And the second announcement in as many days. You didn't think we'd forgotten about this, didn't you?

Three performances at Brighton Fringe this year: Saturday 3rd May at 5.00 p.m, then Sunday 4th at 12.30 p.m., and one final game on Saturday 17th May at 5.00 p.m.

Thanks once again to The Rotunda who made this who thing possible by partnering with me. If you're not near Brighton, don't worry - now that these shows are booked in, I can turn my attention to more shows elsewhere.

Hope to be back soon with more updates.

I can finally announce the thing I've been planning in the background: this July, there is going to be a Durham Free Fringe!

This is starting off as a collaboration between myself and Aadil Kurji. Aadil is a comedian who used to run comedy nights in Bristol, and we've seen an opportunity to pool our experience and connections to get a new pop-up venue running and build on the excellent work Durham Fringe has done in making the city into a Festival City.

We are not yet ready to start programming. We still have details to work out before we make promises to anybody. However, we are now at the stage where we can say the following:

• For those of you familiar with the Free Fringe in Edinburgh, this works to a similar model. There is no charge to take part and no charge to watch a show. Instead, we ask that if you enjoyed show, you donate to the performer at the end of the show.
• Durham Free Fringe is jointly run between Aadil Kurji and myself (Chris Neville-Smith). Aadil is taking the lead with comedy whilst I am taking the lead in theatre, but all major decisions are taking jointly between us.
• We will be primarily based at The Holy GrAle on Crossgate, a few minutes' walk from the city centre. We are considering other spaces too, but this is where we've pencilled in the majority of our time.
• The Free Fringe will run on the 23rd July to 27th July alongside Durham Fringe. However, like our Edinburgh counterparts, we are not directly affiliated with the fringe and run our operations separately.
• We are also not affiliated with Durham Comedy Festival, also operating at the Holy GrAle (and we didn't know about this until a few weeks ago), but we wish them the best of luck when they run on Monday 26th May.
• We are not aiming to compete with Durham Fringe. A free fringe venue is a very different model to a conventional venue, largely suiting different acts and different audiences. However, we have been in discussions with Durham Fringe about setting up a free fringe, and we hope to co-ordinate where it's in our interests to work together.
• In the first year, we intend to keep things simple with a small and manageable programme. But in the long run, we want to be as inclusive as possible.

If you want to be part of this, there is no need to do anything yet. We will be announcing how to get involved as soon as we have make decisions. But if you want to express your interest now, whether to be on stage, in the audience, or just helping out, you can email hello@durhamfreefringe.org.uk, and we will let you know when he have further news.

All very exciting now. We can't wait to share further news on what's coming in due course.

Postscript 17/02:

One afterthought. Durham Fringe's application deadline is this week, and we are aware that some of you might be unsure of whether to go for Fringe or Free Fringe.

For the time being, here is our position. If you are considering both us and Durham Fringe, we advise you to apply to Durham Fringe. We'd love to work with as many of you as possible, but until we have a better idea of availability and uptake with us we don't know if we'd be in a position to programme you, and it's not fair to ask you to pass up the chance to get a slot at Durham Fringe.

Durham Fringe's deadline is this Wednesday (19th Feb). If you don't get programmed by Durham Fringe, by all means come to us next.

As soon as we have made a decision on how we're going to programme on our side, we'll let you know.

Update 07/03:

Thank you to those of you who've expressed an interest so far. If you're interested but haven't already contacted us, don't worry, it's not a race. We hope to commence programming shortly and we'll give more details about what we're after.

In the meantime, we can now announce our second venue: The Station House, underneath the viaduct on the road up to the station. That's all for now: details about how this is going to work coming soon.

Had lots of stuff going on in the background, but I can finally make the first announcement.

It was always my plan to do Doctor Coppelius in 2024 as a WIP to bring it back this year. At the time, my plan was to do the WIP in the tiny space of Scrivener's Bookshop and transfer to the Green Man Gallery. Unfortunately, The Green Man Gallery is no more, forcing me to rethink my plans - and after taking on board feedback from everyone who said how much they loved the bookshop setting, I've decided to stick with Scrivener's. Obviously there's the capacity of twelve to consider, but I think four performances should do it. If they sell out, I'll look into adding more.

For those of you who saw it last year, the script has been substantially reworked, especially the last third. Thank you to everyone who turned up, because I learned a lot from that early run-through. There is now, I hope, a much stronger transition from idealistic youth to sinister recluse. If you can't get to Buxton, don't worry - I have plans in motion for other performances too. I will try to announce them as they come in, but in the meantime, you can keep track of all of them here.

I've just had something else confirmed today, but that announcement will be coming later. No prizes for guessing that one though.

