Midnight Matinee
Theatre that breaks the rules: Who said we had to go to bed?
Previous Line-Ups
‘Come, let’s have one other gaudy night. Let’s mock the midnight bell.’
Shakespeare was thinking of the TBT. The TBT was thinking of innovative insomniacs. They were thinking of a late night bar. You’re thinking of three electric new experiments by emerging artists ready to take a risk. Late nights just got mocked.
This summer the MIDNIGHT MATINEE will also be going to the Latitude Festival, 16-19 July. Line-ups are announced every month, previously including new work by Che Walker and Zawe Ashton as well as dance, physical theatre, comedy, magic and much besides.
Reccomended, June 2009 – Time Out & London Lite
‘The Midnight Matinees are raw, rude and unpredictable. I had a ball, and you will too.’ - Che Walker.
Coming next...
Recovered- and returned we're back and taking over the entire of the building in a summer extravaganza
The MIDNIGHT MONOLOGUES will be here in force, and joined by GUERILLA DANCE PIECES by Elfkay Productions, MUSIC MAYHEM from James Rowland, and UPSTART THEATRE are asking that big question- When Was the last Time Someone Told You You Were Beautiful?
THE MIDNIGHT MATINEE: LATITUDE FESTIVAL
Previewing at the Tristan Bates Theatre, Sat 11 July
And at the Latitude Festival 2009, 16 & 17 July
The TBT's stellar Latitude line-up is shows in London for just one special night before heading so Suffolk, featuring an eclectic and electric collection of the best new work from a year of critically acclaimed late-night extravaganzas.
The incredible Latitude line-up includes:
- new work by Kenneth Emson and Megan Ford commissioned specially for the festival as part of the signature Midnight Monologues;
- a unique blend of stand-up comedy and live art from Arnolfini Associate Artist Ed Rapley;
- all-singing surreal storytelling from celebrated double-act The Roaring Boys performing from then new piece in development for Edinburgh ;
- and a spellbinding Film Noir verse play by Jon Cooper performed by The Company Project.
If you don't have a ticket to Latitude, the special 11 July London preview night is not to be missed at just £5. If you do have a ticket to Latitude, we're on at 00:40 in the incredible all-new theatre tent on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 July, and we'll see you there!
Meet the Midnight Matinee. Late nights just got mocked.
Saturday 20 June 2009
After by Kenneth Emson | Downstairs by the Unexpected Items
Midnight Monologues by Zoe Cooper, Gbolahan Obisesan, Megan Ford and Kenneth Emson
For June's Midnight Matinee, AFTER is by acclaimed writer Kenneth Emson, currently enjoying Arts Council funding to develop his dark, lyrical creations.
DOWNSTAIRS is a new work from Time Out Critics’ Choice comedians The Unexpected Items who’ve put their heads together for a narrative play grounded in sketch comedy…
And the building's inside out again for the MIDNIGHT MONOLOGUES , site-specific shorts performed to one audience member at a time. Writers include the NT Studio's Gbolahan Obisesan, Hampstead's Literary Associate Zoe Cooper, and returning monologers Megan Ford and Kenneth Emson, writing for fire exits, storage cuboards and dressing rooms... Directed and curated by Alice Lacey.
Saturday 16th May 2009
StandnotAmazed | Forbidden Theatre
Theatrical Response Group | Midnight Monologues
StandnotAmazed combine visually enthralling theatre, dance and magic, led by John van der Put, whose impressive credits include magic design for Faust (Punchdrunk/National Theatre). For more info visit www.standnotamazed.com.
Forbidden Theatre present a new piece, Children of Ishtar, based on the controversial Parisian Grand Guignol Theatre. For more info visit www.forbidden.org.uk.
For comic relief, the Theatrical Response Group, featuring Rob Broderick, Stewart McCure and Gemma Whelan, provide improvised comic mayhem
And once again we turned the building inside out for the Midnight Monologues, short site-specific pieces performed to one audience member at a time. Directed and curated by Alice Lacey and written by Kenneth Emson, Megan Ford and Jon Cooper
Saturday 18th April 2009
Ed Rapley| Zawe Ashton's Skunk
The Bronte's Investigate | Midnight Monologues
Ed Rapley, Arnolfini Associate Artist, presented his new piece THE MIDDLE BIT, a surreal and brillaint synthesis of stand-up comedy and live performance art... Then Contact Theatre writer in residence and Uk Slam poetry champion presented from the first draft of her new play SKUNK, commissioned by the Soho Theatre - an electric reworking of Kafka's Metamorphosis telling the story of a young man who takes some skunk and turns into a skunk!
