Preview: 99 Problems And The Chips Still Ain’t One - On Tour

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 Steffen Peddie

99 Problems And The Chips Still Ain’t One

On Tour

Steffen Peddie is a Stand up comedian from Newcastle upon Tyne. He told his first joke on stage at 13 in his local youth club and has continued doing so since.

Photo: Andy Hollingworth

After minor success on the fledgling comedy circuit and appearing as comedy support with Ross Noble on two different National Kids Saturday Morning TV Shows he took a break from Stand Up and turned his time to becoming a professional wrestler.

 

Ten years of bending bones, wearing lycra in public and various chair shots took its toll on Steffen. After performing at the Café de Paris in London in front of a star studded audience as part of Viz Magazines 25th Anniversary party he decided to call it a day and retire from the world of grappling.  

After a conversation with other comedians he decided to try stand up again “for a few shows” to see if it would be fun. Ten years later he has not stopped and has matured as an act with his time away. 

Success has come his way in the form of a roll in the main cast of Jason Cooks BBC sitcom “Hebburn”. The award winning show ran for two series and a Christmas Special, and is still much loved by the public, both in the UK and with large international success. 

Acting has continued with a number of TV adverts and short films, including Alan Moore’s (writer of Watchmen, The League of Gentlemen, V for Vendetta) first film “His Heavy Heart” as well as hosting Metro Radio and TFMs “NIGHTOWLS” phone in show as the regular guest host when Alan Robson is away. Steffen recetly covered for Alfie Joey on the BBC Radio Newcastle Breakfast Show.

On top of this he is a proud member of The Geordie Rat Pack alongside Jason Cook, Glen Roughead and Neil Grainger. The four perform along with a fifteen piece band and play Swing classics in their own style. After a string of sell out shows at Newcastle City Hall, The Sage Gateshead, Customs House and Stand Newcastle, more are to be announced to a keen audience. 

STEFFEN PEDDIE TOUR SHOW “99 PROBLEMS AND THE CHIPS STILL AINT ONE”

Photo: Andy Hollingworth

Last year Steffen Peddie undertook his first tour, with a show that’s a step away from the normal Stand Up shows.

The show was entirely created from the audience’s suggestions and improvised on the night, so it’s a comedy tightrope walk as anything can be asked! 

The shows format is that the audience write the “Problems” and Steffen has to solve them, making it a different show every time.

The show ran twenty two times in 2015 to a great success. So for 2016, a swift title change and fresh advertising and its back on the road! 

With three shows this year so far, he has managed to cover varying topics from “Who picks up guide dog poo” “Why don’t sheep shrink in the Rain” “Why is my partner sleeping with my brother”  - Read the North East Theatre Guide review of one of these shows: http://nomorepanicbutton.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/review-99-problems-and-chips-still-aint.html

The tour is entirely self financed and is playing venues large and small, from large regional Theatres to Village Halls as well as Comedy Festivals along the way.

SHOW NUMBER 30

Hilarity Bites at The Keys in Darlington on Tuesday August 30th 2016

http://www.hilaritybites.co.uk/august_30th.html

SHOW NUMBER 31

Stand Comedy Club Edinburgh on Tuesday September 20th 2016

http://www.thestand.co.uk/show/27586/steffen_peddie_-_99_problems_and_the_chips_still_aint_one

SHOW NUMBER 32

Stand Comedy Club Glasgow on Wednesday September 21st 2016

http://www.thestand.co.uk/show/27587/steffen_peddie_-_99_problems_and_the_chips_still_aint_one

SHOW NUMBER 33

Stand Comedy Club Newcastle on  Tuesday September  27th  2016

http://www.thestand.co.uk/show/27588/steffen_peddie_-_99_problems_and_the_chips_still_aint_one

  

SHOW NUMBER 34

YHA Berwick on  Wednesday September 28th  2016

Call 01629 592 700 to reserve tickets

£5.00 in advance £7.00 on the door

EdFringe Review: People of the Eye ★★★★

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People of the Eye ★★★★

Edinburgh Summerhall (Venue 26)

Until Saturday 27^th August 2016

Very rarely is there theatre that focuses solely on the experiences of the disabled, so it was wonderfully refreshing to see People of the Eye’s creative exploration of deafness. I went into the theatre having never had to question my own, rather taken for granted, ability to hear. I left with the experiences of deafness, that The Deaf and Hearing Ensemble’s show had so creatively managed to communicate, imprinted very vividly on my mind and emotions. 