So, almost finished the year. Having done at least one update each month and nothing posted so far for December, let's do a review of the year. Which has been kinda nuts. We have ...

The Good ...

Wow. A lot of things to talk about this year.

• I finally did a website. Yes, the one you're reading. This became possible because I had to do some website building research for my day job, and I managed blag create a website for myself as the research. It's become a very useful thing to have though, and could shortly be taking on a lot more.
• I wrote a Border Reivers play. I entered a play into the Reviers Voices from the Borders programme, and my play was one of the three that was picked. First time I'd written a play to the brief, in this case about the era of the Reivers, when the land between England and Scotland was lawless. Until King James ruled both countries and clamped down on them once and for all. I wrote a monologue where doomed Reiver clansman John Croser says his piece. It's available online here.
• I got longlisted for the North East Playwriting Award. Don't normally bother with playwriting competitions, but I entered Live Theatre's because I liked the ethos behind this one. That was back in August 2023 and I'd forgotten about it, so it was a bit of unexpected good news when I heard I'd made it to the longlist. I was actually working separately on plans to get #IStandWithVincent, and I really must get back to this at some point, but since January I've been kept busy with ...
• I became a game show host. Well, I really didn't see that one coming. What started off as a crazy idea - for a fringe show to bring people together from different shows - got picked up by the Rotunda Theatre. Even more to my surprise, this crazy idea actually worked, and it got me a nomination for best comedy at Scarborough Fringe. Having secured than, a return next year is a must. Stay tuned, I should have some announcements for you soon for It's Not Cluedo!
• I took a play to Edinburgh. Well, Edinburgh Horror Festival. Not Edinburgh Fringe, I don't have any spare kidneys to sell., But there comes a time when an idea comes from a play that just has to be written. And so Doctor Coppelius came into being. There wasn't time to write the play and fully rehearse it time for this year's fringe season, but I did manage a Work in Progress at Buxton Fringe, with the fully rehearsed version premiered at Banshee Labyrinth. Hope to bring the fully rehearsed version to Buxton Fringe next year.
• I was given media accommodation for Edinburgh Fringe. This is more theatre blog news, but for some reason, Edinburgh Fringe decided it was worth giving me free accommodation for a week to review plays. Long story, you can read more about this here.

The Bad ...

Like most shameless self-promoters, I make a big deal out of things that are going well and keep quiet when they're not. But some people do make an effort to post all their rejections and disappointments so that other hopefuls feel they're not against a hopeless task. Here's a couple of things that didn't go to plan.

• I got a two-star review. Yeah, I know. These things happen. If I've got this right, the reviewer took issue that a comedy show named It's Not Cluedo did not have enough in common with the game of Cluedo. No, I don't understand that either. Never mind, I urge everyone not to pick fights over bad reviews and I should do the same. As I have said repeatedly, good reviews are easily promoted, bad reviewers are easily buried. Wait, did I just say bad reviewers? I meant reviews. Yes, bad reviews are easily buried. Not reviewers. I have not buried any reviewers.
• We're losing venues in Buxton. This affects a lot more people, but the loss of Rotunda and Green Man Gallery from Buxton Fringe is going to be a problem for me. Most as I respect Underground Venues, the things I had in mind for next year's Buxton Fringe were better suited to those venues. This isn't limited to Buxton - there have been an alarming number of venue/festival closures this year (most notoriously the Vault Festival, something I was just about ready to consider). I realise everyone's on a financial squeeze at the moment, but most of these closures are, in my opinion, avoidable. High Peak Borough Council certainly could have tried harder over in Buxton.

... and The Ugly

That. If you're reading this page, you probably already know about what happened last July. It's happened, the damage is done, but there's little point in recriminations. Time to move on and work out a new way forwards. But I will not be returning to business as usual at Durham Dramatic Society. I'm not prepared to risk them pulling any more stunts on me like the ones they've already done. That sadly includes the City Theatre at Durham Fringe.

There is some good news coming out of this, however. I'm determined to make an opportunity out of a setback. I've been in informal discussion with Durham Fringe for a resolution, and I think we have a compromise agreed in principle. Not quite ready to announce what this is, because there's some other things to sort out with other people, but we're close. And it should be quite exciting.

As for Durham Dramatic Society ... well, I can't resist the opportunity for a nosey when I have one, and the situation there seems to have got more complicated. For various reasons, it would not be appropriate to give a running commentary on this. Anyway, I've got enough plans for 2025 to keep me busy as it is.

And I'm already getting stressed about the upcoming 2025 fringe season. And it's not even 2025 yet.

