DarkChat - Reviewing the Edinburgh Fringe since 2008
"Hello there you lot,
I hope you're all keeping well. I'm holed up with my parents on Anglesey, as I was up about to open Milky Peaks in Theatr Clwyd when we got shut down, then i came a few miles over here for a bit of relaxation, then full on Lockdown happened.
So I've been with my parents and their cat, going for long walks by the reservoir, doing work; thankfully I've got a bunch of commissions to work on for upcoming work which has all benefited from this hiatus. I mean I've also been losing my mind and doing some jigsaws with the parents (we just finished the Sistine chapel. It took 6 weeks, which is admittedly a bit less than the original took to paint).
It's my mother's birthday today, so she had a ceremonial trip to the garden centre, then we got wasted on service station wine and now she's falling asleep to something with John Nettles in it.
I've got several very exciting projects that are now further forward because of all this. Other than the show in writing with Maxine Peake which is already announced, I'm afraid I don't think I can discuss any of them. But there's some really fun stuff Renegade, Fabulous, savage punch with a glittery glove. I think you'll love it.
I'm frustrated that Milky Peaks hasn't opened yet, because I do feel it responds to loads of things that are very present in the air at the moment, but obviously it's not the time yet. It will be. We've got some announcements to make soon around Milky, watch this space. I'm also rewriting bits of it, so it'll be even better!
What I can share with you almost right away is the show I just made with Matthew (Alexander Keith) and Lime Pictures and Home Manchester. It's a gorgeous, fantastical, immersive at-home mini musical inspired by 90s masterpiece TV series Knightmare (and our current world). It's called ActualQuest, and it's all over my socials right now.
Hope you enjoy that! Let me know how you get on. Thank you so much for staying in touch. Best of love to you all.
Take care!
X
Seiriol"
My Lockdown Fringe
In 2017 Seiriol Davies won 2 DARKCHAT awards , 1 for Best Performance In An Entertainment/ Musical and 1 for Best Entertainment/ Musical for the glorious " How To Win Against History".
He managed to tear himself away from gazing at these awards to let us know how he is coping with lockdown.
In 2012 ( not that long ago surely) Pappy's won ( & personally received) the DARKCHAT award for Best Comedy for " Pappy's.Last.Show.Ever!"
Matthew Crosby kindly took time out from his busy schedule to share his Lockdown thoughts.
To be honest I had very few plans around this year's now-cancelled Edinburgh festival save for one night of a live show with Ed Gamble based on our Sunday morning Radio X show. So lockdown hasn't conflicted with a period of writing/previewing any new work. That's not to say I haven't been busy. There's obviously the aforementioned radio show, every Sunday from 8am till 11am. https://www.radiox.co.uk/radio/shows-presenters/ed-gamble-matthew-crosby/
Pappy's have also been busy working on our Pappy's Flatshare podcast. We've had some great guests recently including Adam Buxton and Matt Lucas. We've also been doing zoom versions of our Flatshare Slamdown live podcast (our guests have been James Acaster and Lou Sanders; and Josh Widdicombe, Sara Pascoe and Steen Raskopoulos). https://play.acast.com/s/pappysflatshare
We've also been putting out a new show called Flatshare Lockdown on our patreon. There are currently nearly 40 eps of this new show and we're really proud of it. We even have a chat about the Dark Chat awards in one ep. www.patreon.com/pappysflatshare
I've also been writing on Matt Lucas' Reasons to be Cheerful TV show, The Last Leg (both for channel 4) and I'm just about to start on the third series of Alan Carr's There's Something About Movies for Sky. Hopefully series 3 of Hypothetical (the show I co-created with Josh Widdicombe, Tom Craine and producer Stu Mather) on the Dave channel will be back in production soon after having been postponed due to lockdown. https://dave.uktv.co.uk/shows/hypothetical/
So yeah, all in all, there's a lot going on. Hope the Dark Chatters are busy too!
Take care,
Matthew
In 2015 Luke Wright won the DARKCHAT award for Best Performance In An Entertainment for " What I Learnt From Johny Bevan".
He is hardly running out of things to do either.
Thanks for getting in touch. I’m currently doing a nightly gig on Twitter at 8pm. Tonight is #91. After #100 I’m going to go down to a weekly gig on a Wednesday evening. This will continue until the theatres open again.
Best,
Luke
Last year Camino De Sangjaru won the DARKCHAT awards for Best Music and the coveted Best Show award. They have given us an insight into how they are surviving the lockdown in South Korea.
Okay!
We released our first full-length album on March 18th as a Korean date. The title's [Taryeong]. Maybe you can check it out on the same music platform as like Spotify. It's made up of the programs you've seen in the show.
We were originally scheduled for a second performance in England by invitation to The Great Escape in Brighton. But, as you know, the festival has been canceled, and they are only performing in Korea.
(You can check continuously on our social media or YouTube channel!
Link : www.youtube.com/sangjaru)
South Korea is performing between online and offline, and recently we had an online performance on 'SDTT.'
(This can be found on the YouTube SDTT channel! - Link : https://youtu.be/Wftq0OHqIdk)
Since then, about two performances are scheduled a month, but it is not clear how they will proceed due to the current problem.
We are focusing our time on creating new music and performances. We don't have many interesting episodes because we are living together with three boring men, but we are just preparing hard for After Covid-19 as artists.
Take Care!
-SANGJARU