Theatre

THE ASSEMBLY OF ANIMALS comes to the Tolmen Centre for two performances. Part installation, part sculpture, and part puppetry performance, this is an exciting addition to our spring programme as part of the  “Festival of Curious Puppetry”. The show, which is suitable for all ages from 3 upwards, lasts about  half an hour, followed by an opportunity for  audience members to  explore the objects used and see how they function.

The Assembly of Animals has been performed widely across the UK and Europe to audiences of all ages and has been part of the British Council Showcase, which takes standout shows from the Edinburgh Fringe to wider audiences.

Tim Spooner is a visual artist and performance maker.   Exemplifying the low-tech, handmade yet magical quality of Spooner’s work, The Assembly of Animals is a series of demonstrated experiments, where the performers assemble, reorganise and animate an array of ingeniously constructed ‘animals’ of very different sizes and forms. Magnets, motors, inflating objects, travelling glowing liquid and other mechanisms give this complex installation a movement and life of its own.

Think of it as a series of ‘performed sculptures’ which fuse scientific experimentation together with puppetry. Creating vibrating compositions of living and inanimate matter through a combination of sound, electricity and often mundane everyday materials.

Tim Spooner’s idiosyncratic and unique performances attempt to expand our understanding of the physical world by revealing the inner life of objects.  Spooner’s work - usually non-verbal but full of vibrant sound – appeals to all ages.

After the performance, the audience is invited to explore the objects more closely and to discover the ways they function.

“Tim is an artistic inventor and creates this carefully constructed world, the delicacy of which requires consistent marvelling and leaves children entertained throughout”   (Theatre Bristol Writers)

“Absolutely fascinating, undeniably bonkers” (Children’s Theatre Reviews)

NOTE: This show is quite abstract in form, and is a long way from being a conventional puppet show. Expect to be surprised…. and inspired!

Performances at 2pm and 5pm

By Pipeline Theatre

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Following their introductory tour early last year, DRIP DRIP DRIP has been recast and rewritten for its new nationwide tour in 2020.

We are fortunate to have the only performance in Cornwall on this tour, as the company journeys across the country, ending with a long run at the Pleasance Theatre in London.

In its new form and with a new cast, the play retains it's powerful examination of racism and political extremism, in the context of our beloved NHS in 2020.

As with all Pipeline's work, and with Jon Welch's writing, this is a play that merits seeing for a second time, especially as it has evolved in keeping with the changing circumstances facing the country and the NHS.

And if you missed it last time, grab the only chance to see it at The Tolmen Centre, Pipeline's  home venue -  from where all their work has originated.

Below are a few sample reviews from the 2019 tour:

'Pipeline Theatre might be a tiny company from deepest Cornwall, but its work is creating theatre for the enquiring mind. What they have exposed in this production is profoundly alarming and deserves a much wider audience.'
British Theatre Guide

'This is an astounding piece of studio theatre, Pipeline is a company deserving of greater recognition.' 
number9reviews

“This piece made me laugh, brought a tear to my eye and flung me into worlds I'd never taken the time to venture into before. Perhaps most importantly, it left a lasting, powerful impression and a little hope that we might move past this time of division. In a time where nationalism is the newest superbug, this couldn't come sooner.”
Voicemag

Tickets £10 (concessions £7)

Squashbox Theatre

‘Tales from the Trees’ is a terrific tangle of puppetry, storytelling, live music and comedy, with a theme that embraces natural history, folklore and ecology.

Listen! The trees have tales to tell. Meet some friendly forest creatures and encounter crazy characters from folklore and fairy tales!...

Tickets £5, Children £2.50, Family £12

by Luke Wright

I believed that Fukayama line: the end of history. But History didn’t end, did it?

Logan Dankworth, columnist and Twitter warrior, grew up romanticising the political turmoil of the 1980s. Now, as the EU Referendum looms he is determined to be in the fray of the biggest political battle for years. Meanwhile, Logan’s wife Megan wants to leave London to better raise their daughter. As tensions rise at home and across the nation, something is set to be lost forever.

The third of Fringe First and Stage Award Winner Luke Wright’s trilogy of political verse plays looks at trust and privilege in the age of Brexit.

“Luke Wright’s performances rumble with rage, passion and humour. They are also peppered with brilliantly smart observations. You will leave his show brimming with energy, heart pounding and brain whirring.” The Guardian

Written & Performed by Luke Wright
Directed by Alex Thorpe
Dramaturgy by Sarah Dickenson
Scored by Polly Wright
Lighting Design by Joe Price

Co-commissioned by Norwich Arts Centre, National Centre for Writing, Colchester Arts Centre, Freedom Festival

Running time: 1h
Age Recommendation: 14+

Tickets £10

David William Bryan

Bursting with energy and bold theatrical strokes, David William Bryan tells the true story of his great uncle Arthur who never thought of going to war until the Liverpool bombing raids of the Second World War. In May 1941, he joins up. Deployed to Singapore, his ship is destroyed by Japanese dive bombers and he is declared missing.This extraordinary true story of survival is a dramatic tour-de-force.

‘A tour de force’ (The Scotsman)
‘A fresh sense of humanity’ (Stage)
‘A masterpiece’ (Broadway Baby)
★★★★★  (BroadwayBaby.com)
★★★★★  (Britishtheatreguide.info)
★★★★★  (MyTheatreMates.com)
★★★★★ (Edinburgh Guide)
★★★★ (The Stage)
★★★★★ (Fringe Guru)
★★★★ (Edinburgh Reporter)
★★★★★ (Essential Surrey & Southwest)

Tickets £10

A preview showing.

We need to know who we were, so we can imagine who we might be.

Acclaimed theatre company 1927 (Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, The Animals and Children Took to the Streets) has unearthed a series of rarely told folktales that offer a glimpse into imaginations from a pre-industrialized age. Tyrannical ogres, magical birds, and very, very fat cats are brought to life with the company’s signature fusion of handcrafted animation and storytelling, with a live score. We are incredibly lucky to have this preview showing of their newest work before it premieres in America.

Please note that this is a first public showing of Roots, and as such has an element of 'Work In Progress' to it - it is a staging post towards its opening in America later in May. It won't be quite the finished product , and there may be some rough edges - that's inevitable in the process of bringing a complex stage work to completion. But we are delighted to ask our audience to share in this process, and get to see this new work so early in its evolution.

Tickets £10

‘Owdyado Theatre

Twisted Tales is a hilariously dark triple bill of riotous comedies that reveal the darkness under the domestic, the lengths people will go to for love, and how to wash blood stains out of a carpet. Inspired by cult series TheTwilight Zone and Inside Number Nine, this series of dark comedies is co-written by Daniel Richards and Charlotte Bister and distinguished Cornish writers Brett Harvey and Jon Welch.

Tickets £10, £8, 14-18 £5

Pipeline Theatre Preview

In overstretched NHS hospital, a trainee nurse from Eritrea and a Muslim doctor treat David - cancer patient, discredited academic, and racist. As life ebbs, reality splinters, jumping between the Nazi euthanasia programme, a burns clinic in Africa, and a National Front march in 1977. But the most pressing reality of all is that Professor David Jeffs has a lecture to finish, and time is running out.

Pipeline Theatre, known for indelible characters and breathtaking production values, takes you on a break-neck, darkly comic and taboo-busting journey through an NHS phantasmagoria.

Rhum and Clay

A travelling storyteller, a gig economy worker, rushes from his last delivery of the day to recount ancient tales of Jesus and his life... however these versions aren’t like any you’ve heard before. Darkly comic, sometimes tragic and always subversive, Mistero Buffo takes aim at those who manipulate truth and belief for power and controlWinner of The Stage Edinburgh Award 2018One of The Guardian’s and The Stage's “Best Shows at the Edinburgh Festival 2018”★★★★★ The Stage, What’sOnStage, British Theatre Guide, Edinburgh Guide, Broadway Baby★★★★ The Guardian, The List There's also the press quotes we've pulled:★★★★★ “This is, in short, a tour de force … a shapeshifting, body-popping, mesmerising performance; drilled to perfection” – WhatsOnStage“★★★★★ Magnificent … an astounding performance”—The Stage“★★★★ An enthralling restaging of a Dario Fo classic”—The Guardian

“Spooner tackles a huge cast of characters...with astonishing sharpness and clarity.”...The Guardian.

“Magnificent production...an astonishing performance.” ..The Stage.

"Go and see this show right now.

As a mime he is flawless, as a storyteller he is utterly compelling.

I just wanted to get that out before wasting any more time. Now to the review."

"As we walked up the winding staircase to Underbelly's Big Belly space the walls were dripping with what felt like the sweat of a thousand performers and audience members. We ducked into the venue and the air was thick. The scene was set for an intense 75 mins of possibly the best physical theatre you'll see in this year's Fringe.

The Lecoq-trained company Rhum & Clay present Dario Fo's 1969 comical mystery play, Mistero Buffo, with a furious energy and technical skill that was absolutely deserving of the standing ovation it received.

Julian Spooner is the Jongleur. An itinerant performer from the middle ages who is given the freedom to speak truth to power by Jesus. He roams from city to city, performing to the assembled crowds (that evening, we were his crowd), telling versions of stories from the Bible that attack the powerful in favour of the people.

Fo's play, translated by Ed Emery and tweaked by Rhum & Clay, is the foundation on which a formidable performance by Spooner is built. It's the solo performance at the centre of Mistero Buffo that's remarkable here. It's the way he shapes and transforms the space as the stories and scenes unfold. It's the 100+ characters he flickers between with ever-increasing rapidity, climaxing at the resurrection of Lazarus where he conjures up an entire crowd out of thin air. As a mime he is flawless, as a storyteller he is utterly compelling.

