COMING UP!
STORIES IN THE DUST
STORIES IN THE DUST by Anna Harriott & Iona Johnson
Saturday 19th October, 11am & 2pm
The sun beats down on two travellers, journeying across a mysterious land in a contraption they’ve built themselves. They sing, play games, and tell stories inspired by a collection of precious things they’ve gathered from a time gone by.
With live music and puppetry, Stories in the Dust is a funny, heartfelt and hopeful eco-fable that takes you to another world. A world where an ancient book guides your way, a drop of rain changes everything and a mighty lion holds its secrets in an old clay pot.
Will our intrepid explorers make it? They’re full of ideas and full of hope but dangerously low on baked beans.
“Elegant engaging eco-fable” The Reviews Hub
“One of the best shows I’ve ever seen” Luca, aged 8
An adventurous show for ages 5-12 but suitable for all the family
Tickets £10 from Bridport TIC
HERSONG III
HERSONG III – A The Lyric Theatre & TOCIYA Co-Production
Sunday 20th October 6.00pm
An evening celebrating women’s stories of their lived experiences about love, labour and loss – through spoken word, song, movement, theatre featuring local artists and fabulous humans of different ages and stages living and working in the Bridport area. Come with an open heart and expect to be moved, delighted and entertained. There will be cake!
Supported by Bridport 2024 Town of Culture 
Tickets £7.50 – if you can buy a ticket for someone who can’t afford this and leave on the door, please do.
FRANK WURZINGER : CONFETTI MAKER
FRANK WURZINGER: CONFETTI MAKER + CLOWNING WORKSHOP
Saturday 26th October, 7.30pm + Daytime Clowning Workshop, 10am-4pm
The Confetti Maker is a day in the life of a full-time confetti factory worker. Full of optimism, he pursues his profession: making confetti; cutting, perforating, shredding – all day, every day – but he has ambitions, dreams and fears far beyond the mundane factory life. Romance … love … family …
A highly visual piece, The Confetti Maker combines slapstick, puppetry, absurd storytelling, improvisation and lots of small bits of paper, which are expertly woven into a humorous, yet poignant show.
Directed by award winning physical theatre director John Wright (Trestle, Told by an Idiot), supported by the Arts Council England and Jackson’s Lane.
Suitable for anyone age 8+
Frank Wurzinger will also be doing a Daytime Clowning Workshop at The Lyric. Tickets for this are £50. Participants on the workshop can attend the evening performance for a reduced price of £8. The workshop is for ages 18+
A workshop for anyone interested in playing in life or on stage. What happens when clowns meet normal people?
Find the pleasure of being ourselves, drop social masks and be open and take risks in a supportive environment. No need to be funny, let’s aim to have fun and be real, break rules and disobey!
We learn that it is okay to make mistakes and fail… the audience love the Clowns for sharing their unique ineptness with them. Our everyday weaknesses turn into the Clown’s strengths. Clowns liberate themselves from the demands of being ‘good’, proper and well behaved. We use a mixture of physical exercises, improvisation games and techniques to create clown theatre. We look at the performer-audience relationship and begin to discover and release our inner idiot and follow our impulses. We improvise and look at devising with the state of clown and experiment with playing for an audience in public spaces.
“Frank’s workshop last year was one of the most glorious, ridiculous experiences I’ve ever had. And I’ve had a fairly glorious, ridiculous life. 10/10 would recommend” Participant
‘Frank is a really, truly awesome clown performer and teacher. I have had the pleasure to see him perform numerous times and take workshops with him, so I speak from personal experience when I say he is one of the most gifted and kind-hearted people I know.’ Barnaby King
“I cannot recommend Frank and his work highly enough. I’ve done so many workshops over the years and this one stays with me…. Delightful, fun, ludicrous and yet insightful, powerful and thought-provoking” Participant
frankwurzinger.com | PROFESSIONAL IDIOT, CLOWN, ACTOR, THEATRE MAKER
Tickets : £12 Confetti Maker / £50 Workshop / £58 Workshop + Confetti Maker
STRAY DOG JAMMERS : RHINO
STRAY DOG JAMMERS : RHINO
Saturday 9th November, 8pm
A devised adaptation of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, part of Bridport Literary Festival 2024
Dorset based The Stray Dog Jammers presents an adaptation of the post war avant-garde absurdist drama. Written in response to the upsurge of Fascism in the 1930s, Rhino explores the themes of conformity, culture, responsibility, logic, mass movements, mob mentality, philosophy and morality – all still highly relevant in today’s world. Its central character, Berenger, the non conformist who is the only one not to capitulate to the herd mentality, and the only one not to metamorphosize into a Rhinoceros.
Tickets £10 from Bridport TIC
SIMON CHESTERFIELD : ALBUM LAUNCH
SIMON CHESTERFIELD : ALBUM LAUNCH + Support from Follow The Sun
Postponed until Saturday 14th December
We were sorry to announce that Simon Chesterfield’s Album Launch in October had to be postponed due to illness.
The event will now take place on Saturday 14th December.
All purchased tickets are valid for the new date (or if you are unable to attend please contact Bridport Tourist Information Centre for a refund).
Co-founder and ever-present member of The Chesterfields, Simon Chesterfield’s first solo album features the results of a year long project re-imagining six of Simons songs as an orchestral performance.