Well, I've done it. I have taken a play to Edinburgh. Not Edinburgh Fringe, but I don't have a spare fifteen billion pounds and 99p so that'll have to do. Been quiet because I was busy fully rehearsing Doctor Coppelius. Turns out the hat and cane needed a lot of extra rehearsing to integrate them into the performance. Thank you so much to those of you who journeyed from other cities to see this. It wasn't something I'd expected of anyone, but it still means a lot to me.

Anyway, a reminder that if you want to see what I've been working on, I have a low-key performance coming up at A Play and a Pasty at Laurels next Thursday (21st November) at 2.00 p.m. This was supposed to be done ages ago as a work in progress but got heavily delayed, so now you have the full version. Tickets here, includes a pasty. (Just the 21st, the other dates are other plays.)

Other than that, I'm being kept busy with a lot of things I'm not in a position to tell you about yet. To borrow a saying from the Empty Shop, it's a bit like a duck. All calm up top and doesn't look there's much movement going on, but a lot of action going on underneath the surface where you can't see it. But if things work out, I think I may have a collaboration which could be exciting for lots of us.

Anyway, couple of things I can announce. The People's theatre is letting me do lighting design for And There Were None in mid-January. Doesn't quite top the novelty of the Gala Theatre in Durham earlier this year, but at least I'll get more than five hours to sort this one out. And before then, I'm doing both sound and lighting at Durham Dramatic Society for a new play written by a new director, Catherine Freedman, a spoof of Agatha Christie where I finally get to do the cheesy harp flashback sound. Come on, which sound designer doesn't want the cheesy harp flashback.

Footnote: Oh, that also means I get a nosey at the minutes of meetings. Ooh, that was good. But I'll resist the temptation to give the blow-by-blow account here. Ask me offline and I'll probably tell you.

And that's it, I think. Probably just bringing this site up to date for the rest of the year. More exciting stuff later, I promise.

So October might look like a quiet month for me, but there's still a lot going on behind the scenes. Not in a position to announce anything major yet, because a lot of this is still at the stage of sounding out ideas. But I hope to have something public before too long.

There is one thing I can share with you though, which is that I have been hard at work re-rehearsing Doctor Coppelius for Edinburgh Horror Festival. I'm not expecting much overlap in audiences from my previous shows in Sacriston and Buxton, but if you have seen it before, there's been a lot of rework since last time. The last third has been heavily refocused on the journey from naive exile to distrustful loner. I've also added a hat and cane to my costume. Here we are.

So the previously announced news is that this is going to Edinburgh Horror Festival at Banshee Labyrinth on the Sunday 3rd November at 4.00 p.m. But the additional news I can now share with you is that I have also got a performance coming up at Laurels Whitley Bay on Thursday 21st November at 2.00 p.m. If you're wondering why the unusual time, this is part of A Play and a Pasty, which is supposed to be for reading and works in progress, which mine was at the time I asked about this. However, it's been postponed a couple of times and you've now got the polished version.

(Yes, I know, why aren't there any performances closer to Durham where I actually live? I like going to these festivals, but, I know, it's absurd that some of us have to travel 100+ miles to perform their own work. Bear with me. Maybe one of these days I can do something about it.)

Eeek. Edinburgh in 12 days away. A lot more rehearsing to do.

Well, the last four months have been absolutely nuts. I've kept you updated here with two projects over four fringes, and whilst I wasn't taking anything to the Edinburgh Fringe, I was kept busy reviewing that on my other web page. For some reason, Edinburgh Fringe provided me with a week of free accommodation, so I owed it to them to make an effort with I think a total of 38 reviews. If you to see more about how busy I was there, you can read the blow-by-blow account here.

I'm expecting next summer to be as crazy as this one, and though I have deep reserves of energy, it is still finite. So I'm now winding my activities down to something sane to get ready for next year. But I'm not coming to a complete stop, and I still have a few activities for you.

So the biggest project I'm involved in comes this month. Once more, I'm doing sound design for an Elysium Theatre play, this time it's Othello, Shakespeare's classic morality play about why it's better to discuss issues with your partner than let suspicions fester, definitely don't resort to strangling anybody, and especially don't when the guy encouraging you to do it is after your job. This has been transplanted to the War on Terror era, which I get to dig up all of my war sounds again. This, I believe, will be the longest Elysium run yet, at five weeks. As always, I would love to be on the tour for five week, but I have a day job. You'll find me at Queen's Hall to get this started up, and I'll probably pop along to the Assembly Rooms that the end of the run, if you want to say hi. For full details of the tour, go the the Elysium Page for Othello. If you want to see how rehearsals are getting on, their Instagram Feed is good.