But Mistero Buffo isn't merely a technical marvel. Fo's text is subtly spun through the lens of modern itinerant and gig-economy workers, sliding this 50-year-old spectacle gently into contemporary relevance. There's nothing heavy-handed about the way that Rhum & Clay present it though: it deftly dances between the timeless and the modern.

After the standing ovation had died down, Spooner did a customary 'thank you' to the audience, and mentioned the workers rights organisation (organise.org.uk) they have partnered with. The story of the Jongleur and the downtrodden people he speaks for is insanely relevant today. In fact I would have loved to see a little more of that in the piece. More relation to the "corporate-dominated post-truth world" that they talk about in the blurb. But it's a minor criticism, and the opening scene sets this up nicely.

Whether you go for the political allusions and biblical deconstruction, or the spectacle of a performer at the absolute top of his game, Mistero Buffo demands your time. Buy a ticket now, before they sell out."

...Broadway Baby ***** August 2018

Tickets £10

Play screening

We saw this wonderful show live in Edinburgh in 2015 when it won the Carol Tambor Award and was whisked off to New York.

Sadly we couldn’t get the live show to Cornwall, but this film of the stage play is the next best thing. Devised by women in an HM Prison, The Guardian described it as “exquisite…singing with everyday poetry as if the devising had unlocked a waterfall of creativity.”

“moving, intimate and superbly acted”…..New York Times

Leviathan is the critically acclaimed work by award winning Cornish choreographer James Wilton.

Leviathan follows Ahab, a ship captain hell-bent on capturing the white whale: Moby Dick, a beast as vast and dangerous as the sea itself, yet serene and beautiful beyond all imagining.

Ahab’s crew are drawn into the unhinged charisma of their captain, blindly following him on his perilous adventure towards almost certain destruction.

Multi-award winning choreographer James Wilton re-imagines Herman Melville’s seminal novel, Moby Dick.

Featuring a cast of six, Wilton’s trademark blend of athletic dance, martial arts, capoeira and partner-work, Leviathan will have you on the edge of your seat.

It will leave you gasping for air under the sheer ferocity of movement, all accompanied by a powerful electro-rock soundtrack by Lunatic Soul.

Leviathan is man versus nature; be careful what you fish for.

Tickets £10 (£8 concessions) from 01326 341353 or online via www.tolmencentre.co.uk

The multi award-winning comedy trio are back with their critically acclaimed EdFringe sell-out comedy; set in the most dangerous place on Earth ...Space.

Sammy Johnson, the last Police Cop in the universe, blasts off in an unmanned escape pod. Now on a distant planet, Sammy must team up with Alien fighter pilot Ranger and his trusty Cyborg C9 as they embark on an intergalactic adventure to find Earth, avenge his father and become the best damn Police Cop in space.

“Big, consistent laughs..it’s not just funny, it’s exhilarating”  ...The Guardian

Tickets £10, £8

Theatre Ad Infinitum’s wordless tale of life, death and enduring love returns to tour the UK and Chile following years of extensive international touring amassing nine awards.

Original performers George Mann and Deborah Pugh are joined by Sophie Crawford to retell, with precise gesture and touches of humour, the story of widower William who escapes to a comforting world of fantasy and memories rather than confront his grief. From beyond the grave, his wife Rose returns to help him let go. This poignant, life-affirming tale uses intricate and lifelike hand-held masks – created by Madame Tussaud’s senior sculptor Victoria Beaton – to travel back and forth through William and Rose’s relationship, wordlessly conveying a lifetime of memories in 75 minutes.

How it all started…

Theatre Ad Infinitum  premiered Translunar Paradise at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and experienced an overwhelming response from audiences and professionals alike receiving three awards and three award nominations, selling out our run at The Pleasance Dome, and picking up four & five star reviews across the board.

Following this success the show went on to win a total of nine awards internationally and has toured extensively in the UK in Sept-Oct 2011, Jan-Feb 2012, and Oct-Nov 2013. They  were thrilled to sell out a week long run at the They were thrilled to sell out a week long run at the London International Mime Festival at Barbican in 2012, a week at the Bristol Old Vic and many nights in venues across the UK (including at The Tolmen Centre).

The piece returned to the Edinburgh Festival in 2012 and sold out for a second consecutive year.

Translunar has also enjoyed extensive international touring in Bogota at the Ibero-American Theatre Festival, Colombia and going on to tour in Brazil for three months with Galharufas Producoes, in Italy, Norway, Israel, Greece, Croatia, Ireland, Sweden, The Netherlands, Belgium and the USA.

Awards

The Wijkjury First Prize Award, The Netherlands 2014 | Argus Angel Award 2012 (Brighton Fringe) | Liverpool Daily Post ‘Best Fringe Show of 2011’ | The Fringe Review ‘Outstanding Theatre Award’ 2011 | The Observer ‘Iron Man’ Award for Kim Heron | Brave New World Award & Audience Award at the Sarajevo MESS Theatre Festival, Bosnia & Herzegovina 2011 | 1st Prize BE Festival Development Award 2010 | Best Theatre Direction Award at ACT Festival Bilbao, Spain 2011

Award Nominations

The Stage Award for ‘Best Ensemble’ 2011 | Total Theatre Award for Visual/Physical Devised Theatre | Brighton Fringe ‘Best of Edinburgh Award’

Reviews

The Times * * * *: “An admirable, infinitely gentle and wordless story of loss and remembrance” -Donald Hutera.

The Stage ‘MUST-SEE!’ Show: “I really cannot recommend this highly enough – it is not just one of the best shows I have seen at this year’s fringe, but any fringe.” -Alistair Smith.

“This is a show that will steal your heart.” ★★★★★ Scotsman

“Uniquely devastating” Observer

5 Star Reviews: The Scotsman | What’s On Stage.com | Fest Magazine | British Theatre Guide | Fringe Review | Edinburgh Guide.com | Fringe Guru

4 Star Reviews: The Times | The List | Exeunt Magazine | Edinburgh Festivals Magazine | Three Weeks

Tickets £12, £10

Pipeline Theatre

On holiday in Cornwall they crashed the car and lost the dog, but had the best Christmas ever. A heartwarming community show made with and by people from Camborne and Redruth.

Tickets £6, £3, £15 family

Book Online at crbo

Luke Wright

Following the multi-award-winning What I Learned From Johnny Bevan, Luke Wright’s new verse play deals with love, loss, and belief, against a backdrop of 80s politics and music. Simon, a vicar’s son from Essex, has become Frankie Vah and replaced religion with radical politics and ranting poetry. He and his beloved girlfriend Eve live in love and penury, but when Frankie goes on tour with indie darlings The Midnight Shift, his new world is put to the test.

‘Pulsating, poetic storytelling’ The Guardian

Tickets £10, £8

Worklight Theatre

Everyone has felt the prickle of anger, so why do some men lash out while others stay in control? In an amazingly fast moving performance, Joe Sellman-Leava channels his own irritation at his chirpy,cheery girlfriend, MikeTyson‘s tirades, Patrick Stewart fearfully recollecting the domestic violence that scarred his childhood and passages of Shakespeare, brimming with spite and anger. A thrilling new performance about violence and masculinity, from internationally acclaimed Worklight Theatre.

Tickets £10, £8

Vamos Theatre

Danny, a teenage dabbler in petty crime, starts to care for Joy, whose nocturnal wanderings and forgetfulness worry her family. The show brilliantly conveys her fear on finding herself alone, in her nightie, in a busy street. It also conjures up her past, in particular during the Blitz. It’s an unconventional companionship between Joy and Danny, who find love and laughter against the odds.

“Finding Joy” is an intensely emotional and enjoyable show.

Tickets £12, £10, Family £34 (children 12+)

In association with Carn to Cove

Shostakovich, writing his life affirming 7th Symphony, flees the Leningrad siege leaving his less talented student contemporary Karl to attempt to survive starvation and loss and miraculously conduct and broadcast the symphony among the ruins. A concert-play based on the novel by Sarah Quigley.

Tickets £10, £8

The Pretend Men

We are thrilled that the Pretend men have recovered from the car accident that caused the postponement of this great show in February.
The Pretend Men’s critically acclaimed, multi award-winning comedy blockbuster Police Cops is an action-packed hour of adrenaline-fuelled physical comedy, cinematic style and uncompromising facial hair.

Tickets £10, £8

Theatre Ad Infinitum

One actor. One hour. One man’s epic quest to reunite with his family and seek his bloody revenge. Odyssey follows the Greek warrior Odysseus in his relentless attempt to get home so he can see his wife and son again before he dies. Passionate, highly physical and poignant storytelling brings this breathtaking adventure to life. A journey that will ignite the imagination and awaken the senses.

“The Best of the Fringe .”..... Observer
“Theatre Ad Infinitum have moved to the front of the pack.”.....The Guardian.
“This tour de force of physical theatre is unmissable... a stunning piece of physicalised storytelling.”.....The Stage

Tickets £10

The return of the fabulous Medical Maelstrom with their hilarious evening of musical comedy. A unique act that will leave you with a smile on your face and aching with laughter.

In aid of the Cornwall Samaritans

Tickets £17.50 to include substantial nibbles

Theatre Ad Infinitum

After their fantastic shows Translunar Paradise and Ballad of the Burning Star, we are delighted to welcome back Theatre Ad Infinitum with Bucket List, winner of Edinburgh Spirit of the Fringe Award 2016. When her mother is murdered for protesting corporate and governmental corruption, Milagros finds herself with only a bloodstained list of those responsible. Determined to make them pay, she embarks on a passionate quest for justice, no matter the cost.

A story about love, loss and revenge, told with physical storytelling, live instrumental music and song.

