Preview: Mixtape - Edinburgh Festival

Bite-sized comedy inspired by music

Mixtape - Edinburgh Festival Preview

Newcastle Live Theatre

Friday 24^th July 2015
 

Mixtape - Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Edinburgh Belly Laughs, at Underbelly Cowgate (venue 61)

Thursday 6^th to Sunday 30^th August 2015 

Mixtape is altering the comedy circuit with their unusual bite-sized sketches inspired by music. Part theatre show and part music quiz Mixtape is the perfect night out for comedy, theatre, music and pub quiz fans.

After a succession of sell-out shows at Live Theatre in Newcastle, and a successful festival tour in 2014 (to the Secret Garden Party, Hijack and Larmer Tree Festival), Mixtape are proud to announce their Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut. They are bringing their unique brand of comedy to the Underbelly (venue 61) from the 6^th to 30^th August.

The Mixtape Team

The performers, called Mixtapers, take songs and using only the song’s lyrics create mini comedy sketches. At the Fringe, they’ll be presenting a selection of shows inspired by different music genres in the Underbelly’s Belly Laugh space at 10.20pm every night. The themes include The 80’s, Brit Pop, Girl Bands vs. Boy Bands and Rock ‘n’ Roll Jukebox. 

The rules? Only the lyrics from the song can be used to form the script and the running time of the sketch must not be longer than the track that inspired it. The lyrics can be reordered and repeated in any way that the Mixtape writers choose, but no additional words can be used to form the plays script (bar the occasional improvised ad-lib). 

Audiences can play along and every night they have the chance of winning the highly coveted Golden Mixtape if they manage to correctly guess the songs and bands or solo artists that inspired each short sketch. The players with the most correct answers will walk away with that evening’s Golden Mixtapetrophy. Plus, for the Fringe, they will also be awarding a limited edition purple Mixtape (a colour inspired by the Underbelly) for the best musically inspired costume. The team or player with the best outfit will win the Mixtape costume contest and receive this limited edition cassette tape.

Conceived by theatre director and writer Melanie Rashbrooke, Mixtape is a fun night of theatrical madness written and performed by some of the most exciting writers and theatre makers around. In addition to the sketches written by Melanie each Mixtape also features a selection of sketches written by guest writers. For the Fringe these include Traverse 50 writer Alison Carr (Fat Alice, Traverse),Lee Mattinson (who won the Royal Exchange’s inaugural Hodgkiss Award in 2014) and Nina Berry(Rendezvous, Live Theatre).

On Friday 24 July Mixtape will preview a selection of their favourite Edinburgh Fringe sketches at Live Theatre in Newcastle. This is a chance to see some of their Edinburgh sketches first, before they head to the Underbelly for the summer.

Cast & Creatives:

Artistic Director and writer: Melanie Rashbrooke
Performers: James Barton, Steven Blackshaw, Adam Donaldson, Amy Foley and Zoe Hakin
Writers: Lee Mattinson and Nina Berry 

On The Web:

Follow updates on Twitter @ukmixtape or on Facebook at /mixtapetheatre

Tickets:

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL PREVIEW
Date:                Friday 24 July 2015, 7.30pm
Venue:             Live Theatre, Newcastle 
Tickets:             £8 full price, £6 concession
Box office:        0191 232 1232 
Internet:           www.live.org.uk

SUITABILITY: 14+ contains some explicit content 

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE
Dates:              Thursday 6 to Sunday 30 August 2015, 10.20pm
Venue:             Belly Laughs, at Underbelly Cowgate (venue 61) 
Tickets:             £11 - £7 full price, £10 - £7 concession
Box office:        0844 545 8252 www.edfringe.com 
Internet:           www.underbellyedinburgh.co.uk

SUITABILITY: 14+ contains some explicit content