This is the eighteenth edition of the monthly newsletter from Short Attention Span Theatre. Apologies, as it's a day late.  It features news about our shows, opportunities for writers and creatives that we've seen, plus plugs for other shows and anything else of interest. If you have anything appropriate you'd like us to include for future drop us a line at info@shortattentionspantheatre.co.uk. 

Thanks to everyone who came along to see our David Bowie inspired show at the Gilded Balloon Basement Theatre in Edinburgh in April.

Thanks to our actors Gregory Bonnar, Hazel Ann Crawford, Rachel Flynn, James Keenan, Grant McDonald and Mira Vasillu and to our writers Margaret Callaghan, Catriona Duggan, Tom Murray, Jamie Graham, Julie Rea and Elissa Soave to our directors Karen Barclay and Daniel Gee Husson, to our man on the sound Daniel Buckley, and to the staff of the Gilded Balloon for having us there.

There's information about our May shows further down the page.

We started May in London to see Betrayal by Harold Pinter, starring Tom Hiddleston (the audience were googling his love life before the curtain went up - fame is strange), Charlie Cox (Daredevil in the Netflix t.v. show, so we overheard a lot of Marvel conversations) and Zawe Ashton (most recognised from St Trinian's 2, the only audience comment we heard about her was 'I should be so lucky' when her character declared she was expecting - audiences are strange). It was a stripped down production, with hardly any props or set, and the actors rarely left the stage, listening in to each other's scenes like Ghosts of Future Yet-to-Come, which suited a plot that was going backwards from a painful breakup to the start of an affair. Our favourite bit was the revolve stage that had the actors spinning round just missing each other like planets going round the sun. 

After that we went to Nora, an update of A Doll's House, At The Citizens, Glasgow (at The Tramway) with 3 Noras, in 3 time zones, and an earnest, poetic, polemical script that combined drama with storytelling. The direction and some of the acting was frantic and busy and at times tipped the production into a burlesque of itself. The last night audience was - impolite - and heckled, but we enjoyed it and hope to see a revival.

From there we were back down South-ish to see Princess and The Hustler by Chinonyerem Odimba at Newcastle's very oddly shaped, but cosy, Live! Theatre. It was a sweet funny, well-written, brilliantly performed, drama about a ten year old realising the rules of British beauty aren't fair while her errant father redeems himself through a bus boycott. Set in the 1960s, it also featured a lovely burst of Millie Small's My Boy Lollipop. 

Back in Glasgow we were at The Bungo to see Amy Hawe's funny new play, Lifeline. Competing couples have to answer intrusive and incriminating questions to win life-changing prizes. It's a dystopia that's horribly close to being a documentary. 

The Animal Hour by Mabli Godden at Gilmorehill was a one-woman show on dealing with anxiety. Mabli got her dog Pero as her support animal and the show centered around how they cope with anxiety together. As enlightening and engaging as Mabli's monologue was it's fair to say that the highlight of the show was Pero himself. He joined Mabli on stage for the second half of the performance, wandering into the audience and happily interacting with audience members eager to pet him.

Lastly we went to an NTS Live Encore performance of All About Eve. Based on the fast-paced, witty, 1940s film, this version by Ivo van Hove strung it out into a near-tragedy about ageing, death, and being endlessly replaced by younger, hungrier versions of yourself (we can't think what put that into Ivo's head). It probably didn't need to be taken so far in that direction, but it was impossible not to find yourself immersed in its increasing melodramas. Gillian Anderson and Lily James are as brilliant as everyone says they are. 

 

The Comic Toolbox
by John Vorhaus
 

Comedy is hard. And it's also impossible to cheat, no matter how many theories a writer tries to comfort themselves with, the audience laughs or it doesn't. So this toolbox is also armour to go into battle with. It starts with your emotions and how to quell fear and then it moves onto basic comic mechanics. What makes a thing funny? How to make it more funny. How to make it funny without even trying. We're not going to go into too much detail, because we don't want you to cheat yourself and crib it from this. Buy it, do the exercises, and you will have learned how to construct a comic character, how to surround them with as much conflict and jeopardy as possible, and  how to turn any thought into a joke. It ends with this formula: TALENT + DRIVE + TIME = SUCCESS and a note of caution about keeping up enthusiasm. 

UPDATE: Billy Mernit's brilliant book 'Writing The Romantic Comedy' is still in print, and is available from Amazon. He told us so himself!

We're back at the the Old Hairdressers on Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th of May with two nights of plays based on Kate Bush songs. The bill(s) haven't been confirmed just yet, so keep up with our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and website for the announcement and link to buy tickets.

Here you'll find what some of the writers of our previous shows have been doing and what they have coming up in the next month or so.

Chris McQueer - Chris is everywhere just now. It's just been announced that three stories from his Hings book will be on the BBC iPlayer in May. Here's some clips. He supports JB Barrington at the Flying Duck on Saturday 4th May. His short story collection HWFG is available from all good bookshops and publishers 404 Ink. 

Tom Murray - Tom has a story, Man in the Moon published in the new Scottish International Short Story magazine Postbox. Tom will read the story at the launch of the magazine at the Scottish Poetry Library 4th May. Tom has poems displayed in Gatehouse of Fleet as part of BigLit Festival: The Stewartry Book Festival. An annual event, a long weekend of talks, performances, workshops, music and entertainment on a literary theme. Tom will perform his own monologues in a cabaret event as part of Duns PlayFest on 9th May.  

Eve Nicol - Eve directs the Scottish premiere of Abi Morgan's The Mistress Contract which runs at The Tron until 11th May. Here's an interview with her from The List.