#132 Kingdom of blue and gold
Ghosts. Time Agents. Northerners. Tigers.
Issue #132 Kingdom of blue and gold
18th September 2024
Hello, you.
Welcome to another edition of the newsletter.
It’s been a lovely week. I’ve started a new project based around short stories and speculative fiction with an improviser I really admire AND I got to play a really experimental and joyful show called 5555 with another exceptional performer, Jennifer Jordan.
I played a ghost.
Ok, lots to get through this week and a bit with a dog at the end.
Rule of three
[Book] This is How You Lose the Time War
Two time agents, each from a possible future that can only exist if the other’s ceases to, clash across time and space. They begin to write letters to each other, hiding their correspondence in the knots of a root system or the path of a falling star. Either one can only exist if the other does not, but they fall in love anyway. I found this book absolutely glorious. Poetic, beautiful, visceral and wise and bound up in a thousand barmy ideas that seem too big to have ever been thought. I’m going to do that thing I do where I quote a bit of the text. I only do that when I really love something.
Absent from your mention of food—so sweet, so savoury—was any mention of hunger. You spoke of the lack of need, yes—no lion in pursuit, no “animalist procreative desperation,” and these lead to enjoyment, certainly. But hunger is a many-splendoured thing; it needn’t be conceived only in limbic terms, in biology. Hunger, Red—to sate a hunger or to stoke it, to feel hunger as a furnace, to trace its edges like teeth—is this a thing you, singly, know? Have you ever had a hunger that whetted itself on what you fed it, sharpened so keen and bright that it might split you open, break a new thing out?
Sometimes I think that’s what I have instead of friends.
[Game] Thank Goodness You’re Here
Can computer games be funny? Not often, I don’t think. Comedy is about timing and the interactive nature of the medium makes it harder to land a joke. But Thank Goodness You’re Here is very funny and uniquely British in its humour. More specifically, it’s the most Yorkshire game ever made. It’s just a joy to spend time in its fictional northern town of Barnsworth - mending beer taps and escaping captivity by hiding in a sausage.
[Theatre] John Finnemore’s Double Acts
I’ve written about my love of John Finnemore’s authorial voice before. Recently, I’ve discovered his one act plays, always two-handers, which he has collectively dubbed Double Acts. They are as charming and clever as anything he’s ever written. I particularly liked the first one A Flock of Tigers which I think has a lot to say about creativity in general and the art of making things up in particular. I have cheekily recorded it off the radio to present to you here. If you like it, please consider buying the rest of the box set.
Spotlight
Many of my talented, wonderful friends are putting on shows in the coming months, so I wanted to highlight a few of them in this week’s spotlight.
The Ice at the End of the World
My legendary duo partner Katy Schutte has written a cosmic horror story set in The Artic Circle, based partially on her real life adventures in the region. It’s at the Omnibus Theatre from 25th September and, like everything Katy touches, is sure to be absolutely stunning. Please go and support her if you possibly can, I know how much work, thought and creative energy she has put into this project.
Terraforming Mars
Creative powerhouse Emily Jane Kerr is part of the team responsible for this new piece of immersive theatre where audience members attempt to colonise the red planet. They’re presenting an R&D/ workshop version of the show at Theatre Deli, Oct 11th-13th (so if you habitually have improv classes there on a Saturday, it might be the perfect after class social). Tickets are available here but Emily has offered comps to readers of Improv Fables who might not have the spare cash at the moment. Email hello@ludenstheatrecompany.com and mention the newsletter to secure those freebies.
Club Life
Finally, music legend and my frequent collaborator, Fred Deakin, brings his 5-star, award-winning immersive club night show to London. In it he takes his audience through the many clubs he’s run in his life and even recreates those dance floors for you to sample. Again, it’s on at the Omnibus and will open its doors from 12th November. Fred is a true original and the show has absolute blown reviewers away with its mix of storytelling and hedonistic dance breaks. I can’t tell you how excited I am to experience it myself.
Ephemera
Improv is a disposable art form. In this occasional series, I celebrate the pieces of enduring art that result from such an ephemeral process. Posters, costume designs, merch and logos. This week, a beautiful road map of the ideas and themes contained within a show we recently performed in Nottingham - An Imam, a Priest & an Atheist Walk Into a Bar. It was created live by artist Roz Gregoire as we played it.
There is so much detail in it, I’ve uploaded a high res copy here so you can zoom in and explore to your heart’s content.
Radio contact
Radio stands guard over his kingdom of blue and gold.