PRESS RELEASE: For immediate release May 21st 2019
This year’s Spoken Word category at Buxton 40th Fringe (July 3-24) is over twice as big as it was last year with Fringe performers queuing up to entertain, educate and amuse.
Ian McMillan, Radio 4 broadcaster and inimitable Bard of Barnsley, offers a night of songs, stories and comedy alongside Olympic composer Luke Carver Goss at the Chelmorton Village Festival. There is more out of town fun with Storytelling at High Peak Bookstore featuring Ian Gregory with four original stories set in the Peak District. The Bookstore is also the setting for Jawbone, a spoken word journey through Middle England by prize-winning poets Peter Roe and Tom Rogers. Storyteller Creeping Toad meanwhile invites us all to be inspired by our surroundings as he invites us to Whispers in the Grass at Dove Valley Activity Centre.
Back in Buxton, photographer and poet Simon Corble shares poems about the Peak and atmospheric photography in White Light White Peak at Underground at the Old Clubhouse. At the nearby Pump Room, Georgina Watson combines spoken word and actual audience walking in her unusual show A Moment of Rural Walking.
Some of the Fringe’s best acting is often found in this category. Paul Webster, winner of a Fringe Award last year, is back with three one-man shows on Hitler, Shakespeare and Somerset Maugham, and Olivier Award winning Guy Masterson presents a solo tour de force with his Under Milk Wood - Semi Skimmed at the Rotunda. Masterson also channels the spirit of his great uncle, the late Richard Burton, in his companion show Fern Hill And Other Dylan Thomas.
The Fringe Award-winning Genevieve Carver and The Unsung makes a welcome return with A Beautiful Way to be Crazy based on interviews with women working in the music industry and featuring live music and audio. Psychedelic folk combines with storytelling and vaudeville as another Fringe star, Mark Gwynne Jones, returns with his band Psychicbread in New World Fayre.
Jimmy Andrex uses music in a stimulating show about poverty and inequality, Stupidity is Not the Problem. He will also be reading his poetry in the intimate setting of Scrivener’s Bookshop in Jimmy Andrex Pamphlet Launch.
Soul searching and politics combine in Our Man written and performed by the award-winning Jamie Thrasivoulou while Matt McGuinness - We Are What We Overcome sees the popular performer shedding light on mental health issues with his self-deprecating honesty and dark humour. The Glummer Twins are worrying about turning 60. They bring Beat poetry rhythms and a likeable Morecambe and Wise rapport to their popular show The Glummer Twins: Just a Number at Underground.
There is plenty of magic to enjoy whether it is the theramin-backed folk and fairytales of Sinister Masterplan’s Impostors or Michael Gibson’s celebration of over 1000 years of verse in The Song and the Soul of English Poetry at The Green Man Gallery.
History is at the heart of several Spoken Word productions. Remember Peterloo! With Buxton Radical Readers or meet stand-up comedian Richard Pulsford whose show Conflict of Interest finds him delving into his family history to hear from both sides in the First World War.
Discover Buxton Tours offers a chance to walk with actual characters from history. There is an opportunity to join Anna Seward: Woman of Enlightenment on The Slopes and Mary Queen of Scots herself at The Old Hall Hotel. Fringe-goers can also meet outside the Opera House to go on a promenade exploring the history of theatre in Buxton in Hey Diddle Dee An Actor’s Life for Me.
Equally worthwhile is Meet the Experts, a series of free lunchtime talks by heritage experts at the Museum and Art Gallery.
For further information see the printed programme, www.buxtonfringe.org.uk or the new Buxton Fringe App.
The Fringe wishes to thank its sponsor The University of Derby as well as financial supporters The Trevor Osborne Charitable Trust and High Peak Borough Council, its Fringe Friends and the town’s many Fringe supporters and venues.
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