First review of ORIGINS & LEMONS - the new revue show from Riding Lights

Review: Origins & Lemons, Riding Lights Theatre Company, on tour until December 5

YORK EVENING PRESS

9:55am Thursday 1st October 2009

Origins & Lemons, Riding Lights Theatre Company, on tour until December 5 I’ve been to a few Riding Lights performances now, including African Snow and Redemption Song, but Origins & Lemons – Squeezing The Juice Out Of Genesis was my first experience of a Riding Lights revue.

People said it would be like the early Riding Lights performances; I’d enjoyed their other recent productions, so I wasn’t quite sure what the difference would be or if there was going to be any.

The title Origins & Lemons was curious and raised a few questions: was it only focused on the Bible; did I need to be a scientist to understand Darwinism; or did I merely need to go with an open mind and be prepared for a good night out? Riding Lights is a Christian theatre company from York, so is Origins & Lemons about the Bible? It is, yet it also examines the origins of life today in a pleasantly thought-provoking way. Was it hilarious? Absolutely; the person sitting next to me said it reminded them of Monty Python.

The show is a series of sketches with songs, one being a fantastic play on words of the original Oranges And Lemons song. Written and directed by Paul Burbidge and Nigel Forde, two of the founding members of Riding Lights, the revue plunges into some of the issues that have aroused people’s curiosity since the dawn of time.

This is not dumbed-down comedy. In the year that marks the bi-centenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of his landmark publication of The Origin Of Species, this performance reaches out to everybody.

Actors Alan Christopher, Fred Denno, Jamie Higgins and Rachel Wilcock use a mixture of observation, imagination and light-heartedness to take the audience back to the very beginning, concentrating on “the Why? of the created world”. The Friargate Theatre was full to bursting on Tuesday for the opening night of a UK tour that will arrive back in York on December 3. Other performances include St Andrew’s Church, Starbeck, Harrogate, on November 25.

The opening two nights in York were sold out weeks ago, so anyone wishing to see this show on its return should book straight away. I left the theatre saying with complete honesty to one member of the Riding Lights team: “That was the best night I’ve had at the theatre in years”. • For tickets, visit www.ridinglights.org/o&l or phone 01904 613000.

Win the only complete, hand-written copy of 'Bugs', Antony Dunn’s third collection of poems

Win the only complete, hand-written copy of 'Bugs', Antony Dunn’s third collection of poems

Antony has written, in his own fair hand, a complete and unique copy of his third collection of poems, Bugs, in a classic black Moleskine sketchbook, using a series of .38mm black Muji gel-pens. It will also contain one or two new poems, which are not included in the printed version of Bugs.

The hand-written copy of Bugs will be auctioned both online and 'live' on Fri 9 Oct at Friargate Theatre, York. It will be signed, dated and dedicated to the winning bidder.

The auction is being held to raise funds for Riding Lights Theatre Company, where Antony worked as Marketing Manager from 1997 – 2007, and which will receive every penny of the winner’s payment.

The money will contribute to Riding Lights’ The Sky’s The Limit fundraising campaign, designed to establish a production fund over and above the regular income which it needs to keep its doors open. More details can be found at www.ridinglights.org/stl

We know that many people will want to bid on this item, even if they can't attend the book launch in person. We have therefore put the book onto eBay so that it is possible to enter your bid whether you're in York or Yemen. To make things even more exciting, the eBay auction will close during the book launch at Friargate and all live bids will be put onto eBay so that as the closing time approaches you can still have a chance of winning. Just follow this link to the eBay page:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250506650261&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:GB:1123

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALTHOUGH THE EBAY PAGE SUGGESTS THAT THE AUCTION WILL END ON 10 OCTOBER, IT WILL ACTUALLY END AT 8.30pm BRITISH SUMMER TIME ON FRIDAY 9th OCTOBER, WITH THE WINNER BEING THE HIGHEST CURRENT BIDDER AT THAT TIME.

The 'live' auctioneer here at Friargate will be poet and founder member of Riding Lights, Nigel Forde.

Please note: the reserve price is £100.

You are also very welcome to come along to the launch at which Antony will read from Bugs for around half an hour, and will be available to sign ordinary copies of the book, which will be on sale for £9.00. The bar will be open throughout, and you’re warmly invited to stay around for as long as you like.

