Previous Productions
Badapple Theatre approaches our 25th Anniversary…
We’re now looking ahead to 2023 which will mark 25 years of Badapple touring… here’s a flick through some of the things we have done over the years…
The Marvellous Mystical Musical Box
The Frozen Roman 2022
Yorkshire Kernel & The Land Girl
2022 Elephant Rock
The long awaited (Covid-interrupted) comedy from Kate Bramley with songs by Jez Lowe and design by CAtherine Dawn and Sam Edwards. Toured to all spaces huge and tiny across the UK in Sprin/Summer 2022….
The heyday of the great British Seaside Holiday may have gone but the memories remain. So too does the old Palace Theatre, once perched proudly on the pier in sight of the mighty Elephant Rock, and boasting its own fabulous attraction, The Amazing Mechanical Elephant. But the relentless tides have chipped away at the coast, and Elephant Rock and its mechanical counterpart are long gone, as if instinct and longing have lured them off to the land of their ancestors.
Join us as we watch the comic yet heartfelt attempts of the mismatched team who are determined that the Palace doors stay open, as they discover a family history that stretches across a hundred years and five thousand miles from the rocky coast of England to the sweeping grasslands of Sri Lanka.
2021 Tales from The Great Wood
Kindly supported by Arts Council England distributing funds from The National Lottery, this brand new eco-fable written and directed by Kate Bramley with a wonderful set created by designer Catherine Dawn and music and songs from Jez Lowe, delighted audiences in the late Spring of 2021.
Badapple actors Richard Kay and Danny Mellor were joined by a host of puppets for an interactive storytelling eco- adventure.
2020 Suffer Fools Gladly
Supported by the Arts Council, written by Danny Mellor and co-directed by Danny and our Artistic Director Kate Bramley this inventive and witty short comedy was about the perils and perks of always telling the truth.
Danny Mellor and Anastasia Benham reunited to bring some much needed joy to our lives in September of 2020.
2019 The Snow Dancer
Again supported by the Arts Council this original Christmas eco-fable ‘a modern fairy tale with a furry tale’ was a huge hit with audiences of all ages this winter and we’re delighted it will return in December 2020 to kick us off on the next 21 years!
2019 The Frozen Roman
2019 was a stupendous year for us with Arts Council grants for two tours of The Frozen Roman, the original comedy that looked at a group of hapless villagers trying to save the local pub from demolition to make way for new houses. Refugees and migration since Roman times were the backdrop and this is a show we are immensley proud of. Design by Catherine Dawn and songs by Jez Lowe and two stellar casts.
2018 Amy Johnson
To mark the 20th Anniversary of our launch at the Edinburgh Festival Kate Bramley was commissioned to re-write our very first show. And our plane set was kindly loaned back to us from the Dumfries and Galloway Air Museum where it now resides.
In this new tale the WAAF girls of the Dover HQ cross paths with the famous Amy Johnson.
Costume by Catherine Dawn, songs by Jez Lowe.
2018 was a turbulent year for us as we lost funding support but the day was saved in a big way by our amazing Badapple Friends and private donors.
“the story moves back and forth, taking in her early days, her flight to Australia, the mystery end…” – YORK PRESS
2017 Salsa Verde
It is the build up to the party of the century as the inhabitants of the village look forward to the end of the 90’s and the turn of the Millenium. A salsa-spectacular was needed for this tour and Badapple took it’s first foray into theatre-dance fusion with the expert choreography and dance tuition of Laucinda Roberts of Ecuentro Latino. Design by Catherine Dawn, original songs by Jez Lowe.
“Bramley crafts an elegiac drama that is both witty and wistful, humorous and haunting, assisted by Jez Lowe’s typically adroit songwriting.” – YORK PRESS
2016 The Last Station Keeper
The old station house is under threat as a high speed rail link looms on the horizon but some spooky goings on spark off a series of stupendously comic events.
“the 21st century’s need for speed hits the old ways head on in Bramley’s tale of the perils of modern life” – YORK PRESS
2016-2017 – The Elves and the Carpenter
The third of our family festive frolics when Santa’s elves don’t get back from their summer holidays on time and Mrs. Claus has to save the day. Songs by Jez Lowe, design by Catherine Dawn.
“magical mixture of theatre, clowning, music, puppetry and animation” – YORK PRESS
“Badapple…..takes theatre into the heart of local communities” – YORKSHIRE POST
2015 The Unlikely Dads
A daft and down to earth comedy about the lads who become Dad’s later in life. Design by Catherine Dawn and starring Robert Took and Robert Angell.
“Bramley writes with typical economy, astute cultural observation, generous humanity and great comic awareness.” – YORK PRESS
2014-2016 The Daily Bread
The second of our ‘No Hall Too Small’ tours was this incredible physical theatre and live-baking mash-up starring the amazing Colin Moncrieff and co-directed by Paul Smith. Design by Catherine Dawn.
