Big Bang is CPT’s regular scratch night: an explosion of performance from which new universes of theatre may one day emerge. These jam-packed platforms are highlights of any CPT season: the place to see wild and wonderful new projects take their first steps.
Each bill features three or four artists or companies performing 15-20 minutes of fresh-from-the-rehearsal-room work-in-development. They’re doing so because they want to know what works and what doesn’t, and they’d love you to tell them. So please join us for – and share your thoughts on – these exclusive previews of tomorrow’s most exciting theatre, today…
Let Me Tell You - Chosen Family Business
Age Guidance: 16+
Let Me Tell You is set in a world similar to our own, distinguished by the presence of a mysterious Fluid, bottled and passed down as an ancestral heirloom. Fluid allows people to create music by swishing it in their mouths. The central character wishes to build a portfolio of jingles so they can be hired to create them for brands. They believe it will help them get to know their ancestors and form a deeper connection with an emotionally distant lover. They begin using the mysterious Fluid to make jingles that advertise their friends’ unspoken thoughts.
5 Barneys - Kurtis Lincoln
Age Guidance: 18+
Content Notice: Sexual Jokes and strong language
5 Barneys is a romping retrospective of some of RuPaul’s Drag Races most explosive fights, recontextualised and translated into the forgotten queer language of polari. Frantically juxtaposing the past and the present, "5 barneys" hilariously maps the commercialisation of gay culture - from illegal, dingy bars in the east end, to the tv screens of heterosexuals across the globe.
Unpopular Culture - Tahira Dar
Age Guidance: 14+
Content Notice: Mild Language
Unpopular Culture is a funny and honest exploration of motherhood, representation and having realistic expectations in an unequal world, particularly when popular culture both influences and ignores us.
How do we encourage our children to follow their dreams, if we found it difficult to truly follow our own? How will they cope being a part of many cultures without belonging to any? Does a lack of representation make us feel unworthy? How do we avoid passing that feeling to our kids?
Some serious questions are asked against a fun backdrop of song and dance - it’s theatre meets Mumsnet.
Solace in Movement - Georgina Lance
Age Guidance: 18+
Solace in Movement is a cross medium piece that utilises dance and pole to explore the wider concept of movement as a unified art form. The piece is motivated by Georgina’s experiences of movement offering her a space to explore healing from sexual trauma in a way that prioritises survivors being present in their body and feelings in a very physical realm. The piece is particularly current as the experiences it relates too references sexual misconduct in the circus industry, which is gaining exposure as the international circus community is in the beginnings of #metoo movement. The piece is a insight into Georgina’s personal relationship with regaining agency over her autonomy as a survivor, and also exists as a potential prompt for other survivors to explore the potential in movement as a process for healing.
Georgina will play a recording of this piece.
Tobi King Bakare and this theatre deserve a shout-out for such a young, diverse audience. There is so much talk about audiences being full of over 60s and why, why can’t theatres get the crowds in to reflect society in general? Well, I’m happy to say that on a rainy Thursday evening, the theatre was completely full.
Caiti Grove on Before I Go in CPT's Spring 2023 season London Theatre Reviews
