Wed 31 Mar

THE ART OF STORYTELLING

Terry Saunders' ‘Six and a Half Loves’
+ Matthew Robins
+ The Chip Shop Poem by Ian McMillan with the Henningham Family Press
+ The Tree of Lost Things
+ more tbc

St Leonard's Church | £8 adv, £10 door | 8pm

They say the art of the story is in the telling. But a little help from friends never went amiss. A coterie of skilled and award-winning yarn-spinners augment their narratives with puppets, cartoons, gift-tags from the audience and a live printing press.

Critically acclaimed comedian, storyteller and hopeless romantic Terry Saunders premieres his brand new Six And A Half Loves, a tale of perfect couples who never get to reach their perfection. Using animation, stand-up, storytelling, video and possibly a mannequin, he will tell the story of three of the most perfect couples to have ever lived and why exactly none of them have quite managed to make it.

Voted one of the top ten comedians in Time Out’s reader’s poll and winner of Chortle’s Best Show award at Edinburgh 2007, Terry’s oblique whimsy has found expression in shows about lonely people leaving adverts for each other, a boy who speaks only in Pulp lyrics and an Elliott Smith obsessive who can see into the future.

With a Tim Burton-y, Raymond Briggsian imagination, Matthew Robins is a restless animator and musician. Matthew and his band perform episodes from The Death of Flyboy, a science-fiction romantic shadow-opera. The sad story of half-human, half-insect Flyboy; unpopular at school, mocked by his peers and dealing with the unrequited affection of a giant robot, while his friend Mothboy is busy knitting a lovely new spaceship for them. Recently seen at the National Theatre, the V&A, Roundhouse, Shunt Vaults and De La Warr Pavilion, take off into Flyboy’s wonderful world. Matthew will also perform from his new show Sad Lucy: a Fish Opera.

Decorating the nave of St Leonard’s like creeping ivy, Ignore the Forecast’s participatory art project The Tree of Lost Things collects things mourned for and misplaced by 8000 members of the public. Some funny, some sad, some strange, this installation is a poignant chronicle of loss. The Tree of Lost Things was the Sunday Times’ critic’s choice from Latitude Festival 2008 and part of Battersea Arts Centre’s Gala programme 2009.

Tying things off neatly, Jovial promulgator, poet, performer, broadcaster and ‘the shirley bassey of performance poetry’ Ian McMillan will perform a reading of the Festival’s official Chip Shop Poem, in collaboration with the Henningham Family Press. A new commission, made entirely from the words ordered over the counter of the Henningham’s Chip Shop events over the course of the festival. Ian’s poem will be performed and then live printed to make commemorative festival poster-poems, available on the night.

*Please note there is no bar at this event. You are welcome to bring your own drinks.

“effortlessly funny”
– Metro on Terry Saunders

” . . . as borderless as its creator’s imagination, the universe of Matthew Robins’s shadow plays is simultaneously homely, sinister and one of the most engaging live experiences you’ll encounter this year . . .”
– Time Out on Matthew Robins

www.terrysaunders.co.uk
www.sadlucy.com
www.ian-mcmillan.co.uk
ignoretheforecast.blogspot.com
www.henninghamfamilypress.co.uk

The Chip Shop by the Henningham Family Press is supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation: www.jerwoodcharitablefoundation.org