Tickets £12

In association with Carn to Cove

Nominated for a Total Theatre Award, Infinity Pool is the latest play from the local writer of And Then Come The Nightjars,  Bea Roberts

STOP PRESS: This show is in the Top 5 "Editors Theatre Picks" in the Saturday Guardian of 25th February

Emails unopened, cup-a-soup undrunk, a secret in the stock room; Emma Barnicott’s life is leaking as she pines for a world beyond her trading estate office.When she meets a man online who wants to talk to her about more than boilers and two port valves Emma must decide if the chance of a joyous love is worth trading for an imperfect life - or will there always be dead woodlice in the infinity pool? An outstanding performance by Bea Roberts, author of And Then come the Nightjars.

“Utterly unique and exceptional in every way, it’s a heart-breaking story of a stunted life, told with theatrical verve and palpable compassion”
★★★★★ The Stage

“Rare and extraordinary: exceptional storytelling that is full of theatrical spirit.”
★★★★★ The List

“Completely different and deliciously quirky… this original show proved painfully funny and oddly moving.”
★★★★ The Guardian

“Roberts is an intensely funny writer…a writer to watch”
★★★★ The Telegraph

“What at first seems to be a rather small, modest play turns out to be not only a tender, finely observed portrait of male friendship, but also a stirring requiem for the vanishing dignity of rural England.”
★★★★ The Evening Standard

Tickets £10, £8

We've just heard that 'THE PRETEND MEN' have been involved in a serious traffic accident in London.   Several of the company have sustained injuries and as a result they have had to CANCEL Saturday's performance of Police Cops at The Tolmen Centre.

Obviously Cafe Tolmen will also not be operating as there is no show.

If you have purchased tickets Online, you will receive a full refund from the Booking Agency

We will try to contact all the others who have reserved tickets by phone (unfortunately there are many of them) to let them know.

The Company are enormously sorry about this, they were looking forward to bringing the show to Cornwall, and we are planning to re-schedule the show for a date to be fixed in the summer.

We extend our sympathies to all The Pretend Men, wish them speedy recovery.

We are tremendously sorry for the inconvenience caused, but the circumstances are completely beyond our control.

'Owdyado Theatre

Following rehearsals at the Tolmen Centre we present a Preview showing of this exciting new production to launch the nationwide tour.

With sharp wit, quick pace and a heavy dose of noir style, the story is told of private eye Charlie Daniels, hired by seductive Elise Hillerman to find her missing husband. Meanwhile writers Charlotte and Daniel struggle to write a script for their new show. A mindbending journey through the world of dreams, imagination and ‘real life’.

Tickets £8

Sally has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Her husband, Raymond, is dying. But Raymond is thinking ahead. Already an obsessive archivist, he is also a leading Robotics specialist.Their long marriage has had its ups and downs, but now he can make a better version of himself, to look after Sally after he’s gone. Will she accept it?

Another chance to see Jon Welch’s marvellous play Spillikin, newly recast, as it previews before a major tour.

Tickets £8

pipelinetheatre.com

Theatre 503 and Bristol Old Vic

“You hardly ever see ʻem, only hear them.They fly silent. Itʼs bad luck is Nightjars...”

South Devon, 2001. Local dairy vet Jeff and curmudgeonly farmer Michael are old friends, united by their love of the Devonshire countryside and Jeff’s prize collection of cows. But when the Foot and Mouth pandemic strikes the countryside their friendship – and the resilience of the whole community - is tested to its limits. Bea Roberts’ award-winning play is a touching story of male friendship and a requiem for rural England.

Tickets £10, £8

theatre503.com

Lost Dog

The story of the beginning of everything inspired by Milton’s Paradise Lost – told through words and music.

A show for anyone who has ever created anything (a child, a garden, a paper aeroplane) then had to watch that wonderful thing spiral out of control.

"an enchanting, very funny show, swooping from the epic to the vulnerable." The Independent

Tickets £10, £8

lostdogdance.co.uk

Luke Wright

We have a particularly strong offer of theatre in this autumn’s programme,  amongst our best ever.   The sequence starts with this astonishingly powerful solo poetical show by Luke Wright.

We booked it on a strong recommendation from two of our most loyal theatre customers who saw it performed at the (sold out) Soho Theatre in London and were blown away by it.   Then we heard an epic extract (‘To London then…’) which was broadcast on Radio 4 in the spring and this confirmed that this show was something special.

In our view it’s worth the ticket price just to hear that single blistering poetical commentary on banking and capitalism in London. But the whole show has received plaudits wherever it has been seen - we are hearing of a whole audience at Port Eliot rising to acclaim Luke’s performance there in July - and many more besides, from audience members and critics alike.

This show promises to maintain the Tolmen tradition of top class, cutting edge theatre and we totally recommend it (though with its fierce message and uncompromising delivery it’s by no means a show for children).

Anyone who has an interest in theatre, poetry, writing, storytelling – or who remembers their adolescence – should grab  the chance to see this show.

Tickets £10, £8

lukewright.co.uk

We can think of no better way of illustrating why this  show is not to be missed  than by simply reproducing a long list of plaudits and critical responses, which show the powerful effect this poetical tour-de-force has produced.  These are copied below, and worth a read.

WINNER Fringe First Award for new writing
WINNER The Stage Award for acting excellence
WINNER Best Spoken Word Show Saboteur Awards 2016
WINNER Best Show Laugharne Weekend 2016
WINNER Dark Chat Awards for Best Entertainment 2015
NOMINATED Off West End TBC Award
Sold Out run at The Soho Theatre, Spring 2016

“Pulsating piece of poetic storytelling” ★★★★ Lyn Gardner, Guardian

“Blistering … a story of our times … a strikingly assured performance of a compelling piece of writing.” ★★★★ Scotsman

“This is such a rich piece of writing… resonant and timely.” ★★★★★ Exeunt

Reviews from London run/ tour Spring 2016:

‘Luke Wright’s What I Learned from Johnny Bevan is terrific’ Lyn Gardner, Guardian

‘Luke Wright gave a capacity audience at Norwich Arts Centre a show of unmatched passion, power and poignancy in the outstanding performance of the 2016 N&N Festival. ‘What I Learned From Johnny Bevan’ is fast paced, articulate, heartwarming and perfect in execution.’ Norwich Spy

‘He used poetry that spat, and a face that seemed to age with the despair of the characters in his story.’★★★★★ Brighton Argus

‘Wright has a proper power over the English language, a storyteller worth listening to, and I look forward to hearing more’ Tim Auld (for Daily Telegraph)

‘an impassioned, spellbinding performance infused with humour, humanity and wit’ ★★★★ The Reviews Hub

‘a brilliant show, with a charming performance from Wright’ A Younger Theatre

‘Really does convey the power of performance poetry, and focused political satire‘ Write Out Loud

‘Wright performs with relentless vigour, his poetry pops and fizzes. a singularly powerful piece’ ★★★★ Everything Theatre

‘An astonishing, thought-provoking and original tour-de-force’ ★★★★★ London Theatre

‘poet Luke Wright is a singular tour de force: (his) language is precise and evocative and What I Learned From Johnny Bevan is politically charged and practically flawless’ The Play’s The Thing

‘A rollercoaster ride of political poetry & sensational storytelling. Is he the new Berkoff?’ Terri Paddock (founder, What’s On Stage)

‘dramatic, humorous, and political’ This Week In London

‘something rather special, Luke Wright’s performance (10/10) was stunning’ ★★★★★Virtual Festivals (from Kendal gig)

Reviews from Edinburgh Fringe 2015:

“Pulsating, neatly handled piece of poetic storytelling … the breakneck storytelling is clear and gives Wright’s seething, dynamic poetry the room it needs to motor.” ★★★★ Lyn Gardner, GUARDIAN

“a strikingly assured performance of a compelling piece of writing.” ★★★★ SCOTSMAN

“This is such a rich piece of writing. There’s so much in it. It’s resonant and timely and it tells a story compellingly. And the story tells is kind of flooring, raw … It says so much about idealism and youth and maturity and compromise – and love – and the places life can take you, the incremental sneaky way that years have, of passing.” ★★★★★ EXEUNT

Performed in verse that bounds and soars effortlessly … Taking in issues of class, privilege and the death of Labour, What I Learned from Johnny Bevan is a compelling and relatable exploration of growing up and facing hard truths.” ★★★★★ THE SKINNY

“Luke is like a male Kate Tempest, but perhaps more sharply incisive and piercing. The venue is far too small. Get this guy a gig at Usher Hall!” ★★★★★ SCOTSGAY

“A densely-packed and deftly-woven banner for young Britain’s political reawakening, What I Learned from Johnny Bevan is what I come to the Fringe for: writing that not only captures you in the theatre but also stays with you for days afterwards.” ★★★★★ BROADWAY BABY

“Wright’s full-throated reverie is spellbinding” ★★★★ DAILY RECORD

“Anyone familiar with Wright’s work will recognise his deft hand in showing the complexities of male relationships …  a political and personal coming-of-age narrative that, while rarely breaking out of a set rhythm and rhyme scheme, still manages to evoke the chaotic passion of awakening.” ★★★★ TIMEOUT Critic’s Choice

“An impassioned, elegant performance, full of humour, sadness and political fury.” ★★★★ LIST

“I see a show like this that makes me think theatre can’t get any better, so why should I bother going to see anything else? … This is a simple story that is powerfully written and mesmerisingly performed – I cannot recommend it highly enough.” ★★★★★ EDINBURGH 49

“Powerful, poetic coming-of-age story that focuses on the relationship between politics and class. Wright’s stirring eloquence and resonant delivery heighten the drama and clarify the emotional impact.” ★★★★ THE STAGE

“What I Learned From Johnny Bevan is a fantastic debut from a rare poetic talent. At times it feels like a Ken Loach film put to verse. It is a strong and personal story told by an original and absorbing performer.” ★★★★ TV BOMB

“This is a completely engaging performance which is delivered with an energy both raw and crisp. Wright really commands the space … The tension and experience created by this one man is admirable.” ★★★★★ TODOLIST

“Sometimes funny and sometimes heartbreaking, What I Learned From Johnny Bevan is beautifully plotted and completely engaging, reminding us that politics affects everything.” ★★★★ A YOUNGER THEATRE

“Sure to spark at least one mid-life crisis.” ★★★★ THREEWEEKS

“An oratory masterpiece & a time-capsule” ★★★★ THE MUMBLE

“A story of shattered friendship, class ceilings, and the hollow reality of the New Labour dream.

