at Newcastle’s Alphabetti Theatre, returns this spring with a season of Scottish shows under the general title Our Friends from Further North.

There will be two major venues for this season, Alphabetti and the recently re-opened Gosforth Civic Theatre, a fringe arts, music and community venue and café in Regent Farm Road.

The productions are:

• 14 – 15 March (7:30 – 9:00)

  Loud Poets
  Gosforth Civic Theatre

  This is poetry for the masses! This is poetry as you’ve never seen it! The spoken Word Revolution! This is slam-style, make some noise, fist-thumping, pint-drinking, side-tickling, heart-wrenching poetry.

  Regular performers Kevin Mclean, Katie Ailes, Catherine Wilson, and Doug Garr will be joined by a different guest every night, chosen from the best of the UK and international spoken word scenes, and will be accompanied by live music from Scottish band Ekobirds, plus visuals and film titles from cinematographer Perry Jonsson.

• 10 – 14 April (7:30 – 8:30)

  Hopeless
  By Leyla Josephine

  Alphabetti Theatre

  A journey through the apathetic attitudes of millennials. Can we really make a difference or is, in fact, everything is broken beyond repair?

  Leyla realises the news brings nothing but despair and so feels hopeless. She stays in bed all day, eating full Vienettas and wondering what the point of starting the day is. The show examines her personal struggles about feeling useless, as well as the ‘annoying’ indifference shown by many of her peers.

• 10 – 13 April (9:00 – 10:00)

  Tiger
  By Teuchter Company

  An intimate, interactive spoken word show, with teeth. A genre-stretching piece of interactive spoken word theatre, inspired by computer games, David Lynch movies and Highland folk tales, starring Gaulier-trained performer / actress Isabel Stott as Kathy Pearce.

  Characters from Kathy’s past swirl around her as she walks through the forest, trying to make sense of her life. Tales from her past come out of the woodwork: tales of insensitive uncles, useless support workers, drugged-up nights out, tiger-hunters.

  No two performances are the same, as the show relies on its audiences to guide Kathy’s journey through the forest, and into her past.

• 11 May (8:00 – 9:00)

  Spontaneous Potter
  Performed by the Spontaneous Players: Will Naameh, Paul Connolly and Sam Irving, with music improvised by Jenny Laahs and Colin Bramwell (piano).

  Spontaneous Potter is an entirely improvised Harry Potter comedy play, based on an audience suggestion of a fanfiction title. An entirely new Potter adventure is magically improvised on the spot—with live musical accompaniment.

A series of workshops, ceilidhs and screenings will be announced later. And there may even be some whisky and chocolate involved.