November 2015

• Scena Mundi’s production of Shakespeare’s Richard II & Marlowe’s Edward II in Holy Trinity Church @ either 2.30pm or 7.15pm everyday except Sunday
• Birthday Lock-In with JJ Bola & Rex Domino in The Woodland Bar @ 10pm on Thursday
• The Diamond Age in Ventor Arts Club @ 10pm on Saturday
• Screening of Pride in The Outdoor Cinema @ 9pm on Thursday
• Shakespeare’s Rattle and Roll in Ventnor Arts Club @ 6pm on Saturday

An introduction to butoh as a dance form with Ezio Tangini. Check out Eio’s show Somewhere Nowhere at The Scout Hut, 9.30pm & 10.30pm Thursday evening (18+).

Where are you from?

“Rome, Italy”

How did you hear about Ventnor Fringe?

“On the web”

What style of performance is yours?

“The butoh dance is born in Japan in 1959, Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno have been the discoverers of this new kind of dance.

Now this form of dance is known everywhere. It is a form of dance in which it is important to feel the internal motivations. The Body expressing its existence. Living. Body. Inner-landscapes.”

Who/what inspires your choreography?

“The nature is often the most important inspiration. In Somewhere Nowhere the nature has inspired me strongly and also pictures, like the paintings of Andrea Mantegna and Hans Holbein the young.” 

How many years have you been perfecting this art? 

“I started studying butoh in 1998 with Masaki Iwana, in an intensive summer one month training in Normandy. Then I was there several times.

I started performing butoh in 2003. Flavia Ghisalberti, Yann van Steenbrugghe and I founded the group In Between Butoh. The group has been created around the dance project “Something in between”; reflections about the socialization of madness and the memories of places which accompanies it, conditions it or treats it.”

What other countries have you performed in? 

“With In Between Butoh; I performed in Russia, U.S., Canada, France, Switzerland, Germany, Gibraltar and Romania.

As as solo performer I’ve performed in Holland, Ireland, Romania and Switzerland.”

Where is the most interesting place you’ve ever performed? 

“In Sibiu (Romania) in 2009 with In Between Butoh. We performed as a three piece with a musician, Frank Heierli, in a small boat on an artificial lake, inside the Astra Museum and park with 400 people watching our performance.”

It’s the first day of the Ventnor Fringe Festival 2015!

The Review Show 2015: Tuesday (Scena Mundi / Kiya Heartwood / Rachael Berry) by The Ventnor Fringe on Mixcloud

In the Exchange today the review team are joined by theatre company Scena Mundi (in costume) who discuss Shakespeare and Marlowe ahead of their week-long run of performances. Rachael Berry from the Undecided Art Collective tells us about their Fringe exhibition about dreams and 80s rocker Kiya Heartwood is bringing her one woman show all the way from Texas to the Arts Club for this year’s Fringe – she also has a song for us!

The Ventnor Fringe Review is a daily podcast recorded in the Ventnor Exchange at 11am, it is an opportunity for artists and performers to have a chat about their work and get to know one another. Brought to you by Miri and Caty (AKA Drench & Prawnders, media gurus) the review show is a delightful teaser for visitors to the Fringe who can’t make up their mind what to see.

What’s 126 years old, writhes along like a slug and closes more streets than Island Roads can shake a stick at? That’s right; it’s that time of year – VENTNOR CARNIVAL IS BACK!

The time of year the ashtray skies don’t get to us as much as they should do, the time of year the seasonal self-loathing lies dormant at the pit of our bloated, neglected stomachs. The time of year we turn a blind eye to all the austerity, injustice and cyborg Nazi warlords plaguing our existence. Come to arms brothers and celebrate like it’s 1999 – Mardi Gras style baby.

Now if you’re a carnival virgin this makes things a little tricky. It’s not exactly something some old hack can write about and expect you to understand, and as a self-certified old hack myself, I get this. Yeah sure it’s a procession, sure there are floats and costumes and pints of Fosters in plastics, but that is beside the point. It’s an other-worldly visceral experience man, it’s a helter skelter ride to the brightest star and back. You know the space vortex scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey? Mix that with Lord Summerisle burning a wicker man and you’re halfway there.

Open your eyes, open your minds and bring at least 10 quid for a Disney helium balloon. Catch you on the flipside.

The procession begins in the town at 7pm tomorrow.

It’s that time of year folks, let’s get on down and have ourselves a good ole’ fashioned hoe down. The barn dance will be held tomorrow at Pier Street Playhouse from 3.30pm – no experience necessary! The wonderful Karen Tweed & The Dustbin Corner Ceilidh Band shall provide the music and get you up off your haunches for some no holds barred barnstompin’ mayhem. An optional, heartily encouraged fancy dress shall take place under the theme of Shipwrecks and Sailors – the world is your oyster! Prizes for under 8s, under 16s and over 16s.
 

Gaudy Bunting, a new, up and coming theatre company from Dorset, are exactly as you’d picture them to be; a theatrical Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc. So yes, essentially Perkins and Giedroyc .

Co-founders Hazel Marks and Katharine Piercy established the company whilst studying for their Masters in Devised Performance at the University of Winchester. Their work is devised from a variety of different strategies, personal experiences and skills the duo learnt from conservatoire-based training.

Gaudy Bunting is a warm welcome to Ventnor on a summer’s evening. They truly incorporate fervent qualities that reminded me of two mothers picking their kids up from school. The resemblance is uncanny.

With their elated and bubbly style, they share quite a quirky, broody sense of humour. The “How to Never Forget Anything Ever Again” show takes you on an absurd journey of how our busy lifestyles can affect our ability to remember, well, anything and everything really. Shopping lists, dry cleaning, picking up the kids… If you can remember to name it, you’ve probably forgotten it and it’s too late.

Much to my dismay I have a shockingly terrible memory for the ripe old age of 19. If you can sympathise with me on that, whatever age you are, then this show is definitely one to see this week.

Through comedy, song, dance, and a lot of “splendid!”, Marks and Piercy’s alter egos “Miss Hazel” and “Miss Katherine” explore these ideas at this year’s Ventnor Fringe Festival on 12^th and 13^th August 8:30pm-9:30pm at Pier St. Playhouse.