At university the whip-smart, mercurial Johnny Bevan saves Nick, smashing his comfortable, middle class bubble and firing him up about politics, music and literature. Twenty years later, as their youthful dreams disintegrate with the social justice they hoped for, can Nick save Johnny from himself?

Written & performed by Luke Wright
Directed by Joe Murphy
Produced by Paul Jellis
Music by Ian Catskilkin
Illustrations by Sam Ratcliffe
Lighting by Tom Clutterbuck
Co-commissioned by Norwich Arts Centre and Writers’ Centre Norwich.

Pentabus Theatre

Elsie has lived in the same village all her life.This funny and moving new play shows key moments in Elsie’s life and the life of the village. A sensitive, charming and honest portrayal about changing village life and the right to grow old in your own home.

Tickets £10, £8

In association with Carn to Cove

pentabus.co.uk/

Pipeline Theatre Company Previews

An RAF drone pilot visits his rural childhood home for his sister’s wedding. Holed up in an old tree-house and beset by visions of the carnage that he has caused, he becomes aware of something impossible – his body discarding its human form...

‘Swivelhead’ viscerally explores the ethical and personal consequences of a new age of warfare.

Tickets £8, £7 (age 16+)

pipelinetheatre.com

“Sometimes I imagine myself to be my statue down Camborne, gazing out over those roundabouts.... watching the cars, lorries and motorbikes bombing along.

The ingenuity in all that machinery going on... .. the pistons, the pumps, the fumes, the exhausts, the fuel.... it’s all so easy now.”

Kernow King tells the story of one of Cornwall’s greatest sons Richard Trevithick.

Tickets £10, £8, Children £6

kernowking.co.uk

Book your tickets

Greyscale Theatre Company

An investigation into what happens when we discover that our parents are awed human beings, and that at some point they are suddenly going to disappear from our lives. This was one of the most intriguing and fascinating plays we saw at Edinburgh this year, beautifully performed.

“It’s a very pure form of theatre- intimate, pared down and emotionally true.” The Stage

Tickets £10, £9

greyscale.org.uk

A new amateur production written by local poet Kerry Vincent and performed by an enthusiastic all-village group of players. Described as 'a sort of nativity play for adults'.

Tickets £5 available from Kerry on 01326 340297, village shops, or from the Tolmen Centre Box Office.

All proceeds will be donated to the Village Defibrillator Fund.

Is anybody there?

Zonk FM is a poignant new comedy featuring well-known Miracle performers Sally Crooks, Keri Jessiman, Steve Jacobs and making his Miracle debut, Jake Tindle

This roller coaster of a show explores other people’s reality with fast paced physical humour, tenderness and disco lights!

Recommend for 12 years +

£12 - £10 (over 65 & under 26) & £8 (under 16)

miracletheatre.co.uk

ABOUT THE WRITER, ANGUS BROWN: Angus has performed in several Miracle productions including the title roles Hamlet & Quasimodo and most recently Vladimir in Waiting for Godot.

ZONK FM is his first play.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR, TOM ADAMS: Tom first worked with Miracle in 2002 as a dresser on Twelfth Night. He then went on to perform in five productions including The Case of The Frightened Lady and he was the musical director and composer for both Frankenstein! and The Magnificent Three.

ZONK FM is his directing debut.

“The man in the white suit” and “accidental MP”, Martin Bell, will be giving a fascinating insight into his career as a distinguished war reporter for the BBC, covering hotspots around the world including Vietnam, Lebanon, Northern Ireland and more recently the Balkans. He resigned from the BBC to stand as an independent MP from 1997 to 2001.

6.30 for 7.30
Buffet Supper now Sold Out

Tickets for the talk are still available for £12 from the Tolmen Centre Box Office

Proceeds in aid of SSAFA - The Armed Forces’ Charity.

Martin Bell on Wikipedia

‘When I was five years old, my Dad was told our surname might be stopping him from getting a job. So we changed it. It worked.’ This intimate new show draws on experiences of mixed heritage and racism. Amid the cacophony of statistics and soundbites that surround the immigration debate, Labels offers an honest, human story about multicultural Britain.

“Powerful, important and funny”
Emma Thompson

“Terrific and really thoughtful”
Lyn Gardner

Worklight Theatre’s award winning show Labels draws on writer and performer Joe Sellman-Leava’s experiences of mixed heritage to explore the broader issues of racism, immigration and displacement. During Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015, it won a Scotsman Fringe First Award for outstanding new writing and the Holden Street Theatre Award (enabling a transfer to Adelaide in 2016). It was also shortlisted for the Amnesty International’s Freedom of Expression Award.

Labels was inspired by a racism and equality workshop, led by Oscar-winning writer, actor and activist Emma Thompson, at Exeter University, 2009. The rise of far right parties both in Britain and across Europe compelled Joe to re-develop Labels for Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015. It premiered in the wake of an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Europe, and fierce debates around migration and refugees.  Emma Thompson, who has spoken out against the UK’s response to the current crisis, commented on a new draft of the script earlier this year: "What a terrific piece. I love it. Simple, powerful, important and funny."

Joe uses his family’s stories about migration and mixed heritage to open a wider discussion about the way we talk about, think about and treat our fellow human beings. The play’s examination of Europe’s ongoing refugee crisis has sadly become more resonant in recent months. Worklight hope that by touring the show in Australia and the UK over the coming months, more people will be engaged in conversation about how the words we use affect the decisions we make about one another.

Cast and Creators:
Writer and performer: Joe Sellman-Leava
Director and dramaturg: Katharina Reinthaller
Producers: Michael Woodman and Joe Sellman-Leava
Costume & stage design: Charlotte Anderson
Lighting and sound design: Phil Hewitt
Photography: Benjamin Borley and Anna Bruce

worklighttheatre.co.uk

Tickets £10/£8

Tolmen Theatre Company

Jon Welch's new play for our own Tolmen Theatre Company.The arrival of a foreign family and a contentious by-election throws a small community into confusion. 'Leave your political sensibilities at the door but bring your laughing trousers.'

A second major earthquake has struck Nepal. Our teams on the ground are establishing the impact on already damaged buildings. It's a terrifying time for the hundreds of thousands of children and families who lost everything in the 25 April quake. Many are injured, homeless and struggling to find basics like clean water: they desperately need your support. -savethechildren.org.uk

Pentabus Theatre

This remarkable feelgood play written by Duncan Macmillan, presented 'in the round' by the brilliant comedic actor Jonny Donahoe,  swept everything aside at Edinburgh 2014 and has followed that with runs in London,  just recently sixteen (yes sixteen!)   weeks   Off Broadway in New York, and last month  success at the Brighton Festival.  It has been tremendously well received by audiences and critics alike.

We booked it at once having seen it last summer, and we are delighted to have the only performance in  Cornwall on this UK nationwide  tour.

It's a play that cannot fail to move you to tears but  then have you burst out laughing.   As Lyn Gardner described it "one of the funniest plays you'll ever see about depression .. and possibly one of the funniest plays you'll ever see full stop."   It redefines the word life-affirming.

On the surface, it’s the  simple telling of a story of how a young boy deals with his mother’s depression, trying to help by writing a list of all the ‘brilliant things’ he can think of to cheer her up.  But the story develops – involving and absorbing the audience – into the boy’s life story:  by the time he has grown into manhood, he discovers that the continuously evolving list has become his own personal blueprint for a healthy life.

Donahoe is a warm and personable performer — so warm and personable, he doesn’t even seem to be performing as much as taking the audience into his confidence.

Not only is his emotionally damaged character willing to share his precepts for a happy life with his audience,  the audience become collaborators  in his story.

This is a play you should not miss, literally 'one of a kind'

Tickets £10, £8, Children £5

Rhum and Clay Theatre Company

>On board a decadent cruise liner in 1939, the world’s greatest chess champion is challenged to a match by a mysterious newcomer called... B. As B begins to play, it becomes clear that the game is not the only thing he’s at risk of losing. Because B is not just one person, but four. And they each have their own version of the story they want to tell.

Based on a story by stefan Zweig, with a live jazz percussive score and their signature blend of ramshackle and cinematic performance, Rhum and Clay Theatre Company tell
a story of madness, identity and finding a home in 64 black and white squares.

Tickets £10, £8 Children £5

Little Soldier Theatre Company

Inspired by Don Quixote’s wanderings, two feisty señoritas and a downtrodden Englishman embark on a journey through Spain. Accompanied only by an otherworldly virtuoso guitarist whose presence there makes no sense whatsoever, they will lead you to joy, pain and ultimate wisdom.

Little Soldier presents a hilariously inventive adventure of immense proportions, to be taken with a pinch of salt and a handlebar moustache.

Tickets £10, £8, Children £5

Both a hurrah to courage and endurance and a swipe at the great 19th century ideals, Miracle serves up this curious slice of history in its own inimitable style – and with a huge nod to Victorian Music Hall.

Mixing caustic comedy, seedy songs and second-rate dubious magic, dodgy ventriloquism and spectacle and breath-taking burlesque, the show will genuinely appeal to adults and children 7+.

Tickets £12, £10, Children under 16: £8, Family Group: £35

Suitable for singers of all ages and abilities, and will offer the chance to sing in harmony and to learn about the mysterious art of ‘diddling’.

Tickets £10 (£5 for children): Advanced booking is advised.

