word - image - story
The Table Show came out of work that the actor and director Toby Jones and I had done initially on the theatre of Alfred Jarry at the National Theatre Studio and then with two Moliere productions at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Much of this work was about style and storytelling, exploring the precipitous boundaries between theatrical styles and examining when telling a story turns into piece of theatre. We were later joined in our explorations by the designer and illustrator Jane Heather. The endpoint of this project was meant to be a show that would all take place around a table – it might be in your kitchen or on the Olivier stage. We haven’t made it yet, but in the meantime we made some other things.
Commissioned by Apples & Snakes and the Austrian Cultural Institute to mark the Johann Strauss Bicentenary
Premiere Battersea Arts Centre Studio sometime in 1999
Writer – Toby Jones, Director – Edward Kemp, Performers – Toby Jones & Ayse Tashkiran
Premiere Battersea Arts Centre Octoberfest 1999
Subsequent performances at BAC, Assembly Rooms Edinburgh, British Council Showcase Edinburgh, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Wellington International Festival New Zealand and Budapest Theatre Festival
Writer – Toby Jones, Director – Edward Kemp, Design – Jane Heather, Lighting – Ian Scott
Cast – Toby Jones, Edward Woodall
Commissioned by Battersea Arts Centre and created at the National Theatre Studio
A show about bullying for 9 year olds
Premiere National Theatre Foyer February 2000
Devised by Jane Heather, Toby Jones and Edward Kemp, Performed by Toby Jones
Commissioned by National Theatre Education Department
A show with no performers; research project for Missing Reel
Premiere Battersea Arts Centre Old Bookshop Octoberfest 2000
Devised by Jane Heather and Edward Kemp with the voice of Toby Jones
A story for Lavender Hill
Text work designed to be placed along a mile of pavement on Lavender Hill in Battersea using stories gathered from the area. Commissioned by Battersea Arts Centre and Clapham Junction Town Centre Partnership, exhibited at BAC October 2001, rejected by Wandsworth Council 2002
How Toby Jones was cut out of the film Notting Hill
Premiere Traverse Theatre Edinburgh August 2001
Writers – Toby Jones, Edward Kemp, Jane Heather, Director – Edward Kemp, Designer – Jane Heather, Lighting – Ian Scott
Cast – Toby Jones and Ayse Tashkiran
Commissioned by Battersea Arts Centre, created at the National Theatre Studio, produced by the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Your Imagination (Me & Him)
Revised version presented at West Yorkshire Playhouse April 2002 with lighting by Colin Grenfell
Radio version of the stage show
First broadcast BBC Radio 4 29 October 2003
Writers – Toby Jones and Edward Kemp, Producer – Dawn Ellis
Cast – Toby Jones, Rebecca Kirby, Hugh Grant
Scratch performance at Battersea Arts Centre of new material including radio script of ‘Sir David’s Search For Sheep, sorry, Sleep’
Devised by Jane Heather, Toby Jones and Edward Kemp
Cast – Toby Jones, Kate Duchene, Robert Hickson, Paul Hunter, Barry McCarthy, Debra Penny, Simon Walters, Jane Wymark and others
Series of 4 15 minute radio comedies
First broadcast BBC Radio 4 Autumn 2004
Writers – Edward Kemp and Toby Jones, Producer – Dawn Ellis
Cast – Toby Jones, Martin Hyder & Beth Chalmers with Maggie McCarthy, Harry Towb, Laurence Howarth, Kim Wall, Ben Ward and Matthew Kelly