Album number nine finds the Canadian band dealing with grief in the best way possible
You’ve probably heard of Mother Mother without even knowing it. After their song Hayloft blew up on TikTok they became something of a viral hit – if the earworm “daddy’s got a gun” means anything to you, then you’ve definitely come across Mother Mother. Hayloft was in fact 12 years old before it discovered a new life as a trend, having appeared on the band’s second album, 2008’s O My Heart. Social media eh? A rabbit hole of wasted time scrolling it might be, but breathing life into old songs is one of its more positive aspects.
Life is at the heart of Grief Chapter, the band’s 9th or more specifically, contemplating the vagaries of life and the inevitable final chapter. It would appear that Mother Mother has reached something of a midlife/end of life crisis. Not that you would notice if you’re not paying attention, because they have a habit of wrapping up complex and disturbing ideas in finely crafted indie pop. Take for example The Matrix, on the surface it’s a booming, thunderous pop anthem, but at its heart, it’s a defiant and rebellious rejection of the status quo. It’s about making the most of this life because you only get one go around and as vocalist and principal songwriter Ryan Guldemond croons at the start of the song “…you’re going to die”. However, as the song progresses, it veers from nihilism to the spiritual as he starts to ponder the possibility of an afterlife. If all this sounds overly heavy, rest assured, it possesses a hook that is impossible to ignore and a deluge of profanity, which is a pretty fine combination.
Head back to the start of the album, and the basic premise behind most of these songs is laid out in stark fashion. Nobody Escapes, cuts to the chase from the off. You’re dead too. This daunting idea could be overwhelming in the hands of the darker souls out there, but Mother Mother can make heavy concepts feel like a party at the end of the world. If anything, it feels entirely positive. In part, this is down to the band’s capability of mixing tight, catchy rock riffs with dance inspired beats, and vocals that wouldn’t sound out of place on a kids show. This is at play on Explode, a song whose main refrain is the line “when I die, I’ll let go”, which in plain black and white looks like the kind of thing an Emo band would have no problem in over-emoting (the clue’s in the genre name). But with the twin vocals of Ryan and Molly Guldemond it’s all oddly celebratory. As the song reaches its conclusion, it becomes clear that this is an album not so much about shuffling off this mortal coil, as embracing every moment and making the most of the time we have here.
Pinning the band down to a specific style is quite tricky. They can veer from folk stomp to overblown pop ballad in a heartbeat. They throw in Pixies inspired guitar riffs and vocals (Monkey Gone To Heaven and Where Is My Mind? have definitely made an impression on them), strange off-kilter segues, choral flourishes, punk attitude, classical orchestration and occasional discord just for good measure. Somehow, they can deliver lines like “Innocence is just a bridge to pain” or “What if I just rip out her throat?” and make them sound entirely viable as a chart hit. Part of this is down to the smart vocal interplay between Ryan and his sister Molly, but essentially it points to intelligent and subversive songwriting.
Grief Chapter isn’t an exercise in navel gazing – despite its main subject matter. There are moments of social commentary (Normalize tackles gender and sexuality politics), amusing stoner concepts (God’s Plan ponders what the great creator must have been on whilst devising their Earth project), and self-aware in jokes. Anyone who can consider the end of their life and imagine that anyone attending their funeral will just shout for Hayloft has a keen sense of humour.
Ultimately, this is an album packed with pop songs that address the apparent pointlessness of life whilst simultaneously encouraging everyone to embrace their time here on this rock. Mother Mother might have just written a new chapter in the stages of grief, and it sounds pretty damn fine.
Mother Mother are currently touring the UK
Grief Chapter is out now on Warner Music / Parlophone.
Photo Credit: Mackenzie Walker
Dom Joly star Q&A
Round & About
Shows & Reviews
Dom Joly discusses The Conspiracy Tour, based on his latest book, which visits Maidenhead, Farnham, Basingstoke, Winchester & more this month and next…
Q. Hello Dom. Your new tour, The Conspiracy Tour kicks off in February. What can we expect?
“It’s a companion to my latest travel book, The Conspiracy Tourist in which I travelled the globe again looking into the strange world of the Conspiracy Theorist. I will take the audience through a range of some of the wackiest conspiracy theories out there and what I think of them. I am pretty much a sceptic and so, for balance, I will be joined by an eminent conspiracy theorist, Dr Julian Northcote (author of the book COWS! Britain’s Secret Killers). Expect fireworks.”