Maison Foo 
Inspired by ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’ a desperate tale of slavery and greed told with humour, intimacy and charm using Maison Foo’s inventive visual blend of storytelling, live music, clowning and puppetry.

“Touching and beautifully crafted...deceptively sophisticated and layered work – a little show with a big heart.‘
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

Tickets £12, £10, £6 Children under 16

Tom Jackson Greaves with Polly Motley

Adam and Eve are in a relationship pickle! As they dance through the sins of their past they reach an ultimate choice. But are they brave enough to make it? Seven Deadly Sins is a vibrant dance comedy full of laughs, apples and exhilarating movement. Choreographed by young Cornish artistTom Jackson Greaves, a winner of the New Adventures Choreographer Award.

‘Sexy slick and beautifully expressive’ The Stage

Tickets £8, £7, Children £6 

Juncture Theatre

An original comedy that explores the clown inside the man and the mirth hidden in the melancholy.

Through mime, slapstick, poetry and farce, A Little Nonsense is a bare-knuckle look at the sharp edge of funny.

The play mixes laugh-out-loud hilarity with a subtle exploration of the edgy relationship between the clown and his straightman.

Tickets £10, £9 Children £5

Written & directed by Bill Scott with music by Jim Carey

Why is the lady so frightened? Who dropped the red scarf?

As part of its special 35^th anniversary program Miracle revisits one of its most popular productions to date, complete with original cast.

It’s 1932 and Edgar Wallace, the Fleet Street editor widely known for his hugely popular and successful whodunits, gets a desperate call from his publisher. With only a weekend to produce a new novel, the indefatigable Wallace leaps into action.

The Case of the Frightened Lady is a hilarious account of the antics of the Wallace household as they flit dizzyingly between reality and fiction, inventing storylines, devising dialogue and arguing over the final denouement.

The result is pure Miracle, a hugely enjoyable mix of plot, character, farce and irony plus some unforgettable songs.

A highly inventive piece of theatre suitable for a family audience of all ages!

‘Bill Scott's melodramatic, helter-skelter, DIY whodunit is a dizzying tangle of red herrings and black humour.’   - Irish Times

‘There is a great sense of fun, pace and a wonderful connection with the audience.’ –  The Stage

‘Lampooning everything from the cod-thriller to amateur dramatics, The Case of the Frightened Lady is not only hilarious, but is a gripping piece of drama which deserves to be the hit of this summer.’ - Western Morning News

‘Comic theatre of the highest order…littered with razorwire one-liners that literally will have you rolling in the aisles and wiping the tears away.’ -  Brazen City 

Audience feedback

‘I thought that your production might be good or interesting, and I wanted to support local theatre. Instead, what I saw would have graced the stage of any West End theatre.... utterly superb!’

‘We haven't enjoyed ourselves so much at the theatre in a long while. The dialogue was sharp to the point of being dangerous.’

‘A BRILLIANT production! Very clever staging and production and exceptionally funny   performances by all the cast.’

‘Our faces were 'aching' from laughing and smiling so much.  I haven't enjoyed a performance like yours for many, many years’.

More About the show

It’s 1932 and Edgar Wallace, the Fleet Street editor widely known for his hugely popular thrillers, gets a desperate call from his publisher. With only a weekend to produce a new novel, the indefatigable Wallace leaps into action, enlisting the help of his over-looked wife, pretentious butler, eager gardener and admiring new secretary.

At first this collaboration shows little promise and the story keeps veering off in unlikely directions but, with Wallace at the helm, they get into their stride, flitting dizzyingly between reality and fiction, inventing storylines, devising dialogue and arguing over the final denouement. The result is a typical pot-boiling, page-turning who-dunnit (in this case peppered with Cole Porteresque songs, improvised by the staff on the author’s drawing-room piano).

Faithful to the genre, the Wallace household construct a plot littered with dodgy criminals, false clues and strangers with mysterious pasts. Detective Inspector Tanner’s legendary powers of observation never failed him and, as the corpses pile up, he stays one step ahead of the bungling rural police and prevents the course of justice being perverted by a household of secretive toffs.

Just how far beneath the surface lies the grisly truth? Why is the Lady so frightened? As the curtain falls not only has the culprit been revealed but so has the true state of Edgar’s marriage. 

‘Bill Scott's melodramatic, helter-skelter, DIY whodunit…is a heaven-sent vehicle for this distinctive brand of precise, choreographed physical theatre. Outrageous flights of theatrical and narrative fancy… a dizzying tangle of red herrings and black humour.’   - The Irish Times

‘Comic theatre of the highest order…littered with razorwire one-liners that literally will have you rolling in the aisles and wiping the tears away.’ -  Brazen City

‘Lampooning everything from the cod-thriller to amateur dramatics, The Case of the Frightened Lady is not only hilarious, but is a gripping piece of drama which deserves to be the hit of this summer.’ - Western Morning News

This five-hander, written by Bill Scott with music by Jim Carey, originally toured small scale venues (indoors and outdoors) across the South West in 05/06. The show has huge potential to delight audiences of all ages, in any scale of venue. It won the Minack Trophy in 2006 and was subsequently produced for a tour of Ireland (North and South) by Bruiser Theatre.

Ticket prices: £12 full £10 concession and £8 under 16’s

Victoria Melody and Farnham Maltings present: Major Tom

The true story of how Victoria became a beauty queen and her Bassett Hound (Major Tom) became a champion show dog, reflecting the British fascination with celebrity, beauty and winning
Created by Victoria Melody

Performed by Victoria Melody and Major Tom National Tour 10th March to 20th June 2014
PRESS PERFORMANCES: Monday 10th & Tuesday 11th March at BAC
“A truly winning comedy, I laughed till I cried.” ★★★★★ Donald Hutera, The Times

5 ★★★★★ The Times
5 ★★★★★ Edinburgh Evening News
4 ★★★★ The List
4 ★★★★ Fest Mag
4 ★★★★ British Theatre Guide
4 ★★★★ A Younger Theatre
4 ★★★★ The Public Reviews
4 ★★★★ Exeunt Magazine

The Stage MUST SEE SHOW

Fringe Review – MUST SEE SHOW

Shortlisted for The Arches Brick and Total Theatre Awards

Major Tom is the story of how an average 34-year-old became a beauty queen and how her unruly pet basset hound, Major Tom, became a championship show dog.

Major Tom and Victoria increasingly immerse themselves in the obsessive and confusing realm of personal scrutiny as they participate as genuine contestants, determined to win.

Victoria, accompanied on stage by documentary film footage and her dog, tells this true story. It explores the British fascination with celebrity, beauty and winning.

"Startingly bonkers and utterly ordinary at the same time…deceptively thoughtful fun" The Guardian ★★★★★ The Times

Commissioned and produced by Farnham Maltings. Developed at BAC. Supported by Harlow Playhouse, Escalator East to Edinburgh and Arts Council England.

Joyful Company of Singers

“…undoubtedly one of the great choirs of the world” Jonathan Harvey 

British and German choral  masterpieces to mark the era that ended in 1914.  Works by Mendelssohn, Brahms, Elgar, Bingham, Parry, and Schoenberg, sung by the Joyful Company of Singers, one of Europe's leading chamber choirs under the direction of Peter Broadbent.

Now in its 25th anniversary season, the JCS is renowned for its virtuosity and intensity of spirit, as well as for an astoundingly wide repertoire, ranging from the 16th Century to the present day. Formed in 1988, the choir first came to prominence when it won the Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year competition in 1990. Since then it has maintained its profile in the music world, winning an impressive list of national and international competitions leading to many invitations. JCS regularly appears at all the UK’s major music festivals, including Bath, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, City of London, Chelsea, Presteigne, Spitalfields, Three Choirs, Huddersfield Contemporary Music and the BBC Proms.

Peter Broadbent is the founder conductor of Joyful Company of Singers and one of Britain’s leading choral conductors. He has conducted the London Mozart Players, Divertimenti Chamber Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Southern Sinfonia, the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra, Apollo Voices and the BBC Singers, broadcasting frequently on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM.

This is a wonderful opportunity to hear this first class choir singing  in Cornwall

Tickets £10 free for accompanied children under 16

For more information about JCS see www.jcos.co.uk

China Plate and Caroline Horton present ‘You’re not like other girls, Chrissy’

Caroline Horton’s perfectly formed one-woman-show has won her universal critical acclaim,  an award from The Stage and an Olivier nomination – and it’s easy to see why.  Inspired by her grandmother’s love letters, ‘You’re not like other girls Chrissy’ is a tender drama of love and loss, a nostalgic glimpse into life in occupied France and a moving tribute to a marvellous character.  

Horton’s play is immaculately judged  and utterly irresistible.

Tickets £10 (concessions £8)

Theatre Adinfinitum

Probably  our most ambitious offering ever – “a theatrical hand grenade” said Lyn Gardner, multi award winning and garlanded with glittering reviews.     Absolutely unmissable, mindblowing  cabaret/theatre from the company who brought us the unforgettable Translunar Paradise.   With a cast of seven including a chorus of international dancers and live on stage music, this took last summer’s Edinburgh fringe by storm – voted by many as the top show there.  For two nights only in Cornwall before  touring nationally to Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool and London.

Quotes, notes, and awards:

“Multi-award winning Theatre Ad Infinitum (Translunar Paradise, Odyssey) presents an explosive tale. Armed with music, killer heels and a lethal troop of divas an enraged Israeli executes a story of victimhood, persecution, aggression and love. With shrapnel sharp voices and moves as smooth as an oiled tank chain, this cabaret troop invites you on a journey into the core of the conflicted Jewish State.”

