Night Shift
A spoken word film directed by Sandy Thomson and performed by Jeremiah Reynolds. A poem about the end of life and the people we care for. Shot on location in Dundee's West Ward Works and in Nashville, TN with American filmmaker Brian Zimmerman.
D*mned Rebel B*tches
A co-production with Comar with support from Luminate. The one thing about getting old, is that everyone who can tell you off has died. Octogenarian Scottish sisters Ella and Irene survived the Clydeside Blitz in 1941. Now in 2012, they’re in New York in the teeth of Hurricane Sandy, searching for Ella’s feckless grandson Cameron, whose life is in danger. In their bid to rescue him, the women encounter allies, enemies, personal history and fools who think that little old ladies aren’t dangerous.The script was supported by Sandy Thomson's Playwright Studio Scotland Award and funding from the Tom McGrath Fund. Featuring age blind casting.
Monstrous Bodies
(Chasing Mary Shelley Down Peep O' Day Lane)
A Poorboy and Dundee Rep collaboration. Written and Directed by Sandy Thomson featuring cast members of the Poorboy and Dundee Rep Ensembles.
It’s 1812 and the country is coming apart at the seams. War, poverty, and riots make it a dangerous place for a young girl but after a furious row with her stepmother she is sent away from home, alone, into the care of the rich and radical Baxter family of Dundee. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is 14 and hasn’t met the man who will make her Mary Shelley yet. She hasn’t done anything yet. But her genius for finding trouble pitches her into a world of politicians, revolutionaries, lunatics, American fugitives, and the ladies of The Glassite Church Floral Tea Committee.
In 2017, Roxanne had so much studying to do for school she nearly didn’t go to the party on Peep O’Day Lane. But everyone needs a night off, right? She doesn’t mean to crash out but when someone takes a topless photo of her, Roxanne’s life as she knows it is over.
Unless it isn’t.
Do you know what a monster really looks like?
Pirates and Mermaids
An international story told on a very human scale. Cameron is in NYC. Eilidh lives in Scotland. The technology in their pockets keeps them constantly in touch, but you can’t hold someone in your arms over Skype, and a text doesn’t show you someone’s smile. An uplifting and surprising show about true love, family advice, favourite sweets and what whisky can do to you. Co-written by Sandy Thomson and Jeremiah Reynolds. 5 stars - Must See - Stage Award for Best Solo Performer nominee.
BANGARANG
In development. A riot of rap and rock telling the story of how Tinkerbell and a band of Lost Boys flee Neverland and its unbalanced, despotic leader Peter Pan. Devised by members of the Poorboy ensemble.
Address to a Liar
Or The Extraordinary Exploits And Shenanigans Of The Drunkard Tam O'Shanter And Rogue Robert Burns As Told To The Landlady Of A Respectable Hostillary In The Hawkhill In Return For the Clearing Of An Unpaid Bar Slate. Poorboy Artistic Director Sandy Thomson in collaboration with the Dundee Rep Community Company. A fully accessible romp with crowdsurfing, choirs and plenty of chaos.
Grist to the Mill
A two week research project into accessible theatre with the Poorboy Ensemble in collaboration with Artlink and partially sighted and blind audiences. Working with actors, musicians, writers and Duncan of Jordanstone design student Amy Lowe.
The Angel's Share
Co-Production with Artlink. A site-responsive promenade through Edinburgh's Greyfriar's graveyard, city streets and pubs specially designed to be accessible for partially sighted and blind audiences. Featuring food trucks, and playful audio description styles.
The Shakespeare Jukebox
In partnership with the Glasgow Film Festival. Theatre in the raw as a 14 strong ensemble reimagine both some of shakespeare’s best known and his least performed works for a live party audience to celebrate the premiere of Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing.
Blast Hamlet Variorum
Poorboy Associate Director joins the brightest and best of Canada’s acting community including cast from War Horse and recent national award winners to bring this new version of Hamlet to Toronto. New version by Dr. Toby Malone.
