THE HARDY TREE EXPERIENCE
commissioned by Off the Cuff Theatre Company Ltd.
YOUR INVOLVMENT = YOUR EXPERIENCE
OFF THE CUFF THEATRE COMPANY has commissioned an exciting new interactive site-specific experiment to take place at St Pancras Old Churchyard and Gardens, London NW1.
In 1865 the swelling of the new railways pushed out the dead from their graves in St. Pancras Churchyard. Thomas Hardy, still bound to his day job as an architectural clerk, is charged with exhuming the bodies. Different values collide, where the living mingle with the dead, and redemption emerges from inspiration.
Now a gnarled ash tree now grows from the stack of headstones Thomas moved in the ancient graveyard, the oldest site of ritual in England. For many centuries lovers, poets and parishioners, mourners, artists, dog walkers and the like were using this space for relaxation, reflection, inspiration and renewal.
With the regeneration of the St Pancras area in advance of the Eurostar Tunnel completion, Off the Cuff wishes to capture and bring to life some local history as well as make people aware of a rare space in the heart of London. With inter-woven stories told by residents of the diverse local communities, Off the Cuff will celebrate the many unique experiences that people have had throughout the ages in Kings Cross.
This production will explore the myth of THE HARDY TREE and Thomas Hardy’s unsettling journey - how this might have impacted on him as a young man fresh from Dorset and how this experience influenced his art? Snippets, montage, tableaux, song, verse and other forms of performance will be sprinkled throughout the piece to give audience a unique theatre experience.
In 2005, Off the Cuff produced THE HARDY TREE EXPERIENCE, here are some audience comments of these early performances:
‘Perfect use of site, great acting and very atmospheric’
Val Wise
‘A great story with wonderful acting…perfectly set in St. Pancras Gardens’
Dain Bedford
‘Interesting in its linking of the past and present’
Ruth Petrie
‘Some of the imagery was spectacular in both the churchyard and church. Loved the counterpoint of Mary Wollstonecraft to the Thomas Hardy story mixed with the voices of Kings Cross’
Jane Perry
Keep up to date with Off the Cuff, enter your email address here;
Written entirely in rhyming couplets, SWOLLEN TONGUES is a contemporary take on Restoration comedy - with a twist!
SWOLLEN TONGUES: REVIEWS
This is an evening of wit and verve. It is cleverly done and there is no doubting the fact that Off the Cuff is a really lively young company with heaps of talent and provided that too much praise doesn’t give them swollen heads, they should go far.
Lyn Gardiner, The Guardian
Ménage a trios in rhyme!
Rachel Halliburton, Evening Standard
With one nod to Shakespearean Romantic comedies and their concerns with mistaken identity and cross dressing, and another to the 19th-century tradition of wooing through poetry, Off the Cuff have produced an ambitious, lively piece on love, lyric and lesbianism in rhyming verse.
The play’s core delight in the empowering quality of poetry is undeniably infectious and there’s no disguising its very big heart.
Clare Allfree, The Metro
A paean to lyric poetry’s power to melt hearts, Kathleen Oliver’s new play will itself seduce many a viewer with its spryly account of four versifiers’ voyage into love and pansexual adventure.
A delightful two hours’ entertainment, embroiling Shakespearean gender-bending, Moliere-esque rapier thrusts of comic verse and a ‘Cyrano’-style faith in poetic panache and the powers of wooing by proxy. In Off the Cuff’s production, the four-strong cast are expertly attuned to their play’s wry understanding of the currents of love and lust.
Warmly recommended.
Critics’ Choice 2000 & 2001, Brian Logan, Time Out
This is a very jolly show and Off the Cuff perform with enormous enthusiasm for the absurdities of the dialogue and the ridiculous contrivances of the plot.
Indi Boyd Maunsell, What’s On
Fresh and original…Swollen Tongues oozes female sensuality in this sexy production. Recommended.
The Pink Paper
Take a pinch of Congreve, add a dash of Carol Churchill, a set fit for the National Theatre and spoonfuls of hearts on fire with poetic passion. Mix liberally with plenty of cross-dressing and gender bending, and you have the delicious concoction that is ‘Swollen Tongues’.
Restoration comedy makes a surprising yet triumphant return to the London stage after an absence of well over 200 years!
The result is a stunningly clever piece of theatre that laughs at its own traditions, is structurally intelligent and visually great fun.
Bryony Weaver, Rainbow Network
This was a hilarious, cross dressing, gender bending romp with a whole load of complex twists and turns, and a happy ending to boot performed by four fantastic actors who were obviously enjoying themselves as much as we were.
It was a very involving performance, I was totally lost in it and came out laughing and feeling invigorated. The humour came not just from the cross dressing confusion but also the rhyming couplets in which the entire play was written (you try rhyming something with elastic in an amusing way which fits your plot line!).
Thank you Theatre in the Mill and Off the Cuff for a fantastic Friday night out – I will be back!
Catherine Tonge Leeds 365
In her rhyming couplets, meter and internal rhymes, Oliver, with vivacious alacrity, displays a sureness of language that is truly enviable and uplifting. The performances in this fast-moving production are never short of perfect, and, despite its risqué theme, do not descend into tastelessness.
I cannot praise this wonderful slice of theatre too highly. Go out of your way to see it!
Whatsonstage.com
AUDIENCE COMMENTS FOR SWOLLEN TONGUES
- “I saw SWOLLEN TONGUES in Brighton and thoroughly enjoyed every minute - the old fashioned start to the first half doesn't even hint at the pleasures to come in the second and before you know it it'll be over - Excellent - GO SEE!!”
- “I live in Harrow and saw it at the Harrow Arts centre. At first I thought I wouldn't get it as its written in verse but the actors made it sound like real speech and it sounded really good and natural they were all funny and I was never bored, It was a good night out.”
- “It's such good fun, I too saw it in Brighton, you can't wait to see how it all unfolds, every scene offers twists and turns in the plot with so much action and delightful verbal and vocal delivery, it was a spring awakening! You must go see! The acting was so strong from all the cast a real must see show!
Absolutely wonderful! It's funny, clever and incredibly well acted. Go see!!!”
- “Excellent show” Jean Clover, Basildon, Essex
- “Superb!” J. Marno, Glasgow
- “Delicious” Bill and Chris Owens, Birmingham
- “Very good performances *CLAP CLAP CLAP*” Alison Evans, Southend-on-Sea, Essex
- “Thank you for an entertaining evening. Very well constructed and acted!” Mr. F. Horrigan, Leigh-On-Sea
- “Well done!” J.A. Newton, Bradford
- “An excellent production” C. Gregor, Westcliff, Essex
- “Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant” Katrina Bowden, Essex
- Witty, well acted and well-written!” F. Mutawalli, Glasgow
- “The tale of Sonja, the dressmaker fairand Dr. Wise so debonair.
Of Thomas, a man with eloquence lagging.
And Catherine, quite desperate, just gagging.
Beset by this rhyming.
Incessant declining
and tutoring which was, quite frankly a drag.
Sublimely reciting.
Advances inviting
from fair maid who turns out to be quite a slag.
But thankfully all in this tale endeth well.
Ingenious sub-plots too clever to tell.
Inspiring in this swollen heart , swollen tongued
an audience’s creative juices unbunged.”
Catherine Walker, audience member, SWOLLEN TONGUES London 2000
