Show And Tell / The Arches presents Kieran Hurley’s BEATS.

BEATS tells the story of Johnno McCreadie, a teenager living in a small suburban Scottish town at the time of the 1994 Criminal Justice Act – a new piece of legislation which effectively outlawed raves, or “public gatherings around amplified music characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats”. BEATS is a coming-of-age story exploring rebellion, apathy and the irresistible power of gathered youth. With techno. Lots of techno.

Written and performed by Kieran Hurley, with a live DJ plus visuals by Jamie Wardrop.

Winner of Best New Play at the Critics Awards For Theatre In Scotland. Nomination for Best Actor at The Stage Awards. Originally commissioned by The Arches, Glasgow.

“A tremendous piece of storytelling that takes us back to 1994″ – ★★★★ The Guardian

“The most exhilarating, urgent response to the events of last summer that I’ve ever seen. A must.” – ★★★★ The Independent

“An outstanding show; clever, ruthless, compassionate, and full of political insight… with a subtlety and humanity that sometimes takes the breath away” – ★★★★ The Scotsman

“An original, urgent piece of theatre” – ★★★★ The Telegraph

“Deceptively brilliant” – ★★★★ The Herald

“Hurley delivers the performance with an eye-popping intensity” – ★★★★ Time Out

“Beats is theatre at its most vital and electrifying” – ★★★★ Metro

“A truly intelligent and magical performance” – ★★★★★ Edinburgh Evening News

BEATS will be touring the UK (except Scotland) Autumn 2013. Please contact us with any programming / press enquiries.

Join Tony Law for some gloriously absurd, loud and ridiculous comedy. Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award 2012 nominated show. Chortle Best Comedy Show Award 2013 winning show.

As seen on BBC1′s Have I Got News For You, BBC2′s Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, The Culture Show, Heading Out, BBC3′s Russell Howard’s Good News, C4′s 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Comedy Central’s Alternative Comedy Experience and more. Tony also won the Amused Moose Laughter Award 2011, Chortle Breakthrough Award 2012 and Chortle Best Club Comic Award 2013. Total Fringe sell-out 2011 and 2012.

“Law’s genius for the random makes Salvador Dali look about as abstract as Constable” – ★★★★★ Metro

“An ever-changing, hard-to-contain, force of nature” – ★★★★ The Guardian

“One of the finest and funniest comics on the circuit… destined for comedy stardom” – ★★★★ Time Out

“Form-busting and hugely enjoyable” – ★★★★ The Times

★★★★ – The Telegraph | ★★★★★ – The Scotsman | ★★★★★ – Exeunt Magazine | ★★★★★ – Broadway Baby | ★★★★★ – The Skinny

Molly Naylor – writer of Radio 4’s Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think of You – and The Middle Ones – “Sneakily brilliant tunesmithery” (The Fly) – present a storytelling show with live soundtrack. Using stories and music, together they explore love and fear – the meaning of both and the relationship between the two.

“Brave, funny, tough and beautiful writing” – The Guardian

“Hearteningly vivid and acutely observed… This woman is genuinely talented” – ★★★★ The Times

“A funny, touching, sad and life affirming piece of theatre” – ★★★★ The Scotsman

“This show sees theatre, live music and stand-up comedy in perfect harmony – never more one than the other – making it an ideal triptych of entertainment” – ★★★★ Metro

“Naylor’s writing contains some lovely, wry observations” – ★★★★ The Telegraph

“Wholly adorable charm and sneakily brilliant tunesmithery” – ★★★★ The Fly, on The Middle Ones

★★★★ Fest Mag | ★★★★★ Three Weeks | ★★★★ Broadway Baby

November 1983, comedian Joe ‘Pops’ Pooley is headlining his local comedy club and no one’s laughing. April 2013: with your help, his murder is reconstructed. Re-live Joe’s last set over and over and over again. When your time comes, can you die with some dignity?

This is an interactive piece of auto-theatre set in an eighties comedy club, devised by Time Out award-winning Ross Sutherland. Choose any role you like: from bouncer, barman, critic, a member of the rowdy party table, or even the comedian himself.

“Sutherland’s innovative piece of theatre is a true celebration of the audience and what they’re capable of” – ★★★★ The Scotsman

“A Choose Your Own Adventure of a comedy gig… It’s a lot of fun” – ★★★★ The Independent

“An ambitious, interactive experiment in which the audience is the show” – ★★★★ The Mail on Sunday

Experimenting with a tiny camera and big screen, Simon Munnery is Fylm-Makker. Presenting a beautiful mix of visual sketches, handcrafted animation, music and stand-up, all created and performed live on screen. This is “one of the most consistently original and imaginative minds in comedy” (The Guardian) at his most rewarding, enthralling and avant-garde best.

As recently seen/heard on BBC2’s Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, The Culture Show, Comedy Central’s The Alternative Comedy Experience and Radio 4’s News Quiz. Simon is a British Comedy Award nominee, Chortle Award winner, Perrier Award nominee and Sony Radio Award winner.

“One of the most consistently original and imaginative minds in comedy… He’s nothing less than a genius” – The Guardian

“There are more brilliant ideas in one of his shows than most comics manage in a lifetime” – The Times

“He might not be a household name, but Simon Munnery is an avant-garde comedy god… Ambitious, artistic and hugely funny – comedy connoisseurs will love it” – ★★★★ Time Out

“A comic genius… He does more with the English language than many great novelists” – ★★★★★ The Scotsman

“Simon Munnery is the God particle of alternative comedy… If stars were given for innovation, Simon Munnery would be taking home the full constellation” – ★★★★ Chortle

From the imagination of Ben Moor, one of the Edinburgh Fringe’s most lauded comedy writing talents, comes an extraordinary tale of love, loneliness, tree climbing and deeply oblivious fish.