The Sma Room Seance
Madame Lozatska’s musical seance is getting out of hand. While trying to contact the ghost of Scots poet William Soutar, she is hijacked by the unruly spirits of his friends, family, and rival poet Hugh McDiarmid. Her house band, too, is possessed: Soutar’s poems weave their way into the now-haunting, now-rousing jazz and folk inspired songs. A unique, fresh and very funny take on Soutar’s bitter-sweet life. An inspiring co-production between Poorboy and the Soutar Quartet. Written by Ajay Close with original music by the Soutar Quartet and directed by Sandy Thomson. Part of the Made in Scotland Showcase.
To Kill A Kelpie
By Matthew McVarish. Creative Producing Partner for the performances in the programme for Tartan Week NYC. Kelpie: a supernatural being that takes the form of a horse. From Scottish folklore it is said to dwell in the lochs harbouring a desire to drown any mortal that comes close enough. Their uncle told them there was one in the loch outside the cottage, and if they ever told anyone what he did, he would feed them to it. They were just wee boys. www.tokillakelpie.com
Bad Shakespeare
At PS122 in NYC with a number of established actors who trained in Scotland but work and live in New York. Using the ‘Bad Quarto’ edit of the Hamlet.
The Christmas Workshop
A Christmas Mayhem incorporating elements of traditional pantomime with traditional stories, contemporary music and rollerblades. Devised by the Poorboy Ensemble with integrated cast-wide British Sign Language and a 'pay what you can' admittance philosophy.
The Player's Hamlet
Performance at the Tron Theatre of a new edit of the ‘Bad Quarto’ text of Hamlet created with the Blast Methodology.
Magpie
Two family's at war. An epic tale told only through monologues and scenes from famous plays and films including Shakespeare, On the Water Front, The Notebook, Friday Night Lights and GoodFellas. In a pub. Part of a year long collaboration with the Tron Theatre.
Blood and Roses
Selection for the IETM and Made in Scotland Festivals. A sensory audio promenade, examining universal and international themes of immigration, ritual, loyalties and ideas of home and notions of identity, through the re-imagined spaces of a large mercantile town or city. 4 star reviews.
Birds and Other Things I Am Afraid Of
In Association with The Arches/Lynda Radley. An intimate site responsive story of love, duty, growing up and detective movies. Visiting devotional spaces in the west of the city in the company of a single performer.
3 Day Wonder
A site specific secret theatre event in domestic residences created by Poorboy Ensemble for an invited audience. A physical theatre and mask performance living behind the door of Scotland’s homes.
Cloud Cover
In collaboration with the Montrose Airbase museum and Angus Council. A site responsive promenade performance for 10 and 11 year olds on the Second World War Heritage Preservation site of Montrose Airbase, performance, storytelling, music, projection, a Spitfire and a fire engine to examine archive material.
Spanglebaby
A site responsive journey to the heart of darkness that inhabits the world of a driven careerist using film, lighting, music and performance in the echoing railway arches under Glasgow. Four Star reviews
Stories For A Wild Night
Co-Production with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Responsive both to site and its young, 24 strong, cast this story of an endless night of drinking following a funeral used photography, music and song, performance and a car chase across the top level of a nearby car park. Four star reviews.
Falling
Co-production with The National Theatre of Scotland and The Arches. The flight of a young man who believes he is Lucifer from the BMX riding hoodies who are his brothers the Archangels and his use and abuse of a Glasgow girl he meets along the way covered 2 miles across Glasgow city centre travelling on foot, and by train, van and bike; using live and recorded music, performance, graffiti art, dance and installation. Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland nominated. Four star reviews.
Learning the Rules of Chinese Whispers
Researched with help from Alzheimers Scotland and St Andrews Preservation Museum, this promenade performance used performance, music and song, smells, clothes and food to explore the revealing of family truths after its matriarch is struck by dementia. 2 Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland nominations. Five star reviews.
Bridge Builders
Greek legend interwoven with the stories of 3 men who have lived and worked on the sea all their lives promenades around the jetties, docks and warehouses of Dundee’s City Quay. Inspired by the local disaster of the loss, with all hands, of Broughty Ferry lifeboat, Stevenson’s building of the Inchcape Lighthouse and the Piper Alpha Platform disaster. Four star reviews.