Theatrics

BANTAM OF THE OPERA STAGE ~ THEATRICS BY DAY

With bewitching theatre and interactive workshops to really get the playful mind involved, the Bantam of the Opera Stage has grown into a forum for engaging performance and experimentation. Nozstock 2010 brought you cutting edge dramatic pieces from nationwide theatre groups including the Herefordshire College of Arts, 2 Faced Dance and The Courtyard Youth Theatre, with interaction for all the family.

2012’s plans are already under way to bring a plethora of activities to every punter. With daytime workshops for young and old, outbreaks of dance and games you won’t be able to pull yourself away. There will be comedy and tragedy on a veritable emotional rollercoaster!

IN 2011 THE FOLLOWING ACTS WOWED AT NOZSTOCK:

Cassandra Kill and Lord Whitney… in…

Kill Lord Whitney

Join Lord Whitney, the eccentric head of a travelling circus sideshow. A plot against his life has been discovered and the freaks are all suspects. The story is narrated by Bert – a journalist and fallen academic – who the Lord brings to the circus to try and unravel the plot. However, as he makes his way around the sideshow and meets the freaks, Bert becomes strangely intoxicated by their bizarre ways and finds himself on a surreal personal journey through his own freakishness. All is not as it seems…

THE VELVETINE VALLEY ~ CABARET BY NIGHT

After hours on Saturday the Theatre becomes a haven for all things burlesque and fabulous..

Late into the night, when darkness settles on the farm, a new kind of intrigue will descend as the cabaret opens for one extravagant night only. Expect seduction and the bizarre. With classic dark humour and a taste of the unusual and atmospheric, revel in some decadence – grab a cocktail and come indulge… if you can handle it.

LINE UP >>>

Ophelia Bitz

Notoriously sharp and dangerously funny, Ophelia is most at home running the show and keeping audiences delirious with dramatic excitement with her intelligent, witty banter and unique repertoire of songs. Cited by the Guardian as “brilliantly twisted” and “divine” Ophelia has been compared (very flatteringly, thank you!) to Stephen Fry, Jo Brand and Dorothy Parker. Ophelia regularly hosts cabaret, burlesque and circus shows throughout London and the UK and will be bringing her hilarious, dirty, perfectly-timed repertoire to Nozstock this year.

Keda Breeze

Keda Breeze is an icon of the performance world, internationally renowned for her explosive circus, burlesque and variety acts, a creator of visually stunning performance art and a forerunner of the British cabaret scene.

The Late Night Shop

This London based art and cabaret collective provide variety entertainment, experimental performance and cultivated cabaret acts for arts venues and theatres across London and the UK, attempting to invert, subvert re-write cabaret traditions in the most humorous ways possible.

Owen Niblock

Self-confessed comedian, geek and weirdo, Owen will envelope you in his strange and unusual world. Explore this head littered with strangeness as he tells short sharp jokes (in G major), makes up queer little ditties and draws pictures about a worm’s dietary habits.

Conlon & Hunt

A dynamically dysfunctional duo boasting incredible circus trickery and a wicked sense of humour in the face of danger, death, or possibly just humiliation.

Remnants

Remnants is a subtle and beautiful acrobatic piece exploring the emotions of a couple at the end of a relationship. With highly skilled acrobatics and genuine performances Remnants is suitable for cabarets and theatrical events.

Pearl Boheme

Born on wild fierce winters night, drifting through landscapes and planets on the wind, picking up ancient ancestral moves along the way Pearl Boheme will delight, entertain, hypnotise and scare you witless with her dance.
Tribal Fusion Belly Dance is a unique blend of accient and modern dance. Largely drawing on the American Tribal Style created by Fat Chance Belly Dance director Carolena Nericcio. Tribal Fusion uses slinky Arabic style hip movements with strong flamenco upper body attitude in hands and arms, influenced with a touch of Rajasthani Gypsy. Fusion goes on to explore the boundaries of modern dance forms such as street dance, contempary dance and dark fusion theatre combined with the dancers own expression, drawing the audience in on her journey.

DJ Lapis

Brighton based DJ blending and cutting balkan, klezmer, funk, soul, ska, electro, swing, drum and bass, anarcho punk and Disney. Recycled gypsy loops guaranteed to keep your feet stomping from start to finish.

INTERACTIVE WALKABOUT 

And don’t miss the walkabout interactive performances all weekend. They’ll be surprises round every corner. Be amazed by the Farrell Circus Troupe and Gogs, firedancer extraordinaire! Let your eyes be boggled by the mind-bending performance artists who weave, wind, twizzle and sizzle their way through the weekend for your pure pleasure and astonishment.

ENTERTAINING YOU >>>

Human Restoration Sanitation Team

We are the Scrubbers, the Human Restoration and Sanitation Team, a crack team of cleaner-upperers on hand to clean and polish and generally spruce up the scruffy, dirty bunch of revellers at Nozstock. We are armed with feather dusters, face wipes, other cleaning acutrements and of course loads and loads of GLITTER!!

