Friday 15 July 2011

Tour Dates



Friday 14 October 2011 7.30pm
Lincoln Performing Arts Centre
www.lpac.co.uk

Thursday 1 September 2011 7.30pm
Hull Truck Theatre
www.hulltruck.co.uk

Friday 8 July - Sunday 10 July 2011 7.45pm
Southbank Centre, London
www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Friday 1 April 2011 8pm
The Carriageworks, Leeds
www.carriageworkstheatre.org.uk

Tuesday 30 November 2010 8pm
Lincoln Drill Hall
www.lincolndrillhall.com

Thursday 11 November 2010 8.30pm
mac, Birmingham
www.macarts.co.uk

Friday 1 October 2010 8pm
Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham
www.lakesidearts.org.uk

Thursday 4 & Friday 5 March 2010 8pm
SPRINT Festival, Camden People's Theatre, London
www.cptheatre.co.uk

Friday 26 February 2010 8pm
The Junction, Cambridge
www.junction.co.uk

Wednesday 17 February 2010 2pm
The Playroom, Nottingham Playhouse
www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk

Wednesday 3 February 2010 7.30pm
University of Chester
www.chester.ac.uk

Thursday 3 December 2009 7.30pm
The Basement, Brighton
www.thebasement.uk.com

Friday 20 November 2009 8pm
Double bill with Kings of England
greenroom, Manchester
www.greenroomarts.org

Monday 9 November 2009 8pm
Double bill with Kings of England
Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster
www.nuffieldtheatre.com

Friday 30 October 2009 7.30pm
Arnolfini, Bristol
www.arnolfini.org.uk

Thursday 8 October 2009 8pm
Colchester Arts Centre
www.colchesterartscentre.com

Monday 24 August – Saturday 29 August 2009 12pm (Midday)
Theatre Workshop Scotland, Edinburgh
www.theatre-workshop.com

Saturday 18 July 2009 8pm
Déda, Derby
www.deda.uk.com

Tuesday 26 / Wednesday 27 May 2009 7.30pm
BURST Festival, Battersea Arts Centre, London
www.bac.org.uk

Thursday 12 February 2009 1.30pm / 7.30pm
The Point, Eastleigh
www.thepoint-online.co.uk

Tuesday 24 February 2009 7.30pm
Alsager Arts Centre
www.alsagerartscentre.org.uk

Friday 5 December 2008 7.30pm
Saturday 6 December 2008 7.30pm
Theater Frascati, Amsterdam
www.frascati.nl

Thursday 23 October 2008 7.30 pm
Leeds Met Studio Theatre
www.leedsmet.ac.uk/arts

London Literature Festival - Review

It was not the hills but the Spirit Level that was alive with the sound of music during an entertaining performance of The Post Show Party Show by turns hilarious and poignant, in which award-winning writer and performance artist Michael Pinchbeck, with his mother and father, recreates the post-show party at which his parents met after an amateur dramatic production of The Sound of Music. This performance is complete with its own unique interpretations of that classic soundtrack which filled the childhoods of so many.

“We are renacting this for the first time tonight”, said the father, “We have reanacted it before but not in this way”, and indeed the performance wonderfully brought out the sense intrinsic in theatre – in contrast to film – that each show is a unique performance. ”I have confidence in confidence itself”, say the duo, and this is indeed a confident performance. With only three actors, the intimacy of theatre is used to atmospheric effect as the blood-red lighting creates the sense of a reality bathed in the hues of memory.

There’s a sense that the “post” in the title also refers to the post-modern techniques used to great effect in the show, including the awareness of audience, who are brought in through direct questions to us: “Would you like to see us recreate the postshow party without words?” and “Are you thinking?”. They stop to reflect upon the progression of the narrative, pausing halfway to consider what has been and what is still to come whilst towards the end it is commented: “we are standing in the wings of the story”.

As the show races through scenes and songs interpreted from the Sound of Music, particularly powerful ones are ‘scene 8, ‘Climb Every Mountain’. “Follow every rainbow until you find your dream”, sees father racing around son as he clutches his guitar. A synopsis of “The Sound of Music” details the novice young nun Maria arriving at her new employer’s to find tension between the children desperate for their father’s love and attention.

The actors make comically effective good use of the available props: “Climb every mountain”, for example, sees chairs stacked three high which the son climbs, chairs which are then dismantled and used in a counting game to “do ray me fah”.

“This is a map of the present on the stage of the past” says the son, whose mother Vivienne (Michael’s mother and Tony’s wife) has a cameo speaking part. There is a gentle nostalgia brought out in the lyrics they select to to sing: ‘somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something good”.

In the final act, “So long, farewell”, the intimacy of the show is brought out brilliantly as many of the audience members get a personalized farewell. The lights dim to leave a single spotlight illuminating a guitar, emphasizing the profound effect music has on memory, music which lingers pleasantly long after this performance is over.


Anita Sethi, London Literature Festival blog