At the Pegasus Theatre, Oxford. More details TBC.

7pm @ United Reformed Church, St Georges Rd, St Annes-on-Sea. Tickets are free, donations welcome. Hosted by Chuches Together, St Annes.

7.30pm @ Trinty Arts Centre Trinity Street, Gainsborough, Lincs, DN21 2AL. Tickets are free! Bookings via Trinity Arts Centre: 01427 676655. In conjunction with North Lincolnshire Amnesty International Group

7.30pm @ Wirksworth Town Hall, Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4 4EU. Tickets: £5 Free for students/unwaged. Part of Wirksworth Festival 2010 hosted by Wirksworth and District Amnesty Group.

Greenham Peace Garden @ 2pm (outside New Greenham park, 4 miles south of Newbury on the A339). Tickets are free and include refreshments! Bookings via email.

Cheltenham Racecourse. For more information, see the Greenbelt Festival website.

Launch of new Outreach script On a Clear Day You Can See Dover at Wilton’s Music Hall, Graces Alley, London, E1 8JB @ 7:30pm. Please email for more details.

A few months ago, we placed an ad in the Metro and Evening Standard:

“iceandfire theatre is seeking interviews with Londoners who are living in poverty (on low wages, long-term unemployed, homeless, living in temporary accommodation) who would like their stories to be told. £40 cash offered. Anonymity guaranteed.”

The response was immediate and overwhelming. Many more people than we have the capacity to speak with got in touch. Since April, we have conducted 30 in-depth face-to-face interviews with some of the respondents. As part of the work we are doing with Trust for London, we are interested in building a human profile of what poverty in London looks and feels like. Some of these stories will be included in our outreach script Broke, which is regularly updated. Some will inspire a new piece of theatre we are planning for the summer of 2011. Over the next few months, we’ll be blogging about some of the people we’ve met. Today, we’ll hear from ‘Brian’ in his own words.

(more…)

There’s an interview in today’s Metro with ‘rockpera’ start Meatloaf, where he is lamenting the death of the album due to current zeitgeist of downloading individual tracks. The ‘itunes effect’, he claims has caused us all to be lazy listeners and that “ten years ago … You couldn’t just buy four songs off the album. It’s terrible”….

Hmmm, terrible for whom, Mr Loaf? Terrible for us, not having the gift of your divine musicality in its full LP glory, or terrible for you as you realise that your bank balance is forcing you to bow to your greater masters, the fickle and devious audience, and actually provide what they want? Because, you see, not everybody wants to sit through an hour and a half of self-indulgent waffle to get to the three or four songs that they actually like, so what’s the harm? – you might, in fact introduce new listeners who may not have bought your album but actually quite like your single (my dad being case in point).

(more…)