>December Events / >January Events / >November Events / >October Events / Art & Theatre / Business Editorials / Events in Norfolk and Suffolk / Music / Tourist Attractions Norfolk and Suffolk October 15, 2018
Common Ground Theatre Company
A music-theatre adaptation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s
“The Rime of The Ancient Mariner”
by Pat Whymark
Touring East Anglia – 11th October to 11th November 2018
COMMON GROUND TOUR HOTLINE – 07807 341364
FOR FULL TOUR SCHEDULE, SEE BELOW
“It takes real skill to take a sturdy piece of classic literature and turn
it into one of the most imaginative shows of the year.”
Andrew Clarke, reviewing our 2015 tour of The Count of Monte Cristo in the EADT
“Lively and most entertaining…The play has a wonderful flow…These talented actor-musicians often chop and change characters with ease. The humour is great and there are plenty of ‘one liners’ to add to the chuckles” Robert Wright, reviewing our 2017 tour of The Old Curiosity Shop in the Eastern Daily Press.
After their acclaimed productions of The Old Curiosity Shop & Sherlock Holmes and The Hooded Lance in 2017, Common Ground Theatre Company return with this enthralling, slightly surreal adaptation of Coleridge’s The Rime of The Ancient Mariner, with its themes of ecological disaster, man’s destructive compulsions, and the death and rebirth of imagination and faith.
The show will feature live action, puppetry, film and original music by Pat Whymark, sung by a live choir. Coleridge will be played by Patrick Neyman & The Mariner by Julian Harries.
The Mariner looks at episodes from the extraordinary life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the context of his most famous poem, and examines how an artist’s work can be seen as an allegory for their life story. The Rime has a strangely prophetic relevance to Coleridge himself, but for the reader, has the wider themes of ecological disaster, our own destructive compulsions, and the death and rebirth of imagination.
This piece holds new challenges for us as theatre makers to create a play which is a fusion of these themes. Using original music as an additional conduit for the emotional breadth of the poem, we hope to share with our audience the profound effect the poem has had on us, and to open the way for their own unique experience.
We will be creating an all female community choir for this production who will perform in teams over the course of the tour. Work begins with the choir at the end of May. The show will also contain feature puppetry and film projection.
About Common Ground Theatre Company
Common Ground Theatre Co was founded in 2007 by Pat Whymark and Julian Harries to create new music theatre. We have been touring steadily since then, mainly within East Anglia, producing eighteen new plays which have been received stunning reviews both here and in London. We have received funding from Heritage Lottery Fund, The Suffolk Foundation, The Seckford Foundation, Suffolk Youth Ops, The Brook Trust and Suffolk Single Gateway.
Common Ground Theatre Company are committed to keeping small-scale theatre alive and well in East Anglia, presenting shows that are, first and foremost, entertaining. Our productions are character-based and always emotionally engaging.
Julian Harries & Pat Whymark are the creative team behind Stoat Hall, The Mystery of St Finnigan’s Elbow & many more Eastern Angles Christmas shows, and it is that sense of playfulness that we hope runs through all our work. As an actor Julian has appeared in Eastenders, Detectorists, Spies of Warsaw, Doctors, and performed with The Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre and in the West End.