“With shades of a far more visceral Cabaret, The Ballad of the Burning Star is a welcome and audacious reminder of how ground-breaking the theatre can really be. This is a play that doesn’t shy away from the controversy and complexities of an issue that many are still afraid to even approach. Truly haunting and admirable in its boldness”

Winner of The Stage Award ‘Best Ensemble’ 2013

“A theatrical hand grenade” – Lyn Gardner, The Guardian ****

“Breathlessly  inventive”  Tom Lamont  Observer *****

“A thrillingly edgy piece of entertainment” – The Scotsman *****

“Bold and Inventive” – The Stage, a MUST SEE! Show

More on www.theatreadinfinitum.co.uk

TICKETS CAN BE RESERVED ON 01326 341353

£12 (£10 concessions)

Following last year’s remarkable show The Odyssey, Paper Cinema return for a short residency working on their new show. Tonight they offer a scratch performance of this new work, plus a rare showing of their first work Night Flyer, now a minor classic.

In association with Feast and Cornwall Film Festival

Tickets £9, £8

The unflinching reality of modern schools collides with the escapist 1920s glamour of Astaire and Rogers, with potentially horrifying consequences. Blending film and theatre, knife-sharp dialogue and dance, cube theatre presents AUBADE.

*Recommended 15 years+

Dreadnought South West Association presents a new play by Natalie McGrath

100 years ago imagine that fifteen women gather // They have a conversation that maps eight geographic arteries across England and Wales, like points on a compass //  These arteries reach out towards a singular destination like roots forming a tree // The destination is Hyde Park //  It’s June, 1913 and the Great Suffrage Pilgrimage begins.

A tour of a new play from Lands End to London // Remembering when 15 women became 1000s…

Tickets: £10/£8

A seductive stranger opens a fantastical world to a tormented woman.

But everything comes at a price...

In the mind of the fantasist, the real and the fanciful become dangerously blurred. As Louise gazes into the night her fancy takes form. Objects move, time changes … and a seductive stranger opens up a world of exhilaration and magic.

Following an acclaimed international tour and 5 star sell-out success at Edinburgh Fringe 2012, The Fantasist comes to The Tolmen Centre for one night only, melding original music, life-sized puppetry, and physical theatre. War Horse's Robin Guiver teams up with Lecoq and LISPA trained Theatre Temoin in an emotionally powerful exploration of bipolar disorder.

“What the show does so well via the puppetry is to get you right inside Louise’s mind and make you understand both the confusion and yet also the the terrible glimmering lure of a world of bright lights and butterflies.” ...Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
★★★★★ ‘Mesmerising’ - The Skinny
★★★★★ ‘Exquisite Theatre’ - Fringe Review
★★★★★ ‘Hilarious, beautiful and utterly astonishing’ - Edinburgh Guide
★★★★★ ‘A must see’ - Scotsgay
★★★★★ ‘Raw genius’ - The Public Reviews
★★★★ 'Haunting and enchanting’ - WhatsOnStage
★★★★ ‘Ingenious stagecraft’ - Metro

Tickets £10, £8

Sponsored by Wine in Cornwall, Constantine Parish Council, Cornwall Council and David Buchanan Sailmaker.

Supported by the Tolmen Centre Constantine.

Crackling with energy and dripping with humour, this is a hilarious and heart breaking two-hander.

Bitch Boxer | Snuffbox

Chloe Jackson has just one more fight to win before she gets the chance to live her dream - to box for Team GB at the Olympics.

Tickets £10, £8, £6 Children 14+

Pants on Fire

The Tolmen Centre and Pants on Fire Theatre Company invite you to attend an evening of Performance Puppetry and Music based on the company’s new show Pinnochio, followed with a discussion forum, on Saturday 23^rd March at The Tolmen Centre starting at 7.30.

Pants on Fire is a multi award winning International theatre company based in London. They  create new, original, exciting, dramatically dynamic and visually brilliant high quality theatre.  Many will remember their show Ovid’s Metamorphoses which played at The Tolmen Centre in May 2011 - one of our best ever performances - which went on to runs in London and New York and won many awards.

The Company  are to undertake a short residency at The Tolmen Centre from 14^th-23^rd March – with the primary intention of developing the new show.      Originally this residency was planned to put the finishing touches Pinnochio, leading to a preview  of the end product.   However, events have conspired such that the show will be in its early or mid stages of development.

The performance will therefore be a   full-length  'work in progress'  showing which  will   involve some 'script in hand' performing,  some imaginative props and scenery,   as well as the detailed work  being created  during the week.   Because of this, and the way in which Pants on Fire  like to present their  work, they would   like to  make the showing more of an ‘event’,  encouraging the audience to feel part of the development  process.    They will  perform the songs from the show, the audience can meet the puppets and  generally explore the world of the play together. They  would then love to talk with the audience informally after the showing as any feedback at this stage would be really useful in taking the development forward.

Tickets for this show are FREE - but please reserve in the usual way by phone or email.  We will be asking for  contributions based on what you think its worth to cover the Tolmen Centre’s costs.

Café Tolmen will be open pre-show - please reserve for this as well so we have numbers.

We are very grateful to The Works and Venue Cornwall for financial help to allow this exciting residency to take place.

Rhum and Clay 

On Friday 8^th March  Rhum and Clay Theatre bring us “A Strange Wild Song”.   Another  Edinburgh 2012 hit, this is by a young, Lecoq trained company rapidly making their way in modern theatre.    Watch out when you see the name Lecoq,  as graduates of the famous  French mime school have  been responsible for a number of our best ever shows – Hysteria, Translunar Paradise,  Pants on Fire, Dancing Brick  and 1927 all had connections there.

A Strange Wild Song is an elegiac piece based on a true story  – about a group of children in wartime France who befriend a wounded soldier.    It’s told via a present day find  of a cache of photographs in an attic, and the journey of discovery into his family history made by the finder.   It completely captivated us, with beautiful acting performances by the three prncipals (in many roles), absurdist humour,  stunning imagery,  and wonderful music played live just off stage.   Highly recommended for everyone.       Their website is rhumandclay.com where you can see details of their nationwide tour with this show.

Tickets £10, £8, £4

Ken Lukowiak 

In the wake of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War, it’s worth remembering
the human cost of that conflict. Few one-man shows could give you a more gut-wrenching insight than this one.  Ken Lukowiak faces his contrary wartime emotions with courage and honesty.

Redruth man Lukowiak served in the Paras in heat of the  Falklands war.   Subsequently his life was in turmoil as he tried to deal with  the emotional after-effects of combat.    Some years later he wrote a best selling book based on his experiences, and this was later made into the stage play A Soldiers Song by Guy Masterson (a regular visitor to the Tolmen Centre)  – who initially took Ken’s role in what was  a powerful and successful one man show.

Last year, Ken Lukowiak bravely agreed to take over the play himself  for a run at the Edinburgh Fringe where it attracted widespread acclaim and full houses.    Many serviceman and veterans were among the audiences, and all were deeply affected by Ken’s performance.   It now comes to The Tolmen Centre as part of a very short tour across the country.  Click here for lots more detail.

This show will be on Friday 1^st March.    The second show on Saturday 2^nd will not now take place

“ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL WAR PLAYS EVER MADE!”

Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War and one of the hits of the 2012 Edinbrugh Festival, A Soldier's Song is the real deal. A true story of conflict told by a guy who was there, bringing the battlefield to the stage in an extraordinary work of theatre.

This is the theatre of War in its facets, invoking the horror, terror, shame, black humour, futility and tedium of a soldier's life on the front line and the lingering effects of Post Traumatic Stress. Deeply disturbing and frightening at times, it utilises a pounding, totally authentic multi-directional soundscape. It is also extremely funny, the dark "squaddie" humour offsetting the darkness. The brutal demotic language and reality of the battlefield is brought to vividly to life.

***** "This is the Saving Private Ryan of theatre!" (The Times)

****  "A GUT WRENCHING INSIGHT"- Daily Telegraph
In the wake of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War and with Argentina ratcheting up the pressure over the islands once again, it's worth remembering the human cost of that conflict. Few one-man shows could give you a more gut-wrenching insight than this one.  Ken Lukowiak, who served in the Paras, has stepped into the theatrical front line, delivering this potted version of his 1993 memoir of the gruelling campaign. Required to duck down, crouch and adopt defensive positions under loud simulated shellfire at times, he cuts an awkward if affable figure on stage, but that adds to the authenticity. As he relives grisly encounters with Argentinians dead and alive, recalls some sickening army gallows humour and recoils at the screaming nightmare of incidents like the bombing of Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram, you realise he is still battling his demons. Unsung heroism? This simple, humbling show embodies the phrase.
(Dominic Cavendish - Daily Telegraph - 19/08/12)

Bash Street Theatre

A retired magician and his wife are tempted to perform one last cabaret act. With live music, magical illusions and Bash Street’s stunning circus skills, a great show for all the family.

Tickets £9, £8 and £4 Child

Cube's sparkling new show for children (and grownups too) gets it's first outing at The Tolmen Centre. With plenty of song and dance, and written by our own Jon Welch, this promises to be a delight for all ages. We are making it free for accompanied children, and adult tickets are just £7.

"Fred’s lost his Dad. Now he might be losing his mum too. Looks like a job for Freddie Dare and the Ginger Robber. The toe tapping twosome take on a terrifying quest to stop their arch enemy before it’s too late."

Café Tolmen will be open for pre show suppers for this event - booking essential.

Adults £7,  £3 for children (1 accompanied child free)

Tickets£10, £8 Children £4

Café Tolmen will be open for pre show suppers for this event - booking essential.

In the late seventies a sociopathic sixteen year old finds herself shunted into her final foster home. Her widowed foster mother has a hint of a foreign accent and a box full of secrets. As youth plays cat and mouse with age, two parallel sets of revelations collide with devastating consequences. A riveting new play from Jon Welch.

Tickets £6, £5, Children £4

Café Tolmen will be open for pre show suppers for this event - booking essential.

