DAVID K. BARNES - WRITER
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    • The Awkward Ghost
    • Birthday Suit
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Beyond the Fringe

26/8/2014

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Picture© aliceboreasphotography.com
Arrived home yesterday after a tiring but rewarding week at the Edinburgh Festival. I sadly wasn't able to take much advantage of my time spent there and so saw only a handful of other shows (the funniest being Beach Comet's "GhostCop", a glorious performance of a "forgotten 80s cult classic") but I managed to see a legion of old friends. I also fell once more in love with Edinburgh, the city in which I began getting involved with theatre in a big way.

Games of Love and Chance exceeded all expectations the team could have had for it. Despite little in the way of advance physical publicity (as opposed to our online campaign), the show achieved a sell-out run across its six performances and the audiences were extraordinarily enthusiastic. It was also delightful to see a wide age range in our audiences, with members both young and old enjoying our farce and laughing in all the places we'd hoped they'd laugh. We gained a clutch of encouraging reviews and best of all were shortlisted for the NSDF Edinburgh Festival Award
, gaining special panel commendations for Original Music (Gabriel Chernick) and Original Writing (er, me).

It's been a dream to work on and, if nothing else, we all learnt that flyering definitely pays off. It was also wonderful to discover that there was definitely a place for a show like ours: a piece of traditional comic theatre, suitable for a family audience, which was still infused with what one reviewer called "an entirely 21st century mindset." It was only when I returned home that I realised Games was my first fully performed piece since leaving Edinburgh two years ago. A lot has happened since The Wind in the Willows and I'm feeling greatly energised by the experience of this show. Everybody in the cast and crew did a sterling job and were tremendous company to boot.

And hopefully that's not all. Buoyed by our success, we fully intend to develop Games and give it a much longer life, in London, around the UK, and perhaps beyond!
Lord knows how we're going to do it (besides me expanding the script to suit a two hour duration) but we're going to give it a bash and see what happens.

Splendid.





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Games of Love and Chance begins tomorrow...

17/8/2014

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... and our publicity designer / manager, Mihaela Bodlovic, has managed to provide us with these utterly delightful character portraits! Mihaela has handled every piece of publicity for this show, including posters, flyers and online content, and by crikey we're chuffed to have her working on the show. I've been lucky enough to have had Mihaela's designs for several previous productions but she really pulled the stops out for this one.
I'm off to Edinburgh tomorrow morning, hopefully arriving in time to catch the first show!

Games of Love and Chance
18-23 August, 2:55pm
Bedlam Theatre, 11b Bristo Place, Edinburgh

Purchase tickets here!
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Bitch 'n' Monk - PR & Deep Feeling

14/8/2014

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In news which will thrill you and terrify you, I've been flexing my dramaturgy muscles recently, which has also given me an opportunity to try and work out what dramaturgy is. I did an MA in the subject and even my tutors couldn't reach a practical consensus on the term. It basically boils down to being a professional theatrical opinion but that sounds unbearably pompous and I'm sure it's still wildly inaccurate.

Anyway, I've been helping out raucous musical duo Bitch 'n' Monk with their new show, PR & Deep Feeling, which begins its 10 day run at the Edinburgh Fringe tonight!

'Beatboxing soprano' and guitarist Heidi Heidelberg aka 'Bitch' and rock flute-player Mauricio Velasierra aka 'Monk' first met in a tent in Taunton, fought over melodies in Paris, and are now gaining an eclectic set of fans including Yoko Ono and Ray Davies (The Kinks) and have been known to roam the stages of London's Royal Festival Hall, Paris's La Cigale, or even the V&A Museum.
Not the sort of thing I'm normally involved with, which is why I was very excited to give it a bash. The duo wanted to experiment by introducing a satirical element to their performances, poking some caustic jabs at the fractious relationship between PR and the arts, and so turn their gig from a standard series of songs into a more rounded and involved performance piece. Though their music remains the core of the show, I've attempted to develop with them a thematic unity and progression to the performance, and to devise some material and spoken moments that give body to their chosen theme. Which basically means I droned on about structure and then threw some jokes in. Not even the best ones, to be honest; they already had a formidable amount of material to start off with.

Anyway, they seemed dreadfully pleased with me and their "irresponsible fusion of music and mockery" will begin tonight at 11pm at the George Next Door, 9 George IV Bride. You can also listen to their debut short album Fulafalonga on Spotify, all of which will be performed (and subverted) during their Edinburgh show.

Meanwhile, rehearsals continue on Games of Love and Chance and the cast and crew are gearing themselves up for the trip to Edinburgh. More about that when it happens, but the for time being: we have flyers! Cor.
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    David K. Barnes

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