By Ross Sutherland
1hr, 14+
My one man show about journalism, self-fulfilling prophecies, and our uneasy relationship with the future. Oh, and Pac-man.
Here’s the blurb:
Beyond the impending economic apocalypse, what kind of future awaits our children? What fairytales need to be written now to warn future generations against making the same mistakes as ours? Assuming 99% of our children will grow up to be knife-wielding nihilists, one thing is for certain: the stories are going to have to be grim(m).
The Three Stigmata of Pacman tells the true story of my time working for a newspaper in post-recession Britain, told as a series of stories, poems and animations. As my paper begins to fill more and more columns speculating on the imminent collapse of Britain, I begin to research the paradox of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Concerned by the attitude of my colleagues (who treat the Future as a country that we are at war with) I start to keep a time capsule in my garden, through which I begin a correspondence with the Future. I feed stories and poems into the box, trying to pave relations between Now and Next. Soon after, I am made redundant from my newspaper, and have to move back in with my parents. The time capsule suddenly takes on new significance, and I find myself trapped in a world with no future at all; where every day is the same as the last, only slightly faster. This, I realise, is the first stigmata of Pac-man, a character I am fast becoming, and whom I recast as the tragic hero of the final fairytale I post into my time capsule.
Exploring themes such as media rhetoric, historical bias, and posterity in art, The Three Stigmata of Pacman attempts to be a snapshot of contemporary Britain at a strange turning point in its cultural legacy; where newspapers are reporting science fiction, and the poets are burying themselves in the garden.
“Is this a performance poet with a comic’s stagecraft or a highly literate stand-up? Ross Sutherland’s one-man show is as slippery as an eel in its definition, and all the better for it. Hopelessly in love with language in the same way Daniel Kitson and Stewart Lee are, Sutherland’s show brought together home-made videos, diagrams and poetry readings… The Three Stigmata Of Pac-Man has the makings of a truly original, great show.”
– Brighton Argus (*****)
Read a nice preview here
And a nice review here and here
Breaking News:
I’ve just agreed to complete a three-week London run of Pacman at the Old Red Lion Theatre in Islington. I’m dead excited about this— the Old Red is a particularly important venue to me: it’s where Aisle16 did our sell-out run of Poetry Boyband back in 2005. In fact, my old boyband collaborator Luke Wright is going to be sharing the bill with me. He’s going to be taking the 7:30 slot with his solo show The Pettty Concerns of Luke Wright. I’ll doing the 9:00 slot with Pacman. There’s going to be some sort of discount if you buy tickets for both shows. That’s all happening in January 2010. I would cryogenically freeze myself in anticipation, but the cryo business is run by unscrupulous cowboys.
To book this show, contact me here