"‘The Minuting Hill Carnival’, a minute version of Notting Hill’s, was refereed by a representative of the Honourable Society of Faster Craftswomen, who before she sold me a nugget of jerk chicken on a cocktail stick, made a joyful band of us playing tiny instruments. Gorgeous how just as much glee came from playing it tiny, it was the play that counted. Lovely and messy."
Tassos Stevens, Coney
Oct 2007-2008: PatchworkNew Cut Arts, Suffolk; The Langham Gallery, Holborn; Battersea Barge, London
This true account of Laura's thirtieth year comprises three parts, performed separately, beginning in Autumn 2008. A series of vibrant performances brimming with surreal imagery and compassionate humour, with music by Kora. Poetic, poignant and absurdly funny.
Developed with support of New Cut Arts (July 2008), this is an exciting cross-generational co-mentoring project developed with Alison Goldie, (Lady in Bed, see below).
"Touching and funny as well. Very impressed by the combination of speech, tape and music"
Ruth King, audience member
"Thank you so much, what a treat! So funny and cheery, even the heavier bits. Very brave, and very honest! 10/10"
Audience member
"Funny and put together well. Very warm and friendly atmosphere. Interesting idea, definitely would like to see the two other parts of the trilogy and other future works!"
Suzi Malaquias, audience member
Part 1: The Exhibition(ist)
View a gallery of photos from The Exhibition(ist) at the Langham Gallery, London
Receive a guided tour of a gallery exhibiting objects from Laura's life that provide an intimate account of a rotten year of bad luck and unraveling sanity. Using live performance and recorded sound, with music by Kora, Laura weaves together themes of needlework and autobiography in this daring and intriguing staging. Those dirty white trainers are aching to speak.
Langham Gallery, Holborn, October 2008
"A captivating portrayal that's touching and heartfelt. A beautiful mix of humour and emotion" Audience member
Part 2: My Mum
Piecing an impression of Laura's life bit by bit, like patches of a quilt, through a series of staged episodes Laura unravels the story of her hippie mother's influence on her upbringing. But the field mushrooms, the homeopathic remedies for ancestral grief and her mother's Buddhist refusal to get a job prove too much for Laura to bear. One of those epic parent-offspring rows is brewing. Pheweee. You know the ones I mean.
Battersea Barge/the Bath House, October 2008
"Very beautiful. I really enjoyed the combination of a story-telling voice and the lifting and falling of the guitar" Audience member
Part 3: Wait, wait!
Created and performed by Laura Lloyd, developed with Alison Goldie, and music by Kora
August 2008: Black Stuff, Shams Theatre
Pleasance 2, Courtyard, Edinburgh Festival
A honeymooning couple are stranded in the Mexican desert with an empty petrol tank, and scramble with the petrol attendant for the last of the resources.
"Laura Lloyd and Jonathan Young's performances were so detailed that they transcended into the effortless ... perfectly constructed to create people that shone iridescently into life"
Broadway Baby on 'Black Stuff'
June 2008: Lady in Bed
New Wimbledon Studio, 2009; Pulse festival, Ipswich; New Cut Arts; Buxton fringe 2008
Written and performed by Alison Goldie, directed by Laura Lloyd
Alison has lived a lot and loved a lot and survived to tell her (totally true) tales in a one-woman odyssey of erotic adventures from the mid 1970s to the present day. Anyone who has a heart will recognize the Oohs, Aahs and Ouches of a modern person’s sex-life. Alison plays every character in an animated show of physical and vocal dexterity. Funny, moving revelatory theatre.
July 2008: Biographical Audio tour for Eleanor Ley
Lamb's conduit street, Holborn
A group of women on a 'hen do' visit all the shops on a street near the bride-to-be's house, hearing a pre-recorded story in each location. A story in a hairdresser's about being a beauty, a story in front of a pastoral landscape about falling into a river, a story in a patisserie about eating 40 cakes in France ...
March 2008: In celebration of a stranger
Borough, London
A celebratory ritual for the birthday of a girl called Kris, commissioned by her lover. A speech from a balcony to a courtyard in a pub. A rock concert in a phone booth. Digging up a buried key. Dinner for two in rhododendron bush.
July 2007: The Repertoire (Poetry Theatre by the Celebration Army)
StAnza poetry festival, St Andrews, Scotland
A cocktail menu of 15 poems are offered to attendees of the poetry festival in the restaurant, foyer and bar. After receiving a performed poem, recipients are asked if they know any poems or fragments of text they'd like to recite out loud.
April 2007: The Interview Booth
High Tides new writing festival, The Cut, Halesworth
A peep show installation. A large box decorated inside like the interior of an office. The audience spy through holes in the wall on excruciating job interviews taking place inside.
January 2007-ongoing: Unusual celebratory events organised through The Celebration Army: www.thecelebrationarmy.blogspot.com
Look up from the millenium bridge and see a large number flashed from a balcony of Tate Modern. Visit the loos on the 7th floor and knock on a door - a gloved hand passes you a cloakroom ticket. ..A series of treasure hunts for hen do's that tell the story of the bride-to-be and weave along the Thames through Borough market.
Dinner for two served in unusual locations - a pier in the Thames, a grove ...