Co-produced by Ben Scott Turner, Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey) and Simon Chesterfield, the album was orchestrated by Charles Harrison. An ensemble of Wessex musicians were gathered together for the project, several of whom have now signed up for some Simon Chesterfield live adventures, including a launch party for the album on Friday 11th October at the wonderful Lyric Theatre in Bridport, Dorset.
The players on the album are: Joe Atkinson, Matt Barge, Jenny Bliss, Simon Chesterfield, Rob Ellis, Charles Harrison, Emma Kingston, Seiko Nemoto, Nick Squires, Helen Stickland, James Thornton, and Ben Scott Turner.
‘Simon Chesterfield’ is now available on all the usual digital platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer, Tidal etc), and a limited edition of 300 ten inch vinyl albums are available via Legere Recordings and Bandcamp.
https://simonchesterfield.bandcamp.com/album/simon-chesterfield
Tickets £10 from Bridport TIC
Past EVENTS
KOOK ENSEMBLE : FILIBUSTER
CONFESSIONS OF A TELETUBBY
Arguments and poo! Sex and swearing! Blood, sweat, tears and giant rabbits! Life on the set of Teletubbies might not have been quite as you imagined…
Fresh from sell-out shows at Edinburgh Fringe, Confessions of a Teletubby lifts the lid on what went on behind the scenes of one of the most globally successful TV shows ever. Nikky Smedley played LaaLaa (the yellow one) in the original series of Teletubbies for six years – that’s a lot of custard for a grown woman to get excited about. Come and hear how she got the job by dressing as a bistro table; what it was really like inside one of those (surprisingly large) Tubby suits; how the NooNoo really worked and why children loved the show so much.
A COMMON WOMAN RE-IMAGINED
A COMMON WOMAN REIMAGINED
A new community play is being produced in Bridport at the Lyric Theatre. It’s based on the protests at Greenham Common and what would make “an ordinary woman” join the protest? This play was a huge success in London both in 1984 when first produced at the King’s Head Theatre in Islington, and again later when brought back in 2022 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the “Embrace the base” protest. It is now being reimagined in Bridport to involve many of the community. In this reimagined production, 30 local singers assert that “You Can’t Kill the Spirit” as they bring to life the many songs that echoed around the camps
The original play followed a family managing the conflict that engagement with the protest brings, and this is the centre of the production. The domestic tension, caused by the mother’s dilemma, is powerfully and sensitively depicted by playwright Mary Rensten, and those scenes are interwoven with the episodes at the gates in Greenham. Mum, our “Common woman” is torn between her daughter’s passionate instance to join her in Greenham, and her reluctance to go against her husband and step outside the comfort and reassurance of her life at home. The men in the family are against her going, “Leave it to the government” insists Dad and “They are all lesbians” says the son.
This play also involves young people from Bridport, who had never heard of Greenham Common protests, and have attended workshops and developed improvisations about green protests which will be incorporated into the production.
The play is in partnership with Bridport Arts Centre and Bridport Youth and Community Centre and has been supported throughout by Niki McCretton and the Lyric Theatre. Directed by Margie Barbour the play will be performed at the Lyric Theatre, Bridport on Saturday 6th April at 7.30 and on Sunday 7th April at 2.30 and 7.30, tickets are £12 and £6 concessions for Job seekers and Universal credit. Tickets are on sale at Bridport’s Tourist Information Centre, 01308 424901 www.bridportandwestbay.co.uk/tickets
IMPROVISATION AT THE LYRIC
HALF A STRING : BREATHE
DO ZOMBIES DREAM OF UNDEAD SHEEP?
Even amongst the chaos and pain, there are moments of love and light…
Can the undead feel? Can the living understand?
Is there a way out of this nightmare?
Will you be forced – ultimately – to sing?
A one-man (and one puppet) musical journey through a zombie uprising, combining live performance and animation. Ridiculous, dark, sometimes gruesome, warm, funny and sad.
Life, death, love, and zombies.
Early bird tickets £8.67 inc. booking fees (strictly limited in number, and only available until 4th October)
Standard ticket £10.84 inc.
Any remaining tickets will be sold on the door (£10, cash only).
Door and bar open at 7pm.
Ticket link: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/thewoodlouse
Responses to song from musical:
“Zombies + love + humour = woodlouse“
“Possibly the most beautiful song about the Zombie Apocalypse ever”
“Bloody weird but bloody great”
“See, that’s nice but it conjures up some horrible images”
“Creepy”
“OMG it’s like Robert Wyatt and Genesis had an evil love child!”
“Love your video, the concept, music, visuals and everything”
HERSONG II
Real, raw and new creative offerings from The Lyric Lab!
The Lyric Theatre, Sunday 3 September 6.00 p.m
The Lyric Lab is producing HERSONG II – an evening celebrating women’s stories of their lived experiences about love, labour and loss – through spoken word, song, movement, theatre featuring local artists and fabulous humans of different ages and stages living and working in the Bridport area. Come with an open heart and expect to be moved, delighted, entertained. There will be CAKE!
Open to all, tickets £5; if you can buy a ticket for someone who can’t afford this and leave on the door, please do.
A Lyric Theatre fundraiser to re-launch its programme of activities!