Uncanny Valley flyer
Tag Archives: Brighton Festival Fringe
Uncanny Valley – new show at Brighton Festival Fringe, 5 May 2010
Hugo the singing vent doll with the Professor
Tickets are now on sale for our new show at the Brighton Festival Fringe.
Update (14 March 2010): Read a preview of the show from FringeGuru.
Spacedog are teaming up with Professor Elemental to bring you a delightfully unsettling evening, probing our very human fears of the almost human, from zombies to ventriloquists’ dummies. Accompanied by Sarah’s unusual musical robots, we’ll be singing songs of love, death and the uncanny as we explore the darkest reaches of your mind. With theremins, taxidermy and strange automata.
Click on the thumbnails on this page to see high-res images. High-res publicity shots of Hugo with the Professor here.
- Wolfgang -- Spacedog’s robot drummer
Venue
8:00pm and 9:40pm (show lasts 75 minutes)
5 May 2010
Marlborough Theatre
Brighton
Tickets (£8/£7 -- on sale now from the Brighton Festival Fringe box office)
Professor Elemental
Sarah Angliss (Spacedog) on theremin
Spacedog with Clara 2.0 (photo Melita Dennet)
The badgermingo - the result of one of Prof. Elemental's taxidermy experiments
Clara 2.0 the theremin-playing robot doll
Clara 2.0 will be playing theremin in the show -- see an early video of Clara 2.0 in action.
An early test with Hugo -- the 1930s singing vent doll.
Professor Elemental singing Cup of Brown Joy
The Angliss sisters in their 2009 Fringe Show Electroplasm
Press
Click on the thumbnails on this page to see high-res images.
For more information about this Brighton Fringe show, please contact Sarah Angliss (Spacedog): sarah [dot] spacedog [at] gmail [dot] com. Read more about Spacedog shows, robots and reviews on this website. Hear more of Elemental’s work on his MySpace site.
Music, robots and mechanical hats at Bom-Bane’s, Thursday 13 May 2010
News of an extra date at the Brighton Festival Fringe:
Spacedog are teaming up with Jane Bom-Bane, maestro with mechanical hats, and multi-instrumentalist Nick Pynn for a very unusual music night at Bom-Bane’s, Brighton, 13 May 2010.
Expect plenty of delightful, musical surprises from your hosts Jane and Nick.
We’ll be adding some musical highlights from our new show uncanny valley - songs that probe our very human fears of the almost human, from zombies to ventriloquists’ dummies. There will be musical robots, moving hats and songs of love, death and the uncanny as we explore the darkest reaches of your mind. Compered by Hugo, the disembodied ventriloquist’s doll.
Venue
8:00pm
Thursday 13 May 2010
Bom-Bane’s
Brighton
Tickets (£7.50(£6) – on sale from the venue or the Brighton Festival Fringe box office)
Electroplasm at the Fringe – reviews!
Electroplasm at the Marlborough (thanks to Richard for for the photo)
Update: Electroplasm was shortlisted as ‘Best Music Event’ of the Brighton Festival and Fringe, 2009. Other acts on the annual Latest 7 shortlist included Anthony and the Johnsons, Kasabian, Alice Russell, Blind Tiger Club, Craig Charles, The Osyter Princess and the winner: Lady Carol of the Moon.
We’ve now finished our run of Electroplasm at the Brighton Festival Fringe. It seemed to go down well. Phew! I hope our spooky music, Colin’s expert Edison phonography (at Bom-Bane’s) and Richard’s antics at the seance table managed to create an agreeable shiver down the spine.
Thanks to everyone who came along and to the various fringe reviewers, including Melita Dennett, FringeGuru, Nione Meakin and Michael Hootman, who gave us such a positive write-up. We’d also like to give a huge thank you to Tarik, Huw, Graham, the two Jos, Styles everyone else at the Marlborough for being such wonderful hosts. The Marlborough is one of Brighton’s oldest theatres – it’s dripping with charm, has a warm, inviting atmosphere and is entirely volunteer-run.
Searching for the 'world's spookiest music'
Spacedog has teamed up with psychologist and magician Richard Wiseman to find the ‘world’s spookiest music’
Why is some music spookier than others? Which tracks give you a shiver down the spine? Is it the music, the lyrics or the association with a creepy film or place that gives it that edge?
