Tag: White Bear Theatre

Quick Q&A: Bored of Knives

Published on by Liz

Where and when: The White Bear Kennington, 11th – 14th December

What it’s all about… You are now entering a secret space. A place where stories are told, promises are made, and secrets are kept. This is ‘The Den’. After nine years of estrangement, two friends find themselves back in their childhood den, looking for closure. But at what point does loyalty become dangerous, and friendship become exploitation? Bored of Knives is an eccentric and energetic play about the joys and complications of female friendships, and how far we are willing to let our moral compass stray for the sake of loyalty.

You’ll like it if… If you’ve got a massive child inside you, this show is definitely for you. Messy, silly, and full of awkward laughs, Bored of Knives is a big celebration of the uglier, weirder, and more intimate side of female friendships. If you want to watch two full grown women throw crisps at each other, suck dolls, and dance like hooligans- there’s really no better place to be.

You should see it because… underneath the madness, the games, and the dancing around, this story has a lot to offer anyone who has ever found themselves holding onto the past, or struggling to let their grudges go.

Anything else we should know…: This is Flawstate’s debut play.

Where to follow:
Website: https://flawstategroup.com/
Twitter: @flawstate

Book here: www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk/whatson/Bored-of-Knives

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Quick Q&A: Good Gracious Good Friday

Published on by Liz

Where and when: White Bear Theatre, 16th-18th October

What it’s all about… Good Gracious, Good Friday takes place in Belfast, Northern Ireland on the night of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement referendum result, as four (mostly hungover) twenty-somethings come together to use the historic occasion as an excuse to drink all over again. Although they claim they have no interest in the “boring news on the telly” as the evening draws on – their true feelings for their country, and each other, will be revealed. This is a nostalgic look back at a huge turning point in Northern Ireland’s history, with Game Boys and Tamagotchis thrown in for good measure!

You’ll like it if… you’re interested in The Good Friday Agreement which has been mentioned so much whenever Brexit is on the news. It’s been the main sticking point in the current negotiations, particularly when it comes to the matter of the Irish Border. Our play explores why the 1998 Good Friday Agreement was such a monumental event in Northern Irish, and U.K. history and what it meant to a younger generation who strived for peace – a generation who were knee deep in a late 90s cultural explosion of Britney Spears, Titanic and Supermarket Sweep – so yeah, they had all that to deal with too…….

You should see it because… the Good Friday Agreement has never been more prevalent than it was over 20 years ago. The very essence of Brexit brings into disrepute the good work so many British/Irish/American politicians set out to do, which was to bring peace to the island of Ireland. Just yesterday (14th October 2019) a Northern Irish citizen named Emma De Souza was told she could not claim her Irish citizenship – something The Good Friday Agreement set out to make possible in our time, and further beyond. Our play sets out to show how important The Good Friday Agreement was to Northern Ireland in 1998, and how it remains just as vital to the country, The Republic of Ireland and The U.K. today.

Where to follow:
Twitter: @GGGFPlay

Book here: www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk/whatson/Good-Gracious%2C-Good-Friday

Got a show opening soon? Visit Promote your show and tell us more!

Review: Macbeth the Musical at White Bear Theatre

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If you’ve ever watched a production of Macbeth and thought the protagonist seemed like a bit of a muppet, then Stage Splinters’ irreverent new adaptation of the famous tragedy is the show for you. Leaving Shakespeare’s verse well and truly at the door, this musical adaptation performed by puppets playfully pokes fun at both the play and its characters, with the murderous monarch taking the brunt of the humour.

Photo credit: Kevin Kamara

Following an unsettling encounter with three flirtatious witches called Agnes, Breanna and Madison, Macbeth heads home to his wife, who promptly bullies her spineless spouse into murdering the nice old king. Several fumbling attempts later, Duncan’s finally dispatched, and the Macbeths turn their attention to the loyal Banquo and an unexpectedly repellent Macduff – which would all be fine if their intended victims didn’t keep escaping. Elliot Moore and Eloise Jones make a hilarious double act as the enthusiastic but incompetent killers, with performances so expressive and engaging that it’s easy to find yourself watching them rather than the (albeit expertly handled) puppets.

