{"id":17194,"date":"2019-03-21T17:08:28","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T16:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=17194"},"modified":"2019-03-21T17:08:53","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T16:08:53","slug":"big-tellys-freak-show-set-for-theatre-at-the-mill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2019\/03\/big-tellys-freak-show-set-for-theatre-at-the-mill\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Telly\u2019s Freak Show set for Theatre at The Mill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4><strong>Vibrant fringe theatre delivers full throttle\nvaudeville entertainment.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/freak-show.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17196\" width=\"494\" height=\"648\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Award winning Big Telly Theatre Company return to\nTheatre at The Mill with <em>Freak Show <\/em>on\nWednesday 27 March. Never afraid of delivering work that is original and\nmischievous, if not slightly irreverent, the Portstewart based outfit\u2019s work is\nalways highly entertaining and deeply anchored in the stories, myths and\nlegends of the land, especially the beautiful Causeway coast they call home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Freak Show is a hugely entertaining blast of\nfringe-style vaudevillian theatre, inspired by the story of a real 17<sup>th<\/sup>\nCentury giantess from the area called Mary Murphy. She is said to have danced\nfor William of Orange and toured the world as part of a travelling freak show,\npopular at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The story goes that Mary married a\ndashing French sea captain who gave up his seafaring life to manage her \u2018freak\nshow\u2019 celebrity. But after her years being lauded by international attention,\nthe Portrush giantess eventually died destitute and alone, her celebrity\nforgotten. Until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Artistic director of Big Telly, Zoe\nSeaton said: \u2018Mary\u2019s story made us wonder about celebrity culture today and how\nthe whole business of fame has dark edges and corners. Who is exploiting who,\nand why? And is it really very different from 300 years ago where people were\nput on show to be stared at.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new piece is devised and written by\nZoe Seaton and actor Nicky Harley working closely with Moyra Donaldson. The script\nuses material from the Newtownards writer\u2019s collection <em>&#8216;Miracle Fruit&#8217;<\/em> alongside new pieces written for the show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Freak Show is an incredible display of physical\ntheatre by two masters of the form \u2013 Keith Singleton (Soft Border Patrol\/BBC)\nand co-writer Nicky Harley. The two actors play over 20 characters, itself an\nastonishing feat of their craft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is a fast, absurdly entertaining and raucous\npiece of theatre that is unique, funny and occasionally uncomfortable. There\u2019s lots\nof humour in the show but Freak Show walks along a careful tightrope of empathy\nand emotion never losing sight of its sharp pokes at contemporary obsession\nwith fame and celebrity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Freak Show premiered at the Belfast International Arts\nFestival in November 2018 and is on tour throughout March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tour dates and venues, and further information at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.big-telly.com\">www.big-telly.com<\/a><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vibrant fringe theatre delivers full throttle vaudeville entertainment. Award winning Big Telly Theatre Company return to Theatre at The Mill with Freak Show on Wednesday 27 March. Never afraid of delivering work that is original and mischievous, if not slightly irreverent, the Portstewart based outfit\u2019s work is always highly entertaining and deeply anchored in the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2019\/03\/big-tellys-freak-show-set-for-theatre-at-the-mill\/\">Continued<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17194"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17194"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17198,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17194\/revisions\/17198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}