LATEST NEWS
17/04/12 DOMESTIC
Martin Lewton has been commissioned to perform in DOMESTIC at THE BASEMENT as part of the Brighton Festival. “Take a disquieting journey through a series of interactions, playing with the audience’s experience and exploring the unspoken emotions and politics of our daily lives”
Following on from a similar hugely successful event last year DOMESTIC is already sold out! Returns only.
24/02/12 WORKING WITH THE BASEMENT We are currently working on E2 supported by a Residency at The Basement in Brighton. www.thebasement.uk.com. At the same time we are working a a new way of presenting Naked Homo which will be unveiled at the Basement Supper Club on March 10th. Further performances of Billy Budd Sailor will be announced soon.
19/12/11 E2 IN DEVELOPMENT/BBS TOUR ON THE WAY
Following a successful try out in Plymouth, E2 is being developed for full scale production next year. We are particularly grateful for the help being given us by The Basement in Brighton. Meanwhile more dates are being sought for a British tour of prize winning Billy Budd Sailor and we are also working on a site specific project to be performed in May.
22/11/11 E2 SLOT AT IN THE FLESH FESTIVAL ANNOUNCED
The first performance of Theatre North’s new project E2 , as a work in progress, is to be given on Sunday December 4th at 8pm in the Barbican Theatre Plymouth as part of the In The Flesh Festival. If you’re in that part of the world please come along and support us!
Click on Latest Project for more information.
Tickets: www.barbicantheatre.co.uk
11/11/11 NWS MONDAY NIGHT MOOT : MONDAY 14TH NOVEMBER
Martin Lewton is speaking along with Miranda Henderson (Prodigal Theatre) at the first New Writing South MONDAY NIGHT MOOT on Monday at 7pm, in a discussion SHOW OR TELL = the use of dramatically explicit material versus the power of suggestion- chaired by Kicking K. More info from www.newwritingsouth.com
3/11/11 **** REVIEW FOR BILLY BUDD SAILOR IN GLASGOW
THE HERALD 03 Nov 2011 Mary Brennan
BILLY BUDD SAILOR, BRUNSWICK HOTEL, GLASGOW
Seven of us are watching Martin Lewton take a bath. He’s arrived, glass of wine in hand, unabashedly dropped his towel and settled his naked frame into the suds of a steamy tub. He begins his story based on the unfinished Herman Melville novella Billy Budd Sailor, and you want to giggle; the 18th century warship, HMS Bellipotent, is a plastic galleon that resembles Captain Pugwash’s boat, the crew that Billy is press-ganged into are little yellow ducks. By the time Lewton has finished his narrative, the bath water gurgling away like a hanging man’s last rasps, it’s hard to hold back unforeseen tears.
The bones of Melville’s story can be starkly relayed. A handsome, good-natured lad, Billy Budd, falls foul of a master-at-arms for reasons that are never spelled out, but can be guessed at in this Glasgay! production. Pushed to breaking point, Budd unintentionally kills the man and hangs for it. As Lewton soaps himself, the homo-erotic undercurrents in Melville’s writing surface in the rituals he introduces. The whimsical bath toys are replaced by a secret stash of gay porn, but any intended arousal stalls under the harrowing developments so vividly evoked by the richly nuanced text.
Secret desires, careful ambiguities, an immersion in solitary sensualities: all these strands whisper through the astute details of Lewton’s thoughtful and thought-provoking performance, imaginatively staged by Andrew McKinnon for Theatre North.
10/10/11 E2 TO BE PERFORMED IN PLYMOUTH!
The first “work in progress” performance of our latest project is to be performed at the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth as part of their In The Flesh Programme at the beginning of December. More details to follow
www.barbicantheatre.co.uk
BILLY BUDD SAILOR AT GLASGAY!
Billy Budd Sailor is to be performed at the Glasgay Festival -Scotland’s annual festival of queer culture. Ten performances are to be given in a bath in a bathroom in the Brunswick Hotel in central Glasgow from November 1st to 4th 2011. Booking now open http://www.glasgay.co.uk/event/id/557
Limited availability – book now!
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Theatre North announces its latest project
E2
2012 A political prisoner – naked and alone – is awaiting execution. Witnesses are ushered in to hear his final enforced confession. But this prisoner is a king – and his offence is love for another man.
A new site-responsive production for innovative flexible venues based on Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II, performed by Martin Lewton, directed by Andrew McKinnon.
For more information please contact E2@theatrenorth.co.uk
BILLY BUDD SAILOR TOUR
Following our success with Billy Budd Sailor in Brighton Theatre North’s associate producers Sophie Larsman and Sarah Clews are now actively seeking venues for a tour around the UK in Spring 2012. In addition we are in discussions with several gay theatre festivals about performing in the autumn.
Following our success with Billy Budd Sailor in Brighton Theatre North’s associate producers Sophie Larsman and Sarah Clews are now actively seeking venues for a tour around the UK in Spring 2012. In addition we are in discussions with several gay theatre festivals about performing in the autumn.
BOY IN DARKNESS Curious Directive performed BOY IN DARKNESS by Mervyn Peake, directed by Kim Pearce, as part of Chichester University’s Peake Centenary Conference on July 16th. Martin Lewton played the part of Goat. The show was much admired by conference delegates.
SOUNDSCAPE
Last month we worked with sound designer Tom Gibbons at the Marlborough Theatre to fit the soundscape he has been working on to the text of Billy Budd Sailor. Tom, who has recently been working with Southwark Playhouse and Paines Plough, has come up with some ingenious sounds to add to the production
Last month we worked with sound designer Tom Gibbons at the Marlborough Theatre to fit the soundscape he has been working on to the text of Billy Budd Sailor. Tom, who has recently been working with Southwark Playhouse and Paines Plough, has come up with some ingenious sounds to add to the production
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