Large’s plays capture the feel-good-factor

HUMOUR, glamour and an all-round feel-good factor – Keith Large’s Laughs from Leicestershire opened their summer tour in style in front of a sell-out audience at Buxton’s Poole Cavern.

Laughs from Leicestershire from Carrot Napper on Vimeo.

The Loughborough College technician and playwright hosted three of his latest playlets cocking a lighthearted snoop at the more absurd features of real life.
Britain’s moaning culture, pointless bureaucracy and obsession with self-adulating minor celebrities all came under Keith’s wicked microscope – and were duly beaten into verbal submission.

Top of The Bill was Jeff Stewart – he of 24 years as Reg Hollis in the popular ITV police drama – who took the role of Willie Jefferson, one of four all-too-precious contestants on a Scottish version of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!

But for all his polish and professionalism, ears and eyes were more than equally drawn to the younger talent in the troupe.

‘Glamour’ duo Genevieve Cleghorn and Helen Bolitho were up front, in your face and outstanding throughout the evening whilst Loughborough College student Brian Fury is a prime example of what Keith’s company is all about – loud, brash and very entertaining.

There was a further College link, too, with former engineering student Jack O’Ballance providing the props and stage management.

Tellingly these were a couple of hours that literally flew by, leaving a distinct taste for more.

That will come soon for hungry audiences at three more iconic venues – Cambridge’s ADC Theatre where the likes of Sir Ian McKellen and Emma Thompson made their names, on Thursday, July 21; the 503 Theatre in London , recently acclaimed by The Guardian as ‘arguably the most important theatre of all’, on Sunday, August 1; then a breathtaking run at Spotlites at the Merchant’s Hall, just 100 yards off Prince’s Street, at the Edinburgh fringe from Sunday, August 15 to Saturday, August 21.

The Kidnapped Carrots of Cambridge

A review of Carrot Knappers, a play by Keith Large read at the ADC Theatre

by Daniel Ribot

Sunday, November 8th: It was a clash of the leviathans. Chelsea and Manchester United, the only two teams who can now reasonably win the league, met for a kickabout. They are two of the only four teams that ever win anything in the English Premier League. The top four have the most money, the best players, the greatest clout with referees. Just occasionally, however, smaller teams are cute and smart enough to beat them. Rarer still are the minnows who grab some silverware from under the noses of the four-team establishment.

As with football, the arts are similarly divided by rank, influence and wealth. On Sunday the 8th, however, Leicestershire outsiders travelled to an away fixture in Cambridge. Keith Large, top Loughborough writer, had won the rare accolade of having his 45 minute play, Carrot Nappers, read by professional actors at the legendary ADC theatre (erstwhile lair of the Cambridge Mafia). Keith took his team –including my good self– down to the performance. He even brought cake for everyone!

Carrot Nappers is that rare thing in modern British theatre: a no-holds-barred, unapologetic ‘Carry-On’ style farce. The plot involves the theft of a 17-foot prize-winning carrot from an allotment. Vegilante Vinnie, the security guard who failed to protect the lengthy vegetable, plots to get it back. With the help of his third-best girlfriend Lisa and the allures of the allotment’s “love-shed”, they set a honey-trap for the main suspect; the devious and amorous Onionhead. Acted with gusto, the vegetable-themed puns and snappy one-liners just kept on coming.

In the end, Onionhead (Steve Kantor) lost his trousers and the play’s director (Francesca Brown) making an appearance as the carrot itself, returned to Vinny (Gary Mooney), Lisa (Genevieve Cleghorn) and his pal Albert (Tim Waterfield) — who gets the girl in the end. Fabulous stuff.

The readings were organized by the Write On! Cambridge scriptwriting forum. An annual  competition selects the best script submissions and performs them in front of an audience. This year, Naked Stage 09 held 14 readings, selected from a huge number of submissions. The deal is that two or three play readings (per event) are performed and then the audience is invited to comment and critique. It is an opportunity for the writer to receive feedback and engage with a live audience.

In the case of Carrot Nappers, however, it was the actors who spoke –rather enthused– about the play. They loved it, explaining that it was a rare opportunity for them to play larger-than-life characters and to really have fun. All the actors involved in Naked Stage 09 had wanted to perform this play. Those that did, really did it justice. I was amazed to learn that they had reached their high level of performance after only three rehearsals. The craft and expertise shown by these actors was awe-inspiring.

Memories of the day? The sightseeing with fellow Carrot-heads Keith Morley, Maria Smith (great driver and photographer) and the playwright himself, Mr Large. The carrying of the carrot cakes back and forth from car to theatre to storage area and back. Meeting a bunch of talented actors and directors happy to help bring new authors to the stage. Most of all, it was knowing that we can win away from home. Keith Large in Theatre, Mehul Desai in Film and Graham Joyce in novel-writing: all from Leicestershire, all prize winners in 2009, all proving that minnows can have their day. Get in!

Theatre from the Shatila Refugee Camp

Five Leaves press has been involved in a project bringing over ten Palestinian children from the Shatila Refugee Camp to perform a play, in English, written by Nottingham-born writer Peter Mortimer. The tour took place in late September in the North East, playing to a total audience of 1,200. It also launched Peter’s book Camp Shatila: a writer’s chronicle (Five Leaves, £8.99).

Peter Mortimer’s Broke Through Britain (Mainstream) described how he walked the length of the UK without money, dependent on the kindness of strangers for accomodation and food. He refused lifts or money and found support in some unlikely places.

