The Red Shoes

Kneehigh Theatre

Red shoes. Don’t you just love them? They make you dance with delight and spin with possibilities. Your tapping toes teeter on the top of the world. But what happens when you can’t stop dancing? What happens when you lose your footing? Would you dare to turn to the butcher to rid you of your heart-stoppingly beautiful red shoes? That’s just what our desperate heroine is compelled to do…

Inua Ellams' Untitled

Fuel and Soho Theatre present

Untitled is a magical realist story set in Nigeria and England, of identical twin boys separated at infancy. In the quarrel after the marred naming ceremony, the mother grabs the titled child and flees, leaving the unnamed brother to lead an impetuous, chaotic, blasphemous existence until the spirits of the land make their stand.

The Author

by Tim Crouch

Tim Crouch's new play is about the harm carried out in the name of art. Performed within its audience, it tells the story of another play: a shocking and abusive play written by a playwright called Tim Crouch who oversteps the line. The Author is a highly original and terrifyingly seductive journey into the horror of our mediated world.

The Misanthrope

Directed by Andrew Hilton

Tony Harrison's celebrated version, fizzing with wit and invention remains the finest translation of Molière into English. This marks the second collaboration between Bristol Old Vic and Shakespeare at The Tobacco Factory after the sell-out success of Uncle Vanya in November 2009, which subsequently transferred to The Galway International Festival recently.

White Caps

A Bristol Old Vic and Theatre Bristol co-commission.

Expressed through cinematic film and bboy performance, White Caps brings one of the world's most exciting and raw cultures into the theatre. Witness this new fusion of moving image and break dancing performed by Champloo Dance Company.

Bristol Jam 2010

Bristol Old Vic

Bristol Jam is back with a range of spontaneous performance from comedians, theatre-makers and musicians of global stature. Many who came last year haven't stopped yabbering about it since. Book early for Improbable Theatre's wonderful Lifegame, the timeless Sacconi Quartet , and the peerless Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. Keep checking this page for updates on new acts!

Beak> + Murcof & Francesco

Bristol Jam 2010

BEAK> are three Bristol musicians Geoff Barrow (Portishead) Billy Fuller (Fuzz Against Junk, Robert Plant) and Matt Williams (Team Brick). Together a formidable band of musical brothers on the Invada label who whip up potent sound currents couched in jazz, psychedelia, krautrock and electronics, which all stem from the backbone of a propulsive rhythm drilled deep and hard through each track.

Collings and Herrin - Live Podcast

Bristol Jam 2010

Since February 2008, esteemed broadcaster and star of I Love 1983* ANDREW COLLINS has been coming round to the house of scatological comedian, and ‘Percy the Shepherd’ from BBC ONE’s Servants, RICHARD HERRING on a weekly basis to record an unscripted, unrehearsed and unabashed podcast. Once recording begins they transform into Collings and Herrin.

Lifegame by Improbable

Bristol Jam 2010

Lifegame is theatrical biography. The show takes the bare bones of a life story by interviewing a guest onstage and then transforming that information, there and then, into a magical piece of theatre. Each Lifegame has a different “subject” each night, because Lifegame has a different guest each night. By transforming someone’s memories into theatrical language, Lifegame triggers details within those memories as well as new memories. Consequently Lifegame is not just about the stories that are told, but the process of remembering.

Sacconi Quartet

Bristol Jam 2010

The Sacconi Quartet play music from all periods, from the baroque to contemporary art music. Within this broad range, they have focused on the repertoire of the First Viennese School, particularly the chamber music of Mozart and Haydn. The Sacconi Quartet's twentieth-century repertoire includes works for string quartets by Nicolas Bacri, Samuel Barber, Gyorgy Kurtag and Michael Tippett.

Animo by Improbable

Bristol Jam 2010

Drama, comedy, pathos, music, singing, dancing, mask making, puppetry, spectacle; anything can happen in ANIMO and anyone might appear, but whatever else it is, ANIMO is a space to experience improvisation as alchemy; transforming the everyday into the sublime.

Showstopper! The Musical

Bristol Jam 2010

Audience suggestions help to create a show on the spot, as the all-singing, all-dancing cast improvise with unpredictable and frequently hilarious results. Packed with drama, dazzling dance routines and catchy melodies, Showstopper! leaves delighted audiences singing all the way home.

