No Planet B

A polar bear standing on a small block of ice has become a worldwide symbol of climate change and climate change arguments are on our screens every day.  So when BOLDtext were given a January 2020 date at Birmingham Rep, climate change seemed an obvious topic to choose.

Then came the difficult bit.  Four BOLDtext writers  – Stephen Jackson, Nicola Jones, Sayan Kent and Julia Wright – got together to discuss what they were going to write about.  Can we say something new about climate change, can we make plays that don’t sound like preaching to the converted and is there room for any comedy in this serious crisis?  The answers were yes, yes and yes.  Four distinct styles, four different stories and four unique short plays have emerged to encourage and inform discussion.

Then we engaged the experienced Ali Belbin as director and three superb actors – Miriam Edwards, Rochi Rampal and Tyrone Huggins.  Their job is to take the four plays and produce an evening of script-in-hand performances which communicate different characters and different themes with only one day’s rehearsal. No problem for talent like this.

The evening will end with a panel discussion featuring climate change experts and the writers.  The variety of themes in the plays should stimulate lively discussions.  Tickets are already running out so it should be a full house.  Can’t wait!  Book your tickets for this exciting new BOLDtext event on  Monday 20 January 8pm in The Door, via the REP box office on 0121 236 4455 or this LINK.

No Planet B

On MONDAY 20th JANUARY 8pm, BOLDtext return to The Door at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, with a brand new show about climate change.

Global warming is a hot issue and it’s getting hotter.  Forests are burning, ice is melting, polar bears are drowning…

No Planet B is a collection of brand new short plays from Sayan Kent, Julia Wright, Nicola Jones and Stephen Jackson, with a discussion afterwards.

Tickets are free  – but we will rattle a bucket at you on the way out.  Book using this LINK.

Our script-in-hand new writing nights are very popular so it’s best to reserve your ticket in advance.  Hope to see you there!

Enough said!

“I had a great time on Sunday @BhamWeekender checking out the @Bold_Text across #Digbeth with their brilliant promenade piece called Follow Me“

“Well the #BirminghamWeekender was a little different this year, my highlight was today’s Follow Me from the super talented folk that make up @Bold_Text Thank you for such an entertaining walk & talk! I never thought I’d ever (knowingly) be singing outside the @O2InstituteBham!”

So glad you enjoyed our intimate tales of Digbeth – from coach travel and concrete-concealed rivers, to music gigs, pub lock-ins and impromptu salsa sessions.  It was a real privilege to take part in Birmingham Weekender and celebrate the Digbeth culture we love.

STOP PRESS:  BOLDtext has two new Open Doors at The REP (dates tbc) in the New Year.  We’ll keep you posted.

FOLLOW ME

Don’t miss BOLDtext Playwrights’ latest endeavour, Follow Me, on Sunday 6th October starting at 2pm at Digbeth Coach Station, as part of the wonderful Birmingham Weekender.

Join us on a sometimes giddy, often unhygienic and always revealing walking tour of Digbeth’s hidden history: the one that exists in our heads.  En route you’ll be guided through childhood memories and ushered past passionate exchanges.   You’ll visit the site of bad decisions, not to mention a few life-changing ones.  We’re pulling back the curtain on our shared experience of this vibrant artery at the beating heart of Birmingham.  All those things that are better left unsaid… well, we’re just going to say them!  Click HERE for tickets – we have limited numbers so don’t delay.

BOLDtext are professional writers from the West Midlands who collaborate on work that, while diverse, is always close to home.  Join us in person, as we tell you our most intimate Digbeth stories.  The hour-long stroll starts at the Coach Station and finishes at the Old Crown, stopping off at various points along the High Street, so do come prepared for any weather.

“BOLDtext Playwrights are guilty of putting on a captivating show”  British Theatre Guide on Behind Bars: Ghosts of the Lock-Up

 

“An arresting production full of realism and injustice”

Laurence Saunders and Graeme Rose as Charles Muscroft and ‘Tommy Tank’

Our latest show Behind Bars: Ghosts of the Lock-Up recently closed after captivating sell-out audiences over the course of twelve successful shows. Don’t just take our word for it. Read Steve Orme’s review in the British Theatre Guide:

Bold Text Playwrights is a group of eight professional writers from the West Midlands whose aim is to create fresh platforms for their work.

Tim and Corinne meet Sunny and Shay!

We were delighted to be invited to appear on the Sunny and Shay show on BBC Radio WM to talk about our show Behind Bars: Ghosts of the Lock-Up. BOLDtext member and director Tim Stimpson joined Corinne Brazier from the West Midlands Police Museum to chat about how the production came about, some of the characters and stories involved, and the exciting plans for the Lock-Up’s future. You can listen by the clicking on the links below.

TIM’S INTERVIEW

CORINNE’S INTERVIEW

If you’re reading this before the production closes there are still a few tickets left for 11am, 2pm and 5pm on Sunday 21st July 2019. Grab them while you have the chance!

www.lockupbehindbars.eventbrite.co.uk

Banged Up by Stephen Jackson

I’ve been banged up, locked up… I’m spending the week in prison. Some might say it was only a matter of time and no more than I deserve. Just throw away the key and leave me to rot. But I haven’t been convicted of any crime. I’m here in Birmingham Central Lock Up working on our theatrical show Behind Bars:  Ghosts of the Lock Up – which is back by popular demand.

My fellow inmates are four wonderful actors plus our director Tim Stimpson. I’ve volunteered to be stage manager. We are once more bringing to life some of the thieves, murderers and police officers who haunt this place.  They are a colourful crew – but maybe the real star is the building itself.

Built-in the nineteenth century, this prison is a scary, scary place – three floors of clanging cell doors and echoing walkways. It’s worth the ticket price on its own. Astonishingly it was still in use until three years ago.

A number of my friends have told me they’ve spent a night in here (remind me to mix with a better class of people) although not all of them were stranglers or burglars. One of my respectable friends fell into a diabetic coma on a bus. The police thought she was drunk and locked her up!

Drunks have been regular visitors to these cells. My contribution to Behind Bars is a piece about Tommy Tank, possibly Birmingham’s most notorious drunkard. At one time he was banned from every pub in the city. But come along and he’ll tell you his version of the story – alongside a few other Ghosts of the Lock Up.

Hope you can make it.

BOOK YOUR TICKETS HERE