PREVIEW: Mark Thomas at BATTERSEA ART CENTRE APRIL 22nd -MAY 2nd & May 4th-May 9th

  
MARK THOMAS
Cuckooed

Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award winner – 2014
Scotsman Fringe First winner – 2014
Scotsman Fringe First winner – 2012
Bank of Scotland Herald Angel winner – 2012
Sony Award for Radio Comedy winner – 2008
Guinness World Record Holder: Most Number of Political Demonstrations in 24 Hours – 2006 MediActivist Awards (MISTY) – 2005
UN Association Global Human Rights Defender Award – 2004
Kurdish National Congress Medal of Honour – 2002
Time Out Comedy Award – 1990

Following a total sell-out Edinburgh Fringe run once again, one of comedy’s elder statesmen and all-round arty mischief-maker continues his 8th nationwide tour with a comedy of betrayal. Mark Thomas tells his true story of how Britain’s biggest arms manufacturer, BAE Systems, came to spy on a comedian in this five star, multi-ward winning, critically acclaimed tale of hubris, planes, demos and undercover deceit.

In 2012,  Mark’s first ever one-man theatre piece, Bravo Figaro, a touching and poignant tale first commissioned by the Royal Opera House about his opera-loving father which sold out its entire Fringe run, won Mark a Herald Angel award, a Scotsman Fringe First, and was recently broadcast on Radio 4. The show is set to tour Australia and New Zealand in 2015. With Cuckooed, his second theatre piece, Mark was awarded his second Scotsman Fringe First, as well as the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression award, an honour for which Mark declared was “a very inspiring experience and I feel very humbled”.

Mark’s shows have always been entirely different from each other; he’s stopped arms deals, created a manifesto and brought the winning policy to parliament, walked the entire length of the Israeli wall in the West Bank and most recently completed 100 Acts of Minor Dissent, which included taking the police to court over surveillance and finding a new definition for the word ‘Farage’.

We all know that it’s not just his live shows for which Mark creates the trouble he has become famous for; his Channel 4 series The Mark Thomas Comedy Product ran for six series, he’s published three books and a manifesto, had various series commissioned by Radio 4, won a Sony Award for My Life in Serious Organised Crime, been a regular contributor to political magazine The New Statesman, won numerous awards, holds a Guinness World Record, investigated everything from Coca-Cola to inheritance tax avoidance in various TV documentaries, given evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees and stopped multinational infrastructure deals. Oh, and of course he’s been arrested countless times in one day. Fortunately, he has just enough bastard in him to prevent him from becoming a national treasure.

www.markthomasinfo.com / TWITTER: @markthomasinfo

PRESS ON CUCKOOED
★★★★★ “A brilliantly crafted hour… beautiful and heartfelt” METRO
★★★★★ “A brand of comedy that carries a far weightier purpose than to simply generate laughs…Cuckooed leaves a lasting impression” SUNDAY HERALD
★★★★★ “A masterful piece of storytelling and an engrossing hour” THE ARTS DESK
★★★★★ “Political theatre at its very best…takes the breath away… impassioned but lightened with underlying wit” BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE
★★★★★ “A very funny show about a serious, indeed deadly, business. This is vintage Mark Thomas – seriously funny in all the best senses, and as he so often is, bang on the money” EDINBURGH GUIDE
★★★★★ “Impassioned delivery, emphatic gesticulations and wry sense of humour… Thomas’ charisma is also inspirational and sparks a feeling of wanting to follow in his mischievous footsteps” TV BOMB
★★★★ “A clever, funny and angry show… an excoriating, heartfelt monologue” THE GUARDIAN
t★★★★ “Thomas’s show ruefully tots up the cost of personal betrayal” SUNDAY TIMES

 

Performing at Battersea Art Centre  Wednesday April 22nd- May 22nd

BRAVO FIGARO  :

Monday 4th May – Sat May 9th  Battersea Art Centre.

Information BAC  0207-223-2223

Contact Bex Corwell  on 07747 055227

e mail bexcolwell@yahoo.co.uk