Fast forward ten years and someone he met on that journey is providing free accomodation at Riverdale Hall in Bellingham, Northumberland for the Palestinian actors, four of their school teachers and the stage crew for a performance in the town hall. North East writers and musicians had raised substantial sums to make this unlikely tour possible, providing match funding for the local Council, the Arts Council and the Co-op.

Last year Peter Mortimer spent two months in Shatila refugee camp just outside Beirut, where he set up the children’s theatre group with a class of 11/12 year old girls who had never seen a play, never been inside a theatre and spoke little English. Peter was asking them to perform, in public, on a stage and in the language of Shakespeare. They did two performances before Peter left, both in their school playground. Shatila – the site of the 1982 massacre where up to 3,000 people were killed, and the more recent “War of the Camps” – is an unlikely place for a theatre group. The camp was originally tented but now rickety breeze block multi-storey buildings accomodate about 17,000 people in a space little bigger than a cricket ground. There are no parks, no streetlights, no trees. Palestinian residents are forbidden to work in many trades in Lebanon and cannot own property despite being into the fourth generation since the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, or Nakba (catastrophe) as the Palestinians call it. Taxi firms from other parts of Beirut will often not go there. It is not on any official map.

Five Leaves has published the author before and has an interest in the Middle East. As he was writing the book the author asked if we could bring forward the publication as he planned to bring the troupe to the UK for a tour round the North East. I did not believe he would get visas, would raise the money or turn a fun but ragged performance into something people would pay to see. How wrong I was. Peter raised over £20,000 and returned to Shatila for rehearsals.

Meantime a team had been put together to publicise the shows and build a set. Costumes were made at the Himmeh School in Shatila. Four local schoolchildren joined the cast, rehearsing 3,000 miles from the rest of the team.

The play is an allegory about a despot who is outwitted by a girl who can control the weather, a version of an earlier play of Peter’s that had toured in the UK. At the end of the original play the despot and his creepy henchman die, but this cast insisted they be given another chance. The children also added and rehearsed a programme of Palestinian dance. At many of the performances the audience was in tears.

After initial nerves the girls grew confident about their stage presence and their projection, continuing to work with the producer and director to refine the play. By the time it reached Bellingham the girls were terrific, nonchalantly signing programmes and books at the end.

The tour did much to break down stereotypes of Muslims, of Palestinians. Their deputy-head teacher allowed the girls to chose their own bedtime, what they ate, whether they wanted to take up the offer of horse riding (they did) or whether they wanted to join some muscular youths in the hotel swimming pool in town for the Kielder Challenge. Nine out of ten dived in.

The team who produced the show is now discussing ways in which the North East can work on further twinning projects with Shatila.

The Lyric Lounge – a roaring success

For seven days and seven nights, from 25th –31st July, The Y Theatre was transformed into a unique performance space celebrating the power of live literature – as part of the cultural programme for the Special Olympics. Organisers of The Lyric Lounge have been delighted with the public response. Around 1500 people attended the festival, which featured workshops, performances, debate, open mic opportunities and exhibitions. The festival focused on poetry, spoken word, rap and monologue, with strong elements of visual art and music.

The Lyric Lounge also included a wide-reaching youth programme, encouraging young people to read, write and perform. This allowed around 50 local young people to work with established artists and perform their own work as part of two of the evening shows – The Edge and ILUVLYRICS. The Lyric Lounge also reached out to users of mental health and learning disability services with a range of projects and performances.

Highlights of the festival included:

• Special Olympics Cabaret – an event incorporating performances in poetry, comedy and music from local disability and mental health groups.
• Showcase Live- a performance by young men of B.M.E origin, with experience of mental health issues, including elements of spoken word, poetry and hip hop.
• A workshop and mentoring programme, allowing writers to develop their poetry with Dreadlockalien, Lucy English, Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze, Lydia Towsey, Kevin Fegan and John Hegley.
• ILUVLYRICS – an urban-style open mic competition compered by 1Xtra’s Ras Kwame and featuring Street Rhymers.
• Write Way Up – a specially commissioned show with performances from 5 poets, taking inspiration from heritage objects.
• Free Lyrical Lunchtimes, with performances from artists such as Mombowie Starchild, Mark Goodwin and Mellow Baku.
• An incredible finale featuring the one and only John Hegley – comic poet and guitar strumming genius.

Rickin Bilimoria, of 2Funky Arts, who managed and produced The Lyric Lounge said: “This festival has developed, engaged and entertained new audiences. The future looks bright and we have a massive amount of faith in the sustainability of the programme.”

Lydia Towsey, Artistic Director of The Lyric Lounge commented: “This has been the first theatre based festival of poetry and live literature of it’s kind, on this scale, in the region – ever. It’s been more incredible, inspiring and amazing than we could have ever predicted.”

Internationally acclaimed poet and Lyric Lounge patron Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze has called the festival “a sign of a civilized community.” Meanwhile, festival goer Bobba Cass described the Lounge in the following way: “The energy itself is magical; different roots coming together.”

The Lyric Lounge is part of Renaissance East Midlands’ contribution to the region-wide Igniting Ambition programme and is undertaken in partnership with Arts Council England East Midlands. For more information, please go to www.lyriclounge.co.uk or contact 2Funky Arts on 0116 222 0639/ info@2funkyarts.co.uk