October Schedule at The Marlowe Studio, Canterbury Announced

OCTOBER sees a variety of productions at The Marlowe Studio, Canterbury.

Perennial Edinburgh Fringe stalwart, serial innovator and multi-award-winning comedian Simon Munnery kicks things off with his new show And Nothing But on Saturday 3 October.

Simon's 29-year stand-up career has seen him regularly perform all over the world and star in several of his own major television and radio projects.

He is best known for his character creations Alan Parker: Urban Warrior, Buckethead and The League Against Tedium; his genre-bending innovations such as La Concepta (an interactive conceptual restaurant show); his triumvirate of shows Fylm-Makker, Fylm and Fylm School (where comedy is performed via the use of video camera) and his TV/radio projects such as series BBC2's Attention Scum!, Radio 1's League Against Tedium and Radio 4's Where Did It All Go Wrong?

One Last Waltz is a funny and touching new play exploring the difficulties in living with dementia. Based on real life events and experiences, it is the story of Alice, who is becoming more and more forgetful. Her daughter Mandy is always on hand to help out but the strain is becoming too much.

A long forgotten photograph stirs a memory and lures Alice back to the Crown Hotel in Blackpool. Hoping for a chance to dance in the tower ballroom one last time, mother and daughter set out. But Blackpool isn't how Alice remembers it and things become too much for her as she finds herself getting lost in the past.

The production, from Black Coffee Theatre, is on Thursday 8 October; there will be a free post-show Q&A.

Pss Pss is a grown-up clown show from international company Baccalà Clown. This award-winning production, on Friday 9 October, features two highly-skilled performers who find magic in the mundane, using a unique blend of juggling, acrobatics, clowning and apples. Channeling Chaplin, this showcase of modern clowning at its very best is for those aged eight and over.

Martin Stephenson and his legendary band, the Daintees, come to The Marlowe Studio on Saturday 10 October, the last night of their Haunted Highway tour. Noted for his beautifully crafted songs, understatedly genuine vocal styling and vintage apparel, Durham-born Martin has reunited with the Daintees from time to time, Recent songs will rub shoulders with the classics that put him on the music map back in the late 1980s: Crocodile Cryer, Little Red Bottle, There Comes A Time, Wholly Humble Heart.

Life-affirming and funny poetry comes to The Marlowe Studio on Tuesday 13 October in the form of John Osborne and Molly Naylor. Two of this country's most innovative and original voices, for the past five years they have both been performing poetry and theatre shows and they decided to come out on tour together. The creators of John Peel's Shed and Sky 1's After Hours will be presenting a selection of their best material.

]Made In Ilva (Wednesday 14 October) is based on real-life testimonies and poems from the workers at the ILVA steel plant in Taranto, southern Italy.

This piece of physical theatre explores the impact of the biggest steelworks of Europe on the environment and surrounding population. It is the perfect combination of extreme physical actions, sounds that become obsessive rhythms, original music, vocals and video projections.

Cult comedian Paul Foot brings three different shows to The Studio on three consecutive nights (Tuesday 20 to Thursday 22 October). Retrospective revisits three of his Edinburgh Fringe shows: By The Yard (2009), Still Life (2011) and Kenny Larch Is Dead (2012).

The Ballad Of Martha Brown is based on the life and times of Martha Brown, the last woman publicly hanged in Dorset in 1856. It is a tale of jealousy and passion; a murder, a wrongly accused horse, a black silk dress, the hangman from London and the mob at the hang-fair who gawp in glee. Blending inventive storytelling and striking physicality, the show (on Friday 23 October) is spliced through with wicked humour, an original score, live music and macabre songs.

He Had Hairy Hands is a 1970s detective werewolf mystery wrapped in a hilarious Hammer Horror. The year is 1974, the sleepy town is Hemlock-Under-Lye and when werewolf attacks threaten teatime, there's only one person you can call.

Winners of the 2014 Peter Brook Festival Award, Kill the Beast promise hilarity, mystery and mayhem in this new tale of supernatural slaughter, combining beautiful projections, original music and quite an important pigeon. At The Marlowe Studio on Saturday 24 October.

Anthony Horowitz's The Falcon's Malteser has been adapted for stage and is a hilarious family film noir pastiche following the adventures of the hopelessly inept private detective Tim Diamond and his sharp-witted brother Nick.

The plot sees the Diamond Brothers Detective agency on a thrilling case to discover just what is so important about those titular Maltesers. It features slapstick, comedy songs and a cast of four playing 20 characters and is on Tuesday 27 October.

Taking their inspiration from 1970s Jamaican reggae, with various rhythms and themes, The Banyans (Wednesday 28 October) are one of the major reggae bands in France. They are supported by local reggae legends Ben Russell And The Charmers, renowned for their unique and vibrant earthy sounds.

Bec And Tom's Awesome Laundry is a sketch show for cool kids by childish adults. This critically-acclaimed family comedy show (for those aged five and over) blends storytelling, games and paper puppetry with a large helping of silliness. The story of friendship, courage and persistence is at The Marlowe Studio on Friday 30 October.

Regular Studio shows The Marlowe Comedy Club (Saturday 31 October) and Laid Bare Cabaret (Saturday 17 October) have tickets available.

For performance times, ticket details and to book for all The Marlowe Studio shows, call the Box Office on 01227 787787 or go to marlowetheatre.com.

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