Hugo the robotic vent doll with Prof. Elemental

Star of new Brighton Fringe show
abandoned in attic for 30 years

Robots and decrepit dolls with a distinctly eerie demeanour will be outnumbering human performers in a brand new music event, Uncanny Valley, in the Brighton Festival Fringe. The star of the show, Hugo, is the head of a 1930s ventriloquist’s dummy who was abandoned in an attic for 30 years.

Hugo was rescued by theremin player and roboticist Sarah Angliss who has been making robots for the show. “I stumbled across Hugo when some friends invited me to a Magic Circle sellers’ fair. He was languishing behind the scenes among the personal effects of a deceased children’s entertainer. A retired magician sold Hugo to me – he didn’t want much for him because he thought he might ‘scare the children’. I took one look at him and thought ‘yes, he’s bloody terrifying, I want him in our show’.”

Hugo will be performing live with Sarah’s band Spacedog and with gentleman rapper Professor Elemental, known for his YouTube sensation, Cup of Brown Joy, about the pleasures of drinking tea. The Professor’s album Rebel without Applause was described as “a stand-out moment of psychedelic neo-Victorian rap genius” by funk, soul and hip-hop magazine Monkey Boxing. Elemental will be in a darker mood than usual in this show. “This is the show that I always dreamed of doing – a chance to delve a little deeper into what scares us and why, alongside a good helping of nonsense and spectacular songs”, said the Professor. “I can say with confidence that nobody has ever put on a show like this one.”

The Spacedog lineup includes sisters Jenny and Sarah Angliss, guitarist Ben Kypreos, video artist Colin Uttley and Sarah’s robotic creations. Shortlisted as one of the best music acts of Brighton Fringe 2009, the band are known for their strange reworkings of torch songs and dark European folk songs, mixing Jenny’s ethereal vocals with theremin, saw, a robotic carillon and other oddities. One number mixes a Hungarian folk song the sisters learnt in childhood with the Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water – the hooded, faceless presence in a British public information film which haunted anyone growing up in the 70s. FringeGuru said “from the very start, I was drawn into their surreally spooky world.”

Spacedog and Elemental will be joined by assorted dolls and robots, including Clara 2.0 (the theremin-playing plastic baby) and the Professor’s mysterious “badgermingo”. The performers met in the green room at one of the Marlborough Theatre’s Steampunk nights. Despite their differing music styles, they hit it off instantly. “It turned out we all have the British horror classic Dead of Night in our DVD collections – and that says it all”.

Uncanny Valley will be playing for one night only, at the Marlborough Theatre Brighton, 5 May. There are two shows that evening, at 8:00pm and 9:40pm. Tickets £8 (£7 concessions). Suitable for ages 15 and over.

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Notes

Tickets on sale now from the Brighton Festival Fringe box office
or from the Dome Ticket Office (01273 709 709).

The ‘Uncanny Valley’ is a term used by psychologists to describe the unsettling feeling we have when we encounter very lifelike objects such as ventriloquists’ dummies  We’ll be exploring the Uncanny Valley hypothesis during the show and casting a sceptical eye over some claims about uncanniness. See www.sarahangliss.com/spotted/uncannyvids for more details.

Print resolution image of Hugo and Prof. Elemental at the bottom of this page:
www.sarahangliss.com/extras/uv/uvimages.html

Further info, including YouTube clips here:
www.sarahangliss.com/gigs/uncannyvalleyshow

The Angliss sisters will also be performing excerpts from the Uncanny Valley show at Jane Bom-Bane’s Mechanical Hat Box, 13 May 2010:
www.bom-banes.co.uk/musicdates.html

There are plans to bring Uncanny Valley to London in August. Dates are currently being negotiated with a small London theatre venue – details tbc.

For more details, please contact:
Sarah Angliss
sarah.spacedog [REMOVE] @ [REMOVE] gmail.com
07725 805744