Q. What sort of conspiracy theories did you look at?
“I took my long-suffering wife to Finland for a holiday to prove that it exists. There is a theory that it doesn’t. I also went on a massive road trip across America popping into Denver International Airport, rumoured to be the assembly point for the Illuminati come the Rapture. I investigated UFOs with a visit to Roswell, New Mexico. I looked into the JFK assassination in Dallas, Texas. I chased Alex Jones, the Info Wars grifter around Austin Texas. I also took a Flat Earther to one of the four corners of the square flat earth- an island called Fogo, off Newfoundland. It didn’t go well…”
“Conspiracies used to be fun… Nowadays they have gone bats*** insane..”
Q. Why the interest in conspiracy theories?
“Conspiracies used to be fun. Did we land on the moon, Bigfoot, Was Paul McCartney cloned? Nowadays they have gone bats*** insane. They have infected the body politic, with the actual President of the United States supporting Q Anon and urging people to inject themselves with bleach. It’s dangerous and being used by a series of grifters to terrify gullible people and fleece them for money. It makes me angry…but it is also often very funny.”
Q. This isn’t your first travel book?
“No, it’s my fifth travel book. Over the last 15 years or so I have travelled to more than 100 countries and written about some pretty strange stuff. I went on a coach trip around North Korea, an assassination vacation across America, skiing in Iran, walking the length of Lebanon, monster hunting in the Congo, joining an illegal crossing of the US/Mexican border…I even spent a night in Swindon. I seem to be attracted to dark destinations.”
Q. You grew up in Lebanon – is this why you like this sort of travel?
“Possibly. I grew up in the middle of a vicious civil war and yet, I had an unusual but wonderful childhood. Lebanon is an exciting, beautiful place and I always try to find the same in other places that maybe have a bad public image. My favourite fact about growing up in Lebanon was that I went to school with Osama Bin Laden for a year. I was six, he was 18 and so we were not friends but I long to get a school photo. The weirdest part is that it was a Quaker school…Quakers being famous for pacifism.”
Q. You first shot to fame in Trigger Happy TV- how did that happen?
“I did my life the wrong way round… most people do silly stuff when they are young and then knuckle down. I did the opposite. I was a diplomat in Prague and a producer for ITN in Parliament. Then, I started making satirical comedy but fell into just trying to be as funny as possible when Channel 4 spotted my stuff and asked me to make Trigger Happy TV. I am immensely proud of it. I put blood sweat and tears into every episode and we sold the show to 80 countries and it opened so many doors for me.”
Q. What were your favourite moments making Trigger Happy TV?
“Often, they were the behind the scenes, private jokes. We used to work next to the office where Tony Blackburn worked and we got his autograph every morning, at exactly the same time for seven months and he never noticed. I also, dressed as a traffic warden, once gave a fire engine a ticket while they were putting out a small fire, only to find that I had lost my cameraman and nobody was filming. My favourite Trigger Happy sketch was probably the large snail crossing the road because only in Britain would the traffic stop and wait so patiently as I crawled across excruciatingly slowly.”
Q. What makes you laugh?
“If I had to sum it up, it would be ‘travel vast distances and make an enormous effort to do something totally pointless’. My favourite sketch of all time was actually in a sequel to Trigger Happy TV called World Shut Your Mouth in which we flew all the way to Northern Canada to ‘frighten an Eskimo’ by sneaking up behind him and crashing a large pair of cymbals together before running away and flying back home in triumph.”
Q. What makes you happy?
“My dogs… all dogs actually… except for little ones. No dog should be smaller than a cat.”
Q. What makes you angry?
“How much time do you have? Jacob Rees Mogg, trains, bigotry, bullies, injustice, poor grammar, Boris Johnson, tax dodgers, people failing upwards, grifters, Covid deniers, bureaucracy, traffic wardens, people who stand up the moment the plane lands, people who say eXpresso, automated customer services, Elon Musk, religious zealots, scammers, Q&As, Swindon…”
Q. What have been the highlights of your career so far?
“Learning to fly a hot air balloon. Getting the BBC to pay for me to visit all Seven Wonders of the World in one trip just to stand in front of each one and say “That… is sh*t…” Making a show called Dom Joly’s Happy Hour for Sky One in which I travelled the world getting drunk with my best friend. The Sky lawyers got nervous and asked me not to say that I was ‘getting drunk’ would I mind saying that I was ‘investigating cultural attitudes towards alcohol’ instead. Surviving for three weeks on The Island with Bear Grylls. I lost three stone and nearly my leg. Getting my Alexa to turn all the lights in my sitting room on when I tell it to.”