Then I've got my first proper performance of Doctor Coppelius coming up in November. My three WIP-level performances went well, but now that's I've got a better idea about how to ramp up the emotions, I think the last third needs a rewrite. A festival programme page has just appeared, but it's currently behind a password screen (and, no, it's not, "Password1", "letmein" or "12345"), which I guess means tickets are going on sale imminently.

No plans for It's Not Cluedo in the remainder of this year, but me expectation is that it will be returning next year. I've barely started making plans on how this is going to work, but I'm determined to include Buxton this time, seeing as this was part of the original plan. Watch this space.

To address the elephant in the room, I think everyone agrees that Durham Fringe was a rough week. I'm sorry they got caught up in something that was at least 80% the fault of people within Durham Dramatic Society. What I think is important is that we work together on what we agree on, not fight over what we don't. Anyway, the good news from this is that I think we have a route to a compromise. There's A LOT of things to arrange behind the scenes before I'm ready to announce anything in public, but if this comes off, it could be quite exciting.

As for the other other elephant in the room, there is an outside chance of rebuilding some sort of working relationship with the leadership of Durham Dramatic Society - but the ball is in their court. As it stands, I'm not committing to anything of any importance to me if DDS has any involvement; I absolutely will not risk another project being derailed by another stunts being pulled behind my back. But the door is always open if you want to reach out to me, and the same deal applies: I am more interested in finding a way forward with what we can agree on than settling scores over what we don't. Other than that, your call.

This news feed will probably be quiet until things get moving again, but in the meantime, I'll be working on updating the rest of the site. I've got quite a long list of pages to update or create.

Laters.

Phew. Well, the last three months of fringe season have been absolutely nuts. I'm not quite finished, because I'm reviewing in Edinburgh Fringe for at least 8 days, and I've somehow got to work out how to handle 160+ review requests. But that's a story for the theatre blog. Once things start calming down, I'll begin updating this site.

But the exciting news I have to share with you is that It's Not Cluedo has its first acclamation. It was nominated for Best Comedy in a shortlist of three at Scarborough Fringe. Admittedly this is a new fringe and there wasn't a huge list of comedy acts to compete again, but tell me two years ago that I'd be getting a comedy nomination - when I'd just finished playing a social reject who's also a cannibal - and I've have said you were pulling my leg.

Anyway, congratulations to Hollie Noble who won with Janifesto, and huge thanks to my fellow runner-up Lewis Dunn (aka Stanley Brooks) who fixed me up with one third of Any Suggestions Doctor as my guests. Honestly, they made the show that night. Many thanks also to YMCA Theatre who were a fab host. This is not a straightforward show to set up, and it really needs the co-operation of the venue and/or fringe to get a decent line-up of guests, but Richard Milburn was very supportive all the way, and even found me some replacements for last-minute drop-outs. And, of course, thank you to everyone who turned up. It's faces like these that make it all worthwhile.

Pictured at the back on the right: the little girl who enthusiastically suggested murdering Taylor Swift. She will either make an excellent crime writer or an excellent murderer.

I've only barely started thinking about plans for next year, but I think I can safely say we intend to return to Brighton Fringe Rotunda next year. After this weekend's news, I think I can add Scarborough to the surefire bet list too. Apologies to anyone hoping/dreading I'd organise an unnofficial/illegal It's Not Cluedo gatherings at Buxton or Durham; I was seriously tempted, but the main thing that stopped me is that I cannot do one billion squillion zillion things at the same time. Anyway, keep an eye on this page where future dates should end up.

I'll catch up with the rest of the news later, when I should have at least one more thing confirmed. In the meantime, Edinburgh Fringe reviews await. Erk.

I've been hinting that the bad news about my temporary break from Durham Dramatic Society becoming permanent was only half the story. I had to hang fire on the other half first because I needed to get some things sorted behind the scenes. Then because I wanted to allow a cooling off period between notifying the relevant people of my decision and going public with it. However, those things have now been done and I can finish the story. And, unfortunately, the full story is a lot worse than what I've previously announced, and has wider consequences than petty amateur dramatics politics.

I'll get straight to the point:

I will not be running the City Theatre for Durham Fringe this year. I wanted to, but circumstances have made this impossible for me.

I will still be getting involved in Durham Fringe, but I am only donating my time to acts who I already have a good working relationship with. For everyone else (either individual acts or Durham Fringe itself), I will be available if you need me - but I will have to charge.

Here's why ...