Improvisational comedy impressario Paul Foxcroft directed THE BRONTES INVESTIGATE, a semi-improvised re-imagining of the lives of the Bronte sisters if they'd, you know, been private detectives instead of writers,
And once again we turned the building inside out for the Midnight Monologues, short site-specific pieces performed to one audience member at a time. Directed and curated by Alice Lacey and written by Caroline Bird, Megan Ford and Jon Cooper.
Saturday 21st March 2009
The 21st March line-up included a new play, Bobby’s Girl, developed at the Royal Court by DEAN STALHAM: 'A brilliant new playwright... [like] Pinter on speed' - Time Out on Dean in 2008.
Then there was a new piece in development, Hold Me Until You Break by groundbreaking Total Theatre nominees THE BOTTLEFED ENSEMBLE, and the return of a Tristan Bates discovery in the new episode of Adventure Time broadcast live by COMEDY TRIO.
As if this weren’t enough, the show was followed by a late-night bar and the new MIDNIGHT MONOLOGUES, site-specific one-on-one performances to be enjoyed by a sole audience member at a time.
Saturday 21st Feb 2009
The Roaring Boys: TIM
Tik-Sho-Ret Theatre: Mum, Me
John Hollingworth: The Accidents
An ecclectic and electric line-up for the Midnight Matinee on 21st Feb, with a preview of a new play by John Hollingworth (Broken Window Theory, Soho Theatre), a devised piece called Mum, Me presented by the all-female TiK-sho-ret Theatre and an extract from a new comedy in development by the Roaring Boys (Why We Ate Cliff Richard, Edinburgh 2008, 'The funniest show on the fringe' The Stage).
Saturday 20th Dec 2008
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Rest is Silence
The Yellow Wallpaper
WhiteSpace Theatre
Adapted and Directed by Sarah Elaine Stewart.
Featuring
Emmeline Cresswell, Joanne Clark,
Emma-Rachel Blackman and
Tom Kirkin.
‘The colour is hideous. The pattern is torturing. And I smell IT. It creeps all over the house. She wants to get out.’
Following a very successful run at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, WhiteSpace Theatre and The Yellow Wallpaper return to London for an extremely different performance.
Based on the Classic Gothic Thriller by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper is a haunting, unsettling and claustrophobic exploration of a mind in turmoil.
Held captive and powerless by her over-protective husband in a disused nursery, a young mother is drawn into an increasingly dangerous game with a secret menace hidden within the repulsive walls; a creeping creature intent on infecting her mind.
* * * * *
Beguiling. Brave. Bold. Beautiful Theatre. This is complete one - off and the best show I have seen for a long time. A real must see. (Philip Herbert, Remotegoat)
www.whitespacetheatre.com
The Rest Is Silence
made by
GetInTheBackOfTheVan
The Rest Is Silence was born out of the question, 'what happens if you treat speech as a physical gesture?'. Through examining where in the body it is that speech initiates and then pushing these findings to their physical extreme, GetInTheBackOfTheVan attempt to reveal the hidden narrative of words we think we know so well. The Rest Is Silence is continually evolving and is part of the company's larger aim to develop a new working process which refuses to sit exclusively in either physical or text-based theatre.
GetInTheBackOfTheVan is passionate about examining the participant/spectator relationship and we greatly value all your feedback. If you don't catch us in the venue, please email any thoughts to silence@getinthebackofthevan.com
Saturday 15th November
A live transmission of 'Adventure Time'
The silents: Written and directed by Rachel Parish, in collaboration with Three Bird Theatre
Rachel Rose Reid.
Adventure Time
Adventure Time is a new radio show from comedy group Comedy Trio. It follows three professional adventure seekers in a range of genre-busting escapades.
The first episode - Adventure Time: The Lady Of FunnyHaHa - will be recorded in front of the live 'Midnight Matinee' audience and streamed live on New York radio station WNAR-AM (1450) at 7:10pm EST, as part of Russ Tea-Can's 'Barrel Of Laughs' show.
Developed and written by the trio - Jazz Carter, John Grimshaw and Martin Brady-Small - the 15-minute pilot will be performed by the three, joined by award-winning young French actress Therese Compagnie. It sees the trio journeying to a far-away island to save a stolen jewel and restore order, with the help of a wizard, a rapping goblin and a depressed elf.
