Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle on DVD

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle (featuring yours truly) is available on shiny shiny disc at all good stockists from yesterday.


And probably some rubbish ones as well.

Exploits

I have an even-if-you-don't-blink-you'll-probably-still-miss-me part in Exploits, a film written and directed by Alper Cagatay currently in post-production.



Exploits Coming Soon.

Picture This

The Chain Gang was a radio series on BBC7 written by the listeners, the second series was entitled Picture This and was broadcast in 2007. Rob Shearman wrote the first and last episodes with listeners encouraged to resolve the cliffhangers and write the next episode themselves (in about 300 words).

The following was my unsuccessful attempt to write an episode 11 or 12, and since it won Bronze in The Competition Award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards they were probably better off without me. Sadly the Beeb have taken the finished version down from their website so it's difficult to illustrate exactly how this would have fit into the existing narrative which apparently ended up involving lesbians on the Eiffel Tower. I bet you want to read it now.

I'd like to write you a 'Previously on...' to set the scene but it's been that long that I've forgotten most of it. It involved a camera that could take photos of the near future. Somehow there's a photo that suggests Gary is going to die, something references Alan Turing and as we join them he's absorbed something into his hand:


Deena stared at Gary in the dimness of the carriage, for what seemed like ages. She half expected the orange glow to shine from behind his eyes or out of his mouth like in a film, but it didn’t. When he spoke there was no mysterious voice, just Gary with a little extra confusion.
“Did I drop it?” he asked, unconvincingly.
“No” Deena said slowly.

Gary took his eyes off the floor and stared first at his now empty hand, then at the camera in the other.
“The camera never lies” Gary said soberly.
“Don’t” Deena pleaded.
“Why?” Gary asked, catching her eye.

A little flustered Deena asked him to change the subject. Gary started asking questions about Turing. She was aware her answers weren’t much help and was relieved when Gary said “Wasn’t he the guy with the shroud?”

She laughed, surprising herself. She felt a little more relaxed and looked around the carriage. The train hadn’t moved. And the longer she looked the surer she was that nor had any of the passengers. No movement at all. Was that even possible? All frozen. Just like a photograph.

Someone was moving though. Deena heard something. She could hear footsteps…

For The Love Of Dog

I didn't use the stimulus photo because the Dog Lady video was a sort of a sequel to another piece I'd already written about her.

Zoe Alyssa Cooper once again played Karen, she was really the only choice after leaving such an indelible mark on it the first time around.

Starring Zoe Alyssa Cooper and directed & edited by Benjamin Roberts, this was shot on location with London's Hoxton Square doubling for New York's Central Park.

Dog Lady Stimulus

Behind The Bike Shed is currently gearing up for its next show, the first with which I'm not involved. The dates just didn't work out. They'll be in London's Hoxton Square on the 6th of September.

The previous show was In The Frame, in which each scene was accompanied by a photograph which was a stimulus of sorts.

This photograph was the companion piece to the Dog Lady video, it was taken by Tiziano Niero and I didn't use it...

The White Rose

The reviews for the Edinburgh run of The White Rose:

THREE WEEKS
Reviewer: Jessica Elgot
August 2008

It is Munich 1942 and terror has gripped the citizens of Nazi Germany; this is the tale of the people who refused to be ruled by fear. A true story, it is based on the beginning of the White Rose Nazi resistance movement, and is beautifully acted, the tension so well evoked that one terrified audience member cried out when the young movement's leaders decide to fight the noble cause that will lead to their execution. However, a mere forty minutes of a story with such human anguish and historical intrigue felt overly fleeting. Nevertheless, it is testament to the skill of this talented company that it was torturous to be left hanging just as the action began, knowing the tragedy that was to come.
tw rating: 4/5


THEATRE WALES
"Timeless parable of ideas over self-interest"
Reviewer: Paddy Cooper
August 17, 2008

Yesterday, I gushed with admiration of MMVI Theatrical’s psychological tour-de-force ‘The Poisoner’s Tale’. I suggest loyal readers gird their loins while I prepare to do the same for the show they are playing in rep therewith – Melanie Boyce’s historical drama and timeless parable of ideas over self-interest ‘The White Rose’.

The show is inspired by the true story of The White Rose movement, devised by four friends – Hans Scholl, his sister Sophie, Christoph Probst and Alexander Schmorrel – who distributed inspirational pamphlets throughout wartime Germany urging opposition to the Nazi regime before paying the ultimate price at the guillotine on being discovered.

