After about four months in development, it’s time for the fifth Penny Dreadfuls show at the Edinburgh Fringe. And once again I’ve selected a totally boss soundtrack.

It’s back aboard the sketch train this year, but we’re still contemporary so there’s some pretty amazing beats rocking our scene breaks – in particular I’ve been able to indulge my fondness for electro/glitch/mashup nonsense as well as the usual film and game scores:

“Arriving At Jacinto” – Gears of War 2, Steve Jablonsky
“Hero” – Kung Fu Panda, Hans Zimmer & John Powell
“Bulletproof” – La Roux
“Playgirl” – Ladytron
“Tuff ‘n Stuff” – Yes Giantess
“Genesis” – Justice
“You’re The Best” – Joe “Bean” Esposito
“Go To Hell” – Doom, Clint Mansell
“‘Introduction’ From Suite Punta Del Este” – 12 Monkeys, Paul Buckmaster
“Vanished” – Crystal Castles
“Suffocation” – Crystal Castles
We use the theme to Lingo (season 2) for What’s In The Box?
“The Normandy” – Mass Effect, Jack Wall & Sam Hulick
“I Was Made For A Heavy Cross [Kiss vs Gossip] – Copycat
“Las Vegas / End Credits” – Rain Man, Hans Zimmer
“Cole’s Fourth Dream” – 12 Monkeys, Paul Buckmaster
“Sunshine (Adagio In D Minor)” – Sunshine, John Murphy & Underworld
“Gorillas!” – Mirrormask, Iain Ballamy

I’ve used our preshow house music to really get the tempo up with some of my very favourite glitchy/grimey bits and pieces:

“Zero” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
“Cold Hot Emotional [Katy Perry vs Whitney Houston]” – Mark Johnce
“Mr Crowley Might Like It Louder [Dada, Obernick & Harris vs Ossy Osbourne vs Amanda Blank vs Major Lazer ft Nicky Sky & Ricky Blaze]” – Mark Johnce
“Bubblicious” – Rex The Dog
“Black Fag (no version)” – Crystal Castles

The crowning glory is almost our postshow noise, with the insanely catchy instrumental version of Ricardo Autobahn’s video mashup extravaganza, followed by the wonderfully thumping music to the Inception trailer:

“The Golden Age Of Video [instrumental]” – Ricardo Autobahn
“Mind Heist” – Zack Hemsey

I’m extremely pleased to have part of Sunshine in there (something I’m increasingly comfortable calling my favourite piece of music ever), and I’ve finally managed to get Zimmer’s stonkingly bobbins 80′s score to Rain Man crowbar’d into a show. Plus there’s montage music straight out of The Karate Kid, so everyone’s a winner.

Do pop along to see us if you’ve got a moment – we’re on all month in Pleasance One. There are funny bits and awesome tunes.

UPDATE: Our Superstar Producer Idil assembled a Spotify playlist, which I’ve added to with as much as we can find on there.

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

With so much quality on-stage, the show sold out a couple of days in advance, and the Pleasance was packed to the rafters with comedy cognoscente. The Defensive had some brand new material and Pappy’s held a meat raffle. An exhausting, wonderful, amazingly good value-for-money night, which is why we’re doing it again in April. (Although the current naming convention dictates the next one should be called Sketchatron vs Predator, apparently we can’t have that.) Book now!

I was a little too busy to listen live to the third episode of The Brothers Faversham last Friday night (see above), but the fourth and final episode is pushed over the airwaves tonight—you should be able to listen again for the next week. There’s a second series on the way, so I’m told, and the boys are appearing in all sorts of exciting projects in the coming months; keep an eye on the Backstage Diary for info-treats.

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.