We’d love you to tell us so we’ve set up a mini survey to find the ‘world’s spookiest music’ (well, at least Brighton’s spookiest). Jenny and I promise to perform the most chilling number in Electroplasm – a brand new show that mixes music with a live reconstruction of a Victorian séance.
We’re up for any music that gets under your skin – whether it’s an old Bowie number or a nursery rhyme with lyrics that gave you the creeps as a kid. If it gives you that delightful shiver down the spine, we want it in our show. Across the evening, we’ll be perform with vocals, theremin, saw and some unsettling home-spun automata (including Uncanny Valerie, a moving, ‘all-seeing’ 1950s doll). And once we’ve chilled you to the bone with our eerie music, the theatre will fall into complete darkness as Richard Wiseman invites you to participate in the evening’s séance.
Author of popular science book Quirkology, Richard has been researching the psychology and social history of the Victorian séance for many years. He’s advised world-class performers on séances, including Brighton resident Nick Cave (for his recent promo video Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!). Ooooh….
**** Survey participants can also enter our draw for two pairs of free tickets to the show ****
Electroplasm
Clara 2.0 in Electroplasm
Marlborough Theatre, Brighton, 8, 9 and 10 May 2009
Music preview at Bom-Bane’s, Brighton, 6 May
Book tickets from the festival box office
At this year’s Brighton Festival Fringe, I’ll be teaming up with vocalist Jenny Angliss and psychologist Richard Wiseman for another eerie outing, in Electroplasm. This new event will be taking place in th Marlborough, a gracefully distressed Regency theatre on the edge of Kemp Town, Brighton. This video preview should give you a flavour of the show -- and there’s a full description of the event below.
Richard conducting a séance
For those of you who haven’t met him before: Richard is a psychologist and author, specialising in the scientific study of deception, magic and seemingly paranormal phenomena. He’s also the author of the popular science book Quirkology. You can find out more about Richard’s interests on his marvellous blog, which is dutifully updated every day or so with curiosities gleaned from almost everywhere.
Electroplasm (séance, theremin and death ballads)
Sarah and Jenny Angliss (Spacedog UK) join psychologist and Quirkology author Richard Wiseman for one of the strangest shows on the Fringe. The sisters use the haunting sounds of the female voice, bells, vintage synth and theremin to coax out any resident ghosts of Brighton’s venerable Marlborough Theatre. And when their death ballads and eerie electronica have chilled the audience to the bone, the theatre will fall into complete darkness, as Wiseman invites the audience to participate in a theatrical reconstruction of a Victorian séance.
The live performers are accompanied by some unsettling home-spun automata (created by Sarah), including a robotic bell rig and Uncanny Valerie, a moving, ‘all-seeing’ 1950s doll. The music is a shameless mix of the outfit’s favourite Weill and Brel ballads, songs from British cult classic The Wickerman, some of the band’s own numbers and electronic interpretations of 13th-century tales of necromancers.
Electroplasm will be performed on 8, 9 and 10 May. Visit if you dare. The bar will be open late so participants can steady their nerves after this experience, which promises to leave even the most rational participants questioning their own perceptions.
“Drop dead brilliant’, Edgar Allan Poe
This is part of a season of events at the Marlborough Theatre, curated by Tarik Elmoutawakil (Brighton Steampunk event organiser, who also coined the marvellous word ‘Electroplasm’).
Times, dates and booking info
Dates: Friday 8, Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 May, 2009.
Times: 9:40pm, 10:50pm and 11:55pm (3 shows a night).
The show lasts one hour and starts prompt -- please meet your usher in the downstairs bar beforehand.
Venue: Marlborough Theatre, 4 Princes Street, Brighton, Brighton BN2 1RD (map)
Tickets: £7 (£6 concessions). Booking essential -- tickets can be bought online from the Festival box office.
Age: Suitable for ages 18+.
Gavreau
Please note: This show contains many references to seemingly paranormal phenomena -- so please avoid if you are of a nervous disposition or easily offended by material of this nature.
UPDATE: Preview night
There’s also a music-only preview night (featuring Spacedog, Colin Uttley and Sarah’s automata) at award-winning festival venue, Bom-Bane’s, Brighton, on Wednesday 6 May. Instead of the séance, this show features a number with ace fiddle player Nick Pynn and some fascinating Edison phonography. Includes a live demonstration of wax recording of the human voice on a genuine, 1904 machine. Contact Jane for tickets.
