Getting into Formation

Feb 2 2018 | By More

Annexe Arts’ festival for Assembly Roxy

The new Formation Festival is taking place at the Assembly Roxy from Saturday 3 February 2018, with theatre performances from Annexe Repertory Theatre and a selection of Edinburgh grassroots companies.

Curated by Annexe Arts, the six day event will include three performances of Nassim Saleimanpour’s genre-defying hit: White Rabbit Red Rabbit. Five productions and a trio of one night stands will bring the total number of performances up to 20, taking place in both the main hall and downstairs venue at the Roxy.

Grandmothers Grimm. Pic Fiona Knight

The invited productions include Some Kind of Theatre’s The Grandmothers Grimm, which premiered at the recent Edinburgh Horror Festival, and RFT’s EdFringe 2017 production of Vichy Goings-On.

A.R.T. is the product of Black Dingo’s new youth theatre initiative in the Annexe Arts Hub on Merchant Street. The young company has been taking workshops with founder David McFarlane and directors Tyler Mortimer, Sofia Nakou and Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir over the autumn and winter.

They have now split into smaller companies for the festival and will stage three productions – Luke Barnes’ gloriously messy Chapel Street which premiered a the Fringe in 2012, Ben Blow’s new play Those Worrisome Sleeps, and a devised piece, We Got Now.

one night stands

A trio of one night stands from groups showcasing different writers and performers make up the festival.

The Loud Poets are kicking off on opening night, there’s Rattlebag from The Performadors with a fist-full of extracts and works-in-progress on Sunday 4 and Tandem from the Tandem Writing Collective with script in hand performances of new work on Tuesday 6.

Festival founder David McFarlane told Æ: “The Formation festival is the culmination of the work done by the Annexe Repertory Theatre company over the last four months.

“We hope to running this festival three times a year so we can showcase the young emerging talent here in Edinburgh.”

It certainly looks like the Assembly Roxy is the place to hang out this week…

Listings and links

All shows take place at the Assembly Roxy, 2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU.

Formation Festival runs Saturday 3 – Thursday 6 February 2018.

The Grandmothers Grimm
Downstairs Theatre (Some Kind of Theatre)
Sat 3 – Tue 6: 7pm. Click here for tickets (£8/£6.50).
Cannibalism, werewolf trials, deceit, and murder. In a tiny study in Kassel, Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm and Marie Hassenpflug are poring over transcripts of old wives’ tales, trying to remove the horror from them to create an anthology of stories for children. Join them for a night of fairy tales as you’ve never heard them before…

Vichy Goings-on
Downstairs Theatre (RMT)
Wed 7/Thurs 8: 7pm. Click here for tickets (£7/£5).
RMT revive their 2017 production. 1947: a British agent emerges from the icy wastes of Antarctica with a bar of missing Nazi gold and a curious tale to tell; a tale of fugitive Nazis, the world’s edge and the true fate of President Roosevelt. Æ review: ★★★☆☆ Creative.

Chapel Street
Main Theatre (A.R.T.)
Wed 7/Thurs 8: 7.30pm. Click here for tickets (£10/£8).
Luke Barnes’ rowdy, relentless two-hander about modern life and love on the dole. It is an acerbic yet compassionate portrait of good times gone bad for a betrayed generation. Directed by Tyler Mortimer.

We Got Now
Main Theatre (A.R.T.)
Sun 4 – Tue 6: 7.30pm. Click here for tickets (£10/£8).
A new devised work made by the company. Five remarkable individuals take stock of where they are now. Beyond stigma, beyond shame, beyond self. Full of humour, poetry and raw truth, We Got Now invites you to embrace this moment in time. Directed by Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir.

Those worrisome sleeps
Downstairs Theatre (A.R.T.)
Sat 3, Mon 5, Wed 7: 8.30pm. Click here for tickets (£10/8).
“When you send me away, where do I go?” Grief takes people in different ways. Some shrink, some find peace, most cry and some… Well, some destroy the entire world. New four-hander from Ben Blow, directed by Sofia Nakou.

White Rabbit, Red Rabbit
Main Theatre (A.R.T.)
Sun 4, Tue 6, Thurs 8: 8.45pm. Click here for tickets (£10/£8).
Slyly humorous and audaciously pointed, this “theatre entertainment meets social experiment” is unlike anything other theatre. A new actor performs the show every time it is performed – the only rule is that they must never have seen the play or script before. Æ preview here: Step into the Unknown.

Loud Poets
Main Theatre
Sat 3: 7.30pm. Click here for tickets (£10/£8).
The purveyors of  fist-thumping, pint-drinking, side-tickling, heart-wrenching poetry with a brand-new show filled with comedy, tragedy, politics and poignancy.

Rattlebag
Downstairs Theatre (The Performadors)
Sun 4: 8.30pm. Click here for tickets (free).
Plenty good stuff, including excerpts from Love T(ri)angle, Mike Daviot’s very black comedy of manners; Philip Rainford and Honorata Lisiak’s debut of Sauna, a daring exploration of a relationship between a Madam of a sauna and an elderly client; It Began Wi’ a Lass, Gerry Kielty’s historical piece about Scotland’s women; and an extract from Some Kind of Theatre’s Orlando.

Tandem
Downstairs Theatre (The Tandem Writing Collective _
Tue 6: 8.30pm. Click here for tickets (free).
Performance of Rippling by Jennifer Adam, The Bridge Street Flats by Mhairi Quinn and the premier of Legion by Amy Hawes. Directed by Amy McKenzie. With music from the McGregor Siblings – Marianne and Aaron.

Formation Festival Listings
Saturday 3 Feb 2018
Grandmothers Grimm 7pm Downstairs Book tix: £8/£6.50
Loud Poets 7.30pm Main Hall Book tix: £10/£8
Those Worrisome Sleeps 8.30pm Downstairs Book tix: £10/£8
Sunday 4 Feb 2018
Grandmothers Grimm 7pm Downstairs Book tix: £10/£8
We Got Now 7.30pm Main Hall Book tix: £10/£8
Rattlebag 8.30pm Downstairs Book tix: Free
White Rabbit, Red Rabbit 8.45pm Main Hall Book tix: £10/£8
Monday 5 Feb 2018
Grandmothers Grimm 7pm Downstairs Book tix: £10/£8
We Got Now 7.30pm Main Hall Book tix: £10/£8
Those Worrisome Sleeps 8.30pm Downstairs Book tix: £10/£8
Tuesday 6 Feb 2018
Grandmothers Grimm 7pm Downstairs Book tix: £10/£8
We Got Now 7.30pm Main Hall Book tix: £10/£8
Tandem 8.30pm Downstairs Book tix: Free
White Rabbit, Red Rabbit 8.45pm Main Hall Book tix: £10/£8
Wednesday 7 Feb 2018
Vichy Goings On 7pm Downstairs Book tix: £7/£5
Chapel Street 7.30pm Main Hall Book tix: £10/£8
Those Worrisome Sleeps 8.30pm Downstairs Book tix: £10/£8
Thursday 8 Feb 2018
Vichy Goings On 7pm Downstairs Book tix: £7/£5
Chapel Street 7.30pm Main Hall Book tix: £10/£8
White Rabbit, Red Rabbit 8.45pm Main Hall Book tix: £10/£8

ENDS

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  1. A.R.T. call out : All Edinburgh Theatre.com | Sep 12 2018