Winter 2016 News
Posted by Kate Morrison in 
Image courtesy of Walk the Plank (New Year’s Eve parade)
BOOTY, BADDIES & BEASTIES
“Have we awoken the terrible Dragon? Will it overwhelm us all?”
Dare to join us in the grand halls of Bristol Museum on March 23 for an immersive, adult only adventure inspired by the heroes and monsters from the Old English poem of Beowulf. Expect a contemporary take on the 1000 year old epic, with rap battles, music and animation bringing the museum creatures to life.
Make your way through the mists and terror of the marsh where the monster Grendel lurks and take refuge in Hrothgar’s Mead-Hall with the Anglo-Saxon warriors. The hall is haunted by fear and fatalism as Grendel stalks the darkness beyond, weaving through the crowds to murder and plunder.
With theatrical performance, film, dark sounds, swords and blood-curdling storytelling we will transport you into an otherworldly space where Beowulf may be embodied by a rap artist, a shadow or even an audience member.
Experts will illuminate Anglo-Saxon life, culture and gold during breaks in the action, and a bar will also be open in between skirmishes – so drink and be merry but remember, Grendel will have his prey …
- Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, March 23 2017, 7.30pm – 10.30pm
- Tickets £15 / £12 concs.
- 18+
Click here for further info and to book tickets.
Slapstick & Slaughter
“Anarchic but consummately crafted sketches”
The Stage
“Their capacity to surprise, provoke and delight remains undiminished … I loved it”
Stage Talk magazine
Two men recklessly attempt to confront the absurdity of war in just 35 minutes, using their bodies, their voices and the surrealist toolbox of DADAism. Playful, physical and blackly comedic, our new show SLAPSTICK & SLAUGHTER examines how the barbaric chaos of World War One manifested itself in the nihilistic, nonsensical art that grew from it. This street theatre show splatters big ideas on a small canvas, exploring art’s reaction to the war’s wholesale destruction of lives, the old order and old hypocrisies and finding echoes in equally absurd modern conflicts.
The show is designed to work indoors and outdoors and has so far been performed outside at Mintfest, Milton Keynes Fringe and Kidderminster Arts Festival and indoors at the Greenbank in Bristol (see below for reviews and comments).
View our promo video below or get in touch now to find out more. We will be developing further partnerships for it through the Imperial War Museum’s World War One centenary memorial programme.
- Performers: Richard Headon, Jon Beedell
- Director: Angus Barr
- Choreographer: Helen Parlor
- Music: Shirley Pegna
- Costume: Kirsty Hanlon
The show is designed to work indoors and outdoors and has so far been performed outside at Mintfest, Greenwich & Docklands International Festival, Milton Keynes Fringe, Bath Fringe, Kidderminster Arts Festival, Appetite-Stoke-On-Trent and Coventry Festival of Imagineers and indoors at the Wardrobe Theatre, Circomedia, Cube Cinema and Spiegeltent, Bristol and The Cinema Museum, London (see below for reviews and comments).
Reviews
Praise for Slapstick & Slaughter
I loved the conviction, to your ideas, your selves, art, peace, justice, nonsense, I loved the guts, I loved the crisp facial hair, I loved you counting to 100, I loved discipline in the movement – I wish it every success.
Peter Gunson (Pif Paf theatre)
Brilliantly conceived! It demonstrates real understanding of the personal challenges people faced during WW1 and how it was expressed in the art of the Dada period.
It was fab, so clever, I laughed until tears were coming down my cheeks.
Susan Goodwin (Arts Connect West Midlands) – Seen at KAF
..resonates in the days after…
Katie Keeler (Executive Producer Theatre Bristol) – Seen at The Greenbank
..perhaps the most powerful and moving show of the weekend….at once funny and desperately sad.
Hippodrome Heather (Birmingham Hippodrome Blog on Mintfest)
Booty, Baddies and Beasties
Picture copyright Jon Craig
In March 2017 we took over the grand halls of Bristol Museum & Art Gallery for an immersive, adult only adventure inspired by the heroes and monsters of the Old English poem of Beowulf.
See the film of this contemporary take on the 1000 old epic, with rap battles, music and animation, aimed at introducing the museum to a new audience!
The show was created to complement the Warrior Treasures exhibition of Saxon gold from the Staffordshire Hoard, and experts were on hand to illuminate Anglo-Saxon life, culture and gold during breaks in the action.
Cast List
- Shirley Pegna (Desperate Men Musical Director) – Sound
- Rod Maclachlan – Light, Projections Film
- Dani Landau – Projections & Film
- Jon Beedell – Directing, hosting
- Richard Headon – Directing, hosting
- Tom Stubbs, with Michael Smith & Joff Winterhart – Creating artistic response to theme of Monsters.
- Bigger House Films
- Jonny Steele (The Scribes) – Rap Battle
- Dub Princess – Rap Battle, Grendel’s mother
- DJ Dad – Music, sound
- Faith Bennett – War Artist
- Becky Prior (Priormade) – Set dresser and makes
- Gail Boyle, Senior Curator of Archaeology at Bristol Museum – Keeper of the Treasure. Anglo Saxon life, riddles and tales from the archaeological sites
- Becky Peters – Engagement Officer at Bristol Museum (exhibitions)
