Apocalypso Now

In the middle of last year we began to notice slow-pervading changes in the world around us. Although we saw positive vibes and a growth of interest in Newport, we saw much we didn't like in the wider world, and further afield, and we knew there was no way we were alone in feeling this cold numb wrench. Reflecting back, moments of 2015/16 felt like watching a gigantic car crash in slow motion, as our worst suspicions were eventually confirmed by decisions to frac, drop bombs, leave Europe and vote Trump.

Next I'd like to say: "We began to assimilate these feelings and events, and explored how we could make them resonant in our work..." but I can't, because the opposite is true. We have long planned to create a show about the end the world, it just so happened that 2016 gave us heaps of good material, and now we are so pleased to be able to announce; we have received funding to make that very show.

Originally intended to be a speculative performance piece about the probable destruction of the world, we are now going to try and make it, before the world actually ends.

Apocalypso will be our version of political-theatre, although hence forth we'll probably refrain from calling it that. Through this performance we imagine a far-off dystopian future, wrought by the decisions of "today". We question humanity, what it is, what it means and what it's worth. Though still very much a speculative piece, we want to make gross assumptions, play with exaggerations and create false demagogues in likenesses of those who shall not be named. In our own way we want to highlight, ridicule, and deliver a message that we feel will be an assimilation of our feelings made resonant in our work... It'll just be seen through the mad bug eyes of Marty Feldman, squizzed in a blender with grotesquery, some uber-punk-prog-grunge, a few buckets of sweet and blood, and an exhausting pace.

The project is supported by The Riverfront and Arts Council Wales, and we're really looking forward to it. We hope you are too, if, of course you want to join us for the apocalypse, and enjoy a lukewarm cocktail, in the last bar on earth, before the inevitable nuclear heatwave melts all of our faces of.

Mucho,

TST