Camden People's Theatre - Autumn 2015
Season preview
CAMDEN People’s Theatre has announced its programme for Autumn 2015 and it includes video gaming/theatre mash-ups, foul-mouthed puppets, theatrical self-help and special mentions for Robert Downey Jr, JFK and the Beastie Boys.
The season kicks off with the return of Calm Down Dear (September 15 to October 11), CPT’s acclaimed celebration of new theatre exploring feminism and gender politics.
The stellar line-up includes artists Louise Orwin, Racheal Ofori, Emma Frankland and Milk Presents. There will also be a number of talks and forums for debating the issues at the festival’s heart. Full details will be announced soon.
Beta Public (November 17 to November 19), Thomas Martin and Pat Ashe’s ever-popular night of video gaming and theatre, extends for a three day mini-festival, bringing together gaming anoraks and contemporary performance nerds to explore the parallels between their obsessions, riffing on questions around game theory, gamification and audience volition.
In Bad at Being Me (November 3 to November 8), a selection of cutting-edge artists explore the cult of self-betterment, and how it feels to be imperfect in its shadow. Cape Theatre attempt to be a bit more like JFK in We Choose to Go to the Moon (November 7 and 8), and Urban Foxes return with their hit Be Better (November 7 and 8), asking the audience to join them at the ‘altar of the self’ to become the best they can be.
A Fun Palace for Grown Ups (October 4), staged in partnership with New Diorama and other West Euston-based organisations, features a free programme of arts, science and cultural activities specifically targeted at adults and addressing grown-up themes such as sex, voting, booze and taxes, proving interactivity, education and fun aren’t just for kids.
Barrel Organ follows massive breakthrough hit, Nothing, with the London premiere of Some People Talk About Violence (December 1 to December 12), a musing on how violence permeates every part of human life. The company, Associate Artists at CPT, also stage a weekend-long takeover of the venue (December 5 and 6), sharing a range of scratch and work-in-progress performances.
For the first time, CPT will be open for a season of festive treats during the Christmas period: Simon Maeder and Adam El-Hagar’s Licensed to Ill (November 23 to December 12) is a loving, witty and skillful musing on the history of hip-hop, and questions of artistic authorship, told through the story of the Beastie Boys.
And for those after more spiritual fare, Holy Presents (December 15 to December 19 at 7.30pm) is a highly irreverent human/puppet comedy about the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost spending Christmas day together: complete with bad presents, the Queen’s Speech, and Slade.
Elsewhere in the season, some of the UK’s most exciting, unconventional new theatre artists bring work to Hampstead Road. Hot from the Edinburgh Fringe, the always unpredictable Theatre State present Tribute Acts (October 20 to October 24), their new show about father figures, false memories and the failure of the left-wing.
Pulse Festival 2015 Suitcase Prize-winners This Theatre transfer their comic hit Police Cops (October 20 to October 22) from Edinburgh to CPT; Documental’s acclaimed Score returns after a successful spring 2015 run; and graduates of CPT’s prestigious Starting Blocks development scheme, Owl Young and Grace Gibson, unleash Iron MAM (October 28 and 29) and How to Drown a Fish (November 20 and 21).
For the full autumn programme and to book tickets, visit www.cptheatre.co.uk/.