Q. What do your family think about your life?
“A strange mix of pride, confusion and disappointment. My wife, Stacey is Canadian and much nicer than me and is often very embarrassed by my behaviour. My daughter, Parker just graduated from Oxford Uni and is now working at the university looking into a cure for Alzheimer’s. My son Jackson has just started at Durham and has exceptional music taste which I like to think that I had a part in. We are a very argumentative family. We once drove across the Canadian Rockies in a motor home. If we had recorded the trip, I am convinced that we would have had the best reality show in history…except for Below Deck.”
Q. What does the future hold?
“Who bloody knows? I am developing a Trigger Happy Movie. I am working on a TV series of The Conspiracy Tourist for the US. I’ve only just really discovered radio and it’s something that I really want to explore further. I also have a list of places I have yet to go to. Algeria is currently top of my list. I am obsessed with the place. My son and I want to go storm chasing in America. I want to walk the Cotswold Way with my dogs.”
Dom Joly The Conspiracy Tour lands at theatres around the UK from 21st February, including Farnham Maltings on 29th, Oxford Playhouse on 18th March, details and ticket information at domjoly.tv/dom-joly-tour/
Dom Joly’s The Conspiracy Tourist: Travels Through a Strange World is out now (£22, Robinson).
Woking Young Musician of the Year
Karen Neville
Shows & Reviews
Young talent on show on February 3rd as performers compete for awards
The Woking Young Musician of the Year competition takes place on February 3rd, with outstanding performers aged 14-20 from this year’s Woking Music festival invited to participate.
The adjudicator for the Young Musician of the Year competition will be Paul Barritt who has been leader of the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the English Chamber Orchestra and until recently, the Hallé, having performed with this orchestra for the past 20 years.
Cash prizes are awarded to the winners and a bursary is also awarded to study at a summer school. Several of these performers have gone on to be in the finals of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition and, in recent years, two have won this coveted title.
Other awards that will be presented at the event are Woking Junior Musician of the Year, Most Promising Young singer, Most Promising Young Actor, and a chamber music award.
The Woking YM evening is an annual event at which a selection of the best competitors aged 14 to 20 who attended the Woking Music Festival in November 2023 are invited to compete in concert conditions.
The talented young musicians will be performing at St John Church, St John, Woking where the audience would be treated to a delightful musical evening from some of our most talented young musicians.
Woking Music Festival is a celebration of the musical and literary vitality of Woking and the surrounding area. The festival welcomes people of all ages and abilities, who can derive and give pleasure in participating, whatever their tastes or performing standard.
Founded by Nancy Leigh in 1926 and affiliated to the British and International Federation of Festivals (BIFF), the festival is now one of the largest of its kind in the south-east with around 1,000 people taking part each year. Highly respected teachers and performers act as adjudicators, giving valuable advice and guidance to all participants.
More than 90 trophies are competed for in over 200 classes. Subjects covered include musicals, jazz, classical music including opera and oratorio, school choirs, bands, speech and drama.
The adjudicators come from music and drama institutions across the UK who judge winners in each category and give valuable advice and guidance.
Visit wokingmusicfestival.org.uk for information on all events, dates and venues. Tickets £12 per adult, children under 18 free.
Two operas come to Oxford
Ellie Cox
Shows & Reviews
Award-winning producer Ellen Kent returns to Oxford’s New Theatre.
The Ukrainian Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv will be presenting stunning classical productions of Bizet’s Carmen on Wednesday 17th January and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly on Thursday 18th January.
Bizet’s masterpiece, Carmen, is packed with passion, sexual jealousy, death and unforgettable arias. The story of the bewitching gypsy girl whose tantalising beauty lures a soldier to desertion and leads to her own murder, Carmen includes some of the most evocative and best-loved melodies in opera.
The stunning set, built by Setup Scenery, who also build sets for the Royal Opera Covent Garden, reflects the magnificent architecture of Seville with its Roman and Moorish influences.
Carmen will star Ukrainian mezzo-soprano’s Natalia Matveeva and Irina Sproglis. Sung in French with English surtitles.
