A Small Mind At The Theatre

For those unaware of what Fun Palaces is all about (except fun of course), they are an idea born from an attempt in the sixties by Joan Littlewood and architect Cedric Price to bring a "laboratory of fun" that would travel from place to place bringing arts, ideas, creation and that key fun to different locations. It never happened. However in 2014, the idea was reborn and across the country in the first weekend of October, 130 places in the UK became a place of "Fun". The Royal & Derngate held one that very year which I attended and it was a day I spent eight hours in the theatre milling about, intrigued by what was going on. For 2016, mine and R&D's third year, I joined them again on both the Saturday and Sunday. For 2016 there was no question that I had more fun than my previous two years. Indeed I had quickly regressed to childhood upon arrival, making a shadow puppet with the help of Lisa Shepherd of Imaginary Ordinary. Going rogue, shunning the temp...

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the best part of eight hours floating suspiciously and observing around the Royal & Derngate experiencing the very first Fun Palaces event. Born from a sadly failed thought of Joan Littlewood in 1961, Fun Palaces is a dynamic, pop up extravaganza of theatre, dance, music, face painting, singing, dressing up and the erecting of tents (12 at Royal & Derngate). Through this inventive collection the theatre was filled with the absolute total of demographics. Bustling with activity, everyone who attended was able to find something to amuse themselves. I myself rather boringly refrained from climbing into tents, putting on silly hats and having his face painted. Mores the pity. I was generally there for the theatre performances and a little added dance one for good measure. Five of which I saw during my stay. The first was appropriately entitled One , a short half hour or so of five little plays that had been written by members of the publ...