Category archive for: Theatre

Good Samaritan or Dirty Vicar?

Following their sell-out tour and award winning Edinburgh run, Penny Dreadful in association with Scamp Theatre bring you another famously forgotten character – The Rector of Stiffkey. Disgraced by the establishment but called a saint by his parishioners, how did the tap dancing vicar end up as a carnival sideshow? And what about the woman who put him there, the 17 year old Barbara Harris?

Sink your gnashers into the true story of the Prostitutes’ Padre, retold as a Music Hall show, with MC Mr Matt Devereaux hosting the proceedings. Come feast your eyes and glut your souls on this salty feast of daring live acts, uplifting comedies, saucy songs, and eccentric dancing.

Check out their review by The Stage

Tickets @ The Ticket Sellers

RoguePlay, the new Theatre Company in Residence at Birmingham ’s The Custard Factory are performing at The Factory Theatre their new piece, ‘Finders/Keepers.

When is something (or someone) truly yours?

Do we ever grow out of our childish need just to want for the sake of it?

Inspired by the play ‘Owners’ by Caryl Churchill, 3 people play dirty just to see how far they can go.

Join them for an evening of mind games and witness who will be bought, who will be sold, who will come out on top and who will be left with nothing.

After all, two’s company, three’s a battleground.

May 22nd-24th 8pm. Tickets £7
Available at: www.theticketsellers.co.uk, 0844 700 0000
www.rogueplay.co.uk

Soulful chanteuse Una May will be on hand to help you tap into your inner Marvin or Diana at the Vaad Gallery this May. She brings a wealth of experience and good old-fashioned so-sublime-she-makes-you-want-to-weep talent with her, so reserve your place without further delay at soundsallowed@googlemail.com

Following another successful shoot at the Custard Factory, writer-director Mark Hevingham (pictured, looking especially focussed) is talent-scouting now for future film projects. There are still a couple of roles yet to be filled in this top-notch Blade Runner-with-laughs escapade, too. Interested? Then please contact Mark directly via email, at mark_hevingham@hotmail.com, and NOT via the blog. And remember - if you want to get involved in the acting, don’t forget to attach that all-important photo!

For the thirteenth year running Riverside School of Performing Arts are performing their unique style of Documentary Theatre at the Vaad Theatre later in March, 26th to 28th. Skin Deep is a fast-paced and thought-provoking show full of comedy and fresh ideas, exploring the issue of prejudice and inviting us to go deeper. It fuses humour, factual information, theatrical metaphor, contemporary music and real life stories in a fast-moving, episodic structure , to deliver a show like none other performed here yet!

Tickets cost £5.50 (£4.50 concessions) and can be obtained by calling RSPA on 0121 442 2586.

Ace Star brings it’s highly-anticipated urban variety extravaganza to the Vaad Theatre on the 22nd. Prepare to be enthralled by a show like no other - with the audience the stars!

Cash prizes are on offer to any member of the audience with the talent to entertain and claim the stage!

With two performances, at 12.30pn and 4.30pm, prepare to be bedazzled by a stellar line-up including Comedian Slim, Tinie Tempah, Lime Ladies and Professor D! Tickets, on a first come, first served basis, are available at the door, priced £15 for adults and £13.50 for children.

Ladies and gentlemen, your time to shine has come.

“Everything beautiful dies. Only ugly things stick around.”

Life isn’t great for 15 year old Charlotte. Having lost her beautiful and much-admired mother, what was left of the relationship she has with her father only gets worse as she gets entangled in the teenage world of image, ambition and blow jobs. Advice from her (few) friends and guidance counselor doesn’t seem to help much; can it really just be as easy as ‘read the label and apply’? Inspired by Euripides but firmly rooted in MTV generation America, ‘A Brief History of Helen of Troy’ is a bitingly funny yet startlingly poignant dissection of image capitalism and, whilst it re-examines our notions of contemporary America, it resonates with anyone who longed for a better figure, had sex to be liked, been a teenager, or any of the above.

Presented by 3Bugs Fringe Theatre from the University of Birmingham Guild of Students, directed by Daniel Marchese Robinson and Jenny Scott, and featuring live music from Frankie Ward, it promises to shock and entertain in true 3BUGS style. It might even make you think a bit too.

In the Custard Factory Theatre, 7.30pm on Monday 16th & Tuesday 17th March 2009. Tickets - £6 adults, £5 concessions, £4 3Bugs society members.

A whistle-stop round-up of what’s to come this weekend and a bit beyond…

• The Arts Assembly strike the right notes in the Gallery
• Charming chanteuse Rebecca Schwarz brings her talented troupe to the Theatre
• The next Pilot-Night takes to the boards in the Theatre Vaad

Happy times, indeed!

Those smashing chaps from 7 Inch Cinema unleash the brand spanking new and gleaming Flatpack Festival upon the ever-anticipatory Custard next weekend, 13th and 14th March. For full details and screening times, check out the Festival’s site.