Liverpool audiences are set to be treated to two of the U.K.’s best-loved comedians this season as Nina Conti and Mark Thomas each come to the Playhouse for one night only. Mark Thomas’ 100 Acts of Minor Dissent will be on Tuesday 22nd October, with Nina Conti’s Dolly Mixtures on Saturday 26th October.
Multi-award winning comedian and B.A.F.T.A. nominated filmmaker Nina Conti brings her unique mixture of ground-breaking ventriloquism and mischievous stand-up to the Playhouse for the first time. Boasting some poignant reflections on art and the psychology of ventriloquism, the show also delves into the darker glimpses of Nina’s own psyche.
Introducing her daughter, her handyman, her gran, her oldest friend and a stray dog in a show that refuses to go as rehearsed, Dolly Mixtures is bracingly funny and thoughtfully meditative, touching on love, life, and the edge of existence. The show is directed by John Nicholson, founding member of one of Liverpool’s favourite theatre companies Peepolykus, who were last at the Playhouse with 2010’s No Wise Men.
This hotly anticipated U.K. tour follows Nina Conti’s B.A.F.T.A. nominated 2012 documentary A Ventriloquist’s Story: Her Master’s Voice, which was a unique and brave requiem for her ex-lover and mentor, the late Ken Campbell. It was Campbell – the former Liverpool Everyman Artistic Director, and theatre revolutionary – who first introduced Nina to the art of ventriloquism, in a bid to help her control her projection.
Mark Thomas is one of the U.K.’s favourite political comedians, and returns to the Playhouse following his deeply personal Bravo Figaro show earlier in the year. 100 Acts of Minor Dissent sees him back doing what he’s renowned for; causing havoc. On the 13th May 2013, Mark set himself the task of committing 100 acts of minor dissent in the space of a year and, on the stroke of midnight 13 May 2014, the task will end. The show is his catalogue of those acts from the smallest action to the grandest confrontations. The results are hilarious, subversive, mainly legal, and occasionally inspiring.
Over the decades, Mark Thomas has poked his nose into enough things to cause a politician to resign, arms deals to collapse, reform inheritance tax law, force the odd multinational to clean up its act a little and accidentally become Guinness World Record holder for political protests. His prolific output includes television series, books, radio work, a published manifesto, a magazine column that caused a diplomatic incident, the occasional arrest (mainly other peoples, though not exclusively), court cases, giving evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees, stopping multinational infrastructure deals and no small amount of messing about.
Tickets for both artists are priced at £12-£18 for each night. Tickets can purchased from the box office, by telephone on 0151 709 4776 or online at www.everymanplayhouse.com.