The discarding of the majority of Shakespeare’s original text allows writers Chuma Emembolu and Ruth Nicolas to tell the well-known story from a fresh perspective. John, Rose and Conleth are servants in Macbeth’s household, who witness, discuss and occasionally participate in their bosses’ bloody goings on. At the same time, they put the Macbeths’ problems well and truly into perspective by sharing their own harrowing life stories: John has a bit of a drinking problem and only narrowly escapes having Duncan’s murder pinned on him as a result; Rose was sold into servitude by her father; and Conleth is a former soldier with a traumatic past.

Photo credit: Kevin Kamara

The result of all this is a curious mix: a laugh out loud comedy (the Duncan murder scene is particularly fun, as is Macbeth’s death) punctuated by some really dark moments, which are not only not at all funny but also have a tendency to happen very suddenly, and then be over with just as quickly, leaving the audience feeling slightly off balance. Both Bryony Reynolds (Rose) and Red Picasso (Conleth) give excellent performances in unexpectedly complex roles, and it’s frustrating that having worked hard to establish them as major characters, the show doesn’t then tell us how their stories end.

Having said that, Macbeth the Musical is still a very funny, very silly evening of tongue-in-cheek comedy, which you don’t have to be a Shakespeare scholar to appreciate (though if you are one, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy the countless in-jokes levelled at the source text and its gaping plot holes). The cast are impeccable, the songs are witty and enjoyable, and the puppets are great. Who knew murder could be this much fun?

Macbeth the Musical is at the White Bear Theatre until 7th September.

What Happens Next Will __ Your __: Q&A with My Mate Monster

Published on by Liz

Following a two-night run at the White Bear’s recent New Writing festival,  My Mate Monster – a.k.a. Ryan Whittle and Chris McCurry – return to the theatre next week with an encore of their debut show, What Happens Next Will __ Your __. A darkly humorous two-hander inspired by the rising (and apparently, enduring) trend of shaming strangers on the internet, the play proved a hit last month with audiences – and Theatre Things quite liked it too.

Before the show’s welcome return to the White Bear, we chatted to Ryan and Chris to find out more about the show’s journey so far, their plans for the future, and exactly what a monster’s got to do with anything…

Can you tell us briefly what the show is about?

It’s about two strangers, Alex and Darren, who become trapped on the roof of an apartment building. Darren is an incessant chatterer and when he lets slip a few pretty crazy and offensive views, Alex begins to expose him by live tweeting his torturous experience. As the responses roll in and outrage grows, things escalate from there.

We told a guy once it’s basically “Planes, Trains and Automobiles meets Black Mirror”, and he went “Brilliant. I like both of those things.” So, yeah. In a nutshell it’s that. On a roof.

Where did the inspiration come from?

We were approaching our final assessments at Royal Welsh College and basically had to write a play. Chris picked up a Jon Ronson book called So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed at the airport on the way back to Cardiff. It was fascinating with tons and tons of stories about people who’d had their lives completely ruined by being shamed online. So we knew we wanted to do something about that!

Then Ryan found a news story about a guy who was tweeting horrible things about a woman he was on a flight with and it transpired that she followed him. That gave us a great structure right there (minus the airplane… would have been a bit tricky that), so we just went into a room and messed about until it was done!

What do you hope audiences will take away from seeing it?

Basically we want them to have a great time… and then feel really horrible and guilty and then just to be a bit shocked and go “Oh dear” and feel a bit sick.

Apart from that… just to see themselves in the characters. We both work in bars and regularly come into contact with people a lot like Darren, who don’t seem to realise you don’t have time for a chat and they just plough on. London can be an incredibly lonely place at times. It’s something we all have felt here and these two guys definitely are very similar in that way. It’s very easy just to see people as moving obstacles and massive pains in the arse rather than understand them.

If all that doesn’t register and they just go “That silly guy was funny” then that’s absolutely 100% fine too.

What’s been the show’s journey so far?

We wrote it in 2015 and performed it at RWCMD. We basically did the whole thing blank page to stage in 4/5 weeks and had the most amazing time doing it. It was honestly one of the best experiences we’ve both had on stage and it was received really well.

After college we both got parts in different things and never really had a chance to re-stage it. We were worried that social media shaming would become less of a cultural thing than it was but thankfully people just kept on annihilating each on the internet!

At the start of this year we both had a bit of time to revisit it and just set a target for getting it on by the end of the summer. Then the White Bear advertised their New Writing Festival, we fired the script off and got in! It’s been so nice revisiting it and that people enjoyed it so much they’ve invited us back.

