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Podcast recording 11th March

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Award winning writer, performer and provocateur Mark Thomas records the first in his new podcast series, “Brit-ish” Monday 11th March at 19:00

Venue:
Lush Studio Soho
67-71 Beak Street
London
W1F 9SW

Join Mark Thomas, Jonny and the Baptists AND the Commoners Choir (all 50 of them) for a once only show to create a new national anthem! Now more than ever we need a song that defines us, that celebrates us and one we can sing as if we are enjoying it rather than look like we are burying a local civic dignitary we hardly knew. Face it, the old anthem is so dull even the Queen doesn’t sing it and it’s about her!

Join Mark and the gang as they delve into the murky world of anthems and help compose new lyrics for our song of the future. No longer will we celebrate the Queen or bashing the Sots. Ours will be an anthem for hope and joy and a winning tune…
Imagine the Eurovision song competition meets Ian Dury, Mary Beard and a military band.

We have one night only to overturn centuries of tradition and establish ourselves as the voice of a modern Britain so join us in celebrating all that is great about being Brit-ish.

Tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/brit-ish-with-mark-thomas-tickets-57809705385

Two exciting new shows for the new year

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Showtime from the Frontline

In 2018 Mark takes his recent attempt to set up a comedy club in a refugee camp in Palestine and turns it into a performance with two of the aspiring Palestinian comics, Fasial and Alaa. Showtime From The Frontline is the story of trying to be yourself in a place where everyone wants to put you in a box. It’s funny and surprising and it’s not like anything else you’ll see this year. Directed by Red Shed’s Joe Douglas, the tour starts in February.

Image © Lesley Martin 2017
Image © Lesley Martin 2017

With Faisal Abu Alhayjaa and Alaa Shehada  | Directed by Joe Douglas

Dodging cultural and literal bullets, Israeli incursions and religion, Mark Thomas and his team set out to run a comedy club for two nights in the Palestinian city of Jenin. Only to find it’s not so simple to celebrate freedom of speech in a place with so little freedom.

Jenin refugee camp, home to Jenin Freedom Theatre and to people with a wealth of stories to tell. Mark tells this story alongside two of its actors and aspiring comics Faisal Abu Alhayjaa and Alaa Shehada. A story about being yourself in a place that wants to put you in a box.

OurNHS@ 70

is an analysis – and celebration – of the NHS as it turns 70. Directed by Nick Kent, former artistic director at the Tricycle Theatre and director of Guantanamo and The Colour of Justice about the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, the show will premiere in Edinburgh in August. Beforehand, as part of the show, Mark is conducting a number of public interviews with key individuals. The first will be on 11th Dec at Battersea Arts Centre, London where Mark will be interviewing Sir Michael Marmot, author of Fair Society, Healthy Lives on health, wealth and why some people are doomed to live shorter lives. Tickets are £2.50.

 

New Badgers

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Badgers?  Did I say Badgers?  I meant Badges, sorry.

Anyway we have some new ones (Badges, that is, it was too difficult to get the badgers into a jiffy bag and the RSPCA were staring at us).

In the store we have a couple of new ones that look a little like this:

 

The badges ( in the Daily mail masthead font) are another part of our Daily Mail assault, mimicking the ‘enemy of the people’ headline and the ‘Now finish off the saboteurs’ headline, we celebrate our opposition by reclaiming these glorious titles.

And anyway Badgers hate the Daily Mail as much as we do…

We have a new book

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Mark’s new book is published soon – it’s an expanded collection of his play scripts with extra commentary published this week.  We will be getting stock in the next couple of days and be shipping them out at the end of the week.

About a tenner, £7.99 plus postage – Enjoy!

There is a battle of narratives. The working-class narrative is being erased. And as you erase that narrative, you erase truths with it.’

Funny, provocative and moving, The Liar’s Quartet includes the scripts with brand new commentary from Mark Thomas’ most acclaimed comic, political theatre. Layered with political insight (and insult), and peppered with anecdote, this is a bravura performance in its own right. Each multi-award winning show examines Thomas’ obsession with the bonds that bind us, those of family, friends and communities.

Beginning with Bravo Figaro!, Mark puts on an opera in his dying father’s living room (with the help of Royal Opera House singers) to explore their relationship. In Cuckooed, he unpicks the betrayal of a friend and a fellow activist who was in fact employed to spy for the UK’s biggest arms company, BAE systems. And in The Red Shed, Mark returns to his political roots to harness the power of collective memory and celebrate the importance of working-class struggles and narratives in a story he describes as ‘a topical tale about the miners’ strike’.

Laughter, anger and connection. Mark Thomas is more essential than ever . . .