Madama Butterfly, the winner of the Best Opera Award by the Liverpool Daily Post Theatre Awards, returns in a new production with exquisite sets including a spectacular Japanese garden and fabulous costumes including antique wedding kimonos from Japan. One of the world’s most popular operas, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly tells the heart-breaking story of the beautiful young Japanese girl who falls in love with an American naval lieutenant – with dramatic results. Highlights include the melodic ‘Humming Chorus’, the moving aria ‘One Fine Day’ and the unforgettable ‘Love Duet’.
In Madama Butterfly the fabulous Korean soprano Elena Dee returns alongside Ukrainian soprano Alyona Kistenyova and Ukrainian mezzo-soprano’s Natalia Matveeva and Irina Sproglis. Madama Butterfly will be sung in Italian with English surtitles.
Ellen personally hand-picks and directs all soloists to create visually beautiful and moving productions. She said of these productions, ‘I am delighted to be working with the Ukrainian Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv again after the huge success of the spring 2023 tour. I started working with Ukraine in 2000 and have continued these strong relationships ever since, working with the Odessa National Opera for which I was awarded The Golden Fortune Honorary Medal from the President of the Ukraine, as well as the Kharkiv National Opera and for the last couple of years with the brilliant Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv.’
Tickets for Carmen (17 January 2024) and Madama Butterfly (18 January 2024) at Oxford’s New Theatre are available here.
Poirot heads to Wycombe
Round & About
Shows & Reviews
David Suchet makes his eagerly-awaited return to The Wycombe Swan in Poirot and More: A Retrospective
Audiences have been invited to experience a rare opportunity with one of the world’s most celebrated and fascinating actors of our time.
The chance to hear David Suchet in conversation is an unmistakably unique event. A retrospective look at David’s career will have you witness some of his most beloved performances in a new and intimate light.
For over 25 years he captivated millions worldwide as Agatha Christie’s elegant Belgian detective. Beyond Poirot, this Emmy award-winning actor has been celebrated for his portrayal of iconic roles such as Lady Bracknell, Cardinal Benelli and Freud. David has also graced the world’s stages bringing literary greats to life, including Shakespeare, Wilde and Albee.
Meet the actor behind the detective and the many faces he’s portrayed on stage and screen over a career spanning five decades. Discover why David Suchet is renowned for not only becoming the role, but also taking on the personalities of some of television, film and theatre’s most fascinating characters.
Take your seat at this once-in-a-lifetime event, and go behind the screen and curtain with a legend.
Poirot and More: A Retrospective comes to the Wycombe Swan on Friday February 16th. Tickets available here
Marika Hackman releases Big Sigh
Round & About
Shows & Reviews
A welcome return from Marika Hackman sees her release her first album in nearly four years and it promises to be one of the most intriguing releases of 2024. Already.
Marika Hackman likens her creative process to hacking into a block of ice. “It’s about chipping away at whatever that golden thing is in the centre. The more you do it, the more visible and easy to access it becomes.” The problem, Marika says, is if you leave the block for too long it freezes over. The glow gets duller, the fear of finding it intensifies. “Not the most relaxed metaphor for a musician who’s trying to reduce their stress levels, admittedly.”
Such was the case with Big Sigh – the “hardest record” Marika has ever made. As its title suggests, it is a release of sorts – of sadness, of stress and lust, but mostly relief.
At the start of 2020, Marika hurtled into lockdown; stifled and isolated, her musical brain nullified. She had been in a constant cycle of write/record/press/tour for thirteen years, since the age of nineteen, and the eerie silence of stopping was agonising. “I have pretty bad anxiety. It’s usually manageable but having a lack of control for two years during the pandemic was impossible.” Being with friends, swimming, collaborating and touring, everything Marika normally used to distract her mind from spiralling thoughts and feelings had disappeared. She stopped writing songs. The ice got thicker.
As the months progressed, she accrued scraps of melodies but never felt that spectral hit of a fully formed song arriving in her brain. Instead, she recorded and produced Covers – brilliant interpretations of some of her favourite songs. Deep down, however, Marika wondered if she’d ever write again.
Until one evening in 2021, when she struck gold in the most unlikely of places: a toilet.
Restrictions had been lifted, and Marika went to the pub. “I had written a song at home that day and recorded it onto my phone quickly as I had to leave to meet friends. When I was at the pub, I went into the loo to listen back to it and realised it was a cracker. I welled up with this huge relief. I realised I’d done it – I’d put the first crack in the ice.”
