Category Archives: CARnival Bentham

Carnival Bentham 2015! & the 150th Anniversary of “Alice in Wonderland”

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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DSC00874I finally got around to hanging Gerald Townson’s prize winning photo of Tim Austin and myself (with Rough Magic Theatre’s Mad Hatter’s Tea Party walkabout show and my “Edward Lear’s Nonsense” Shadow Puppet Suitcase Show at “Carnival Bentham by Bike” last year) on the wall above my desk.  A big thank-you to him for giving us this lovely framed certificate and for taking the photo in the first place.

In case you’re wondering, Tim is in the black & white top hat and I am in the Black and Yellow one.  To see the picture on the Craven Herald & Pioneer website CLICK HERE.

Carnival Bentham will be happening again this year on Saturday May 30th and the theme will be birds (and ducks in particular to compliment We Are Bentham‘s duck race event).

Rough Magic Theatre have been involved with this event every year since it started as My Last CARnival (an accompaniment to the My Last Car theatre show by 509 arts).  In its 2nd year it became CARnival Bentham and last year became CARnival Bentham by bike to link in with the Yorkshire based Tour de France and to celebrate the launch of Bentham as a “Passing Place” on the “Way of the Roses” cycle route.  Bentham officially “opened” a sculpture of a giant pair of bloomers (to commemorate the fact that Bentham’s silk mill created the silk for Queen Victoria’s bloomers).  So bloomers were one theme for the event and fish became another as part of the carnival “story” involving a white and red queen, (lancashire and yorkshire) who tried to catch all the fish in the river wenning.  If you want to hear the full story let me know.  Click HERE to see my previous blog posts where we created “Fred Fettler’s “Pony 3000″ – The Transport of the Future” show for My Last CARnival and click HERE to see the video and show page.

To see a picture of our “fishy” mad hatter’s tea party in the Westmorland Gazette CLICK HERE For pictures from the Carnival Bentham by bike facebook page taken by Peter Rollinson CLICK HERE.

Tim’s Mad Hatter’s Tea Party with added fishing game to fit with theme

 

“Edward Lear’s Nonsense” show (with added bloomers to fit with the theme)

I have recently discovered that this year is the 150th Anniversary of “Alice in Wonderland” so this would be a perfect time to book our full length indoor “Alice in Wonderland” show, (CLICK HERE for info. and video).  Alternatively we have our Mad Hatter’s Tea Party walkabout show with either 1 or 2 performers, (you get Alice & the Mad Hatter too).  Another choice to fit with a Lewis Carroll theme would be our “Jabberwocky!” Shadow Suitcase walkabout show, (CLICK HERE for more info. and video) and not forgetting our giant parade puppet Jabberwocky which you can see on the banner at the top this blog’s home page.

We can also do accompanying “Alice in Wonderland” workshops/talks/question and answer sessions that look at the history of the book and Lewis Carroll.

I have also been nominated for the 5 day Puppetry Heroes challenge started by Ronnie Burkett on Facebook and I have done my first entry today.  Click HERE to go to the Facebook page

Oh I do like to be beside the Sea-side…..at Morecambe Variety Festival!!

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Greetings Blog readers!  Here’s a quick post about the Morecambe Variety Festival from the weekend before last.

This was an event organised by the lovely Neil Kendall and was at the Winter Gardens in Morecambe.  They had done this event before in 2012 but this is the first time we at Rough Magic Theatre have been involved.

Those of you who are local will know that for many years the Winter Gardens was left empty and was in a very poor state of repair.  However volunteers and the Friends of the Winter Gardens have been painstakingly working away to conserve and renovate the space.

Now it is possible to see what an amazing space it is, was and could be in the future given more money and more love.  Below is a video showing some of what the volunteers have been up to:

 

The festival attracted a lot of local people who hadn’t seen inside the building before and although there is still a lot to do they are very proud to have toilets and a cafe now which help to make the building a more usable and practical space.

Also the fellow performers I was sharing a dressing room with explained that I was lucky as when they had been involved with the festival in 2012 there had been no heating in the dressing rooms.  I am told that there are plans to install heating in the rest of the building which will be a massive leap forward as it will not only mean that the space can be used in the winter time but should also help minimise further deterioration of the plaster, paintwork etc. due to damp.

All that aside, you can see from the photo’s that even in its present state of slightly delapidated grandeur it was a wonderful setting for a quirky vintage style variety festival like this.

During the day, there were a lot of different performances going on, both outside the entrance of the building and on the main stage and around the edges of the downstairs auditorium and I with my Shadow Puppet Suitcase shows performed in the main auditorium area as well as the entrance hall and outside the building too as was appropriate.  You can see Neil’s photo of my “Jabberwocky!” show by clicking HERE.

There was also a showing Georges Melies’s “A Trip to the Moon” film with a specially composed musical score in one of the downstairs bar areas and also other things in spaces upstairs too.  I have only recently discovered Georges Melies but since I have, he seems to be popping up everywhere.  Below is a video of the film which has been restored and uses the hand-coloured version of the film:

 

 

After I had finished my shows on Sunday we saw the “Empty Theatre Tour” which had characters from the different eras of the theatre’s history conducting a tour of the building in character and contrived to convey an idea of being haunted by the history of the building, (in a nice way).

I had half a day performing on both the Saturday and the Sunday and since we were planning to attend the evening “Around the World in 80 Days” Cabaret Fancy Dress Ball event on the Friday night we booked into a Morecambe Guest House for convenience sake.

The evening entertainment was a combination of quirky variety and circus acts and burlesque performances, with the majority of the performers doing 2 separate performances.  These were linked together by a “flashman” M.C. and his put upon lackey touring the globe looking for the fabulous pink diamond of Limpopo!

In addition there was a fancy dress competition which was won by a lady who had made an ingenious outfit out of the pages of the “Morecambe Visitor”.

Speaking of marvellous local events.  We’ll be appearing at Bentham CARnival again this year at the end of the month, (to find out more about the event click HERE).  It will be a part of the Yorkshire Festival this year and is celebrating the opening of the “Way of the Roses” Passing Place Artwork in particular.  To find out more about this there is another page for CARnival Bentham by Bike that you can visit by clicking HERE.

The artwork is a giant pair of Queen Victoria’s bloomers made out of wire mesh to commemorate the fact that the silk for Queen Victoria’s bloomers was woven at the Bentham Silk Mill.  So bloomers are one of the themes this year as well as fish and fat sheep on bicycles.

I’ll be doing my Edward Lear’s Nonsense show which feature a pair of bloomers/”drawers” made of rabbit skins amongst other things and Tim will be the Mad Hatter who on this occasion will be doing a spot of fishing out of his teapots and kettles!