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)
Amanda Sparkles says:
My two home educated boys and I watched the performance of Slapstick and Slaughter today and we all absolutely loved it. It was so interesting, funny, weird and moving. My 6 year old understood that it was an attempt to explain war generally but WW1 and we have been able to talk about certain aspects of the performance, like when one actor carried the other on his back, a dead weight. This gave us cause to discuss the human cost of war. He is too young for many of the political messages but both the boys loved the humour and comic timing. The actors were very talented and the simplicity of the set didn’t distract. I have written a review about it on my home educating blog. I have recommended this performance to many friends already. Great choice of booking, MK Fringe.
brian harris says:
i saw these supporting the bonzo dog doo dah band on their 50th anniverary show in loondon, me and my friend were in fits of laughter. BRIILIANT