“a night of Machiavellian subterfuge, comedy, multiple role-playing, clowning, the aforementioned live baking, banking, and a little bit of politics” – YORK PRESS
2014 – 2019 The Thankful Village
Our first collaboration with young designer Catherine Dawn who’s striking and creative designs have become such a huge part of Badapple’s success. This show comissioned for the WW1 centenery was both comic and poignant following the lives of three women waiting out the Great War in what was to become one of only a handful of villages, where no men were lost to the conflict. In partnership with Big Lottery and Arts Council England this toured nationally four times to huge acclaim and to many actual Thankful Villages. Songs by Jez Lowe that were featured in BBC Radio 2’s The Radio Ballads and the world premiere tour was co-directed by the wonderful Paul Smith (Middle Child/ Hull Truck).
“…emotional clout and poignant final twist, making you thankful for the under-appreciated Great War service of women as much as the men whose story is familiar from history books and the War Poets alike.” – YORK PRESS
2013 – 2015 The Mice who ate Christmas
Another heartwarming Christmas extravaganza based on the legend surrounding the writing one of the most famous modern carols, Silent Night, told by the mice who were instrumental in the tale. Songs by Jez Lowe, design by Charlie Cridlan and later re-designed for touring by Catherine Dawn (left) and co-directed by Paul Smith.
“Badapple Theatre triumphs in a tour that takes the magic of theatre to remote venues” – THE STAGE
2013 – The Carlton Colliers
The first of a suite of magic realism plays set in a fictional North Yorkshire group of villages. In this strikingly original comedy the local amateur football team are saved from an eternal losing streak by a stroke of allotment magic. Songs by Jez Lowe, design by Charlie Cridlan.
“as one road ends, new paths begin (and there is) nuggety northern humour delivered in typically enjoyable performances as the tour of Bramley’s hymn to village life ticks on.” – YORK PRESS
2013 Lights out land girls
The Land Girls sequel that saw our intrepid heroines Buff and Biddy take a long journey to Blackpool in search of stardom. Songs by Jez Lowe, design by Charlie Cridlan.
“fizzes with life, energy and humour…the storytelling and direction is constantly inventive…Keep calm, there are shows aplenty but you must see it.” – YORK PRESS
2012-2017 – Eddie and the Gold Tops
Arguably the most loved and longest touring show of ours to date. A 1960’s milkman from rural Yorkshire gets catapulted to pop stardom in this 1960’s classic from Jez Lowe and Kate Bramley with award winning design from Charlie Cridlan.
The original cast featured Jonny Macpherson (now of Doctors and Emmerdale fame) but there have been two other brilliant Eddie’s as well in Aiden Lee Brooks and Jack Alexander.
“catchy songs, extremely funny” – THE STAGE
2010 – 2015 Farmer Scrooge’s Yorkshire Christmas Carol
The very first of our original family Christmas shows for audiences of all ages, based on the Charles Dickens classic with songs by Jez Lowe and starring Robert Angell (BBC ‘Waterloo Road’, Hull Truck, John Godber Company). Featuring puppets by Sam Edwards.
“This production had everything, songs, humour throughout, and was extremely touching” – MALTON GAZETTE & HERALD
2009 – 2011 Back to the Land Girls
Inspired by a series of interviews with ex-Land Army Girls from Yorkshire and beyond including Badapple friend and supporter the late Mrs. Biddy Cust. 70 performances nationally across our halls network and rural tour partners Highlights, Shindig, Centre Stage and North Lincs Rural Touring. Songs by Jez Lowe with Abi Uttley and Sam Edwards, pictured.
“everyone left happy – uplifted by a great evening’s entertainment. Full marks all round.” – HELLO YORKSHIRE
“if you get chance to see this show do, for it is an engaging and uplifting experience” – YORK PRESS
2008 – 2009 Laurel and Charlie
The little-known period in history when Stan Laurel was Charlie Chaplain’s understudy was the backdrop to this comedy and saw our first collaboration with professional clown and actor Colin Moncrieff, with sketches by Jason Hird of Leikin Loppu and songs by Jez Lowe.
2007 (& 2011) An Honorary Yorkshireman (The James Herriot Story)
By kind permission of Alf Wight, supported by Theakston’s Brewery. The life and stories of James Herriot.
2003 Still Marilyn
Based on the life of Marilyn Monroe through the eyes of her photographers. Toured in partnership with York Theatre Royal and Bath Theatre Royal, funded by Arts Council England, York City Council and Hull City Council.
2002 Fighting the Tide
This was our very first collaboration with Jez Lowe that took the company back to it’s Northern roots with an original comic play inspired by trawling tales of the East Coast. Co-produced by Trinity, Tunbridge Wells and performed at Hull Truck Theatre as well as a national tour.
1999 – 2000 Marlowe Meet Raymond Chandler
Another biography inspired drama that blended the life and novels of the great American detective novelist
1998 – 1999 Amy Johnson
Tall tales of the Hull aviatrix, the first woman to fly solo to Australia. With a replica bi-plane set designed by Andy Newell and John Bramley.
“As I left the theatre I felt ashamed that I had not known more about this record breaking Hull export, and Bramley’s respect for her subject was infectious” – HULL DAILY MAIL