Fri 9 Oct, 7.30pm

Friargate Theatre, York

Lower Friargate, YO1 9SL

Box Office 01904 613000

Admission is FREE, but please ring to reserve your seats

The event at Friargate Theatre is one of four readings to mark the publication of Bugs (Carcanet OxfordPoets):

Mon 5 Oct – London, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Fri 9 Oct – York, Friargate Theatre

Fri 16 Oct – Leeds, Yorkshire Dance

Wed 21 Oct – Oxford, Blackwells Bookshop

Full tour details are available at
www.antonydunn.org

www.ridinglights.org/stl

www.justgiving.com/riding-lights

Origins & Lemons - the new show from Riding Lights

A sneak peek into the rehearsal room.........

For more about the show - touring nationally from 29 September - 5 December just click below to go to the:

ORIGINS & LEMONS WEBSITE

Oxford Skydive

UPDATE ON SCAFELL PIKE ASCENT!

WELL ,WE WERE NEARLY THERE... AND THEN THE DREADED SWINE FLU DECIMATED THE TEAM!

Swine flu produces particularly nasty complications in camels and sheep, but nothing of course to compare with the miserable, shivering, sweating, croaking lump which Paul turned into on Thursday night. So the trip has had to be postponed until the middle of October (the best weather day in the 16/17 weekend).

Although Paul was keen to battle on at all costs, surprisingly none of the other members of the team fancied sharing a tent with him or risking another shivering, sweating, croaking moment half way up. And the Scafell summit phone link-up with BBC Cumbria might have been obliterated by sustained coughing.

It was a beautiful day yesterday in Cumbria as well... so we're all really miffed and Paul is still in isolation.

HOWEVER THIS IS MERELY A SET BACK AND WE WILL GO VERY SOON TO COMPLETE THIS UNIQUE EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF RIDING LIGHTS THEATRE COMPANY.

Thank you for your sponsorship so far. The upside of all this is of course that there is more time to raise even more money!! SO KEEP YOUR SPONSORSHIP COMING, because everything written below is still true...

We're off to the top of England's highest mountain, Scafell Pike, to film an astonishing sky high version of that great epic of yesteryear THE TEN COMMANDMENTS... er... with puppets and various friends and expedition helpers. Nothing as remarkable or so artistically risky as this has ever been attempted before. We are clearly going to sail into the Guinness Book of Records. The first filming of a theatre show on England's highest peak.

Long-standing Riding Lights performers Snowy and Desmond will be reaching new heights with this towering project. Being quite small (and ancient), this will be hard work for our favourite puppets, as it will for the film crew. SO MAKE SURE YOU ENCOURAGE THEM BY SPONSORING GENEROUSLY and then sit back and enjoy the great movie remake.

A TREMENDOUSLY BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS ALREADY CONTRIBUTED!!

RIDING LIGHTS is seeking a new production fund to create more of the life-changing theatre that we want to take across the UK in the coming years... for young people, prisoners, theatres and church groups. On September 12th and 13th many of our friends will be taking part in all sorts of sky-high fundraising to help us reach our target.

TO SPONSOR THIS EXTRAORDINARY THEATRICAL EVENT, JUST CLICK HERE

FIRST SKY DIVES

Almost immediately after the end of the Improthon, our first The Sky's the Limit Sky Divers were in the air. Heather Rushforth, Darcy Ball and Richard Allsopp took off over Oxford and gracefully descended as the sun began to set - and all to raise money for Riding Lights. Many thanks to the three of you.



There's more sky diving today as RL Stage Manager Rob Gooch and loyal member, Angela Smith, make their way into the Oxfordshire skies.....and then down again!

They did it!!

Our last team of improvisers - some of whom had been here for the full 24 hours, some of whom had been here for many, many of the 24 hours brought the Improthon to a triumphant conclusion at 5pm today.


Somewhat crazed by the experience, a few of them couldn't quite grasp the fact that they could re-enter the real world again and didn't have to keep making things up.

They'll be ready for a rest now and our thanks go out to them for entertaining themselves (and us) for this marathon of improvisation which kept us laughing right up to the end, helping to raise even more money for The Sky's the Limit.

As we sign off from the Improthon, our first sky jumpers are about to take off over Oxford...