On Saturday myself and Brox performed with the rest of the Sound Tracks group in Edgy: The Railway Cabaret. Part of the Working Class Life and Music Festival. Our show “Sound Bites” was inspired by the Oral History stored in the Edge Hill Archives.
Brox opened the show with a song he’d written “Life at the Edge” and performed a Soundbite about the Southport Service. I starred as William Huskisson MP, who was accidentally killed on the opening day of the Liverpool to Manchester Line. I did puppetry in the “Paper Boy” scene and voiced a drunken Jim McManus, with Brox as Charlie Faus, in a slapstick puppetry scene called “Pigeon Express”, a scene for which I had made eight polyfoam pigeons. The show concluded with us singing a song about the 1829 Rainhill Trials, where Stephenson’s Rocket proved itself to be the finest locomotive engine.
The whole Sound Bites show went really well! I hope to get a few pictures of the performance up when I find anyone who has taken some!
Following us came dance act China Pearl. An seemingly mismatched couple are strangely attracted to each other on a train journey, energetically showing off to each other, and growing closer on the trip.
The Suitcase Ensemble completed the first act with railway songs and reminiscences from the archive. Brox and I hid back stage and voiced a couple who were loudly commenting on the show. They were excited about the tights dance coming up. There was an uneasy silence from the audience when I cracked my pooing on the laundry joke, which was soon broken by laughter as a pair of my pigeons descended from on high and landed on the washing line. Phew!
The Railfan Three, the trainspotter MCs, kept the audience entertained as performers rearranged themselves backstage. The next act was Rebecca Joy Sharp with a moving solo performance of The Ballad on Juniper Davy and Sonny Lumiere through poetry and harp. Later Insanity Hurts, an energetic Hip Hop duo got the whole audience, young and old, clapping and dancing to their rap.
The Suitcase Ensemble wrapped up the show with scenes from their upcoming show, Look At Us Now, and some of their Edgy Cabaret favourites!
A fun day indeed. Doing this show brought together so many of my hobbies so I am hoping to do more in future!