Carnival Cat

Giant Twisted Carnival Cat, a head, 4 legs, rib cage with L.E.D heart light and tail will prance down the hill leading the festival in and creep around as and when required hehehe…

A Fettle of Kitsch presents

Door Bitches

Two vulgar fashionistas set themselves up at the entrance to a portaloo, at the front of a burger van queue, anywhere that they deem to be the place to be, and then decide who is beautiful enough to pass.
There will be frisking, possessions will be confiscated and people will get barred. The Gorgeous will be adored, and the Undesirable dispatched without mercy. As self-appointed goddesses of style, they’re fickle, they’re foul and they’re fatheaded dimwits.
No sooner have they arrived than our duo of darlings the Door Bitches are skittering off to the next place to be, leaving crowds somewhat perturbed and unsure of what was in that tea they just drank?

Uk Uncut in…

Cilla Black

Cilla Black is back! – They are on the prowl for fresh and moist love juices to flow. Looking for love? or maybe just a farm yard bang? They will dress you up and team you up with a crusty contestant to win a date and possibly find true love at Nozstock.

Ross Headley

Interactive demonstrations of telepathy, telekinesis and psychometry.

The Johnny Eccles Fan Club

Two Nuns have recently escaped from their convent after fire broke out.

They know little of the outside world and innocently attempt to merge back into society since their escape over the convent wall. Sister Moype has her beloved prayer book for company, with a prayer or a verse for every occasion. Confessions and spiritual advice is always on hand, whether it’s wanted or not.  Sister Moype is accompanied by her loyal mute side-kick, Sister Gloype. The first thing she found after her escape was an accordion that she could strangely immediately play.

Despite the enchanting accordion soundtrack to this pair, there is something a little sinister about this pair…. something dis-figured, un-ladylike….

Lee World Walker Robot

Be excruciatingly dazzled by this monstrous robot, complete with his own wobbly bass line sound system, he will stalk the night and envisage your dreams.

The Rainbow Collectors

A twisted pigeon dating factory shall disgust and tantalise, with possible moistening after effects around the jowels.

The Really Crap Runners

Crap running is a lifestyle choice that we’d like to demonstrate at Nozstock. Lets get kids running…….craply. Think Monty Pythons Factory of Silly Walks, and run with it…

Monsters Inc

Cut out and keep or set your own nozzy monster free.

Farrell Circus Troupe

Dominatrix monkey taming, London cabbie umbrella taxis plus flaming wizardry from these Nozstock residents, the Ballzout Troupe! With workshops by day and danger-defying feats by night, you’ll be ‘ooh’ing and ‘ah’ing with the best of ‘em.

Techno Turbans

Naked blue men in golden turbans create and encourage naked body printing for the techno tits arena…they cajole and flirt their way around anyone and anything.

Sock Wrestling Arena

Ready, steady…wrestle! Winner takes all, like Charlie Sheen, you’re either with the trolls or your not. Golden socks for all winning contenders.

Park Bench Poets

We are creating the Amazon forest as a setting for our ARMIDILLO story (adaptation of Kipling’s Just So stories with a modern twist). The audience can come and find the animals with the actors. Namely…the narrator Alex who is playing A NATURE REPORTER. A mini treasure hunt with make shift cameras made from loo role holdes.

This Armildillo story is about 15-20 mins in lengh. They can also sing songs and perform rhymes in a more inpromptu style if you would like as part of the walkabout…they have many games, musical talents (voices, guitars and more) up their sleeve. Perhaps an open play a long jam with the crowd. Or a mamoth game of grandmother’s footsteps, salsa lessons from the porcupine, ….etc.

The Lady of the Lake

The lady of the lake will serenade your goose pimples with her haunting tones.

The Matey Institute

present The One Hour Plays! With copious help from the audience, these ten-minute plays are conceived, devised, costumed, scripted, rehearsed, and staged in only one hour. Timed to an hourglass this is theatre at it’s most improvised! Plus plays are streamed after so everyone can see their creations online.

The Scrubbers

This Human Sanitation & Salvation Team will get you feeling sparky and ready for some razmajazz after many an hour doing the welly-wobble.

The Splendid Sparrows

Friday- ‘Evolution’ a six hour performance installation physically exploring the complete evolution of life from the most basic single celled organisms through to humans as we know them today. we will move and interact as as many as the world most weird and wonderful creatures as possible.

Sunday- ‘The Human Condition’ a six hour performance using improvisation comedy, dance, mime, drama workshop and even juggling techniques to explore as much of this mighty theme as possible. A possible thought provoking, light hearted laugh where every 10 minutes offers something different.

Death and the Baby! Meet death face to face and chat to the oracle, also known as, The Baby.

Toybox

ToyBox is a walkabout performance piece that involves two clockwork dolls and a tricycle. These quirky dolls love exploring and meeting interesting creatures  along their travels. The tricycle has a huge gramophone and needs energy from the people in order for it to play music. The dolls will be looking for people to wind them up and also help wind up the tricycle to create the sound.