Phil Kay In Tweed

Bristol Jam 2010

Phil Kay will weave in front of your eyes a show made up of things that have just happened and news from the last while as well as going with every whim riff that jumps from his agile mind..christ on a quadbike. Phil leaves a lot to the last moment so go with him on this jam train with free dancing and songs in the key of You.

Gimmie Your Left Shoe

Bristol Jam 2010

An improvised show for children Bring along as many odd things and jumble as you can that you were about to throw out or recycle to this show of shoe shows within a show. Every kid gets a turn in the limelight to win back their left shoe, get clapped and cheered and make up a wee skit with whatever is lying around... The left the right to give..so the right the right to be left with.

Round 2 by The Factory

Bristol Jam 2010

Round 2 is a growing collection of daring short plays written to an almost impossibly challenging brief, it is also The Factory's newest experiment. Straying ever further into the creation of new work The Factory continues to explore it's thirst for spontaneity, danger, and revelation by pitching it's actors against each other every week to tackle pieces that reveal more about themselves with each showing.

The Seagull by The Factory

Bristol Jam 2010

The Factory tell their version of this great story in the words that arrive in their heads at each moment, relating the dialogue to what they are being thrown by each other and the environment they find themselves in at each performance.

A Rainbow in Curved Air

Bristol Jam 2010

The Charles Hazlewood All Stars is an ensemble dedicated to improvisation, featuring artists from right across the musical spectrum. From Portishead's Adrian Utley to former Jazz Warriors saxophonist Jason Yarde, from Goldfrapp's Will Gregory to composer Graham Fitkin, the conductor Charles Hazlewood first assembled the band to play Glastonbury in 2008. Terry Riley's seminal A Rainbow in Curved Air is one of the great psychedelic experiments, a barrage of skirling organ loops which exploded out of his San Francisco studio in the late sixties. Hazlewood and his All Stars take the work as a starting point for a serious sonic adventure; a performance that will exploit to the full the magnetic intimacy of the Bristol Old Vic

Under Glass by Clod Ensemble

Fuel presents

Under Glass is a new performance piece by the Clod Ensemble, directed by Suzy Willson, composed by Paul Clark. It is a cabaret of performance pieces, which exist within life-size glass cabinets or jars. Each piece features a different performer (who may be a dancer, a performance artist or an actor), a different original musical score and a distinct visual environment and movement language.

Bellowhead

Winter Song

Bellowhead return to Bristol Old Vic to launch their new album Hedonism, and to kick off their Autumn tour.

James Morton's Porkchop and Soweto Kinch

Winter Song

For One Night Only.......an opportunity to see two of the best young British alto saxophonists on one stage. James Morton's Porkchop / Soweto Kinch - Double Bill + Special Guests

Alex Wilson's Mali Latino

Winter Song

Expect fiery latin percussion mixed with the driving village rhythms of Mali, the virtuosic kora and piano of Madou and Alex and the intense combination of mandingue and Cuban vocals.

Winter Revels

Some of the country's greatest acting talent are returning to the theatre they love, to help raise money for its redevelopment in this glittering night of words and song.

Shlomo's BOXED

Winter Song

This epic escapade sees our beatboxing heroes Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra travel to the future and back via outer space, dropping slick theatrics and soulful vocal gymnastics along the way. Pure, raw talent mixed with imaginative use of their ten voices lead to an adrenaline-charged vocal performance.

Ivan and The Dogs

ATC and Soho Theatre present

All the money went and there was nothing to buy food with. So Mothers and Fathers tried to find things they could get rid of, things that ate, things that drank or things that needed to be kept warm. The Dogs went first.

Jason and Medea

Bristol Old Vic Young Company

London, 1960's and biggest heist the criminal underworld will ever see. Jason pulls together a crack team of all his china plates, the Argonauts. While Medea, his trouble and strife, lies at the heart of all thats to come.

Boing!

who can sleep on Christmas Eve?

Following on their tradition of bringing enchanting shows for small children to Bristol Old Vic at Christmas, Travelling Light have been working with Champloo Dance to create a new piece of dance theatre to get your feet tingling, your toes tapping and your head spinning with a whirl of colourful images and playful sounds. Come and join in the fun!