More information is available from the Comedy Trio website - http://comedytrio.co.uk where the show will be available after Saturday
The Silents: written & directed by Rachel Parish
In Collaboration with Three Bird TheatreWhat would you do if suddenly you discovered an imagined and secret world of your own, infinitely more delicious than the world you have always known? Would you choose to stay with the people you love or take the plunge into the unknown? This powerful story examines a young man's journey into an extraordinary internal world which threatens to consume him and destroy his family. It explores the consequences of revealing our silent selves and how this alters others' perceptions of us. The Silents is a physically dynamic and lyrical piece of theatre rooted in ensemble work with a rich and textured narrative to challenge and excite audiences!
thesilents.wordpress.com
Rachel Rose Reid
Blending a childhood of folk music & myth with her urban upbringing, Rachel Rose Reid tells tales from around the globe. Bridging over the theatre, storytelling and ‘spoken word’ scenes, she specialises in
taking storytelling to venues where no storyteller has been before (well that’s what they say, but she thinks they just have short memories). She has been a guest artist at venues including Battersea Arts Centre, Tricycle Theatre, Beyond the Border, Innocent Village Fete, Buddhafield Festival, Alden Biesen (Belgium), First Sunday Stories (San Francisco) & Burning Man Festival (USA). RRR is a winner of UK Young Storyteller of the Year. This month she will be the first storyteller to work with Nabokov Theatre Company on their popular Present:Tense night.
www.rachelrosereid.com
Rachel’s performance was astonishing. She took the stage with an easy
and ego-less charm and, with the aid of her powerful, intelligent
vocals, began to weave a spell amongst the audience, with tales of
mermaids, moon-gazing, and following our dreams.
Paul L Martin, Millionth Muse Productions
.
Saturday 18th October
This event has SOLD OUT
Che Walker: Crazy Love/ Burnt-Up Love
Sam Bloom: A Cloud In Trousers:
Che Walker's plays include Been So Long- royal court theatre/ Flesh
wound- royal court theatre- winner of the George Devine Award for Most Promising Writer, and The Frontline- the first contemporary-set play at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
Crazy Love/ Burnt-Up Love is a double bill of two thematically linked short plays - adventure, love, rage, yearning, loss.... Cast includes Lorraine Stanley (london to brighton), and John Stahl.
Sam Bloom is the Girl in a Suit. Having trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her credits include Pride and Prejudice (Joe Wright), Rabbit Fever (Ian Drury), Cashback (Sean Ellis), Love and other Disasters (Alek Keshishian) and most recently “Untitled” project with Joan Collins directed by Ivan Massow. Samantha performed ‘A Cloud in Trousers’ most recently as part of the Edinburgh Festival. She also works with the English Chamber Orchestra as an Animateur for their outreach programme, Close Encounters.
A Cloud in Trousers: A jilted lover awaits the arrival of his beloved, rehearsing the confrontation he wishes to have, preparing the words he wishes to express his inmost self. This man with a record of past loves, cloyed by streetwalkers and squalor reaches for an elusive future in the heart of love’s content. Despite setbacks and frustrations, he senses that perhaps the motions of the soul can lead to reconciliation.
This mesmeric piece fuses music and poetry, exploring and playing on the pains of a broken heart with dark resonance and surreal humour. How is it that this early 20th Century Russian poet can speak so directly to our confused souls in the early 21st?
Tuesday 20th May, Midnight
Finger in the Pie present a finger in the pie!
Working with an international team of puppeteers and performers, Finger in the Pie
Theatre Company bring a brand new version of the classic Sweeney Todd myth to the Tristan Bates Theatre.
Combining an aesthetic of the grotesque with physical storytelling, puppetry and music they have created a deep and expressionistic world where the audience are invited to Newgate Prison for the once in a lifetime chance to witness the execution of Sweeney Todd.
http://www.fingerinthepie.com/
The Muse
Written by Matt Roberts
Directed by Sam Donovan
Musical Director Adrian Salmon
“You know, some of the greatest artists will never get discovered…..because they’re too lazy to actually paint anything”
Max is a music journalist who loves the 60s. Max is troubled. He has lost his cat, Bruno.
The Muse is a dark comedy that follows the journey of a broken man trying to come to terms with the world he has created for himself. Exploring the destructive force of the need to love and to be loved in an ever fast moving and unforgiving society.
Angel
Written by Matt Grinter
Directed by George Turvey
Winner of the Lost Theatre Festival Best Overall Production.
“Still raining out. That’s six days now...
trying to wash this place away like in the Bible”
In a city full of sin, Rueben searches for his Angel to come and take him away.
Angel explores the consequences of an individual action, when a man
comes face to face with his past. A dark mystical tale of an unlikely kinship.
www.mgtheatreproductions.co.uk
For details of performances, please click here.