“Some actors are more equal than others, but few are quite as equal as Guy Masterson!” (The Times)

Hilariously comic and powerfully poignant by turns, Masterson’s breathtaking storytelling creates the farmyard around you in 2 hours of utterly compelling theatre. As the most per- formed solo show in the world, this is a must see performance for all ages.

Tickets £10, £8, Children £4
Café Tolmen will be open for pre show suppers for this event - booking essential.

On the eve of Mayday 2004 Kneehigh's Tristan Sturrock broke his neck falling off a wall in Padstow as part of the celebrations. Paralysed in Treliske hospital and about to become a father for the first time, he was told he may never walk again.

After a sell out run at Bristol Old Vic he brings his poignant, & life-affirming true story back to his homeland Cornwall – appropriately close to Mayday 2012 - as part of a UK tour.

Since his recovery in Derriford's spinal unit where he was put back together again, he has performed all over the world, most recently on Broadway in Kneehigh's Brief Encounter. “

Audiences have called it " Horrifying and wonderful... beautiful and brilliant... transporting and funny... a true celebration of theatre, life and the NHS..

Tickets £9 (£7 concessions)

‘RELEASE’ explores the lives of three prisoners in their first few months after release, as they attempt to reconnect with the people and remnants of life they left behind.

“A sharp, impeccably performed and blazingly impassioned piece of theatre...simply terrific.”

The Times

Tickets £9, £8, Children £4

A special performance  of the ‘The Ghosts of May” by Pauline Shepherd and Pete Berryman.

In aid of the Heritage Centre 

Click here to find our more about 'The Ghosts of May' on Pete Berryman's website

Loot follows the fortunes of Hal and Dennis, who rob a bank next to the funeral parlour where Dennis works and return to Hal's home to hide the money. Hal's mother has just died and the money is hidden in her coffin. But where will they hide the body?

Fay, a sexy young nurse with seven deceased husbands to her name, is interested in marrying Hal’s father, McLeavy. However, Dennis has already had his way with Fay and wants to marry her. And he can offer her more financial "security".

Inspector Truscott arrives and the plot turns topsy turvy as Hal and Dennis try to keep him off their trail.

During Joe Orton’s short but prolific career, he shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his farcical black comedies.

Loot, first performed in 1965, was Orton's third major production, following Entertaining Mr Sloane and the television play The Good and Faithful Servant. Playing with the conventions of popular farce, Orton examines English attitudes and perceptions in the mid twentieth century.

The play won several awards in its London run and is now regarded as a comic masterpiece.

Loot will be at The Tolmen Centre in Constantine on Friday 2nd December at 7.30pm
And at the Poly in Falmouth on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th December at 7.30pm

Loot is presented by Cornwall’s newest theatre company, Fruit.
It is directed by Keri Jessiman, well known for her legendary comic performances in the early days of Miracle Theatre.

After a ground-breaking season, which saw the company premiere ‘Translunar Paradise’ to substantial critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe 2011, they have gone on to win a clutch of theatre awards for this production, including Liverpool Daily Post ‘Best Fringe Show of 2011’, The Fringe Review ‘Outstanding Theatre Award’ 2011, The Observer ‘Iron Man’ Award for Kim Heron and Brave New World Award & Audience Award at the Sarajevo MESS Theatre Festival, Bosnia & Herzegovina 2011.

Exquisitely created, Translunar Paradise is told entirely without words and in their place are movement, haunting music and masks. This is a powerful and emotional tale of a man who is confronted by the solitude of bereavement.

Director and performer George Mann says,“This is about the gap between young and old. Age, like a mask, can obscure the fact a person was once young. We’re working without words to convey this story through the body and music on a poetic level. The audience will be immersed in feeling, sensations and movements. We hope they go home feeling they’ve experienced something very special.”

• “an extraordinary performance”The Observer
• “Extraordinarily poignant…beautifully performed…. packs a real emotional punch. In the end, this is a show about loss that is as much about mourning your own lost self as about the grief at the death of a long-term partner.”The Guardian
• “an admirable, infinitely gentle and wordless story of loss and remembrance"The Times
• “I really cannot recommend this highly enough, it is not just one of the best shows I have seen at this year’s fringe, but any fringe."The Stage
• "a thing of perfection." British Theatre Guide

(Cafe suppers available before and after the show)

Tickets £10/£8/£4

1927 use the live performance and animation techniques that it employed to such brilliant effect in Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea to develop a more sustained narrative about life east of the city where the bankers make big bucks.

A jaw-droppingly clever and gloriously subversive parable...The Guardian
Anyone interested in the theatre should see this company now...Observer

Tickets £10, £8, £4

A co-promotion with Cornwall Film Festival

In this poignant,powerful yet very humorous account, Shylock is explained to us through his (only) friend Tubal via a series of clever impersonations from Portia to Adolf Hitler. Gareth Armstrong’s Shylock is one of the world’s most successful solo shows, and here, Guy Masterson demonstrates its brilliance. “Innovative, delightful, exceptional!” ... The Independent

Join us for an incomparable, incredible and inestimable evening. Step back to the early 1900s and be immersed in stupendous singing, minervian magic, and a meal of gastronomic delights.

Dress Victorian/Edwardian
Ticket including supper £15

In aid of the Heritage Centre

About a Bench is a charming performance about human communication and interaction. It is the tale of the bench; the silent protagonist that ties together seven stories stretched across decades.

The two actors brilliantly portray a staggering array of brightly coloured characters, with stories varying from black comedy to tragedy.

Tickets £8 £7 Children £4

Compelled by the threat of bankruptcy, fishing trawler the Violet and its mismatched crew are forced out into treacherous weather. The new bracingly physical show from Bear Trap Theatre Company. Six actors, five chairs, one table and an ocean. Bound.

“This is a small but beautifully thought-out piece of work, a sea-bleached story told with passion and performed with real dynamism.” Lyn Gardner.The Guardian

As it’s a Wednesday performance, Café Tolmen will be open from 5.30 for sensibly priced pre show meals.

Tickets £9, £8 Children £4
As a continuation of the now closed Arts Council Free Tickets Scheme we are able to offer reduced price children’s tickets for just £2 if booked in advance.

Angel Heart Theatre present 'Malina’s Dream'

Malina lives with Grandpa in the land of the midnight sun. Into her frozen world comes a stranger, whose ship is crushed in the ice. Malina knows only she can save the stranger’s life! Breathtaking puppets, shadow puppetry, live
music create magical theatre.
Suitable for 4+years

The amazingly talented Barbershopera return with an even sillier story and yet more dazzling vocal skills.

Barbershop’s funniest quartet present their third a cappella comedy musical - and this time they’re going apocalyptic.

In association with Carn to Cove.

Tickets £9, £8 Children £4

A new play by Jon Welch. 1950’s New York. In a shabby flat a teenage girl auditions for the role of puppeteer for a production of Pinocchio. But all is not as she expects. Geppetto is a heart-rending, but often hilarious story of a broken man’s obsessive search for his own puppet-boy, and how the chance pairing of this odd couple offers them both a glimpse of something lost and something to be yet found.

Tickets £8,£7, Children £4

A brand new musical is created from scratch at each performance of this Edinburgh award-winning production, where audience suggestions help to create a show on the spot. The all-singing, all-dancing cast improvise with brilliant and unpredictable results.

‘Not only is each performance achingly funny, it’s a genuinely new musical every time. Worth seeing again and again. Time Out

Tickets £9, £8 Children £4

Pants on Fire’s actor-musician extravaganza relocates Roman mythology to 1940’s wartime Britain.

Cupid - an evacuee with a catapult, Narcissus - a Hollywood Matinee Idol drooling over his screen image and an Andrews Sisters Chorus finding close harmony amid cosmic chaos. ‘75 fantastical minutes from a company that certainly lives up to the cheekiness of its name. A breakthrough show.’

Lyn Gardner. The Guardian

Tickets £9, £8 Children £4

Also Thursday 20th January

With original sixties inspired tunes from a 4-piece band, live video animation, technical wizardry and huge laughs from Cornwall’s foremost ‘masters of comedy’, Beauty and the Beast from Mars promises to be great all-round family entertainment.

On Wednesday 19th only, Cafe Tolmen will be open for pre theatre meals from 5.30pm. Booking essential. Tickets £10, £8 Children £6

Children's Matinee

The dazzling Cube Theatre return with a magical retelling of the classic story. Using two actors and puppets, the show explores the fantastical adventures of the little puppet on the quest to become a real child.

“... brilliant... it’s intelligent and rather poignant too, in the way it shows two people beaming with misguided optimism in the face of calamity.

Heap and Pebble just carry on regardless; their fixed smiles never slip even as the polar ice cap melts.”The Guardian

Tickets £8,  £7 Children £4

Craig Johnson, Kneehigh performer renowned for his skill and charm has developed this new show Universerama as a blend of storytelling and cabaret. He uses puppets, props,music and comedy to convey the wonder of the cosmos in a funny and informative show for all the family.

We study the stars, visit distant galaxies, and hear the fascinating story of John Couch Adams, the Cornishman who discovered Neptune. Tickets £8, £7 Children £4

CScape– our resident Dance and Physical Theatre Company – are running a Community Dance project at Trebah Gardens in early July. There are two open rehearsal sessions at the Tolmen Centre – on Wednesday 16th and 30th June: they are seeking 100 dancers of all shapes, sizes, ages and genders so there’ll be room for everyone. Ring Sally (Cscape) Williams on 07793953261 to find out more

OR JUST TURN UP!! The sessions run from 5pm to 9pm

(Café Tolmen will also be open on these nights so work up an appetite and then have supper – or vice versa!)

Tickets £8, £7 Children £4

A superlative mystery comedy thriller set in a bird hide on the Suffolk marshes. Following his superb performance of Under Milk Wood last year, Guy Masterson returns in a two hander with Ronnie Toms. Tim Whitnall’s play is a wrought, taut, exquisitely balanced black comedy that keeps the viewer glued to the seat until the final full stop.

