I’m thrilled to announce that The Vault is officially live, with tickets now on sale for next month’s underground festival of performance, film and …party. Kindle’s glam-inspired rock operetta The Furies hits the capital for 12 performances between the 9th and 26th February, but we recommend that you come early in the run. Not least because Dave the Roadie  will be frisking and hustling entrants only during the first week. After that he disappears, awol, following a presumed bender – and for reasons known unto himself has to “leave the country, in a hurry”.

Following succesful try-outs in Birmingham, Edinburgh and Brighton the Old Vic Tunnels beneath Waterloo Station provides a fantastically atmospheric setting for The Furies. It will be edgy and exhilerating….and for sure it will ROCK!   NB: Given the intimate and unusual location ticket numbers will be limited, so please book in advance if you can.

Here is The Vault performance programme in full.

Listen here for an Audio Trailer of The Furies;


surplus value

14Dec11


And in its completeness – Brian Duffy presents to the TEDx audience at Aldeburgh (5th Nov 2011), after which he introduces the Modified Toy Orchestra for three numbers, A Grand Occasion, Great Kings Fall and Black Star.

See also from the TEDx Aldeburgh documentation;

Kathy Hinde‘s Piano Migrations

Jennifer Stumm‘s The Imperfect Instrument

Hannah Brock playing “Fight of the Typhoon” on the Chinese Guzheng


Following an inspiring site-visit to the Capital this week, we’re pleased to announce that come the New Year Kindle Theatre will be performing a 3-week run of The Furies in the formidable-looking confines of an underground vault beneath Waterloo Station.

Encouraged by a blossoming interest in site-sensitive theatre (including recent adventures here by Punchdrunk and the Old Vic/Spacey in nearby tunnels) site managers at Waterloo Station have been increasingly open to suggestion regarding cultural interventions on the site. Enter Heritage Arts, who are curating a new Festival called THE VAULT. Producer Tim Wilson is putting together a dynamic programme and has issued a call for interested artists whose work might suit this context (see here for details).

With no power or light in The Furies’ lair, and sounds supplied only by the ghostly rumble of  passing trains, Vault 234 is atmospheric to say the least. We explored the 35m long chamber by the meagre lumins from our mobile phones, unsure what was underfoot. The Vault will be a challenge to rig out and inhabit, but in 8 weeks time the infrastructure will all be in place for what will be an exciting month’s event and an opportunity for Kindle to get a proper run at The Furies in front of fresh, unsuspecting audiences.

THE FURIES will perform at

THE VAULT Festival, Leake St., Waterloo, London SE1

Thursdays to Sundays, 9th til 26th February 2012 (details to be confirmed soon).


Here is a edited fragment from the The Furies, recorded at Supersonic Festival last month.

Kindle are currently taking bookings for next year’s tour, which kicks off with a 3-week run in London in February, details to be confirmed very soon. The succesful collaboration with Jewellery dept. at Birmingham City University is documented in this article.



The mto in the dressing room at Snape Maltings, prior to Brian’s TEDx talk on “Surplus Value”, rounding off an inspirational day of ideas and performance;

Here are two accounts on the day’s events, from Matthew Linley, and Kathy Hinde, whose work Piano Migrations has left a lasting impression.

Matt captures the marshalling the toys in a rendition of “A Grand Occasion”;

The Modified Toy Orchestra perform at @tedxaldeburgh from matthewlinley on Vimeo.


mto live

26Oct11

If it’s too late for you to catch tomorrow’s Modified Toy Orchestra gig at Bristol’s Colston Hall, then try this: Brian Duffy introduces the MTO phenomenon to an audience at TEDx Aldeburgh on 5th November 2011. Thomas Dolby hosts the day’s event, with other presentations from Peter Gregson, Akala, Professor Vincent Walsh, Nitin Sawhney, Kathy Hinde and Jennifer Stumm.

With a limit of 20 mins per speaker, the TED timeslot will only permit a couple of numbers from the MTO, but we are excited to be contributing to the TEDx experience, having made the trip as audience last year.


One Sunday afternoon two walkers arrive in town in search of a rest and a well earned print.  They soon realise something is up: things look different – cars, shop-front, people’s clothes.  And what are these small boxes everyone is talking into? Yes, Graeme and Neil set out to walk the High Peak Trail on the 18 September 1973 and now find they may have taken the wrong turning off the old railway track.  So, begins a time-travelling performance-walk that takes you through the streets of Wirksworth.  Following the performers and listening to a specially written text and soundscore through earpieces, you will explore the many layers of history that are under your feet and etched in the buildings around you.  Bodies in Flight have performed their audio-walk in Nottingham, Bristol and Singapore to great acclaim, and now bring their unique focus to Wirksworth – inviting us to see the everyday afresh. 

Dream-Walk, by Bodies in Flight

Sunday 18th September 2011

Walks will start at 11:00, 12:00, 2:00pm, 3:00pm & 4:00pm;

Meet at the Parish Rooms, Wirksworth, Derbyshire

Link to Wirksworth Festival Site and Box Office Info.


old iron

08Sep11

The familiar clarion of “the Bawlly” (the scrap-metal collector) has followed me this past couple of days. This is the sound of a wrecked and strangulated trumpet piercing the air over otherwise quiet neighbourhoods…. followed by a damaged voice imparting what I can only assume to be “Old Iron!”.

The Bawlly has always plied his trade in these parts. As a kid there’d be a sinister edgyness to his arrival. From a back garden you could never quite tell from which street he was calling and it was better to hide or run inside to avoid what felt like a dark presence. Part gypsy-traveller, part kiddy-catcher; grubby-faced, Dickensian ne’er-do-wells sitting atop an old wagon, drawn by a shaggy pit-hoss. In reality these strangers from another time and place were Black Country scrap metal-merchants, aboard a flat-bed truck, but they might as well have been from another country. Their 8mph street-wanderings clearly paid off. I have a vivid memory of dad running out of the house in his bare feet and ‘jamas to apprehend the Bawlly. Then watching, incredulous, as the back-half of a Mark One Mini was man-handled onto the truck, joining fridges, rusty garden swings and dug-up fragments of air-raid shelter.

This week, the sound of the Bawlly signifies the start of austere times. Summer is truly dead. Kids are back to school, the skies have turned grey and there’s a faint rustling of tumbleweed as a lean-looking Autumn stretches before me. A breather is welcome after a busy few months, but it’s now time to cast the net, seek new work opportunities and develop ideas for new projects.


Red Shift’s Invisible Show II opened yesterday in the hustle and bustle of a sunny Pleasance Courtyard. Whilst the intimate scenes aim to discretely disappear into the crowd, a large and enthusiastic audience ensure that the focus of the pack is tight in on the action. For many, part of the game of the show is identifying the performers. But this has the effect of creating an audience for the audience, with the non-headphoned public drawn in through curiosity. The Pleasance team have been fantastically supportive of the show, not least the security, who are on alert should any unwitting member of the public choose to intervene in one of the show’s more fractious encounters.

In this pic, Jill’s character makes a heart-rending phone-call in a corner of the Courtyard…The Invisible Show II performs each day in Pleasance Courtyard until the 27th August. Performance times are 11.30am, 2pm and 4.30pm. The show lasts 50mins. Tickets can be booked here




Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.