Chiswick Calendar Freebie – Win a Golden Pass to Riverside Studios Bitesize festival

Image above: Bitesize at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith

Bitesize festival returns to Riverside Studios

Riverside Studios is running its third Bitesize festival in July, with the most ambitious programme yet: 33 theatrical productions – plays, dance, poetry, stand-up comedy – from creatives who are new to the business and those who are more established, but trying out new work.

The four week festival is an opportunity for writers, producers and performers to have a platform for their work early in their career and a chance for those who enjoy theatre but find it too expensive, to take advantage of £10 tickets (concessions £6.50).

Images above: Bacon(L);  Ivo Graham (Top R); Jenan Younis (Bottom R)

Programme highlights

The Riverside’s programme highlights for the festival include Taskmaster star Ivo Graham’s work in progress presentation of his new stand-up show; the return of the multi-award-winning play Bacon, ‘an unflinching and humorous look at masculinity, sexuality and power’; BBC New Voices Winner and founder of Guardian recommended Weapons of Mass Hilarity, Jenan Younis presents an hour of new material; Mark Glentworth presents 7½ years, an award-winning autobiographical musical about him composing the world-famous percussion piece Blues for Gilbert; and Run To The Nuns, a new, queer musical set in a fictional nunnery.

Images above: 7½ years; Run to the Nuns

An open call to artists

Programming Manager Phoebe Stringer told The Chiswick Calendar she had selected the acts by putting out an open call, asking early career writers, producers and performers to submit their scripts and a bit about themselves. The work had to be self-produced and last under an hour. She was inundated with scripts.

“I read all the scripts” she told me, “even those I turned down. We were able to accept around a third. The application form was designed to be accessible, but detailed enough for us to be able to tell what the shows would be like.”

33 shows – all very different

The age range of those who will be showing their new work covers people in their twenties through to people in their sixties and the subjects are broad-ranging, from Fiji, “an interesting show about cannibalism” to Sophie, “an autobigraphical one woman show”.

Fiji

Fiji comes from the makers of “modern masterpiece” Clay Party and the “vividly stark” Conflicted Theatre.

‘Inspired by shocking true events, watch True Crime blend with Romantic Comedy to deliver a thrill-ride as hilarious and touching as it is oh. so. TWISTED. Nick’s cooking for Sam and, if all goes to plan, this will be their first and last meeting.’

Sophie

Sophie, a play about a young woman who lives with Downs Syndrome and her sister, is told from the point of view of the sister Emily.

As the girls grow up and Emily begins ‘consuming plenty of cheap booze, snogging boys, and dancing to some great girl bangers, Sophie gradually becomes excluded from the independent life that Emily is freely able to enjoy. The sisters then begin to grow further apart when Emily’s ignorance is fuelled by the discriminative views of her peers in high school.’

Sophie and Emily, sisters in real life, want to challenge people’s perceptions about Down syndrome and create ‘a social, cultural, medical, and educational impact through live and digital storytelling, in a sexy, sassy and sparkly way’.

Bossa Nova

Bossa Nova: Tribute to João Gilberto by Mario Bakuna is a conventional concert which does what it says on the tin.

‘After sold-out nights in the UK, Portugal, France and the Netherlands, Mario Bakuna is delighted to perform this concert at the Riverside Studios and invites the audience to celebrate one of the greatest Brazilian musicians of all times.’

Blood, Gold and Oil 

Blood, Gold and Oil has been produced to mark the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and is set in three parts representing war, commerce and energy. The actors use museum artefacts to tell the story of the Arab revolt and of British imperialism and invite the audience to re-think what they know about Lawrence of Arabia.

‘From the 1916 Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire of the First World War, a modern hero is constructed; the brilliant, flawed, figure of Lawrence of Arabia. His legacy is as conflicted as his psyche. Brilliant military commander? Certainly. Agent of British Imperialism? Maybe. Vulnerable fantasist? Yes. Freedom Fighter? In his head.’

Image above: The first three shows, 2 – 5 July 2023

Chance to win a Golden Pass

Just singling out these four productions gives a flavour of the variety of shows Bitesize has on offer. Some of the shows, such as Run to the Nuns, have just finished a run at Brighton Fringe, while others are gearing up for a go at the Edinburgh Fringe. Some are unique to the Riverside. Browse the full list on the Riverside Studios webiste.

riversidestudios.co.uk

The Riverside has made 20 Golden Passes available to the public to buy and has given one to us to give away to one of our readers. The pass entitles you to book two tickets per performance for as many performances as you want, for free.

Our competition question is: Ivo Graham appears in the Channel 4 show Taskmaster. Who are the show’s two presenters?

To win the Golden Pass, email us at info@thechiswickcalendar.co.uk with the answer to the question. Please put ‘Golden Pass competition’ in the subject box of your email. The winners will be chosen at random from the correct answers received by midnight on Friday 2 June.

If you don’t win but you would like to go to several performances, best value is the Festival Pass, which gets you ten pairs of tickets across the festival for £60.

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