Boyce has decided to deal with the story’s origins rather than its outcome, ending at such a point as to allow the audience to experience in the hours after it ends the slow-burn of personal decision if faced with the question “Recant or die” and doing so with the bold but blisteringly effective simplicity that MMVI Theatrical have made their trademark at this fringe.

The use of protracted silence at the beginning as Hans and Alex sit studying and writing was potent without undue discomfort – it was not the silence of ball-busting import or the silence of ball-busting forgetfulness – it was a measured, well-executed (if you’ll forgive the term) silence that bespoke calm and comfort between actors/characters and engendered a feeling of intense interest in them in the audience that was a perfect hook to the start of play that would require much of the audience’s broad emotional palette.

The same cast that so expertly rendered ‘Poisoner’s Tale’ yesterday are back and in as good a form, though in a different mode and character style. Light-hearted banter and genuinely sharp humour turns sharply to intense seriousness and was effected with grace, skill and emotional athleticism. They created palpable tension without the melodrama that could so easily arise from a story of such swift and terrible power and built up the electric charge that bristles throughout by the time Sophie delivers her final, chilling line.

The notable thing with cast mentions on this occasion is that one can say that each actor had their chance to stretch their legs in a different direction and prove their worth in terms of versatility.

David Black, the caustic D of ‘Poisoner’s Tale’ makes the role of Hans Scholl his own – a steel core of self-knowledge, responsibility to his sister and absolute devotion to his cause is coated with a measured, calm, personable disposition which nevertheless did not mask his inner fire, gently painting a character portrait of nuanced tones.

Mark Collier shed the more pronounced bittersweetness of C in yesterday’s show to allow a greater stridency to come through in his portrayal of Christoph – commanding an easy authority and a gently noble regard of torn sensibility as the idealistic if necessarily cautious family man and crusader.

In the brimstone left behind after his volcanic performance yesterday, Brogan West has found a rich vein of acidity (in wit and bluntness) to add to his role as Alex. Alex – the one whose words need watching – was portrayed with a just fire that burns with a sense of impatient frustration, and in a very well-rounded manner for a part which a lesser actor could so easily have made worryingly two-dimensional

Natalie Wakelin carries a heavy burden in this show – not only closing the show in a manner which commands huge respect, but also showing the development of Hans’s younger sister from bright-eyed new student to key proponent of peaceful resistance with clear storytelling capabilities and great poise, coming firmly into her own in the second act and closing with the set jaw and pride of a ship’s figurehead, and perfect judgement of the emotion and tone needed.

With calm assurance, in a mode of performance where intentions were stated clearly and robustly without recourse to melodrama, the team at MMVI Theatrical have created two shows which link together well while retaining their own identity, the overlaps interesting without being laboured. Above all, director Melanie Boyce and her cast have shown, especially through ‘White Rose’ that, in instances where ideas matter, anger can be a virtue, frustration a catalyst and justice a matter that requires idealists to effect its truth, even in the hearts and minds of others. Of course, nothing comes for free – here, the price paid is the price of heroes. How fitting that they were so heroically portrayed.

Theatre Wales doesn’t offer star ratings for shows, but I think in this case, we can probably chuck MMVI Theatrical in a minor galaxy and let them take their pick. In the meantime, someone give them a tour, there’s good chaps.

Edfringe.com
"An excellent production"
August 14, 2008
Reviewer: Liz, England
5 Stars


What must it have been like, to live in Germany during the second world war but to disagree with the actions of the regime? This high quality production gives us a stunning insight, with the cast creating a strong atmosphere of tension. This excellent production deserves a larger audience.

Edfringe.com
"Excellently acted"
22 August, 2008
Reviewer: Iain, Scotland
4 Stars

...as above it does leave you wanting more...but that must be a good thing. The pace is superb winding the tension up like a spring until the finale. The space is intimate - you almost feel as if you are sitting at the table. The writing was taut - not a wasted word - well worth seeing.

