Playbox
celebrate
40 years of The Small Faces
OGDENS’ NUT GONE FLAKE
Playbox is proud to present, for three performances only, an event to celebrate The Small Faces 1968 concept album Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake at The Dream Factory, Warwick.
Schedule
Thursday 20th
November, 7.30pm
Friday 21st November, 7.30pm
Saturday 22nd November, 7.30pm
Tickets
£10.50,
£7.50 Concessions
Box Office:
01926 419555
ext 2
The Music
The music will be played live by The Small Fakers, recreating the entire
album plus other Small Faces music with John Unwin, recreating his father
Prof. Stanley Unwin’s role as narrator.
The Staging
Playbox Theatre will stage the album, live for the first time, with a cast
of 25 in all new creation especially made for the event. Following
productions of The White Album (2006) and Pink Floyd’s The Wall (2007),
Ogdens’ completes a trilogy of album explorations.
In order to obtain best visibility, the show is a promenade event encouraging audiences to move amongst the action. There will be very limited seating for those who require this – although restricted views may be unavoidable.
You are invited to dress ‘mod’ style and arrive well in advance for the support and event pre-show.
Playbox is partnered in this venture by Ikon Footware and SpecialZ
PREMIERE
PARTY
Friday 21st November 2008
Following the official premiere of Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake on Friday 21st November, there will be a mod themed post-show party, with soundtrack created by show consultant Mark Cunningham. Cast and guests are invited to attend in full mod attire!
RSVP to the Box Office on 01926 419555 ext 2.
Open to ticket holders for Friday 21st November only. Some tickets still available - call the Box Office on the number above to book.
Ogdens' in rehearsal
Click on the thumbnails below to see them in full size.
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Ogdens' cast announced
John
Unwin will recreate the role played by his father, Prof. Stanley Unwin, on
the 1968 album and heads a cast of 30 young actors. 14-year-old Lydia
Atherton from Balsall Common will become Happiness San, the
innocent hero of the tale.
Also appearing in the Playbox production are: Kathleen Ackermann, Bea
Anastasiou, James Anderson, Lauren Batchelor, Olivia Blakeman, Lydia
Clowes, Izzie Cutts, Cara Davis, Lauren Deeth-Kelt, Amelia Doster, Jeremy
Franklin, Kelly Hampson, Lydia Harper, Jack Hartin, Helena Jones, Katy
Keohane, Dominic Kurzeja, Theo Lamb, Heleni Lindsell, Olivia Markham,
Graham Moorhouse, Hannah Phelvin, Ellie Pomroy, Julia Reeve, Alice
Robertson, Jo Suffern, Emily Wilkes, Ed Williams, Harriet Williams and
Alice Trew.
First thoughts
Why do we do this?
British family life in the 1960s...
Could song of a baker be filmed...?
Mad John... we all know him.
Do we have two stages...?
Vital that band are given full potential and stage images support the
music...
East End of London 1960s....
Ogdens' for OXJAM
In 2006 Playbox staged Michael Pinchbeck’s The White Album, a contemporary fantasy surrounding The Beatles. In 2007 we climbed The Wall – Pink Floyd’s landmark album. To complete the trilogy of exploring in theatre the potential of selected memorable albums Playbox create the first stage production of The Small Faces’ Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake with live music from The Small Fakers – a unique band who recreate the 1968 Small Faces in detail.
That’s not all, the narrator will be John Unwin recreating the role played by his father Prof. Stanley Unwin on the album. Stewart McGill directs with production advisor Mark Cunningham and John Hellier keeping a close and watchful eye on the psychedelic tale of Happiness Stan.
Unlike The Wall this musical is for all ages and a delightful way to celebrate 40 years since Ogdens’ was released to become a mod and world classic.
This event is staged by Playbox for Oxjam Music Festival 2008 with support from Ikon Footwear.
John Hellier, Production
Advisor says, “The Who’s album Tommy is widely acclaimed as the
very first Rock and Roll concept album... WRONG! The Small Faces’
classic album Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake predates the Who’s effort
by a full 12 months but unlike Tommy it has never graced the stage...
until now. This million selling album celebrates its 40th birthday this
year and surely rates alongside the Beatles Sergeant Peppers Lonely
Hearts Club Band and the Beach Boys Pet Sounds as one of the
finest, if not the finest album of the swinging 1960s. It tells the story,
in a typically whimsical English manner, of a character called Happiness
Stan and his quest to find the missing half of the moon and features just
about every genre of music in doing so. It mixes the Psychedelia of the
day with Old Time Music Hall, Folk and Heavy Rock and just to add even
more spice to the pudding the unique presence of Stanley Unwin’s
narration. The Playbox theatre production featuring the Small Fakers,
Stanley Unwin’s son John, actors, actresses, puppeteers et al is for 3
nights only and not to be missed.”
Why stage
Ogdens'?
Mark Cunningham, Production Advisor,
spells it out...
“I’ve got no bleedin’ interest in it... d’ya know I don’t get a penny from that album?”Those were the very words of the impish Steve Marriott, in response to being asked if he would ever consider including anything from Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake in his live set. It was September 1988 and we were talking over a beer in his dressing room at Southend’s Cliffs Pavilion, a few hours before I shared the stage with the owner of arguably the most powerful lungs ever to grace an English rock singer.
If it weren’t for the tragic night that took his life, less than three years later, there is every possibility that Steve would have disowned his rather adverse ‘appreciation’ of what is now cherished as one of British Rock’s most artistically creative hours — well, 38 minutes and 27 seconds, to be precise.
Ogdens’ is a peculiar work, even given the psychedelic haze of its era, and yet while it’s very ‘of its time’, in some ways it defies the 40-year distance between then and now.
Musically, it captures everything that the Small Faces were about — acid-infused Mod soul, laden with Steve’s awe-inspiring vocal crescendos; the hard rock that would have developed into something far heavier if the band had stayed intact; flashes of pastoral folk; and the whimsical mock-Cockney mini-opera of side two, complete with Stanley Unwin’s hysterical gobbledegook narrative, that embodied the band’s urchin spirit and humour.
I was a mere nipper, living in Upton Park (close to where the band formed) when the album was released in the spring of 1968. But even then, through my uncle, I was somehow aware of the Ogdens’ melting pot. ‘Lazy Sunday’ was the singalong hit that summer, I recall, but I was also drawn to THAT cover. Sgt. Pepper tends to be the default reference point for critics charting the development of modern album cover design (which, of course, has all but died in the post-CD download world), but Mick Swan’s outrageous circular creation looked as if it had descended from another cosmos.
In the years that immediately followed Steve Marriott’s death, a veritable roll call of ’90s BritPop heroes — from Paul Weller and Blur, to Oasis and Ocean Colour Scene — were to publicly acknowledge the influence of the Small Faces, and especially Ogdens’, on their music. Long after Steve’s passing, and indeed that of his songwriting partner, bassist Ronnie Lane, that influence continues in the music of yet another generation of British musicians. They would both be just as proud as their surviving band mates, Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan.
This is just one of many reasons why I feel it’s important for the Playbox Theatre to pay this unique tribute, as the talented young cast harness the same quirky creativity that made the Small Faces’ original work so endearing, to so many. Being a native of the East End, it’s an honour to have an involvement in this new chapter of the Ogdens’ saga.
Are you all sitty comftibold? I know I am.
Mark Cunningham is Production Consultant & Editor of Total Production International magazine
