Two Bros Fundraiser

Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour raises money for show

Mark Kydd and Laverne Edmonds are staging a special edition of the Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour on Monday 9 Feb, to raise money for the spring tour of Kydd’s play: There Were Two Brothers.

The Literary Pub Tour is a great slice of promenade theatre, giving its audience an insight into the lives of some of Edinburgh’s literary greats as it moves from the Grassmarket over to the New Town, ending in the Cafe Royal.

Two brothers born on the same day – two years apart.

Kydd, who recently starred in Citadel Arts Group’s When the War Came Home, describes the tour as: “a battle of wits cutting a swathe through four centuries of Scottish literary history, in and around the pubs of the Old and the New Town”.

The Dundee-born actor studied at QMU where he was awarded the Ian Richardson voice prize. He has now turned his hand to writing for the theatre with There Were Two Brothers – a funny, frank look at fraternal relationships and a meditation on autobiographical writing.

The play was inspired by an obscure 1980s novel with “a bad cover illustration”, as Kydd explained to Æ: “Many years ago, I picked up a paperback novel in a Glasgow charity shop. What looked like a gaudy bit of fluff turned out to be a little gem – I Look Divine, a tightly written, witty examination of a complex fraternal relationship by Christopher Coe, an American author I had never heard of.

“The novel became the jumping-off point for this, my first play, an exploration of my relationship with my own brother.

“Born exactly two years apart, my brother and I are utterly different in character, interests and personality, but nonetheless turn out to have unexpected things in common.”

broad appeal

Kydd has appeared extensively in theatre throughout Scotland and beyond for more than two decades. During which time, he has told many different stories. But these have invariably been other people’s stories, using other people’s words.

He says: “What really excites me about this project is that it’s my own story, told in my own words and drawn from my own experience.

“Although it incorporates incidents from my own life and deals partly with my coming-out, I was really excited to discover that the show has a much broader appeal; it resonates with people from many different age groups and backgrounds, who really connect with the family aspect of the story – that’s something we all can relate to.”

There were Two Brothers opens at Discover 21 on Friday 20 Feb and tours to Dundee, Inverness, Paisley, Cumbernauld and Banchory before arriving at Berwick on April 11.

Listings

The Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour special
Monday 9 February 2015, 7.30pm.
Tickets £10 on the night.
Beehive Inn, 18 – 20 Grassmarket, EH1 2JU
Event Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/640599696052184/

ENDS

Tags: Discover 21, Laverne Edmonds, Literary Pub Tour, Mark Kydd, News, Production News, There Were Two Brothers