This is as exciting and compelling as any season could be and continues the quality and diversity for which the Tobacco Factory has become so renowned.   

More ‘firsts’: stunning dance/movement theatre for the first time at the Tobacco Factory 

On the Lining of Bees (an Angus Balbernie production)
Thurs 13th - Sat 15th and Wed 19th - Sat 22nd May.  7.30pm.  
Prices:  £10 (£7 conc.)

The sensational Angus Balbernie, producer/dancer/choreographer, known and cherished throughout Europe and the USA, has devised this piece especially for the Tobacco Factory space.  Together with performers Clive Andrews, Janis Claxton and Barbara Schroer, they also use Soundscape and video images cleverly entwined with bodies and the text, to reveal the works and life of the novelist Malcolm Lowry.  An exciting and striking experience.

Land of Dust  (Naked Theatre)
Tues 15th and Wed 16th June.   8pm.
Prices:  £10  (£7 conc.)

The beautiful and talented Czech dancer, Yitka Charyparova, gives a virtuoso performance of this interdisciplinary adaptation of Strindberg’s Dream Play and TS Elliot’s The Wasteland.  The piece combines dance, drama, music, poetry and singing with international folk traditions and magic ritual.  A show to entrance.

Mensa Secunda (Spin Media)
Fri 18th and Sat 19th June.   8pm.
Prices:  £10  (£7 conc.)

This highly acclaimed Amsterdam company bring a work combining the newest of sound and lighting technology with ancient and archetypal ideas. The story of a cook seeking the perfect recipe!

The whole space is texturalised; dancers’ movements create and effect the sound and lighting; film projection is integrated within the space; the atmosphere is ‘magic’ and appears to be alive.  The result is totally stunning.        

Jimmy Carr
Sat 8th May
8pm
£12

In receipt already of so many awards, this ‘starlet’ of stand-up and TV (Distraction, Your Face or Mine - also hosting Have I Got News for You, 100 Worst Pop Records, etc.), is taking over in the world of comedy. 
THIS WILL SELL OUT QUICKLY, SO BOOK NOW.

“A masterclass in comedy...devastating tasteless two-liners that are bliss to listen to...Carr’s persona is irresistible, and his wisecracks have you quivering with satisfaction.”  The Guardian.

Daniel Kitson
Tues 25th May
8pm
Tickets:  £10

Award-winner and with an internationally growing reputation, Daniel Kitson is

revered by the critics for his originality and intelligence and is fast making a name as stand-up comedy’s latest ‘hot’ property.  Endearingly rude, impishly quick-witted, indignantly anti-mainstream and occasionally ‘silly’, Kitson is easy to listen to and achingly funny.

THIS WILL SELL OUT QUICKLY, SO BOOK NOW.

“Kitson’s about as good as it gets.”   The Guardian.

Madame Galina Ballerina
Fri 9th & Sat 10th July
8pm
Tickets:  £10

Winner of many awards and huge national acclaim, Madame Galina has delighted audiences all over the country.

THIS WILL SELL OUT QUICKLY, SO BOOK NOW.

“Madame Galina is sensational.  From the second she stepped on the stage, the overweight and exiled Russian ballerina had total mastery of the room...brilliantly written and fantastically funny.” ***** The Stage

“..quite mesmerising...the body movements of Natalia Makarova, the body type of Johnny Vegas...a unique and fabulous creation.” **** The Scotsman

Taylor’s Dummies by Gecko
Thurs 27th - Sat 29th May
7.30pm.
Prices:   £10 (£7 conc.)

 This brilliant young company have triumphed with their latest piece, Taylor’s Dummies.  To huge acclaim from the national critics, they are producing a new and inventive form of very physical theatre.  Deeply funny and stunningly dramatic, performers walk up walls, fly through the air and bring dolls and dummies to life.  Unmissable!

Time Out Critics Choice of the Year 2002; Guardian Pick of the Fringe, 2002;

Highly Commended Best Performance in the Off-West-End, Time Out, 2004.

Pugilist Specialist by The Riot Group
Wed 2nd - Sat 5th June
8pm.
Prices:  £12 (£8 conc.)

This group from San Francisco have landed in Britain and hit the ground running.  They have been rated in the ‘top theatre’ in the national press ever since the beginning of this tour of Pugilist Specialist. 

The ‘Hit of Edinburgh’, 2003 and sell-out in London, 2004, this is a timely dissection of the American Military’s hunt for evil in foreign lands.

“Remarkable and riveting.  It’s hard to imagine more brilliant or arresting new writing.”  Daily Telegraph

and at last a wonderful programme of workshops and performance for the under 12s nA huge wealth of dance, drama, creative arts, theatre skills, comedy impro workshops on Saturday mornings, for groups of 5 - 7 and 8 - 12 year olds.

Sat 1st May - Sat 26th June.

Plus two productions:

Tiger Child by Tim Tam Theatre Company
Sat 5th June             11am.             (3 . 8 years)
Prices:  £6 adult, £4 children.

The Nutcracker by Cornelius and Jones
Sat 3rd July                11am.             5 years + 
Prices:  £6 adult, £4 children.

add to all this the special events:

Rogue Works by Bocadalupa
Price  £3.99.

Thurs 29 April - Sat 1 May  Thurs  8pm, Fri  7.30pm & 10pm, Sat  4pm & 8pm.
A programme of short, new performance works by Bristol artists.

