Hibrow Hour at the Odeon
Hibrow, the digital arts pioneers, will join forces with big screen giants, Odeon, to take the world’s biggest arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, out of its cobbled confines and into Brighton cinemas with a series of special screenings throughout August.
Hibrow Hour, generously supported by Arts Council England, is a series of daily performances at Edinburgh’s fêted Summerhall venue, throughout this year’s Fringe. Eight of these new shows, spanning theatre, comedy, opera and visual art, have been specially designed to be transmitted via satellite to selected Odeon cinemas nationwide. Hibrow Hour represents an exciting new digital frontier for the legendary festival: three brand new plays by young theatre-makers, an opera from an internationally recognised artist/filmmaker, comedy acts curated by two of Britain’s most celebrated comedy producers, and a show from the inimitable Steven Berkoff who epitomises the Festival’s dedication to talent. All is designed to bring the excitement of the festival to cinema audiences. Each 90 minute programme will also include exclusive coverage of the Festival at large in a specially produced featurette.
The first screening on Monday 4 August will be The Dispute, directed by National Theatre Staff Director and former RSC assistant director Emily Kempson. The play chronicles a bold scientific experiment in which four babies are raised in isolation for eighteen years before being released to discover a world of seduction, deception and the dark, labyrinthine recesses of human nature and sexual desire.
On Wednesday 6 August, it’s the first edition of The Hibrow Comedy Hour; a show from the UK’s foremost satirical rockers, Jonny & The Baptists, who shot to national attention with their acerbically catchy number, UKIP, and promise an hour of high-calibre musical comedy with political bite.
Following, on Monday 11 August, is another potent theatrical offering, The Man Who Almost Killed Himself, an adaptation of the writings of anthropologist Andrew Irving developed by Josh Azouz. The Man Who Almost Killed Himself is an arresting comedic account of a Ugandan man in the grip of HIV/AIDs whose attempts to take his own life, in flagrant disregard of the country’s draconian laws, are repeatedly unsuccessful. Based on a true story, the performance will feature live music from BAFTA-nominated African fusion band The Ganda Boys.
Then, on Tuesday 12 August, there’s more comedy from New Act of the Year Finalists, the superstar sketch quartet Four Screws Loose.
Thursday 14 August will see a rare and unique screening of an uninhibited, never-before-seen one man show from legendary actor Steven Berkoff, featuring poetry, storytelling and discussion – Berkoff the Inimitable.
On Monday 18 August, Sleight & Hand, the debut full-length play written by award winning playwright Chris Bush and directed by Marieke Audsley, tells the tale of an illusionist and a pickpocket who form an unlikely crime-fighting duo in Victorian London. This will be followed on Wednesday 20 August by the final Hibrow Comedy Hour performance, which sees winner of the Spirit of the Fringe and Three Weeks Editor Awards, Sarah-Louise Young, returning as Cabaret Whore for an evening of brilliant character comedy and glittering original songs, introducing desperate divas from around the globe, from tortured French chanteuse La Poule Plombée to washed up lounge crooner Bernie St Clair.
Finally, a spectacular finale on Thursday 21 August. Hibrow will present an outrageous operatic satire from the wickedly funny imagination of renowned artist and film-maker Alison Jackson: A Story in the Public Domain. Details about this project are currently under wraps and will be announced before the festival opens.
These screenings offer the first opportunity to combine the thrill of artistic discovery that only the Edinburgh Festival Fringe can offer with the unparalleled pleasure of a trip to the Cinema. Hibrow Hour runs throughout the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 31 July 2014