That song became Hanging, a track that processes the end of a relationship in a delicate, dissociative daze, until its engulfing ending – a crash of banshee wails and grunge guitars. Not only was it the song that freed Marika’s creative flow, but it’s one that epitomises the album’s opposing themes: the contrast of loud-quiet, the rub of industrial and pastoral, and the innocence of childhood versus the gnarly realities of adulthood.
To achieve these dualities, Marika had to summon a very specific soundscape for each song: she not only played every instrument save for the brass and strings on Big Sigh, but produced it too, along with Sam Petts-Davies [Thom Yorke, Warpaint] and long-term collaborator Charlie Andrew. “I’d always produced on my records, but I’d never backed myself enough to actually say that I had. I liked being a sponge and I saw the first two thirds of my career as a learning experience – I would sit back in a slightly deferential position to allow the dynamic to work. With this album I got to a point where I realised I’d done the learning, I knew what to do.”
Big Sigh is the latest advancement by a musician who has remained inventive with every release. Over the years her enigmatic genre-morphing sound has been compared to “the lovechild of Nico and Joanna Newsom”, Blur and Rid of Me-era PJ Harvey, while the Guardian’s five-star review of 2019’s Any Human Friend praised her “lethally sharp pop hooks”.
On Big Sigh, however, Marika ventures into fresh terrain. There is a constant tug between organic instrumentation and the harsher dynamics of synthetic distortion – like walking into an abandoned industrial wasteland covered in poison ivy. If it’s her haunting soundscapes that first lure you in, it’s her lyrical acrobatics that latch onto your brain – images of gore, yearning and off-kilter romance.
Leaving the carnal days of her 20s behind, this album is less a photo-real documentation of the moment, but more like an artist peering through a gap in a door to reassess her former life. Except for No Caffeine, however, which thrusts its listener into the eye of the storm. A To Do list sung as if in the foetal position, it rattles off the preventative tools Marika has learned to try and stop a panic attack. “Occupy your mind / Don’t stay home / Talk to all your friends, but don’t look at your phone / Scream into a bag / Try to turn your brain off.”
On Big Sigh, not only is Marika recounting her experience of anxiety, but reckoning with it. She first encountered an acute level of fear at the age of 17 when her appendix burst – a near fatal incident made worse by contracting sepsis in hospital. “It was a big body shock. I was just a kid, and then after that I had subsequent quick traumas, which I didn’t deal with. It was then I had my first panic attack and I’ve been anxious ever since.”
That confrontation with death altered Marika profoundly – it became the genesis of her musical career. Not only did she start making music soon after the incident, but it gave her one of her greatest thematic traits: a wry, disturbing preoccupation with bodily expulsions – blood, sick and beyond. These are all the physical elements of being alive that make her feel out of control, the ones she so desperately avoids in real life, but in her music confronts corporeality with brutal, deadpan humour.
Perhaps at the core of that block of ice is less of a mystical golden orb, and more of a human blob, a beating heart, a weary brain. In her never-ending pursuit of untangling her internal universe and exploring complex melodies, she has made her most honest and brave album yet.
“This album took a long time to make. It was not easy, and by the time I got to the end of it I was quiet. I wanted to be away from it and let it sit in its own space. Now the dust has settled and I’ve got to re-enter the world of Big Sigh, and I’m excited.”
Stepping into a new world, moving forward, chipping away. Breathe in, breathe out. Big sigh.
Big Sigh is released on Chrysalis Records on January 12th.
Review – Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Liz Nicholls
Shows & Reviews
It turns out everybody’s talking about Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, and it’s easy to see why.
With energy levels flagging and skies gloomier than Sheffield smog everyone’s in need of a boost at this time of year.
So it’s a delight that the award-winning hit musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie has landed at Oxford’s New Theatre.
The opening night shone brighter than a rave rainbow thanks to star performances and plenty of laughs from Ivano Turco (Get Up, Stand Up!, Cinderella) as Jamie New, the indomitable stage legend Darren Day as Hugo/Loco Chanelle and Shobna Gulati (Coronation Street, Brassic).
The ”musical for all” tells of Jamie New, who is 16 and lives on a council estate in Sheffield. Supported by his brilliant loving mum and surrounded by his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness, into the spotlight with plenty of humour courtesy of drag queens and superb support from a star cast who are clearly having a ball. Their northern humour, accompanied by the live orchestra and fabulous costume and stage sets are sure to have you feeling brighter and full of hope as you strut out into the rainy streets.
