From Love Actually to Generation
Snowflake, Camden People’s Theatre announce new shows in their 25th
anniversary programme
·
World premiere of Sh!t Actually, a
new Christmas show poking fun at
everyone’s favourite (and least favourite) festive romcom
·
Autumn festival Handle With Care explores
political correctness and the culture of offence through the lens of so-called
‘Generation Snowflake’
·
The latest Home Run commission, Trigger
Warning, interrogates the politics behind safe spaces
·
A double bill
of alternative festive theatre includes new show from leftfield musical
theatre duo, SheGoat
|
This Christmas, Camden People’s
Theatre will host its first ever Christmas commission with Sh!t Actually (3
– 21 Dec), a playfully sideways look at Sh!t Theatre’s guilty pleasure:
the much-loved (and definitely problematic) festive favourite Love Actually.
Co-commissioned with HOME Manchester, Sh!t
Actually is a live action, two-woman reimagining of one of the most
contentious Christmas films of all time. Fusing live songs with queer love
stories in a version that gives women, and not just Emma Thompson, actual lines
to ask if in 2019 we can still love it, actually. Alongside Sh!t Actually, Camden
People’s Theatre’s alternative Christmas offering includes SheGoat’s The
Undefinable (10 – 21 Dec), exploring unconventional relationships
and celebrating the unusual and underrepresented qualities of love.
As Camden People’s Theatre continue to celebrate their 25th
year, this Autumn a new festival Handle With Care (22 Oct – 9 Nov) asks if Generation Snowflake is as
hyper-sensitive - and terrified of giving offence - as we've been told. Over three weeks, and headlined by Natasha Nixon and Marcelo dos
Santos’s new show Trigger Warning (22 Oct – 9 Nov), the UK’s most
exciting theatremakers strike out beyond their safe spaces to explore this
brave (or should that be timid?) new world. Presented by two charming hosts, Trigger
Warning is a pre-show disclaimer to a show you may never see, an absurdist
comedy, and the latest CPT Home Run commission, exploring the politics behind
safe spaces and the culture of offence. From self-help seminar Nothing
Special (22 – 26 Oct), to Atilla Theatre’s I, Incel, (1 – 2 Nov), Handle
With Care asks where does healthy self-assertion end – and entitlement begin.
Meanwhile, returning artists include CPT veteran and
queer megastar Scottee who directs the premiere of If You Love Me This Might
Hurt (17 – 19 Oct) by Matty May, previously presented as part of the Come
As You Are UK Tour, as well as returning performances from Chris Goode, Hannah
Maxwell and LaJohn Joseph. Elsewhere, Josh Coates (Powder Keg) and Ali Pidsley
(Barrel Organ) will collaborate on AI-inspired show Steve, and Vic
Llewellyn will present A Little Death, a one man show about mass
hysteria featuring original songs by Kid Carpet.
Following in the footsteps of the hugely popular The
Camden Roar festival earlier this year, the creators of the acclaimed High
Rise eState of Mind Beats & Elements’ will continue their six-month
project with residents of the Regent’s Park area, as part of borough-wide arts
programme Camden Alive.
Executive
Director Kaya Stanley-Money said "We’re
halfway through our 25th anniversary celebrations and what a year it’s been!
Our autumn season has a lot to live up to. We think we’ve got a stellar lineup
of CPT favourites, brand new voices and – for the first time ever – a Christmas
double-bill to blow your festive socks off. We’re excited to be offering our
audiences these juicy seasonal treats – but that doesn't mean we're shying away
from the politics. Shows in this season challenge the notion of British
identity, explore queer experience past and present, shine a spotlight on
homelessness, and interrogate the human impact of our addiction to
next-day-delivery. And then there's those brand new festive shows, from two of
the UK's most ground-breaking theatre-making duos – featuring music, mayhem and
a whole lot of love.”
Founded 25 years ago, Camden People’s Theatre is one of Britain’s most
influential studio theatres. Its mission is to champion
different ways of thinking about the world by supporting emerging artists
making adventurous theatre – particularly about issues that matter to people
now. Its work is rooted in the communities of Camden and London. Through it,
they celebrate the bold, the spirited and the unconventional.
Handle With Care Tues 22
Oct – Sat 9 Nov
Handle with Care Trigger warnings.