On learning that this piece was about a family having a deaf child and becoming accustomed to the challenges that brings, you might assume this play was quite sad. Indeed, there were most definitely poignant and upsetting parts. But Emily Howlett and Erin Siobhan Hutching’s performances are charming and witty to match the varied narrative that examines both the sad and amusing complexities of families having to adapt to a new way of life. And they do communicate the sense of separate worlds. At one point, Erin’s character ponders with a hint of sadness how she was ‘welcomed into [her sister’s] deaf world’, forcing the audience to think about how accommodated deaf people are into a world of sound. Yet their show answers this by asking the audience to put themselves in the shoes of these characters. With only sheets of paper, a few chairs and a video projector, this show induces empathy through creativity at the highest level. 

This was what struck me the most, the imaginativeness of their story telling, and how effectively it made the audience understand. I enjoyed half way through finding myself in a sign language class. It took us a while to realise that Emily wanted to us respond to her sign. But her confident and endearing performance kept the audience engaged and supported through our muddled attempts. It was a practical and delightful way for the audience to confront the challenges that the family had to face.

They used the space to its fullest abilities as well. The audience felt the weight of bureaucratic and overly formal medical treatment, as the doctor revealing the results of the baby’s hearing tests moved like a robot. She walked around the space in right angles and straight lines with a blank face, heightening the mother’s bewildered and isolated expression. This was a moving moment as the parents fear for her child felt unsupported, her loneliness emphasised as the doctor’s words were typed out on the screen at the back; indeed, the formality of the doctor was comparable to receiving such news by a letter.

With their topic and focus, the use of silence was moving and powerful. At one point, the audience were placed in the silent world of a deaf person, as Emily followed her sister around what I presume was a university open day. Her sister talked to person after person, coming from each with papers to pile on top of her sister, who looked growingly agitated. Erin mimed talking, so the focus was solely on Emily’s isolation under the growing information which she felt cut off from. They were great at building the tension, as Emily scrambled to keep a hold of all the papers – synonymous with her scrambling to understand the overwhelmingly silent world around her. She eventually breaks. It was a moving and heart breaking moment in which a young girl didn’t feel in control or in tune with her environment.

What is exciting about devised work with such a fluid narrative is that it always has room to grow. There were points in the beginning that felt they could benefit from more time in the rehearsal room, moments where dialogue is delivered but doesn’t use the space as creatively as the rest of the play. But when watching this show, which moved me with very little words about an experience so far removed from my own, I am only eager to know how they’ll develop it more. I know that if I were to see this again I would only continue to learn from, and feel more for the stories they tell.

Review by Jackie Edwards

Tickets:

Tickets cost £11 (£9 conc) and are available from the usual Edinburgh Fringe outlets and online at https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/people-of-the-eye

EdFringe Review: The ME ★★★★

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The ME ★★★★

Edinburgh Zoo (Venue 124)

Until Sunday 28^th August 2016

In a world where theatre and the media is often dominated by male stories and perspectives, I was excited to see an all-female cast in The ME, especially when they’re dealing with the topic of science which is traditionally handed to the men. Although I don’t want to give the impression that this play was all about them being women. Indeed, The Sun Apparatus Theatre Company performed with such confidence and skill, engulfing me in the surreal world of their play, that I soon forgot the reason I was initially interested in the show.

