Fat Man

VAULT Festival premiere for tragi-comedy with a unique new twist, as a classic Greek myth unfolds through the medium of standup Live Theatre, Newcastle 13th & 14th March Alex Swift, director of Caroline Horton’s critically acclaimed production Mess directs a reimagining of one of the most iconic characters of Greek Mythology, as Orpheus becomes a flailing, overeating musician-turned-comedian, presenting his familiar story as an autobiographical standup routine. Written and performed by Martin Bonger, recent collaborator of NIE and The Plasticine Men, Fat Man bridges the celestial with the everyday, in a bitterly funny unraveling of a man stricken with grief. Accompanied by an original score by Philipe Nash, Fat Man, which premieres at the VAULT Festival 2015, draws a sharp, contemporary story from the original myth through a series of painful jokes and anecdotes, told by a disheveled Orpheus with an ever-increasing waistline. The show previewed at Oval House in July 2014. Martin Bonger said, “The Orpheus I’ve created in Fat Man is fat with shame and conceit, trying to cling onto the belief that because of his music he’s as powerful as a God. He starts at this place of godly confidence and ends up back down on earth, humbled by failure. The world of stand-up feels like a great fit for the story, and the show looks at the bittersweet way a comic is often putting grief out there to be laughed at while searching for a kind of catharsis. I’m interested in those familiarly human details of a person’s story that can throw you off balance unexpectedly, leaving you laughing to keep from crying.” Alex Swift is a performer, director and theatre-maker whose work encompasses a range of forms, often including clown, comedy, physical, political and experimental theatre. His work has won Best Ensemble in the Stage Awards for Acting Excellence, The Bush Theatre Directing Award and The Buzz Goodbody Student Director Award. His credits include Mess by Caroline Horton (director, Traverse and National Tour), Violence by Kieran Hurley (Royal Court) and Travesty (writer, performer, Ovalhouse and national tour). Martin Bonger is an actor and theatre-maker, often working in devised theatre. He performs this Christmas in Around the World in 80 Days by NIE (Cambridge Junction), a company he also collaborated with on North North North in 2012. Until 2012 he appeared in a nationwide tour of Plasticine Men’s Keepers, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2009. Other credits include The Spellbound Horses (BBC Radio 4) and Of Women and Horses I Have Known (Camden People’s Theatre). First performed at Ovalhouse in July 2014. Created in association with North Wall Oxford, Live Theatre Newcastle, and South Street Reading. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.