Comedy on the cards at Centre’s autumn season

Comedy on the cards at Centre’s autumn season

2 September 2015

A TOURETTES inspired groundbreaking performance is launching the new season at Down Arts Centre.

Backstage in Biscuit Land is written by and stars Jess Thom who has Tourettes Syndrome — a neurological condition that makes her say ‘biscuit’ 16,000 times a day.

Her incredible piece of comedy theatre will be performed in Down Arts Centre on Saturday at 8pm.

Jess is literally incapable of staying on , and sees that as where the fun begins. Frank, funny and fearless, Backstage in Biscuit Land is her first ever live show.  

Combining storytelling, comedy and puppetry – with the promise that no two shows are ever the same – it offers an intimate, life-enhancing glimpse into Jess’s unique perspective on life, laughter and lamp-posts. 

Based in part on her acclaimed book, Welcome to Biscuit Land, the show’s development was funded by Unlimited and mentored by Jenny Sealey, the creative director of pioneering 

disabled-led theatre company, Graeae.

Backstage in Biscuit Land tells a powerful story about the nature of theatre itself. Having loved it as a child, the intensity of Jess’s tics made it increasingly difficult to attend, culminating three years ago when she was asked to sit separately during a performance. For a long time Jess couldn’t face going back.

“I used to joke that the stage was the only place in a theatre I wouldn’t be asked to leave,” she says. “Now I get to put that to the test!”

Puppeteer and performer Jess Mabel Jones helped develop the show and joins Jess Thom on stage. Jess Mabel Jones is an award-winning performer in her own right. Her work includes Improbable’s Beauty and the Beast, Blind Summit’s The Table and Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

The comedy continues on Tuesday evening, this time with a smash-hit show that all started as a joke.

The brilliant comedy that has been taking Northern Ireland by storm, Fifty Shades of Red, White and Blue, is back at Down Arts Centre by popular demand.

Leesa Harker wrote a Belfast-based spoof of the phenomenally popular novel, and now film, Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. Very soon it went viral and the rest is history.

Belfast actress Caroline Curran reprises the starring role to tell the story of loveable Maggie Muff and her search for love, featuring laugh-out-loud characters such as big Sally Ann, Sinead the Greener and of course, the mysterious Mr Red White and Blue himself. The show will also be staged at the Newcastle Centre on Sunday, September 27 at 8pm. Tickets for both performances can be bought through Down Arts Centre box office.

To purchase tickets (Biscuit Land £12 / £10; Fifty Shades £15) and for further information on any Down Arts Centre events, contact the box office on 028 4461 0747 or visit www.downartscentre.com.