The play follows four characters, some of which feel more like dreams than people. Melody (Katherine Vince) is a health obsessed, insecure wreck, who Vince plays with a wonderful and vivid desperation. Her long suffering yet endearing maid Lita (Dana Etgar) tends to her every need. At the beginning you would assume Lita will be the sympathetic sad story of the narrative, trapped in job that she only feels apathetic towards. Yet Etgar delivers to us so much more than a sad character; she is the philosopher, the unexpected nightmare, the hero of the play. Etagr’s performance is layered and fabulous. It is on unsuspecting Lita that Melody and her new scientist friend Kristen (Justina Kaminskaitė) trial an immortality drug – the ME itself. It’s title cleverly encapsulates Melody’s, but also humanity’s insecurity over pending death. In this play the ME demonstrates our fear that we would only be whole if we were never going to die and be forgotten. Then the introduction of Peppy (Sarah Kenney) adds another level of absurdity. Claiming to be Lita’s sister, her dreamlike presence and frightening duplicity is like some ghoulish guardian angel come to apparently prevent (but it seems more like profit off) Lita’s abuse. Kenney’s faux smiles are some of the scariest things in the play, and some of the most brilliant.

I don’t usually take to Brechtian theatre because the absurdity undercuts your empathy for the character (to be fair, that is the point). But with this, although there were sections which were not to my taste, I still felt the full effect of the show’s genius. Even at the beginning when the show was at its most naturalistic, you could feel the surrealism creeping in. Their movements were like clockwork, which demonstrates the performers’ talented timing, but also foreshadows the regression into absurdism which is fated for the characters later.

Through a frightening lens, writer Bill Gallagher demonstrates the elitism and classism that taints our society. When Kristen explains the need to test this drug on another human before Melody may take it, the audience can already sense that their next move will be towards vulnerable looking Lita sleeping on the floor. Kaminskaitė’s cold approach encapsulates beautifully what empathy and feeling we can sacrifice in ourselves when taken over by ambition. The way they close in round Lita like animals is a staunch reimagining of how one life can be valued above another.

But Lita counters this violation of her consent and choices, with finding for herself what it means to be alive. The surrealism in the middle of the play is framed with the masquerade of naturalism at the beginning, and then again at the end. The cyclical structure roots the audience in what matters. Lita shows that immortality is insignificant compared to just being alive, as she packs her bag and puts on a bright yellow coat, she is finally ‘going to live’.

I was a little upset they didn’t leave it there. With Lita walking back on stage and assuming her position at the beginning as the maid waiting for her demanding boss’ next command, perhaps the message was that we are doomed to tear ourselves apart with our own mortality and never ‘going to live’. But I think it would have been more powerful and perhaps more useful to see Lita make the realisation her self-obsessed boss never could; that life is more important than one day dying. But despite the ending not being what I would have wanted, I was delighted to come across such creative and thought provoking theatre. Especially when they affected me with techniques and styles that I don’t even like that much. I mean, that must have meant they were pretty darn good.

Review by Jackie Edwards

Tickets:

Tickets cost £10 (£8 conc) and are available from the usual Edinburgh Fringe outlets and online at https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/me

Review: The Dolly Mixtures at South Shields Customs House

Steffen Peddie's 99 Problems -  Web Link

A Special Celebration In South Shields

The Dolly Mixtures

by Tom Kelly and John Miles

South Shields Customs House

until Saturday 3^rd September 2016

At times hilarious and at other times extremely moving, this uplifting musical is based on the true story of a band of intrepid fundraisers.

 

Photo: Kevin Ho

The Dolly Mixtures were formed in South Shields when a group of friends decided to raise funds for a hospital where one of their husbands was terminally ill with cancer.

 

Photo: Tim Richardson

The eight women went on to raise more than £100,000, entertaining the tough North Eastern clubs with a mixture of songs and comedy.

 

Photo: Tim Richardson

Their tale, expertly told through the words and songs of Tom Kelly and John Miles, makes a great musical.

 

Photo: Tim Richardson

Director Ray Spencer keeps the pace frenetic, but is blessed with a superb cast who make the most of some great songs and some brilliant comedy set pieces.