The Poisoner's Tale

Here are various reviews for The Poisoner's Tale:

THREE WEEKS
Reviewer: Lucy Knighton
August 15, 2008

"Someone whispered poison in his ear, now it's spreading". The poison may be spreading but so should the praise for this outstanding, thought provoking and superbly acted production. It's quite uncommon to form attachments to nameless characters, but the beautifully-crafted monologues are performed with such passion and sincerity that one cannot help feeling engrossed as their language and mental states evoke a devastating slide towards destruction. A fine balancing act ensues between the real and surreal elements of the play, prompting questions regarding the force of ideas and the venom with which you should act upon them. As the wine flows and the debate heats up, the question is asked: would you ever die for your belief in an idea?
tw rating: 4/5


THEATRE WALES
"Beautiful, vital and viral"
Reviewer: Paddy Cooper
August 15, 2008

As an arts resource, Theatre Wales has always prided itself on covering the best of theatre from within and travelling to Wales. However, two products of an Aberystwyth-based theatrical education, Melanie Boyce and Natalie Wakelin, under the aegis of the company MMVI Theatrical, have taken two new plays, the product of their own separate and collaborative writing and Boyce’s direction, to the Edinburgh Fringe in a move that puts a new mark on the Fringe and a new gloss on how we look at human nature and emotion.

The first of these – Wakelin’s “The Poisoner’s Tale” (I will cover its sister show – “The White Rose” tomorrow) is a theatrical banquet: rich, meaty, gruelling in its intensity and ultimately highly satisfying, despite the necessarily stomach churning journey that it sends its audience on.


The plot, such as it is, is fairly simple to relate – three friends, only named B,C and D, attend a dinner hosted by a fourth, A, in order to discover the root of his increasing depression. However, the ‘poisonous thought’ which they uncover spreads its venom throughout the group and an emotional and linguistic breakdown is unleashed.

Wakelin’s script is by turns highly stylised and grimily earthy, but these shades and tones, which could jar if read on paper, becomes immediately normative because of the easy interaction of a staff comfortable with each other as they strip back layer after layer of unease towards the barnstorming climax. Word association games, which arrive unannounced, add to the polish of the script, even if a lesser company could make them tremendously awkward. The facial expressions of all four – Brogan West as A, Wakelin herself as B, Mark Collier as C and David Black as D – are very fine, acting as both mask and revelation throughout, perfectly embodying C’s speech on the delicacy of colour in life.

Indeed, all this colour emerged in a potent, mind-embracing spectrum in all the aspects of the performance. There were moments which grudgingly accepted a victory of silence, while, later, as A’s mental state is exposed, noise – his own and a conversation-drowning, pre-recorded variety, triumphs over the expression of ideas and ideals which Wakelin has propounded with a masterly grasp both intellectually and artistically.

This is a show in which the script is the star, but to allow that star to shine, one needs equally scintillating performances, and all four actors glittered equally, under the expert direction and discerning eye of director Mel Boyce.

Collier gave a performance that defined ‘bittersweet’ – his lightly-handled (but not lightweight) responses added colour without being overpowering and was a finely-placed balance to other performances without being subservient to them. Wakelin’s B retained, even in her more painful moments, a great elegance amid existentialism, making her point without resorting to hauteur.

Black’s D contributed richly to the humour of the piece – a humour which performed a complex and delicate dance on a shiny knife-edge that reflected the best and worst of human nature. However, his exposition of more darkly goading potential and his descent with the rest of the characters was also equally well-portrayed.

Brogan West, as the originally-poisoned A, was a whirling, mesmerising force throughout, gently percolating before a Vesuvian eruption, spreading to the rest of the cast, which was lung-draining to watch. Never was horror more normalised, never was profanity more poignant than in this show.

We live in a culture where the Arts are under constant threat, yet weighty and revered companies always state the need to promote the very best in new writing. Let them look, let them all look, with open minds and chequebooks, to MMVI Theatrical’s work, starting with ‘The Poisoner’s Tale’. After all, they have until the 23rd of August to go and see it at Venue 36.

Brutal and beautiful, vital and viral, ‘The Poisoner’s Tale’ holds in its hands both the world’s poison and its antidote. Which will you take?


http://www.edfringe.com/
"intense but worth seeing"
11 Aug 2008
Reviewer: nan, U.S.A.

These four actors were so believable at one point I almost thought I was going to join in on the conversation and add my two cents to the philosophical conversation. The very intimate, small theater adds to the fun of it all. We are definitely going to go back to see the White Rose with the same four actors. To me, this is what the Fringe is all about.


The cast from left to right: Brogan West, Mark Collier, me, Natalie Wakelin


http://www.edfringe.com/
"interesting"
August 24, 2008
Reviewer: Paul, UK
4 Stars

This wasn't what i was expecting, but engaging all the same. The tension was palpable throughout, the characters well rounded. For me, to hinge the whole story on one proposition was a mistake. My psychological training tells me that one factor alone will not lead to such a breakdown. More could have been done to explore the other factors leading to the bleak ending. This play has potential and in a longer form, i feel would be more rounded.