A multiple five star reviewed show at the Edinburgh festival 2009

Tickets £9, £8 Children £4

A weekend event at the Tolmen Centre and Jubilee Wharf offering creative dance workshops for all ages. Even if you have never danced before: babies, teenagers over 50s all are welcome.

Tel:07876 205050.

A new adaptation of Carol Ann Duffy’s poems, imagining the wives’ perspective of famous men. From Mrs Faust and Frau Freud to Queen Kong and Mrs Midas, this darkly funny show slices through history and myth.

‘Performed with awesome style and confidence by the splendid Linda Marlowe... wonderful’ Observer

Tickets £8, £7, Children £4

Every week the Locksmith’s wife reads aloud the next instalment of Dickens’ latest story to an assortment of characters who may have walked out of his novels.

But when she falls sick, the Locksmith has to step into her shoes and fiction and reality blur as they find themselves facing their deepest secret.

Tickets £8, £7 Children £4

Bash Street Theatre has an international reputation for outdoor productions combining live music and silent comedy.

Their new indoor show brings to life all the action, music and comedy of a B&W movie of the 1920s.

“Kept young and old entranced” Lyn Gardner The Guardian

Tickets £8, £7 Children £4

It is the year 1906 and provincial audiences are eagerly awaiting the return of the Ffitch Repertory Players with their latest offering The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin.

It is anticipated that this resourceful troupe of actors will once again brighten the lives of rural folk and bring a glimmer of the the glamour of London’s West End to their very doorstep.

Tickets £8, £7, Children £4

Spooky happenings in the Museum. Things to make and things to make you shake.
Look out behind you!

When the shops are shut for good, when the shutters come down for the last time, when the final homes are bought up, what happens to communities then? Evocative, charming and funny, Cscape brings these communities to life in a vivid blend of dance, theatre, film, poetry and music.

“Cscape are poetry for the eyes and should not be missed” ...Western Morning News

Stalag Happy is a funny and moving account of a truly inspiring story, portrayed through the use of sharp, comic, often touching dialogue – imaginative and inventive design – and a suitably nostalgic 1940s soundtrack.

Stalag Happy is a new play dramatising the true story of the abstract artists Sir Terry Frost and Adrian Heath whilst interned in the German POW camp Stalag 383 between 1941 – 45. “Edward Elks and Dan Frost were simply splendid... As thought provoking as it was touching... Well worth seeing twice.”...The Cornishman Tickets £8, £7 - Children £4 In association with Carn to Cove

A new comedy by Jon Welch

Suzette is a ballet dancer. Morry is a married city worker, on the verge of losing everything, who can’t stop secretly going to see her perform.

Tonight he’s going to talk to her.

There’s just one problem.

She’s dead.

This is a special scratch performance of a new Cube show. Audience feedback is invited and a “pay what you think it deserved system” will operate. Suitable for ages 12+.

Written and performed by Pip Utton "A day without laughter is a day wasted”

Chaplin remains one of the greatest clowns of all time. He created an image of himself for public consumption that hid the darker sides of his personality. Pip Utton steps in and out of the screen and becomes Charlie Chaplin, stripping away the myths and the moustache and revealing the man beneath.

‘Pip Utton is the doyen of the Fringe one-man show.’ The Daily Telegraph Tickets £8, £7 Children £4

The producer and designer of Scaramouche - Guy Masterson - will bring us his own celebrated and renowned solo version of the great Dylan Thomas ‘play for voices’ with all the design and production values that his company has become famous for. It has played all over the world – they’re just back from the Adelaide festival - and this is one of only a handful of productions licenced by the Dylan Thomas estate. Guy plays every one of the enormous range of characters in what is justly described as a tour de force.

For just one night in Cornwall – only at The Tolmen Centre May 9th at 7.30

+ Summer Drinks & Desserts

+ Handmade Jewellery & Cards

Tickets: Adults £8.00, includes a drink and dessert

Heritage Collection and Tolmen Centre Fundraiser

“A man, not a particularly good one, waits for his lover outside an abandoned restaurant in a forgotten corner of town. It is raining. She is late. She’s never late. And then the restaurant door opens. Tonight he has a choice to make. Tonight there is only one dish on the menu… Chef’s Special.”

Following their recent acclaimed success with The Uninvited, CUBE and Jon Welch return with a completely new and totally different confection. Chef’s Special is a musical cornucopia featuring song, dance and live music - a heady blend of tango, culinary percussion, and lashings of haut cuisine! A very modern musical comedy.

In association with Carn to Cove

Tickets £8, £7 Children £4

An international sell-out show. The world’s three most stupid musicians entertain with their hilarious antics as they compete, ridicule, argue and seduce their way through Bach to Beatles.

“Classical music for all ages and shoe sizes” The Sunday Times.

In association with Venue Cornwall

Tickets £8, £7 Children £4

Fresh from their recent series on Radio 4, a trio of Victorian gentlemen humourists, the Penny Dreadfuls bring you the visually resplendent, aurally pleasurable Aeneas Faversham Forever, one of this year’s most scrumptious and comically edifying Edinburgh Fringe treats. “Think ‘A Bit of Fry and Laurie’ with a dash of ‘Ripping Yarns’ and a twist of ‘Big Train’.

Grab the chance to see the Penny Dreadfuls live” - The Guardian

In association with Venue Cornwall

Tickets £8/£7 Children £4

A sparkling and entertaining show of poetry, music and badinage. Rated unmissable by Edinburgh Fringe critics, this unusual and exciting mix has delighted audiences across the UK and abroad. Presented in association with Carn to Cove. Tickets £7/£6

Tolmen Theatre Company

A huge success last April, a second chance to revel in this gothic-ghost-horror show full of comedy, music, song and dance with a cast of forty five from the village.

Tickets £6 Conc £5 Child £4

Miracle Theatre Company 

Based on the novel by Kurt Vonnegut.

Just like Miracle Theatre, Kurt Vonnegut explores serious themes through laughter and this classic satire on Modern Science is a perfect vehicle for Miracle's blend of physical theatre, comedy, film and music. This will be the first stage adaptation of the novel in the UK.

Tickets £8 Conc £7 Children £4

Straight from the Edinburgh Festival 2008, the man they dubbed” the Bouncing Czech” bounces back from the grave to mount a typically bombastic self defence in Rod Beach- am’s blackly comic and hugely enjoyable one-man play about the Mirror tycoon and pension- fund looter Robert Maxwell.

Tickets £ 10

(With thanks to Martin and Amanda Barlow of Budock Vean Hotel and Spiezia Organics for co-promoting this production in aid of the Helford Gig Club and the Bishop’s Forum)

Rogue Theatre

A welcome return for Rogue Theatre following the superb Madame Lucinda’s Wonder- show. With influences from Madame Butterfly to Donnie Darko, their new production combines circus spectacle, powerful narrative, film and live music. Unmissable.

Tickets £8 Conc £7 Child £4

Cube Theatre

Jon Welch’s new play delves into exciting dramatic territory. A blisteringly toxic comedy that echoes Pinter and Beckett, this macabre puzzle is by turns surreally comic, disturbing and moving.

Tickets £8 Conc £7 Child £4

Miracle Theatre

Miracle takes another look at the complexities of male/ female relationships, giving Shakespeare's controversial romantic comedy a 21st century make-over.

Tickets £8 Conc £7 Children £4

Combining live music with animation and film, a surreal satire for the discerning viewer.
With no fewer than five awards including the Total Theatre Award for Best Emerging Company, 1927 was the runaway success of this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe

'1927 go all out to entertain' - Independent.

'Theatrical cabaret…executed with breathtaking wit and aplomb. Everything about this show isjust so, from the precision of the writing to the exquisitely animated design and the delivery' - Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

'Impeccable choreography. perfect timing, magnificent stage presence' - Time Out.

Tickets £8 Conc £7 Child £6

Supported by Venue Cornwall

Cscape Dance Company make a welcome return.

Based on a story by Anna Marie Murphy Below delves into the depths of the Cornish Mining Industry. A unique blend of dance, physical theatre, music and film, Below creates a moving and fascinating insight into an era of buckets and Bal Maidens, heavy loads and heavy bones and the promise of loss and new life.

Tickets £6 Conc £5 Child £4

Tolmen Theatre Company

We welcome back the Tolmen Centre's own theatre company with Jon Welch's new extravaganza, produced by Tod Welch. With a cast of over thirty this promises to be their best ever show - a panto within a play within a musical!

With a plot based on a successful theatre which crumbles to dust, it's a gothic-ghost-horror show but full of comedy, music song and dance. What is the brutal secret of the show that closes the theatre? The answer is Behind You!

Tickets £6 Conc £5 Child £4

Cartoon de Salvo's all new, script defying and spontaneous show, inspired by the sassy. dirty and bittersweet music of the American South, is the latest freewheeling antic from the team behind hit comic romance 'Meat and Two Veg'

"A rare and refreshing theatrical treat - Time Out Critics Choice

Tickets £8 Conc £7 Child £5

Cube Theatre

An explosive new adaptation featuring a lean version of the script. The story of Hamlet is delivered faithfully, with the wit and beauty of the poetry intact. Shakespeare's classic is approached as a contemporary play, featuring live original music and integrated film.

Tickets £6 Conc £5 Child £4

Black Sheep Theatre

Two of the country's finest unemployed actors will show you how theatre should be performed, treating you to their unique interpretations of scenes from Britain's greatest playwrights (and one or two foreigners).

The show culminates in a truly unforgettable and startling reworking of King Lear. You'll never look at theatre in the same way again…

"Belly laugh inducing mayhem" - The Standard

"I laughed for the first time in days" - The Times

"Great comic writing and astounding performances" - The Guardian

Tickets £6 Conc £5 Child