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…
Queen of Magic by Write the River
Heard of Houdini? Thought so.
What about Adelaide Herrmann, the Queen of Magic, renowned Victorian magician?
Help us to restore women to centre stage. We’ve had enough of being assistants.
We all love magic. It’s entertaining, exciting, and mysterious. It glitters with stars like Houdini, Dynamo, and Derren Brown. But where are the women - if they're not being shoved in boxes or sawn in half? Award-winning feminist artists Write the River are telling the story of a magician's assistant turned world-famous solo act. Adelaide Herrmann was a vaudevillian, a levitator, a trailblazer. She wielded fire and water and caught bullets in her teeth. But her name hasn't stuck. For some reason.
Using Adelaide's words alongside our own, we are celebrating the legacy of magic women in a show spanning centuries, genres, and lifetimes. We want you to be a part of it.
Focus on the Positives by Baggage Claim Theatre
A new relationship. Scary as it is, but what happens when your partner tells you he is HIV positive? You grow up. But how can you when you know nothing?
New relationships are scary, but so is realising you're clueless about your own community. This is a character based, conversational play that allows an audience to feel settled in the presence of the three scary letters, HIV.
The show is set in a bedroom that doubles as a doctors office, classroom, night club and a Pizza Express through flashbacks in the couples lives. This show covers everything from first date doughballs to Princess Diana. And through the monologue form, we see every thought and possibility that comes into our main character’s head about HIV. We leave no stone unturned when it comes to this topic.
Strictly Come Dad'ting by Aoife Scott
One woman’s last ditch attempt to make sense of herself. Strictly Come Dad 'ting is a sparkle fuelled, spill your guts out approach to navigating daddy issues.
3 bottles of echo falls, 3am, 3 dots typing on messenger...
Strictly Come Dad 'ting is a wine fuelled work-in-progress search for what's the matter. Through spoken word, cabaret and the art of internet stalking your family tree Aoife begins to unpack her daddy issues and why she still doesn't know her rights and lefts.
Throw yourself into the narrative, use your imagination, start making things up, lie to the people around you.
"Our children live in the most deprived ward in London and their parents cannot afford to pay for the classes and activities many more privileged children enjoy after school and at the weekends. A free-to-access youth group run by a local theatre in a professional setting is an incredible opportunity."
Local school teacher