Two shows by Bristol Academy of Performing Arts
Prices:  £6 - £12

The Hot Mikado
Wed 23 - Wed 30 June   

Christopher Durang Explains it to You
Thurs 1 - Sat 3 July 

Septimbre and The Mivart Collective
2 Jazz Groups
An autism fund-raiser
Sun 2 May 
8.30pm
Price:  £10

Black Cube Gallery
Tues 4 May, 6pm. - 11.30pm
Wed 5 May, 11am - 3pm.
Exhibition of the fusion of art and music to suit the environment of the night-club.

South Bank Arts Trail
Sat 15 & Sun 16 May
1am - 6pm.

Live music:  
Sun 5 May
6pm - 11pm.
The wealth of artistic talent that lies ‘South of the River’ exhibits and performs ‘all around the Factory’!

A GREAT SEASON!
Box Office:  0117 902 0344
  Evening performances begin at 7.30 p.m. 
except Thursdays, when they begin at 8 p.m.  
Ticket prices vary from £10 to £18, with discounts for children under 15 
only on Saturday matinees.  Group discounts are also possible.  
Details from the Box Office. 

Box Office no:  0117 902 0344.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION TO 2004 SEASON

 The start - Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory began life in Bristol in the Spring, 2000, and gave an opportunity for theatre-goers to see large-cast professional productions in an intimate space.  The initial aims outlined by Andrew Hilton, the Artistic Director, were to include “intelligent, passionate acting, great story-telling, the most lucid and elegant response to Shakespeare’s language - where there will be no attempt to modernise or to simplify”.

Past Productions            
2000 season:            King Lear and A Midsummer Night’s Dream
2001 season:            Measure for Measure and Coriolanus
2002 season:            The Winter’s Tale and Twelfth Night
2003 season:            Troilus and Cressida and As You Like It

Reviews, credits and awards - each year the company has received accolades of the highest kind with excellent reviews from the national press; votes of the ‘best 3 to see’ from the Observer; the ‘5 best plays’ from the Independent; the coveted spot of ‘if you’re only going to see one thing this week ...’ from the Guardian; credit and recognition from the Times and the Observer in their end of year round up; to say nothing of the Oscars and Top Bananas from Venue.  In 2001, the company won the ‘Empty Space ..... Peter Brook Award’ for the Best ‘Up and Coming’ Theatre, the first time the award had been given to a company outside of London;  in 2003, Lucy Black received a commendation in the Ian Charleson Award for her role as Olivia in Twelfth Night;  several actors have joined the RSC for whole Shakespeare seasons, and the National Theatre;  many other actors have achieved good roles with high-quality companies.

national reviewers, 2003 - “He and his actors prove, once again, that to be popular, Shakespeare need not be, should not be, overdirected, tricksy or shallow.” - The Sunday Times

“There is never a line in a Hilton production that isn’t crystal clear, a word that you don’t understand.  He makes Shakespeare’s poetry seem easy.” - The Guardian

”..this lucid production, characterised by intelligent performances from all the cast ..” - Independent on Sunday

, “Hilton’s attention to each character is loving, precise and critical, but never clinical: each comes to life, but each has his secrets.  The speaking of this miraculous text, both verse and prose, is excellent; director and actors are attentive to every line.” - The Sunday Times

The company - the company was set up just four years ago with two ambitions - to produce work of the highest quality and to build a commercial operation on the foundations of private investment by theatre enthusiasts.  The aim was to exist for five years producing two classical plays each Spring.  The response by audiences and critics more than credit the first ambition and the investment allowed the company to meet its budget for the first four years.  The company has now become a charity however, and the original ‘founders’ have requested that Andrew Hilton continues to produce his annual offering of plays for a further five years with, maybe, a wider brief.

The sponsors for 2004 are Teoh’s Oriental Bistro and Stage Electrics

Teoh’s Oriental Bistro is committed to serving oriental food at very reasonable prices in the less fashionable areas outside city centres.

Stage Electrics is a leading British supplier of technical services to the entertainment industry, based in the South West.

BOV Theatre School and the Revd Neville Boundy have also generously supported the company this year.

TLT Solicitors and Baker Tilly  are giving generous support ‘in kind’.

The venue - the Tobacco Factory Theatre has achieved a strong national reputation for its varied and accessible programming in its first year as a full-time venue, and is still providing the ‘perfect place’ for Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory.  As a recently established Tobacco Factory Arts Trust, under the directorship of Dan Danson, there could be money available for improvement to the theatre’s facilities.

This Season - this fifth season sees the plays  Macbeth by William Shakespeare and The Changeling by Middleton and Rowley.  Andrew Hilton, the Artistic Director says of his choice of plays this year: “Macbeth is one of the best things Shakespeare wrote and takes you further into the very fundamental thing about being human, the ‘risk’ of being human!  It is not a pessimistic or cynical play - it curiously defines what is beautiful about human life whilst carefully describing its destruction.”  The Changeling was the first play he directed a long time ago and he is still as enthusiastic about it now as he was then.  “It is enormously charged; extremely direct and passionate; very simply about very basic things.  There are also similarities with the two plays, how lives are changed by a deed - they are both existentialist pieces - you are what you do, rather than who you are.

Macbeth will be played by Gyuri Sarossy, who played Coriolanus in the 2001 production of that play; Lady Macbeth by Zoë Aldrich, who played Paulina in the 2002 production of The Winter’s Tale.

In The Changeling, De Flores will be played by Matthew Thomas who is new to the company; Beatrice-Joanna by Saskia Portway, who played Rosalind in last year’s As You Like It.

Later in the Year - the company will be transferring the plays in repertoire for a five week season in the Barbican Pit starting 25th September, 2004.  

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