Exeter celebrates theatre this January

January is a monotonous month. We stay slumped at a cold desk, trying to grind our way through endless revision notes and reading for the new term. Fortunately for us there comes a pleasant relief from this January headache, courtesy of local artists.

From the 14–24 January, five theatre companies will be providing us with 14 nightly performances of poetry, dance, theatre and stand-up comedy.

The festival aims to deliver a true picture of what Devon’s artistic, rich communities have to offer. It is an ode to Devon; green, wet and vibrant.

Our inspirational Devon county…

The mini-season of work is part of ‘Framework’, a development programme created by The Bike Shed Theatre who are known nationally for endorsing new writing and innovative theatre. It is an initiative that has the potential to make Devon’s art scene flourish.

The programme emerged from the success of ‘Scratch’, a platform for local artists to perform their work-in-progress and gain direct feedback from an audience. The four performance evenings in November 2012 at the Bike Shed, sold out in just four days. A fact which suggests there was a need, and a real want by artists and audience members alike, to celebrate and support emerging talent.

There will be physical theatre, story-telling, dance, psychological opera without music, etc. The Times reviews one of the performances titled ‘Chatroom’ as ‘A 60-minute masterpiece, a computer-age Lord of the Flies. The writing is taut, vivid, cool, scary and often funny.’

When funding for the arts is harder than ever before, the law firm Cartridges Solicitors have stepped in to sponsor the event. With this combination of financial backing and space and time offered to local artists by the Bike Shed, they have created a fantastic opportunity for a large, talented festival even in a small city like Exeter.

For more information on the line up visit Framework’s website here.

And to purchase tickets for any of the events, visit the Bike Shed’s page here.