This week the Burton Taylor Studio and the Old Fire Station have teamed up to put on the Off Beat Festival – fifty shows over seven nights, including comedy, theatre, poetry, and dance. There’s something for every palate in the smorgasbord of shows; I could happily attend twice the number of shows than those I’ve signed up for, but there aren’t enough hours in the week. @BookingAround
It Is So Ordered 21st June at the BT Studio
My first show of the festival is It Is So Ordered, by Changing Face Collective in association with Duelling Productions. This two-handed production tells the story of two boys caught in a web of violence and systematic racism in 1960s New York. This brief piece of theatre is crafted like a good short story and packs an emotional punch that would likely be lacking in a much longer play. Sparse and moving, it makes me want to hear more stories, to understand the history of this time and place more fully. ★★★★☆
The Book of Darkness & Light 21st June at the Old Fire Station
Tonight’s offering is a spoken word event from writer Adam Z. Robinson and musician Ben Styles. The Book of Darkness & Light is made up of a series of ghost stories, narrated over the chilling sound of Styles’ violin compositions. The stories are old-style ghost tales, and the music heightens the suspense in the room as Robinson draws the audience into his narrative web. The last, longest story is by far the best – the epistolary nature lends itself perfectly to the narration style. ★★★☆☆
Letters to Windsor House 21st June at the Old Fire Station
My third show of the festival is Letters to Windsor House, the latest work-in-progress from the marvellous Sh!t Theatre. Becca and Louise are developing this show for the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe, and I suspect that if they took it there tomorrow, it would already go down a storm. In Letters to Windsor House, the girls tell the story of living in an illegally sub-let flat in London while across the street, luxury flats are being built, and homeless people’s tents are being relocated. There is much that rings painfully true about this show to those of us in ‘Generation Rent’, but the audience barely stopped laughing throughout this funny, silly, mixed-media performance of song, video, and drama. And after the Edinburgh Fringe, well, there are going to be a helluva lot of people with ‘Rob Jecock is an adult baby’ stuck in their heads. Forever. And we won’t even mind. ★★★★☆
A Living 22nd June at the BT Studio
I’m starting to see some correlation in the kind of show I enjoy – if there’s some kind of angry social commentary, it’s fairly likely to be right up my street. Tonight’s Off Beat show of choice is A Living from Caroline Liversidge – a single-handed play where we watch a woman struggle to stay afloat in the modern world while working five jobs on zero-hour contracts. A Living is filled with chuckle-aloud moments, but Caroline also asks thought-provoking questions about work/life balance, money, and life goals, leaving us thinking about the issues of the play long after the (metaphorical) curtains go down. ★★★☆☆
Pramkicker 23rd June at the BT Studio
From Old Trunk Theatre Company, my latest show at Off Beat is Pramkicker, a quirky portrayal of life as a modern woman with no desire to procreate. The protagonist, Jude, loses her cool, kicks a pram belonging to a yummy mummy, and is sent to anger management sessions, which she attends with her sister, Suze. As the play unfolds, we see inside the minds of two flawed women who hold each other up and together. By the end, I am convinced that it’s not so much a play about children and convention, so much as it is a love story. ★★★★☆
High On The Storm Torn Coast at the Old Fire Station on 24th June
Lucy Ayrton is a bit of an Oxford celebrity. I’ve enjoyed her performance poetry since I’ve lived in Oxford and I jumped at the chance to see her new full-length show, High On The Storm Torn Coast, which weaves together poetry, storytelling, and music to explore how as humans we love to tell and hear tales of tragedy. Sometimes they’re little and personal, sometimes they’re big and wide-reaching, but when they happen, they’re real, no matter the scale. But the show is far from depressing; it’s warm and funny, and makes everything feel just a little bit better. ★★★★☆