She’s a rising star in the sport of competitive tree climbing; he’s a quiet nonentity. How they fall in love isn’t the story. Staying together when the world is filled with imaginary flat mates, underground Compliment Clubs and Satanic jazz bands – that’s the story.

Coelacanth (pronounced see-la-kanth) was adapted for BBC Radio Four, won a Herald Angel Award in 2005 and earned Ben a Best Actor Award nomination from The Stage.

“Storytelling as funny as it is beautiful” – ★★★★ The Guardian

“Irreverent, inventive and hauntingly beautiful” – ★★★★ The Times

“Surreal and charming… clever and witty without being overbearing. This is a show of quietly confident quality with a poignant ending full of resonances. This is thought-provoking stuff” – ★★★★ Metro

‘All the rigmarole of haute cuisine, without the shame of eating.’ Simon Munnery’s La Concepta is an excusive non-dining restaurant experience. Its devised and performed by award-winning comedian Simon Munnery.

As broadcast on BBC2′s The Culture Show and winner of the Chortle Best Innovation in Comedy Award 2012.

Lovers of haute cuisine are greeted and served by a diligent staff of four (all played by Simon Munnery) at La Concepta. Head Chef Munnery promises a varied menu of conceptual dishes comprising dishes of art, jokes, songs, anecdotes, aphorisms, audio installations, choreographed dances and more. Sous Chef Munnery will be prepping every dish. Maitre d’ Munnery will be ensuring your dining experience is magnifique. Trainee Chef Munnery will be hoping to keep out of the way and not ruin things again.

“A delicious opportunity to enjoy a performance from a real pro, served directly to your table” ★★★★ - The Independent

“The fringiest Fringe experience of 2011″ - The Guardian

“The most exclusive eatery in town” ★★★★ - Metro

The Poetry Takeaway is ‘the world’s first purpose-built mobile poetry emporium.’

It specialises in the production of free, made-to-order poems, delivered and performed to the hungry yet discerning literary consumer within ten minutes or less. Its modelled on your typical burger van and is manned by a rotating cast of the UK’s best poetry chefs who write, perform and deliver a hand-written, carefully boxed, souvenir copy of every customer’s poem (open or wrapped).

It is conceived and managed by Show + Tell and Tim Clare. Funded by Ideastap. Designed in collaboration by Niall Gallagher (House Of Jonn) and Nicola Read (815 Agency). With additional design elements by Ellen Turnill-Montoya (Ellen TM).

Previous appearances include; the London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre, Port Eliot Festival, Edinburgh Festival, End Of The Road Festival and Wenlock Poetry Festival.

“The Poetry Takeaway is a nice idea and a fun way of bringing poetry to people” – The Stage

“The Poetry Takeaway project is a terrific innovation. At a time when the performing arts are facing their cruellest cuts in years this is an ingeniously creative way to – quite literally – take poetry to the people.”
Bruce Dessau, Arts Critic, Evening Standard

In 2002, John Osborne won a competition on John Peel’s Radio One show. His prize was a box of records that took eight years to listen to. This is an ode to radio, those records and anyone who’s ever sought solace in wireless. Script edited by Joe Dunthorne (Writer of the novel Submarine).

Direct from a five-star, complete sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival, comes John Osborne’s debut storytelling hour partly adapted from his acclaimed book Radio Head (Radio 4’s Book Of The Week). The hit of the Edinburgh Festival comes to Jackson’s Lane in London in October; and tours the UK in February 2012.

“Shy and awkward but with a keen eye for a killer line and the significance of the trivia of daily life, Osborne sits somewhere between Tom Wrigglesworth and Daniel Kitson, which a very good place to sit. I could have listened for hours” – ★★★★★  The Independent

“Beautifully-written, funny and poignant… Just as John Peel’s records changed his life this lovely, simple, beautifully executed show has enriched ours” – ★★★★★  The Scotsman

“One of the Top Ten Theatre Highlights of the Edinburgh Festival… Funny, perceptive and charming” – ★★★★  The Telegraph

“One of the loveliest things you’ll see all year” – ★★★★  The Herald

“Genius… A comic highlight” – The Guardian

“I heartily recommend John Peel’s Shed. It is a gentle tale of one man’s passion for obscure music and the radio which has been compared to the work of Daniel Kitson” – Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard

“John Osborne captures the intimacy of the medium, the startling human connections and priceless stories. Its an uplifting if occasionally twee story that makes a classic, nostalgic fringe piece” – Total Theatre

★★★★ Sunday Express
★★★★ Edinburgh Evening News
★★★★ What’s On Stage
★★★★ Fest Magazine

Simon Munnery presents a brand new show. A beautiful, extravagant mess of foaming bubble hats, bad guitar riffs, sublime jokes, delightful monologues, homemade engineering feats and an overly ambitious one-man punk musical about the R101 airship of the 1930s. All performed with a plum. Or some other fruit.

Star of BBC2′s Attention Scum, London Shouting, Radio 1′s The League Against Tedium and Radio 4′s Where Did It All Go Wrong? As on BBC2’s Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle. British Comedy Award Nominee, Sony Radio Award Winner, Perrier Award Nominee.

“There are more brilliant ideas in one of Simon Munnery’s shows than most comics will manage in a lifetime” – The Times, 2011

“Simon Munnery is nothing less than a genius” – The Guardian, 2011

“He remains a weird and wonderful maverick. Probably one of the funniest things you’ll see this year” ★★★★ – The Metro, 2011

“He does more with the English language than many great novelists” ★★★★★ – Edinburgh Evening News, 2011