Aeneas Faversham Forever had it’s first performance all the way back in March at the venerable Bedlam Theatre in Edinburgh, with a quick stop at the Glasgow Comedy Festival. Since then it’s changed a lot and all for the better, if winning Best Comedy at the Brighton Fringe Festival is anything to go by.

This time the boys Dreadful have written an actual play rather than a series of sketches, which certainly makes lighting it a more rewarding experience. We recently held our official Edinburgh previews at the lovely Greenwich Theatre to the largest audiences we’ve ever had and it went down really well. There are still a couple of extra-special final touches that will get added to the production as it makes its way Fringewards, but we’re in great shape.

This week we’re on at the Newbury Comedy Festival, and next week we’ll be in a field somewhere in Suffolk at Latitude. Then it’s up to the wonderful Pleasance Two in Edinburgh for a whole month; please do pop along to laugh at the jokes and gasp at the gobos.

Linkage:
The Penny Dreadfuls / backstage blog
notlikecalvin portfolio
Photo gallery @ Flickr
Book online at edfringe.com

We took Radio to the Brits Off Broadway festival at the lovely 59E59 theatres in New York City. It was fairly awesome. Sure, the New York Times may not have liked it that much, but they printed one of my photos so that was fairly awesome, too. NYC was a fascinating, enormous place and I’m certainly going back there some day.

The Penny Dreadfuls performed several times in the run-up to the Fringe, including shows at Latitude Festival and a very special send-off gig at the Soho Review Bar (where we learned the shocking truth behind the mechanics of pole dancing!).

Then it was onwards to Edinburgh!

This year Kandinsky presented Gavin O’Carroll’s play On Wonderland. The simple coming-of-age story of a girl who can’t believe her eyes, performed by the quite stunningly talented Kerry-Jayne Wilson, was a very moving little piece in the Baby Belly Caves, almost in the same spot that Enola occupied two years previously. My photographs are at Flickr, but I’ll add them to notlikecalvin soon.

The Dreadfuls were back with the appropriately named Aeneas Faversham Returns (we’re still arguing over the title for next year’s show). We sold out right from the get-go and became something of must-have ticket. The boys performed a variety of guest spots, from Lunch With The Hamiltons to 4 At The Fringe for the BBC, plus an extra-special appearance as Crisp-Off judges for grade-A dudes Stuckey & Murray. There are photos from the show at Flickr, but they’ll get added to my portfolio here at some point.

Sketchatron kept me busy for a couple of days in the Fringe, dealing with tech for a whole bunch of sketch acts. Aside from awakening dormant memories of Chock-A-Block, it was great to see the Sunday Defensive once again. I love those guys. Just not in creepy way.

Then the wonderful Illyria had to pull out of their prime-time slot at the Bedlam; with Tom barely back from New York there was just enough time to MacGuyver together yet another version of Radio for a couple of packed houses to enjoy. Although this was the lowest-teched iteration yet – I stole a lantern from the On Wonderland rig to make it happen on the supercheap – it all went very well, just like the good old days.

I got to see some great bits and pieces, too, although it’s never as much as I’d like. Now everybody’s licking their wounds and making plans for next summer. I’m cobbling together a round-up of this year’s reviews, but it might take a while: I’m off on tour for a couple of months with Inspector Sands‘ lovely Hysteria. I’ll be relighting Katherine Williams‘ design over a lot of different spaces – it’s a great piece of work and an honour to be involved. We’ll be all over the place so do pop along if you’ve got the time.

There’s the usual portfolio here at notlikecalvin, along with larger files at the Flickr photoset, both served with a dash of Creative Commons licensing.

I’m off up to Scotland this weekend, to be Simon’s lighting eyes for the start of the Moussa’s Castle tour at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen (Simon being distracted on a different continent). I haven’t been to the Granite City since Frozen docked there in December, but I doubt they’ll be too much time for sightseeing.

Coming up: back down to London next week for a rather magical project…

An historic event, and it should be pretty interesting to boot!

Radio picked up a couple of well-deserved acting awards for Tom, a second Sunday Times Playwrite title for Al, the Fest-Goers public vote and the lighting design award for me. Awesome.

It really means a lot, that award does. Radio‘s a very simple, straightforward show and it would be extremely easy to overlook the contribution that lighting makes to the overall production. So it’s hugely gratifying for my work to get acknowledged in that way and I’m superhappy as a result. It’s also a real boost and wonderfully encouraging to keep plugging away at this theatre lark.

But enough about me. Radio is next to be seen in New York City as part of the Brits Off Broadway festival. We’ve got a three week run in the lovely 59E59 theatre; please come along if you happen to be in the neighbourhood.