TENT OF TEMPORARY THOUGHT

Featuring wisdom, debate and opinion from all corners of the globe, come and test the bounds of your mind in this tent, here one minute, gone the next. Thought has never felt so fleeting, or maybe it has?

POETS>>

Charlie Dupre

As well as regularly MCing for Swing n Bass badboys, Dutty Moonshine, Charlie delivers dynamic solo performances that use pulsing verbal tapestries to convey his various wonderings. He has supported the likes of Polar Bear and Chester P, has won Farrago, Beat and Open/Wide, and has competed in the Hammer and Tongue National Final in Brighton.

Dave Florez

Dave writes grotesque lyrical ballads and fucked-up fairytales on age-old themes of thwarted love, broken dreams and estate agency.

Susie Wild

One of Parthian’s Bright Young Things, Susie’s words have appeared all over the shop including the BBC, Guardian and Bugged. Also known as Mslexia’s ‘Literary It Girl’, her debut offering of short stories, The Art of Contraception came out in September 2010. It was Buzz Magazine’s Book of the Month in October 2010, won Fiction Book of the Year in the Welsh Icons Awards 2010, and is long-listed for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2011.  ”amusingly quirky and darkly humorous” – Planet Magazine / “A talent for razor-sharp, satirical observation.” – Nigel Jenkins, Poet.

Huw Dylan Ellis

Thirty six with all his own hair, creatively flirty and debonair. The grandson of Dylan Thomas, rhythmic flow an inherited promise. He’s performed in Edinburgh and written a show, prized short stories and a film on the go. He won a national award in advertising, to those that know him this was not surprising. Modesty ties his feet to the ground, laughter and applause, his favourite sound. He writes in an attic in the dark in Motspur Park at under the moon o’ clock, lunar tick, lunar tock. He understands irony and once tried to grow an iron tree. He is native to Divland where he’s known as Doctor Huw. Quack. Oink. Buzz. Flutter. Cuckoo Doodle Moo.

Stephanie Dogfoot

Funny and furious spoken word poetry by a smallish Singaporean girl about foreignness, identity, foreign identities, and growing up to eat tropical snails.

John Hoggett

Pinko Commie Queer Poet discusses sex and drugs and ecocide with an English lyrical edginess.

The Antipoets

A wry blend of anarchocynisism and comic observation. Paul and Ian have brought together the wit and wisdom of one of the country’s finest performance poets with melodic rhythms of solo bass and the odd piece of gratuitous percussion thrown in for good measure to create the unique sound and spectacle that is The Antipoet.

SPEAKERS>> 

Maryam Namazie

‘The effects of Sharia Law on the Freedoms of Women’

A prominent human rights activist. Maryam Namzie will be speaking on the effects of Sharia or Islamic law on the rights and freedoms of women, how the demand for Sharia law is the demand of a far-right Islamic movement and not that of Muslims per se, and the need for a defence of secularism, universal rights and citizenship.

Millie Boswell

 ‘Calm Down Dear, It’s Only a Protest!’

Recent coverage of female protestors have shown how far we haven’t come from the sexist stereotypes of ‘naive suffragettes with high strung, over-excitable natures’. From Slutwalks to Suffrage, Tuition Fees to Tahrir Square, women are marginalised, criticised and silenced because of their sex.

UK Uncut 

Countering austerity with creative civil disobedience.

In less than a year, UK Uncut has become possibly the largest and most well-known direct action movement in the UK in decades. In the words of an editor of New Left Project, “UK Uncut’s strength lies in its creativity, good humour, and laser-like focus on the most blatant forms of hypocrisy in the establishment’s austerity narrative.” Banks and stores belonging to tax-dodging corporations have been transformed into creches, libraries and hospitals, all around the country, by people of all ages. It has had support from groups including Compass, PCS, Unite, GMB, NUJ, Tax Justice Network, War on Want, Jubilee Debt Campaign and People and Planet and individuals including Caroline Lucas, Naomi Klein, Michael Moore and Polly Toynbee.

Mike Ward

What is sociology? How can it make us think about the world we live in? What exactly do sociologists and other social scientists do?  Drawing on incidents from research and his developing career as a sociologist, in this talk Mike Ward demonstrates the need to take a much wider view of the ways we act and suggests the need to cultivate powers of the imagination to think sociologically about the world we live in.

Mike is a PhD researcher at Cardiff University and has a first degree in sociology from the University of the West of England in Bristol. His research interests include social class, masculinities and male studies, ethnography, pro-feminism, youth studies, and the life history method.

Julian Baggini

Subject, ‘Do we exist and does it matter if we don’t?’

Julian Baggini is a British philosopher and the author of several books about philosophy written for a general audience. He is the author of The Pig that Wants to be Eaten and 99 other thought experiments (2005) and is co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Philosophers’ Magazine. He is a regular speaker on BBC radio 4 and has written for The Guardian.