How long have the two of you known each other, and how did My Mate Monster come about?

About 4 years. We were both training together and decided to work on a final assessment as a pair and that’s what led to the show. When we started getting serious about grabbing opportunities to get the show on elsewhere we decided to form our own company.

As for the name… there was a guy of about 20 who lived round the corner from Chris when he was 7-8 who was 6’10 with a shaved head and his mates (in the nicest way possible) called him ‘Monster.’ Somehow that huge man found his way into the play as an unseen acquaintance of Darren’s. It’s a favourite line of ours so, yeah, ‘My Mate Monster’. Legally, we probably owe him money or something now.

What are your plans for the show and the company in the future?

We’ve been in touch with different festivals and venues. Basically we just want to get the show out there and seen by as many people as possible.

We’ve got an idea for another show that we’ll start working on when we’ve had a wee break after this. It’d be great to do a double bill feature, What Happens Next… then an interval and then a second completely different hour long play featuring the two of us as totally different characters.

Surely the dream is just to sit and talk to your mate about silly experiences you’ve had or things you’re interested in or that are bothering you and then go and make them into something. How good is that?

Book now for What Happens Next Will __ Your __ at the White Bear Theatre, 9th-11th September.

Written and performed by Ryan Whittle and Chris McCurry

Review: What Happens Next Will ___ Your ___ at the White Bear Theatre

Published on by LizLeave a comment

Gather round, kids, it’s time for a history lesson… Once upon a time, if you were out and about and you witnessed behaviour that was annoying, weird or socially unacceptable, the only thing to do was make a mental note and then have a bit of a rant about it to your family, friends and colleagues when you arrived at your destination. But those days are gone; now we have the wonderful world of social media, and with it the ability to instantly and publicly shame anyone we judge not to be living up to our own expected standards of behaviour. And sometimes, that harmless tweet or jokey Facebook post captures the public’s imagination and takes on a life of its own – but at what point does calling people out for what we deem bad behaviour stop being just a bit of fun?

In Chris McCurry and Ryan Whittle’s What Happens Next Will __ Your __, freelance journalist Alex (Whittle) finds himself trapped on a roof with Darren (McCurry), an overly chatty security guard with some highly questionable views on a number of issues. Frustrated and incredulous, Alex does what – let’s be honest – a lot of us would consider doing, and starts live tweeting their conversation to his substantial online following, who respond instantly and with great enthusiasm. And what happens next… well, you get the idea.

What begins as a funny story of an awkward encounter quickly ventures into some uncomfortable territory, as the replies to Alex’s tweets begin to flash up on the TV screen in the corner of the stage. First there’s delight, then outrage, and finally blind hatred and even death threats directed at a stranger none of them have ever met. Even after Alex starts actually listening to what Darren’s really trying to say and stops firing off sarcastic tweets, it’s too late; he’s already started something he can’t stop. Not only that, he’s beginning to realise that the people who follow him so voraciously may not actually be all that different from those he exposes – and that he might not be such a great guy himself, either.

Like any good clickbait video on the internet, you can guess at least part of where the story’s headed – and yet it’s impossible to look away as the inevitable car crash moment approaches. This, when it arrives, is set up so well that somehow it still manages to feel like a shock twist, and the impact is painfully, cringingly horrific to watch. Chris McCurry and Ryan Whittle are an excellent double act, nailing the comedy in the script with such expert precision that it takes a while to realise that our sympathy has begun to shift from one character to the other, or that for the first half of the play we’ve been guilty of making the exact same snap judgments as Alex. Not a second of the 50-minute play is wasted; even the awkward silences between the two men are loaded with meaning, and in many ways we learn more about who each of them really is from what they don’t say than from their actual conversation.

What Happens Next Will __ Your __ is an excellent piece of new writing and a strong debut production from My Mate Monster. Relatable and entertaining, it also challenges the audience to examine our own behaviour online and its potential consequences. More than that, though, it reminds us to be kind – both on and off the internet – and take a moment before passing judgment on people we’ve never met. In a world that feels increasingly hostile, that’s a reminder we can’t hear often enough.

The final performance of What Happens Next Will __ Your __ is tonight (24th August) at the White Bear Theatre – do grab a ticket if you can.