Just in – new tour dates for spring 2017 including a week at Battersea Arts and dates around the UK including Scotland, Salford, Sheffield, Newcastle, Taunton and many more – the full listing are found on the gig list. Plus we have stocks of the programme/script for Mark’s latest show, “The Red Shed” in Mark’s online store. In the store you will also find Domestic Extremist tea towels and aprons and now you can get a matching T-shirt from our friends at Philosophy Football.
We have some more (about 100, be quick!) lovely vinyl “Mind the Farage” stickers back in stock ready for your wheelie bins or any other creative use you can come up with for them. £2 a pop or £5 for a pack of three. Come and get’em!
As Farage “man of mystery” has stepped down (again) as UKIP party team captain but oddly hasn’t stepped down as an MEP even though he want’s nothing to do with Europe – maybe he needs the expenses, then he has more time on his hands, perhaps he could replace his second job with that of wheelie bin cleaner?
Also, Mark’s new show “Red Shed” is at the Edinburgh Fringe soon and dates are currently going up for an extended nationwide tour in the Autumn. All dates should be up by the end of this week.
Of all the campaigns and issues I have been involved with over the years the Western Sahara Campaign has been one that has always dogged my activist heart, hanging around, sometimes slipping from memory but always popping back unheeded to prod away at me.
Western Sahara is one of the great forgotten causes of the world and for that fact alone it nips the heels of my conscience.
Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco from 1975 and for a short while became a cause celebre amongst the left but faded from favour as the struggle wore on to a stalemate.
There was a guerilla war to try to reclaim their land which was partially successful, Mauritania occupied the lower part of Western Sahara but were driven out – in part by Sahara fighters- only to be replaced by Morocco.
Between 1975-1976 some 250,000 Sahrawis fled to the Algerian desert where they have been living in exile for over 40 years in refugee camps, there remains approximately 165,000 refugees still there.
The more mathematical minded amongst you might well conclude that refugee camps should never be that old but they are.
A while ago I visited the camps, towns really in the middle of the desert, made of tents for the winter and mud brick huts for the summer. As is often the case it is the poor who are most hospitable and the care and kindness refugees showed to me was quite overwhelming.
So I am relieved to announce that this Monday’s show- Mayday- at the Tricycle is to be a benefit for the Western Sahara Campaign. The money will help the court case WSC are bringing, here are the details.
http://www.smalgangen.org/a146x1095
See you there.
Five years ago I meet a remarkable woman called Jess Thom. She got in touch saying she had Tourettes and would she be OK to come along to see my show Walking the Wall at the Tricycle Theatre. Instinctively and to be honest with little thought I said she would be welcome.
How wrong I was.
Jess does have pronounced tics and verbal outbursts, which are often funny, creative and beautifully absurd. However, some people in the audience objected to her ‘outbursts’ and complained to the theatre staff in the interval.
All of us were somewhat taken aback by this and Jess ended up in the lighting box, segregated from the rest of the audience for the second half. It was frankly awful. Here was I doing a show about separation and occupation and Jess was segregated from the rest of the community, shut away in a tech box.
Her response was as brilliant and inventive as her utterances. She wrote a show called Backstage in Biscuit Land, celebrating her condition and how people react to it. The show is imaginative, beautiful and different every time. I can not recommend it enough.
Find out more about Jess and the show here: http://www.touretteshero.com
My response has been less creative and frankly less useful but I hope is valid nonetheless.
Where possible I try and organise relaxed performances of my shows. The relaxed performances encourage people to come to the show who may have learning difficulties,behavioural issues and syndromes such as Tourettes. There is a short speech at the start of the show to explain that the performance takes a relaxed attitude to noises, interruptions and fidgets, in fact we welcome it. Lighting plans and sound cues are changed to lessen any sudden or shocking change, there is an area set aside for people to leave the auditorium but stay inside the theatre and if they want to return they are welcome to do so.
There are many things we do to try and make the show accessible and welcoming for everyone.
I was delighted that Jess came along to my last show at the Tricycle theatre and the first half became a memorable and surreal double act with her. The show was one of my favourites of that year.
I am also delighted that Trespass returns to the Tricycle with a relaxed performance on the 4th of May.
There is a surtitled performance on the 27th April for those who are hard of hearing.
Mark’s current tour is coming to a close (boo!) but a new show is starting soon (hurrah!).
The last few touring dates of the “Trespass” tour are selling out quickly as are the final season of performances at the Tricycle Theatre in London which runs from 25th April to the 7th May.
The new show “Red Shed” has work-in-progress dates booked (mainly in the southern half of the UK plus one wayward one in Selby) and further dates will be announced later in the year to hopefully cover your part of the country.
Fuck the council have a swear on us!
For the background on yet another stupid council idea check the Guardian article here.
When Mark performed at the Lowry earlier this year he organised a swear box and collected £400. Enough to pay off the first 4 fines! So if you’ve been fined for swearing drop us a line and we’ll pay it off!
We also have these badges in the merch store (stocks arriving 6th April) – yes more badges for fuck’s sake!
Is Mark appearing near you soon? The Trespass tour continues through to the 7th May including Wednesday 16th at the Dukes, Lancaster and a few others – tickets are selling out quickly so make sure you don’t miss this show before Mark starts on a new show in June – details coming soon.
Also new in the merchandise store we have DOMESTIC EXTREMIST Badges for when you feel silly wearing your DOMESTIC EXTREMIST apron whilst out and about.
There’s a video of Mark speaking here: https://youtu.be/BLb_263lqyw
Thanks to Elliot Franks for the video.