TOUR SCHEDULE
Colchester The Headgate Theatre (CO2 7AT) – Thurs 11th, Fri 12th & Sat 13th October
7.30pm (+ 2.30pm on Sat) Tickets £12/£8 (U21s)
01206 366000/www.headgatetheatre.co.uk
Mildenhall The Jubilee Centre (IP28 7HG) – Monday 15th October – 7.30pm
Bardwell The Tithe Barn (IP31 1AA)– Tuesday 16th October – 7.30pm
Stowmarket The John Peel Centre (IP14 1ET) – Weds 17th & Thurs 18th October
7.30pm 01449 774678/johnpeelcentre.com
Chipping Ongar Zinc Arts (CM5 0AD) Friday 19th October – 7.30pm Tickets £15
Great Hockham The Village Hall (IP24 1NT) – Saturday 20th October
7.30pm 01953 498447/[email protected]
Mount Bures The Thatchers Arms (CO8 5AT) – Tuesday 23rd October
8pm 01787 227460 Tickets – £12
Southwold St Edmunds Hall (IP18 6JP) – Weds 24th October
7.30pm 01502 722572/ticketsource.co.uk/southwold-arts-centre
Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall (IP15 5BN) – Thursday 25th October
7.30pm 07807 341364 Tickets £12/£7 (U21s)
Diss The Corn Hall (IP22 4LB) – Friday 26th October
7.30pm 01379 652241/www.cornhall.co.uk £12/£7 (U21s)
Norwich St Thomas’ Church Hall (Earlham Rd, NR2 3RG) – Sat 27th Oct – 7.30pm
Earl Soham The Village Hall (IP13 7SY) – Sunday 28th October – 4pm
Harkstead The Village Hall (IP9 3DG) – Tuesday 30th October – 7.30pm
Polstead The Village Hall (CO6 5AL) – Wednesday 31st October – 7.30pm
Laxfield The Village Hall (IP13 8EW) – Thursday 1st November – 7.30pm
Woodbridge Seckford Theatre (IP12 4JH) – Friday 2nd November – 7.30pm
07807 341364 Tickets £14/£8 (U21s)
Walton St Mary’s Hall, (Felixstowe, IP11 9BH) – Saturday 3rd Nov – 7.30pm
Great Bromley The Village Hall (CO7 7JA) – Sunday 4th November – 4pm
07807 341364/experiencetickets.co.uk Tickets – £12
Halesworth The Cut Arts Centre (IP19 8BY) – Tuesday 6th November – 7.30pm
0300 3033 211/newcut.org Tickets £12/£7 (U21s)
Ipswich Sir John Mills Theatre (IP1 2LQ) – Weds 7th, Thurs 8th & Fri 9th Nov
7.30pm 01473 211498 /easternangles.co.uk Tickets £12/£7 (U21s)
Syleham & Wingfield The Village Hall (IP21 4LT) – Saturday 10th November – 7.30pm
Little Gransden The Village Hall (SG19 3DP) – Sunday 11th November, 7.30pm
01767 677906/[email protected] Tickets – £12/£10 (U21s)
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TICKET PRICES (unless stated otherwise) – FULL: £12 U21s/On Income Support: £7
BOX OFFICE – 07807 341364 (unless stated otherwise)
Common Ground Theatre Company
The Scarlet Pipistrelle
by Pat Whymark & Julian Harries
Touring East Anglia – 14th December 2018 to 19th January 2019
The year is 1793. Paris is gripped by the sans-cullottes. Heads are rolling, and no-one is safe from the roving finger of fate, the thumb of tyranny and the wrist of injustice.
The poor Compte de Creme-Brulée is to be guillotined on the morrow. Nothing can save him except a miracle, and the Revolutionary Committee has outlawed miracles, except on Sundays and feast days, and only with a signed chit from Citizen Chambourcy, the feared leader of the Republic.
Creme-Brulée’s only hope is a daring swoop by that dashing master of disguise and echo-location, The Scarlet Pipistrelle, a mysterious Englishman, who has already undertaken several rescues of condemned aristocrats. Who knows, perhaps this time, he might actually succeed!
Common Ground will be concocting their trademark heady mix of genre pastiche, musical dexterity and sheer lunacy that East Anglian Christmas audience know and love. Julian Harries plays Citizen Chambourcy, Emily Bennett (from last year’s Sherlock Holmes & The Hooded Lance) plays Madame Claire de Luny.
“Whymark and Harries have created so many great Christmas memories…a real seasonal treat. Catch it if you can, you won’t regret it.” Andrew Clark, East Anglian Daily Times (review of Sherlock Holmes & The Hooded Lance)
Touring to Harkstead, Woodbridge, Stowmarket, Colchester, Felixstowe, Aldeburgh, Diss & Ipswich
To book call 07807 341364
Julian Harries & Pat Whymark
Common Ground Theatre Company
07807 341364
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