Meanwhile, the Penny Dreadfuls are at the Canal Cafe in London all this week in the three-part tag-team Sketchatron, alongside The Sunday Defensive and Idiots Of Ants. Victorian thrills and more contemporary chuckles are guaranteed!

I’m currently in Leeds, TSMing the Library Dances project – quite different and a lot of fun. Next week Radio has a short run at the Bedlam before showing at the Soho Theatre on October 12th and 13th. After that I’m relighting Simon Wilkinson‘s design for Frozen in Rapture Theatre’s tour of Scotland for a couple of months. And I’m sure that Aeneas Faversham might make another appearance or two.

So I’ve got some stuff to be going on with. I should mention, in passing, my freshly updated CV is only a click away: feel free to get in touch.

Aeneas Faversham, the Penny Dreadfuls‘ Victorian sketch comedy show at the Underbelly, was amazingly successful, with an awesome selection of reviews:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – Edinburgh Evening News
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – British Theatre Guide
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – Broadway Baby
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – ThreeWeeks
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – Chortle
★ ★ ★ ★ – The Scotsman
★ ★ ★ ★ – The Skinny
★ ★ ★ ★ – one4review
And a lovely review in The Stage.

Click through for more, or check the highlights at The Penny Dreadfuls.

Radio, Kandinsky‘s production of Al Smith’s latest work, also had a fantastic reception:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – ThreeWeeks
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – British Theatre Guide
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – The Independent
★ ★ ★ ★ – The Scotsman
★ ★ ★ ★ – The Guardian
★ ★ ★ ★ – The Skinny
Must See – The Stage

There are plans underway for more Radio in London sometime soon, so keep an eye on the Kandinsky blog for updates.

ShamWagon, the Dreadfuls‘ long-form improv show got some decent write-ups:

★ ★ ★ ★ – ThreeWeeks
★ ★ ★ ★ – The Skinny
A nice mention at ITV.com
★ – The List (although it’s hardly a review at all)

Despite being my most, erm, prestigious piece of theatre at this year’s Festival, Nutshell’s Stars at the Traverse wasn’t critically received at all well – I don’t think it met their expectations of Fringe wackyness, but there you go:

★ ★ ★ ★ – The List
★ ★ – The Scotsman
★ ★ – The Guardian
and a decent review in The Stage

This was my ninth Fringe, and the first in which I’ve devoted myself entirely to productions. Both critically and commercially it was a runaway success on several fronts, and Radio and Faversham in particular are guarenteed future appearances. More to come.

The Penny Dreadfuls perform Aeneas Faversham at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden on July 8th & 9th, before their Fringe runs of both Aeneas Faversham and their long-form improvisational masterpiece Shamwagon at the Underbelly and the Pleasance.

Kandinsky reprise the multi award-winning Enola along with a preview of Al Smith’s brand new play, Radio, at the Wimbledon Studio from July 18th to the 22nd, before bringing Radio to the Underbelly throughout August.

Nutshell are producing the world premiere of Sarah Colvin’s new adaptation of Stars at the Traverse Theatre during the Fringe, before moving across to the Citizens Theatre in September.

So there’s plenty to choose from – please do pop along and support The Future of British Theatre.

This is essentially the second major version of Kandinsky‘s work with the play after its premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2005 (which I reviewed), and in terms of staging the bulk of the difference is in the lighting. I wasn’t involved with the Fringe production at all, so my approach here has been neither a direct re-light of that original show or an entirely new design. The structure of the piece – in terms of timing and cuepoints – is largely intact, but the festival venue that we were allocated here is perhaps three or four times larger than the cramped conditions in the Underbelly Caves: while the playing space remains as small as is feasible the lighting positions are significantly further away from the stage, and a complete reinterpretation was necessary.

We finished our run of four performances late last night, and we’ve been absolutely delighted with the audience response. The bulk of Enola‘s theatrical soul comes directly from Al’s text, but it’s topped-off with superbly pitched performances and a very mature approach to the production. I’ll have photographs and more post-match analysis up once I get home at the weekend, but for now we’re going to take in the rest of the Festival, eagerly awaiting the awards ceremony on Friday night. We’ll see where it goes from here.

[ Update! Enola swept the awards: the Sunday Times Playwriting Award for Al, an Acting Award for Ellie and - best of all - the Fest-Goers Award, voted for by all attendees of the Festival: we're so very happy!

There are all sorts of highly exciting things on the horizon for Enola, but until then I've onlined some photographs in the usual place, with some bits and pieces from NSDF over at flickr. Enjoy. ]