Theatre / Comedy
Preview: Sophie Hates Theatre, Tobacco Factory Theatres
Tobacco Factory Theatres’ artist residency scheme Platform showcases three very different, very absorbing new shows this month.
Platform has evolved following a varied series of artist residencies which ran at Tobacco Factory Theatres over the last year. Following an open call out, eight artists were provided with rehearsal and research space for up to two weeks, alongside producing and technical support, to enable each of them to develop an idea for a new piece of performative or installation work. Three of these artists – Rosa Eaton (Southville Unexplained Club – our preview), The Bishop Sisters and Tom Marshman (A Haunted Existence – our preview) – perform their finished pieces at TFT’s new studio space, the Spielman Theatre this month.
The series rounds off with The Bishop Sisters’ Sophie Hates Theatre. Here are the sisters, Sophie and Lucy, to tell us more.
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“The idea for Sophie Hates Theatre came to us during a family trip to see the Christmas play at an unnamed Bristol theatre. Sophie, a 26-year-old Ph.D student and lecturer at the time, was performing her annual ritual of lying on the floor and wailing about how little she wanted to see the play.
Sisters (l-r) Sophie and Lucy Bishop
“Sensing an opportunity to ‘unpack’ the emotions within this interaction, Lucy (an actor) asked Sophie whether she actually liked theatre. Having never considered this as a possibility, Sophie immediately began to feel free. After spending some time thinking long and hard about the ‘ick’ factor she associates with theatre, she wanted to share her newfound discovery that it’s OK to not like it with the actors and audiences who had tortured her for so long.
“So began a two-year journey to create the play Sophie Hates Theatre, in which the sisters explore the value of the arts, the problems with performance and what it means to disagree with your siblings’ life choices.
“The play uses storytelling, dance, flinging their bodies around the stage (physical theatre), comedy and having a nice chat to ruminate on the pleasures and problems with theatre in the UK. Bristol based stand up, poet, and friend of the family Roisin Crowley Linton directs the show (she has mostly kept everyone under control).”
Sophie Hates Theatre was nominated for the Suitcase Award in 2017 and held an Artists Residency with the Tobacco Factory Theatres in the same year.
Sophie Hates Theatre is at the Spielman Theatre, Tobacco Factory Theatres on Saturday, December 1 (2pm & 8pm performances). For more info, visit www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com/shows/sophie-hates-theatre
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