An exciting new play is taking centre stage this week at The Bread & Roses Theatre. It runs from August 7 – 11, 7.30 pm. Presented by MATIPO, an emerging theatre company, made up of an ensemble of passionate theatre makers, FLEECED is written & directed by company Co-Founder Georgia Hardcastle. 
 
Stories emerge and overlap in this energetic dark comedy. Generations battle in a tug of war. Somewhere, a girl chooses between being a name or a number. Avatars strive towards the end of their video game. A boy struggles to get served at an off licence. Reflecting and exploring our own identities and how we construct them, as part of a flock that feel FLEECED.
 
Roman Berry (Production and Marketing Manager) had a candid interview with Co-Founders, Artistic Directors and siblings, Georgia Hardcastle and Sally Hardcastle.

What led you to establishing Matipo and how did the name evolve?
 S - Well, we've always planned things together, haven't we?
G - We've always been big planners! And it was once we looked towards going into theatre in sort of separate ways that those plans became for the future instead of just for fun. 
S - the reason we've actually formed Matipo as a company now, is that we've had the opportunity to produce Fleeced.
G - Yes, this is our first official collaboration. And the name...
S - The name Matipo comes from the road we were born on in Te Atatu, New Zealand - it's where our placentas are buried! 
G - It felt right to name our production company after where we're from.
S - Because that's where any of our work ultimately comes from as well.
 
Who are the people behind Matipo?
S - It's us!
G - Yes, we're a team of two sisters.

As siblings and co founders, how do you differentiate roles in the company? 
S - I come to projects from a design angle, and Georgia is more the writing/directing side of things.
G - Plus we share producing responsibilities for now.
 
As it is your debut production, what sort of issues is covered in FLEECED & what theatre does Matipo focus on or is passionate about?
G - This show deals with identity, and that's something that will certainly continue to be a focus of our work.
S - Well I think Fleeced is a pretty fair representation of Georgia's writing style... our focus is on new writing.
G - Yes, I think it's always got to have a slightly angry impetus about it! Certainly, everything we have in the pipeline deals with things I can get passionate enough about to pursue in writing. ​

New Dreams Theatre returns to The Bread & Roses Theatre this Sunday 4thof August till Monday 5thof August, with TIME FOR SOMETHING NEW III. Now in its third edition, it promises to be another great line-up of new writing.

New Dreams Theatre Artistic Directors, Kevin Russell and Paul Vates have been working together, collaborating on many productions with the company since its inception. Roman Berry (Production & Marketing Manager) caught up with Kevin Russel and asked him about the company and all things theatre. 
 
Who are the people involved with New Dreams Theatre and how did this New Writing Event come about? 
 
Paul Vates and I, basically began it and built up its reputation and then this year we invited the wonderful Stephanie Perry and Julia Florimo to the team. We've worked with other shows before. Their experience in the theatre is quite vast, creating a lot of opportunities for the future of the company, that’s why we started TIME FOR SOMETHING NEW.
 
What have been some of the highlights in the development of New Dreams Theatres’ TIME FOR SOMETHING NEW?
 
TIME FOR SOMETHING NEW has been a great progression, because it’s something we had never done before, presenting completely new writing. Up until now, we had presented either contemporary classics, like Memory of Water, Diary of Anne Frank and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. 
 
What are the dominant stories & themes on the third instalment?
 
We have fantastic plays coming on our third outing. We have a brilliant one act play called Bandit by William Patterson - probably nearest to Harold Pinter in style you will find today! It is very funny and very disturbing at times. You never quite know what is happening.
 
The second half several shorter plays or various themes. Including being homeless and having to live off benefits at a bed and breakfast.

In International theatre speak, summer season is extra special, as the most renowned theatre festival in the world, The Edinburgh Fringe 2018, takes flight! Oh wait, but that’s in Scotland, right? 
 
Well, don’t worry theatre family, throughout this week until 30thof July, a taste of this colourful festival comes to The Bread & Roses Theatre, in the heart of Clapham. There’s a lot of productions trying out their exciting work to London audiences prior to heading to the fringe theatre mecca, so hurry on down south and be the first to experience some of these wonderful offerings. We’ve got your pre-ED Fringe inspiration, from Irish Coffee, dinner conversations, slice of New York City, stories of survival, spirituality, politics and LOVE! AND lots of COMEDY. 
 
Roman Berry, our Production & Marketing Manager, also asked each company or performer, how to creatively describe their show if they could fuse two classic films and here are some of their response. We definitely have some blockbusters here. So, feast your senses and join us next week for a great line up of exciting shows!

​In International theatre speak, summer season is extra special, as the most renowned theatre festival in the world, The Edinburgh Fringe 2018, takes flight! Oh wait, but that’s in Scotland, right? 
 
Well, don’t worry theatre family, next week 23 - 30 July, a taste of this colourful festival comes to The Bread & Roses Theatre, in the heart of Clapham. There’s a lot of productions trying out their exciting work to London audiences prior to heading to the fringe theatre mecca, so hurry on down south and be the first to experience some of these wonderful offerings. We’ve got your pre-Ed Fringe inspiration, from Irish Coffee, dinner conversations, slice of New York City, stories of survival, spirituality, politics and LOVE! AND lots of COMEDY. 
 
Roman Berry, our Production & Marketing Manager, also asked each company or performer, how to creatively describe their show if they could fuse two classic films and here are some of their responses. We definitely have some blockbusters here. So, feast your senses and join us next week for a great line up of exciting shows!

Lorraine Mullaney’s MARTIN LINGUS, performed by West End actor Clive Marlowe, is about to make its appearance at The Bread & Roses Theatre, and we can’t wait to find out more about this Shortlisted Best New Play at Brighton Fringe 2018. It will be shown on three consecutive Sundays from 8th, 15thand 22ndof July, 7.00 pm.
 
Su Gilroy, who collaborates regularly with many visiting and in-house productions at The Bread & Roses Theatre, directs this one-man dark comedy, which explores love, inner demons and period house features. 
 
Roman Berry, Production & Marketing Manager at The Bread & Roses Theatre spoke with her about the collaborative process on this piece, its challenges and significance of telling Martin Lingus’ story.
 
How did the collaboration come about in Lorraine Mullaney’s ‘Martin Lingus’ and who are the people involved? 
 
Lorraine is a Brighton-based writer who I worked with in 2014 on her play ‘Unclouded Moon’ at the Brighton Fringe Festival (which was also shortlisted for the Best New Play Award). The following year she produced a show called ‘Sex in Shorts’ which was made up of six 10-minute plays by three writers, including herself, and I directed all of them. One of Lorraine’s was a monologue called ‘A Lady with a House’ which was very well received, and which she then re-wrote as an hour-long show, bringing in more characters. We asked some actors to read it as part of the process, and one of them was Clive Marlowe, an actor I’ve worked with several times. He really liked the script and was very interested in doing it as a one-man show, so Lorraine adapted it again to the version we’re presenting at The Bread & Roses Theatre.
 
What’s challenging about bringing ‘Martin Lingus’ and the script to life? 
 
The most challenging aspect is that Clive not only has to play all the characters, but he also has to do it without the help of any costumes, props or anything else – it’s just him and the words. We had to make sure we could differentiate the various characters vocally and physically, so we spent quite a lot of time working on them individually, even though their dialogue actually weaves in and out a lot of the time, sometimes changing between characters line by line, which is also challenging.