Stage: Avant Guardians
Award-winning director Nathan Evans comes to Brighton’s Marlborough Theatre
After selling out previews at Oval House and the Arts Council’s decibel Showcase in Manchester last year, this creative collision of cabaret, live art and film conceived by award-winning director Nathan Evans comes to Brighton’s Marlborough Theatre.
The show features performances by Avant Guardian Angel, David Hoyle, David Sheppeard and Eco-Worrier Extraordinaire Timberlina, who each have just 14 minutes to save the planet. David Hoyle’s career has spanned decades and continents. Whilst manifesting as ‘The Divine David’ he had an eponymous Channel 4 series, plus he’s also fetched up at Sydney Opera House and directed a feature film; his residencies at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern are the stuff of legend.
All performances have been developed and directed by Nathan Evans in collaboration with the artists and the support of Arts Council England. As a writer, director and performer his shows have been toured by the British Council, broadcast on Channel 4, archived by the British Film Institute, awarded a few statuettes and presented at venues across the planet.
He said; “I came up with the idea for this project when I discovered the TED Talks, which challenge the world’s ‘inspired thinkers’ to give the ‘talk of their lives’ in 18 minutes. I was seeking a way to give artists a guiding time frame and concept to produce a performance when Dale Arden’s voice popped into my head hollering, ‘Flash! I love you but we only have 14 hours to save the earth!’ and I had it.” Nathan has been challenged to create his own 14 minute performance for Latitude and will be creating further performances with other artists as the project develops.
The show, which also features cinematic entr’actes created with theatrical radical, Bette Bourne, and video anti-hero, Kate Pelling, have been described by The Erotic Review as “fast-paced, thought-provoking and extremely entertaining’ and “a happy dose of queer cabaret” by The Guardian. It serves up serious subjects such as ecology, spirituality and politics with a shot of anarchic humour and a dash of radical glamour.
Bette Bourne is an actor and founder of the Obie award-winning drag-troupe Bloolips. He’s performed at theatres including the National and the Globe (as he has in nations and theatres around the world). Kate Pelling is an experimental video artist currently doing her Phd at Chelsea School of Art. She’s very tall and beautiful and lives outrageously in London with a seraglio of handsome, young men.
I Love You But We Only Have Fourteen Minutes to Save the Earth, Marlborough Theatre, Friday 28 & Saturday 29 September, 8pm, £10/8. Call the box office on 01273 570028, or visit www.marlboroughtheatre.org.uk