 

Photo: Tim Richardson

Angela Hannon plays Hilda, the leader of the gang and sister of Ken, whose death from bowel cancer at 34, provides the inspiration for the fundraising. Feisty and determined, Hilda is the organiser who ensures every single penny raised goes to Cancer Research or other charities.

 

Photo: Tim Richardson

Angela is perfect in the part, as is Patricia Whale who plays Margaret, Ken’s widow. Patricia and Steve Halliday (Ken) provide some of the show’s most moving moments with two wonderful, heartbreaking duets.

 

Photo: Tim Richardson

But there are also plenty of laughs. Georgia Nicholson as Doris and Kylie Ann Ford as Liz provide many of these.

 

Photo: Tim Richardson

The squabbling between two sets of sisters within the group is life-like and funny, as is the portrayal, by the women, of overly officious club committee men.

 

Photo: Tim Richardson

Many of the songs had the audiences in stitches, none more so than Squawk, Rattle and Shake and The Pheasant Plucker’s Song. The audience also loved the portrayals of Bobby Thompson and Hilda Baker.

 

Photo: Tim Richardson

At the heart of the show is the theme of love. The love of a husband and wife that inspired such a marathon effort and the love between eight friends determined to ensure some good came out of tragedy.

 

Photo: Tim Richardson

The camaraderie between Hilda, Margaret, Doris, Liz, Joan (Christina Dawson), Sylvia (Victoria Holtom), Jean (Samantha Phyllis Morris) and Betty (Sarah Boulter) is brilliantly portrayed and you get the sense the performers thoroughly enjoy each other’s company.

 

Photo: Tim Richardson

A word too for the costumes. The Dolly Mixtures were fundraising for 15 years, from the early 1970s to the mid 80s, and costume designer Paul Shriek captures the differing fashions perfectly.

Photo: Tim Richardson

Praise too for the live band, expertly led by Dave Bintley.

This is a special show, a show of laughter and tears and one that ensures you leave the theatre with a smile on your face. What made the press night even more special was the introduction on stage of the five remaining Dolly Mixtures by Hilda’s grandson – Joe McElderry. Cue tissues all round for the audience, already on their feet for a standing ovation.

What a night, what a show.

Review by Rob Lawson

Tickets:

The Dolly Mixtures runs from Wednesday 24^th August to Saturday 3^rd September 2016 and follows last summer’s smash hit Geordie the Musical, also written by Tom Kelly (Geordie Musical NETG Review LINK).

Tickets are from £15 and for more information or to book tickets, go to www.customshouse.co.uk or call the box office on 0191 454 1234.

 

Preview: Alice in Wonderland at Whitley Bay Playhouse

see https://www.facebook.com/carliolphotography/

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Immersion Theatre presents:

Alice in Wonderland

Whitley Bay Playhouse

Thursday 23^rd February 2017

After the much-anticipated Journey’s End in October, Immersion Theatre will return to the Playhouse with Alice in Wonderland.

Imagination runs wild and logic is abandoned in this fantastical, larger-than-life musical brimming with nonsensical fun and excitement for the entire family.

Follow Alice and the White Rabbit as they set off on a colourful, topsy-turvy adventure like no other and meet a host of outlandish characters including the troublesome twins, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, the notorious Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat and of course, the Mad-as a bat-Hatter!

Immersion Theatre proudly bring their trademark energy to their most spectacularly bonkers show to date, as children and adults alike are invited to join in the hilarity of seeing this classic story brought vividly to life before having the opportunity to meet the characters after the show...why not come dressed up as your favourite? A perfect day out for the entire family, you’d be mad to miss it!

Tickets:

Alice in Wonderland comes to the Whitley Bay Playhouse on

Thursday 23rd February 2017at 2 pm & 6 pm. Tickets costing £14, £12 conc., £48 Family (2 adults, 2 children) are on sale.

Tickets are available from the Box Office open Monday – Friday 10am – 4pm, Saturday 10.30am – 2.30pm plus until show start on event days. Tickets can also be purchased on the booking hotline 0844 248 1588* or online at www.playhousewhitleybay.co.uk.

*Calls cost 7p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge.