Thursday 11th until Sunday 21st November 2010 @ Tobacco Factory Theatre, Bristol

In The Wild Party, we have a means to drink throughout the Alcohol Prohibition; it was a place where anything could happen.

Cigarettes alight with vigor, smoke filling the bar. It’s foggy in there with the allure of mystery and romance, accompanied by a smooth soundtrack. 1930s New York is a sultry and cool place to be. People are dry in their wit. Slinky Gatsby overindulgence skips next to Evelyn Waugh’s satirical novels, laughing at frivolity. It was in 1931 that Aldous Huxley wrote of a ruined, emotionless humanity in Brave New World, amongst pioneering architecture, gender politics and Fordism, but it was the stylish young people who were dominating the scene. London called this set; The Bright Young People. The characters in The Wild Party may be more underground than these high profile, elaborate shin-diggers but as The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School beautifully shows, they were no less glamorous, and never far from corruption.
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Released: 10.10.10

This six track compilation of nay on perfect indie harmony is a ‘kiss with a fist’ to those critics that had written off this labour-intensive group after two years in radio wilderness since their debut LP.
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Friday 15th October 2010 @ The Croft, Bristol
With Support From: The Fuck Buddies

Celebrating the release of their new tunes, Unforgivable and 66sexy, The Hit-Ups are partying down at The Croft. Supporting are The Fuck Buddies. If The Darkness were inspired by The Strokes or The Ramones, instead of Queen, this is what you’d get. But it’s fun and interactive. The band are setup on the dance floor, not the stage, with the audience semi-circled around them. You get a real sense of engagement with them.

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Friday 1st until Sunday 3rd and Thursday 7th until Sunday 10th October 2010 @ Bridewell Island, Bristol

And so as the last flaming tightrope is extinguished, the final remnants of thick make-up are removed, and the doorway to the crypts are closed and padlocked, Bristol finally waves goodbye to Carny-Ville, the Invisible Circus and Artspace Lifespace at Bridewell Island. It’s been a drawn-out and emotional farewell but now this is surely it. The arts initiative who tour the city inhabiting semi-derelict spaces, rejuvenating and managing them as active creation centres while throwing some of the best god damn parties Bristol has ever seen, even for them time is up.

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Friday 1st October 2010 @ Southbank Centre, Bristol

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I was invited to The Recession Collection - a vintage fashion show at Bedminster’s Southbank Centre. Once I’d taken my seat, I made a quick scan of the crowd, which revealed large groups of women chatting, laughing and coifing champagne as they eagerly waited for the show to start. Before long, the music began and the first of the models descended the catwalk to a chorus of whoops and yelps.

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Thursday 30th September until Saturday 23rd October 2010 @ Bristol Old Vic, Bristol

After the sell-out success of Uncle Vanya in November 2009, excellent local theatre company Shakespeare At The Tobacco Factory return to the Bristol Old Vic for another Autumn retelling of an old classic. This time around it’s French visionary Molière and his comic masterpiece, The Misanthrope. All the action takes place on the top floor of a Parisian flat owned by Célimène and Alceste. Célimène is the greatest socialite in Paris, throwing constant parties and craving attention while Alceste, a successful writer, is harbouring a general contempt for all the insecure and incredulous people around him and seeks solitude; Alceste is The Misanthrope.
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Tuesday 5th until Saturday 23rd October 2010 @ The Brewery, Tobacco Factory Theatre, Bristol

It’s the early 30s and America is in the throes of the Great Depression. Two chain smoking criminals, Bonnie and Clyde are causing chaos throughout the West. You’ve probably heard of them - so dangerous, so thrilling, so romantic! The media revels in their crimes and fabricates their written portrayals with showers of flamboyance, but what about the actual people and the relationship between Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow?

When one of their many showdowns are over and they’re shooting back in their car to their hiding place, dust spewing from the thick tyres, wind flying all the way through them and their adrenalin singing in their veins, how is it possible to come down to a reality? From chaotic robberies to corn fields and whiskey with just each other for comfort, does the romance and passion push through the brewing resentment and the deep down wish for normality and a traditional life? Bonnie And Clyde by local theatre company Fairground, beautifully depicts a world where violence, humour, passion, frustration and tinned food rules. So alone - it’s a desert out there and no one’s gonna help ya.
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Friday 24th until Sunday 26th September 2010 @ The Amphitheatre, Bristol

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Saturday 2nd October 2010 @ The Farm, St Werburghs, Bristol

www.myspace.com/circusofinvention

Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th September 2010 @ Portland Square, Bristol

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