No platforming. Cultural appropriation. In years gone by, the old criticised
the young for being reckless and rude. Nowadays, the young – so-called
'Generation Snowflake – stand accused of being over-sensitive and lacking
resilience. Too quick to take – and too scared to give – offence. CPT’s new
three-week festival Handle with Care takes this idea to task. Are we more
sensitive to ‘micro-aggressions’ – or just less willing to tolerate them? Where
does healthy self-assertion end – and entitlement begin? Over three weeks, and
headlined by Natasha Nixon and Marcelo dos Santos’s extraordinary new show
Trigger Warning, the UK’s most exciting theatremakers strike out beyond their
safe spaces to explore this brave (or should that be timid?) new world.
Trigger Warning Tues
22 Oct – Sat 9 Nov, 7.15pm
Marcelo Dos Santos and Natasha
Nixon £12/10 (conc.)
Imagine Ryanair staging Beckett on
a falling plane. Presented by two charming hosts, Trigger Warning is a
pre-show disclaimer to a show you may never see. A jet-black absurdist comedy
exploring the politics behind safe spaces and the culture of offence, pushing
it to its logical breaking point and freewheeling along the tightrope between
dance, clown, text and theatre. Created by Marcelo Dos Santos and Natasha
Nixon. Developed with UCL Culture, Young Vic, Dare Festival, Shoreditch Town
Hall. Recipient of The Jerwood Home Run Award.
Nothing Special Tues 22– Sat 26 Oct, 9pm
TomYumSim £12/10 (conc.)
Spe-cial| ‘speSHel | adjective |
better, greater, or otherwise different from what is usual. Sometimes it feels
like every young person is becoming an entrepreneur, launching a start-up or
crowdfunding an art installation – and it makes me feel like I’m failing” –
Jesus. Ever wanted to build your own monumental legacy? Lead by CEO of The
Academy for Gifted Individuals, Nothing Special is an interactive
self-help seminar where audiences are given the tools to unlock their true
potential as “gifted individuals”. Through the I Made It Seminar, Othella (Tom
Halls) teaches the fundamentals to becoming your Special self; how to elevate
your elevator pitch, how to grow your brain with banana, how to catapult your
online profile through insta-masturbation and how to turn your crap into
innovation. Throughout the workshop we meet Chlorine (Simone French) – an
aspiring millennial, raised with an inflated ego and unbounded possibility.
She’s a TED∞ Fellow at the top of her class, desperate to impress. Nothing
Special is a hilarious, tongue-in-cheek satire that pokes fun at the
self-obsessed and narcissistic psyches of Generation Y, taking extremely
talented people to average heights to save them from a lifetime of
disappointment.
Big Bang: Handle with
Care #1 Mon
28 Oct, 7.30pm
Various artists £12/10 (conc.)
The first of two explosive nights of
work-in-progress exploring the themes of Handle with Care.
But I’m A… Tue 29 Oct,
9pm
Free School Lunch £12/10
(conc.)
Summer camp is a safe space. Here at
camp PUSHY you can get away from the real world and leave your baggage behind -
as long as you tick all the boxes neatly and within the lines provided. “But I'm A... is a devised show based
on our experiences with having to navigate our chosen political identities, and
those identities assigned to us by the game of identity politics.”
Making Fatiha Tue 30 Oct,
9pm
Fatiha El-Ghorri and Toby Clarke £12/10 (conc.)
Fatiha and Toby have only met once
after he saw her perform her stand-up comedy routine in Luton back in March
2019. They will only meet again in front of a live audience where Toby will
have just 60 minutes to pitch a play to Hackney-born Fatiha about her Faith and
journey to becoming an unconventional comedian, without offending her. Fusing
text, Stand Up, puppetry, dance & music, Making Fatiha will
challenge our understanding of truth onstage as well explore that fine thread
between funny and offensive.
Mighty Thu 31 Oct,
9pm
Jack AG Britton £12/10 (conc.)
Jack AG Britton presents Mighty; a TED-talk-meets-theatre show
that combines comedy, live music and spoken word to ask the big (or little)
question: should we be taking Heightism more seriously? Often whimsical,
sometimes woeful, Mighty delves into masculinity, body image and mental health
in a documentary performance that could just about make it onto the best rides
at Alton Towers.
I, Incel Fri
1 – Sat 2 Nov, 9pm
Atilla Theatre £12/10 (conc.)
Self-identifying 'Incels'
(involuntary celibates), an online subculture mostly consisting of white, male
heterosexuals, have been responsible for at least four mass murders in North
America. The neck bearded online gamer who lives in his mother’s basement
stereotype is certainly at play here, but incels have become something much
more dangerous. Whether you’re a Chad, a Stacy or a ‘nice guy’™ who has black
pilled himself so far into his fedora that you cannot see a way out, I, Incel offers an insight into this
part of the manosphere which shouldn’t be ignored.