Set to an original score of catchy pop tunes that will ‘blow the roof off the theatre’ (Mail on Sunday) by lead singer-songwriter of The Feeling, Dan Gillespie Sells and writer Tom MacRae (Doctor Who). Choreographed by Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Kate Prince (Into The Woods, Some Like It Hip Hop, SYLVIA, Message In A Bottle). This ‘sparking coming-of-age musical’ (The Times) will have everybody talking about Jamie for years to come.
Darren Day said “It’s a wonderfully uplifting show filled with great music and humour and has a beautiful message at its heart. I’m thrilled to be part of it.”
Following a record-breaking three-year West End residency, sold out UK & Ireland Tour and Amazon studios award-winning film, the show runs at New Theatre until 30th January. Watch the trailer here
New High Flying Birds Release
Round & About
Shows & Reviews
Noel Gallagher revisits his Oasis B-sides for the latest from The High Flying Birds.
It’s a long-known wisdom that if you want to find the real gold in the Oasis canon, you need to dig around in their B-sides. That’s where you’ll find the likes of Talk Tonight, Round Are Way and Half The World Away. Since the band’s split, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds have filled the void for many, but let’s be honest, even Noel’s most ardent fan must hanker for the days when he graced the stage with his younger brother.
Digging back into his old band’s back catalogue, the High Flying Birds have just ‘unveiled’ their versions of Going Nowhere and The Masterplan, both Oasis B-sides. It’s a move which perhaps suggests that even Noel Gallagher is starting to realise that the well has run dry and the songs he wrote as part of Oasis (a naturally fractious and explosive band) were better than anything he’s done since. Surely, it’s time that the brothers Gallagher sorted themselves out and just got Oasis back together?
Whilst it’s hard to deny the anthemic nature of these songs, it’s fair to say that these retreads lack the passion and excitement Gallagher used to infuse his songs with. Back then, it felt like he was one of us, but now, it feels as if he’s going through the motions; disconnected completely with his roots and his audience. He is of course, extremely rich, as he noted when winning the best video award for Wonderwall, and we aren’t.
The Masterplan was the flipside to what many consider the pinnacle of the band’s career (Wonderwall). The many are wrong. Oasis never topped the relentless glory of Columbia. All that aside, The Masterplan in its original guise did possess a sense of soaring emotion passion as did Going Nowhere which graced the Stand By Me single.
These new recordings do little to improve on the original versions. Sure, they were recorded at Abbey Road and have layers of orchestration, but there’s still something lacking. To borrow a line from Columbia, “what I heard is not what I hear”. But what do we know? The High Flying Birds have received glowing accolades for their latest album Council Skies and their end of year tour has several sold out dates. We still can’t help but think that everyone would rather Oasis put their differences behind them and got back together.
You can hear the new versions of these songs here. Have a listen and tell us what you think.
Or if you prefer you can watch The Masterplan here and Going Nowhere here.
Guildford Fringe’s adult panto is back
Round & About
Shows & Reviews
The sell-out professional adult panto Sleeping Beauty Felt A Little Prick is at The Back Room of the Star Inn, Guildford, from November 23rd to January 6th
Guildford Fringe Adult Panto returns for its 12th year, with Sleeping Beauty Felt A Little Prick the Adult Panto running from 23rd November – 6th January 2024 at the Back Room of the Star Inn.
The show is delivered by the creative team behind the company’s recent hit adult pantos Sinders, D!CK, Pinocchio, Aladdin One Rub Too Many and Throbbin’ Hood & his Little John. The production has a brand new script, written by Director James Chalmers with Assistant Director and Choreographer Charlotte Wyschna.
Charlotte Wyschna and Nick Wyschna of Guildford Fringe said: “Prepare for an uproarious spectacle as our yearly adult panto returns, promising laughter, mischief, and a stellar cast that will leave you in stitches. With a history of sold-out success, this year’s production is set to be a comedic masterpiece that’ll have audiences talking long after the final curtain falls.”
The professional cast (with character names kept clean here…) is:
Ciara-Alexandra Booker (Fairy): Ciara-Alexandra trained in Musical Theatre at Bird College of Performing Arts. Theatre includes: Aladdin (DK Productions), Shakespeare In Love (Altrincham Garrick Playhouse) and Aladdin (The Empty Space).
