Preview: Grandad and the Machine at Newcastle Live Theatre

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Catch Jack Dean’s new steampunk fairytale for grownups at Live Theatre

Grandad and the Machine
Newcastle Live Theatre
Wednesday 16 September 2015

Award-winning theatre-maker, poet and performer Jack Dean brings his new show Grandad and the Machine to Live Theatre. Described as a steampunk fairytale for grownups Grandad and the Machine mixes vivid storytelling with an original live music score.

It tells the story of a hundred-year-old mechanical monster that emerges from the sea. The only person who can help is Imogen’s Grandad, which sets her on an epic quest across England that leads to the heart of a dark family secret.

The show is set in an alternative history in which the British Empire never fell, and mixes a very English dystopia with a witty and engaging performance style. The show premiered during the summer at the Plymouth Fringe Festival and will be touring throughout 2016 courtesy of a commission from the Unlimited Fund.

As Jack Dean explains  “Grandad and the Machine is a modern fairytale about capitalism, Englishness, the north Atlantic and the things that could have been. I hope it will bring up some interesting questions about how change can happen and how to do the right thing; but more than anything I want people to be entertained and moved. I can’t wait to show it to people in Newcastle”.

Jack Dean is a York-based writer and theatre-make with a background in spoken word, poetry and hip-hop. His first piece was the Bristol Ferment commission Threnody and the Sky Children, a modern fable that fused Ovid with the zombie apocalypse. The show won Best Production at the Reading Fringe Awards and was called “funny, wise and beautifully performed” by Exeunt. This was followed by Camden on the Moon for Camden People’s Theatre. Jack is currently under commission with ARC Stockton and Barnsley Civic Theatre to create a new children’s show Horace and the Yeti.

As a poet and spoken word artist Jack has performed at the famous Bowery Poetry Club in New York, the BBC Radio 4 National Poetry Slam and Latitude Festival. He was the winner of an Ideastap innovators Award in 2013 and his debut poetry collection, Poems for Grown Up Children, is published by Burning Eye Books.

On The Web:

Follow updates from Jack Dean and Grandad and the Machine on Twitter:
@mcjackdean / @littlemightyuk / #GrandadandtheMachine

Cast & Creatives:

Written, performed and with music by Jack Dean
Directed by Polly Agg-Manning
Dramaturgy by Alex Chisholm
Design by Sophie Mosberger
Lighting Design by Sam-Hollis Pack
Musician / Technical Stage Manager Josh Lucas
Produced by LittleMighty

Tickets:

Jack Dean is association with LittleMighty presents Grandad and the Machine
Written, performed and with music by Jack Dean

Live Theatre, Broad Chare, Quayside, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 3DQ
Wednesday 16 September, 7.30pm
£14 - £10; over 60s conc £12, other concs £6
Box Office: (0191) 232 1232
www.live.org.uk
Running time: 70mins / Suitable for ages 14+