Exploitation Sun 3 Nov, 5.30pm
Venice As A Dolphin £8 (work-in-progress)
Drawing on the Scandinavian folk
narrative that inspired ‘The Virigin Spring’ and ‘The Last House on the Left’, Exploitation revisits this bogeyman
nightmare for our times and asks what it means to go too far and not be able to
find your way back.
In)Tolerant: An Evening
With a Bigot Sun 3 Nov, 7.15pm
Unshaded Arts £8 (work-in-progress)
(In)Tolerant is a new performance piece specifically developed for the ‘Handle
With Care’ festival, that addresses the fine line between tolerance and
bigotry, scrutinising the negative repercussions of freedom of speech within
our reactive social media culture.
Big Bang: Handle with
Care #2 Mon 4 Nov,
7.30pm
Various artists £12/10 (conc.)
The second of two explosive nights
of work-in-progress exploring the themes of Handle with Care.
YES NO BLACK WHITE Tue 5 – Wed
6 Nov, 9pm
Pablo Pakula £12/10 (conc.)
This new audio-visual live art piece
interrogates the nature of offence. What offends us? How? And why? Following
the structure of a sonata and choreographed to five pieces by Britsh composer
Anna Meredith, YES NO BLACK WHITE will
allow you to get to know your deepest personal offense-taking mechanisms.
OUTRAGE!! Thu 7 Nov,
9pm
Adam Foster £8 (work-in-progress)
When his show is forced to close
amid a row about political correctness, Punch & Judy Professor Brian
Britten looks for solidarity online; falling headfirst into an online rabbit
hole of the alt-right before being spewed out – bile drenched – the other side.
Adam Foster’s new show is a blistering polemic interrogating viral
offence-taking and performative wokeness amid a creeping culture of conformism.
Bullshit Fri 8 Nov,
9pm
Len & Jo
& Freya £8 (work-in-progress)
Len and Jo are angry. They’re angry
about the direction this country has gone in. They’re angry about the direction
Europe has gone in. Hell – they’re angry about the direction the world is
spinning. Jo and Len invite you to participate in this interactive show and
hash out we really believe in. This is an immediate, urgent emergency. A
burning show about trust, power and collective rage. Whoever you are, this is a
show for you.
Elsewhere Sat 9 Nov, 9pm
Haylin Cai £8 (work-in-progress)
Shuyan has decidophobia—fear of making decisions,
especially the big ones relating to her future. As a recent graduate, she is
now faced with the choice of working or continuing to a Master’s degree. Her
parents think a decision should be simple, or at least she just needs to carry
on. They keep saying-- time is ticking, choosing to stop while everyone’s
running is a journey with no return. But Shuyan fled away. She knows everything
that she doesn’t want, and one of them is staying home. Will she finally have
the space to ask the big questions? Or is there something else about home she
needs to find out?
Christmas commissions
Sh!t Actually Tue 3 – Sat 21 December,
7.15pm (not Sundays & Mondays)
Sh!t Theatre £15/ £10
(conc.)
A two-woman 100% faithful,
word-by-word* remake of the Christmas film we all hate to love: Love
Actually. Love Actually is Sh!t Actually. The 'rising stars of performance
art' (Telegraph) Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole take on their hardest
roles yet. All the roles. With live songs, queer love stories, and politics
questioned by women with actual lines - come shout-along, sing-along,
dance-along, cry-along, drink-along to this adults-only celebration of
Christmas Actually. From the makers of cult hits DollyWould and Sing-a-long-A-Muppet
Christmas Carol (Time Out Top 12 Xmas Shows of 2018; “Justifiably much
loved & brilliant” This Week London) * Just kidding.
The Undefinable Tue 10 – Sat 21
December, 9pm (not including Sundays and Mondays)
She Goat £12/10 (conc.)
Zany live radio gig-theatre
exploring unconventional relationships and celebrating the unusual and
underrepresented qualities of love. Two dudes. Well, kind of dudes. A garage
studio. A late night broadcast. Time slips between noughties love-pop, 70s folk
fever and 18th century French philosophy. The dudes slip between instruments.
Everything gets tangled. Our kind of love is tangled and slippery. Love in the
in-between. Love that doesn’t have language yet. This is The Undefinable. Clear the decks for historical wigs, irreverent
nudity, reckless dancing, and a whole lot of coffee – as we embark on a
queer-platonic mix-tape into the unknown future and forgotten past of doing
love differently.
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