Rosy Carr (Baddy): Rosy recently graduated from Performance Preparation Academy in Guildford.Theatre includes: Throbbin Hood and His Little John (Guildford Fringe Theatre Company) and RENT (Performance Preparation Academy).
Molly King (Princess): Molly is training with Identity School of Acting, and is a 2022 Bird College graduate.Theatre includes: One Week in Magaluf (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), The Business of Love (The Hope Theatre, London), Pippin (Doreen Bird Foundation Theatre) and Aladdin (Theatre Royal, Bath).Molly is the Founder and Director of Reclaim Productions (.).
Finan McKinney (Prince): Finan trained at Arts Educational Schools London followed by the Performance Preparation Academy. Theatre includes: Viking Cruise Vocalist, Aladdin (Redhill), and In Pieces Workshop. Finan is delighted to be spending this Christmas making rude jokes in Guildford, a town in which he trained at drama school!
David Scotland (Dame): David trained at Bird College. David is delighted to be working with Guildford Fringe again after appearing in Dick! – The Adult Panto previously. In 2022, David was selected for the Traverse Theatre’s Breakthrough Writers: Launchpad programme. His first play, I’ve Never Met Anyone Quite Like You Before debuted at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023, receiving fantastic reviews and a nomination for an OffFest Award.
To book for Sleeping Beauty Felt A Little Prick the Adult Panto, strictly for over 18s only, visit www.GuildfordFringe.com or telephone the Box Office on 01483 361101. The show runs at approx. 1 hour (no interval). Strictly for 18+ audiences.
Tickets: £20-£21.50. www.GuildfordFringe.com / 01483 361101
Age Guidance: strictly 18+ only
Access: There is no step-free access to the venue. There are no disabled toilets at the venue.
The most English Scotsman?
Round & About
Shows & Reviews
Robbie James shares his love of his ‘homeland’ in his new TV show and invites you to join the journey up north
I’ve lived all but two years of my life in the south of England. I grew up near Winchester. Winchester! It doesn’t get much more English than middle class, oat milk flat white, Schoffel wearing Winchester. I’ve since moved to Farnham. Farnham! Middle class, oat milk flat white, Schoffel wearing Farnham.
Ok so maybe I’ve had a fairly English life so far, but at heart, I feel very, very Scottish. I know, you’re rolling your eyes as you await me to tell you about my great aunt’s, cousin’s, labrador’s, dressing table’s Scottish heritage, but let me explain.
My grandparents on my mum’s side came down to Aldershot from Glasgow when my grandad (Papi as we call him) was in the parachute regiment. Ever since, my family has been settled down south, but they’ve never lost their love and impassionment for Scotland, and that’s rubbed off on me.
Watching Scotland play in the Six Nations from their south coast home has formed the nucleus of all major family events. Hearing stories of Jack & Betty’s less than glamorous upbringings in the Glaswegian tenements has humbled us through the years, and near enough everything I have in my life is thanks to their relentless hard graft. But anyway, we’ve always been brought up to be aware of our Scottish roots, and to feel them.
So when Travelxp asked me if I’d like to host a TV show taking you around Scotland for 10 days, I immediately said yes. We filmed it at the back end of the summer and it was the most fun. It felt like a form of homecoming, which even I struggle to comprehend given I’ve only ever lived in Scotland to study at Heriot Watt University for two years, but I feel at my most content in Scotland.
Every country has a mixed bag of people; but the self-deprecating, warm, charming and often downright mischievous sense of humour from Scottish people is something I can really get on board with. The landscape is also just beautiful to the point where I feel drained from the emotion it somehow brings out in me. So romantic, curiously personable, and yes really cold, but that’s fine.
I think the show covers all bases when it comes to exploring the country. We of course take you through some of the most emotive landscape the UK (and in my opinion, the world) has to offer, but we also head into cities, touch on Scotland’s often traumatic history, and you bet we learn the bagpipes (which by the way is one of the hardest things to do, lots of blowing, to the extent I nearly passed out).
I think it’s important not to force any kind of #content down anyone’s throat. No one trusts a sales rep, so we wanted to give you some ideas of things to do if you’re visiting Scotland, but they’re only ideas. You’re grown up and can plan your own trip, you don’t need me to tell you how brilliant every single cafe or walk in Scotland is, because it’s not. That’s not the case anywhere, except maybe Farnham…or Winchester. Uh oh.
Watch Robbie James in 10 Days Scotland, which airs from 25th November exclusively on Travelxp.