I had been unhappy with the way Durham Dramatic Society was going, but the one bit of the job I loved was running the City Theatre for Durham Fringe. Between 2021 and 2023, I played host to numerous acts, with both my experience of technical work and my knowledge of my way around the City Theatre to make this all possible. It was hard work keeping on top of this, but I gladly put in all the hours needed to make this a success. I've made some wonderful friendships from this, and I would never have had the courage to pitch It's Not Cluedo to the Rotunda without the support and encouragement of many of the acts I worked with during my time at Durham.

I was always under the impression I was doing everybody a favour. For Durham Dramatic Society, I saw to it that the City Theatre was a viable venue, and now Durham Fringe is the Society's biggest earner after the mainstream productions - and I can attest the society most definitely needs the money. For Durham Fringe's part, I can categorically say there is NO WAY the City Theatre would have functioned without my presence. (I suppose it could have worked if Durham Fringe had redeployed volunteers from other venues, but they were already stretched thinly enough amongst the other venues.) I willingly did this for free because I loved the idea of having a fringe in Durham, I wanted it to succeed, and it was in all our mutual interests that it did. Even when relations with DDS were at their worst, this one worked out fine for everybody: we might have had different ideas of how adventurous DDS's own productions should be, but Durham Fringe got me involved in things that DDS would otherwise never go near.

However, 2023 I was massively overworked. Although there were fewer performances than 2022, there were more acts, and it turns out the sheer number of get-ins pushes one person's endurance to the limit. This feeling was common throughout the venues, and everybody agreed that something needed to be done about it. I stayed out of discussions for a solution, because the solution all other fringe organisations use (pretty much) is to pay their techies. For obvious reasons, I did not want to be actively pushing for a solution that would benefit me financially. I was nonetheless concerned that - as one of the people this would affect the most - I was being kept completely out of the loop and not consulted at all.

Then I got wind that Durham Fringe was planning to use an agency to take the lead with tech instead of the existing volunteer techies. With still no information communicated to me, I checked what was going on, and it turned out there was communication over my availability, but it was ruled out when Durham Dramatic Society told Durham Fringe I was no longer involved in the society. It was based on that, so Durham Fringe informed me, they made the decision to bring in a new professional technicians from an agency, one of which would be placed in the City Theatre. I was welcome to stay on as one of the "volunteer technicians" supporting the "professional team".

There's just one problem: what Durham Dramatic Society told Durham Fringe about me behind my back simply isn't true.

Nothing has changed in my relationship with Durham Dramatic Society between 2023 and 2024. When I told Durham Dramatic Society I was suspending most activities in the society, I said I wanted to continue doing the Durham Fringe work, and that was agreed to. Durham Fringe were aware of the situation and were fine with it. If anything, I am more involved now than I was this time last year, because I have provided some sort of tech support for three of their last six plays. Now, I am going to be very kind here and keep open the possibility that this was a misunderstanding. Because the less charitable interpretation is that whoever told Durham Fringe that knew I'm still involved in the society, knew how much Durham Fringe meant to me, and told untruths anyway as some act of petty revenge.

I am not angry with Durham Fringe - I am merely furious with the leadership of Durham Dramatic Society. I accept they took information about me in good faith, unaware that it wasn't true. Maybe one bit of good practice we can adopt for the future is to actually run this past the person concerned (especially if you know there is a rift between the parties involved - which Durham Fringe did), but it's too late to change course now.

My reason for stepping back has instead come down to something quite different: the ethics of working for free.

As most of you are aware by now, I do all of my theatre stuff on top of a full-time job. Now, I could go into much detail about all of the grief that comes from having a normal career alongside a creative career - and one day I probably will - but there is one area where I have a big advantage: nothing that happens in my arts career is any real threat to my livelihood. I can say no to things I don't feel like doing. I sometimes fail to get jobs I thought I had in the bag, but I never have to worry about missed mortgage payments. I can work for free if I like, and I sometimes do. But I must never forget that other people who do similar jobs to me don't have these luxuries. So the one red line I set myself is that I do not undercut other arts professionals by doing work for cheap or free, if it could reasonably have been paid work.

For 2021 to 2023, there are two reasons I've given myself for doing this. Firstly, Durham Fringe was a new organisation, there was no knowing what its cash flow would be like, and we were all putting our time in unpaid to make this work. Secondly, with Durham Dramatic Society also an amateur organisation, I also saw this as a collective effort of everybody putting in their time to keep a theatre going. As far as I'm concerned, Durham Dramatic Society have forfeited the claim to the latter. As for the former: I don't believe this applies any more. Judging by the size of the audiences I see coming into the theatres, there is easily enough cash flow coming to pay the tech operators.

But the absolute red line for me is paying some staff but not others. I cannot in all conscience work in a system where - intentionally or not - some people making money off the backs of other people's free labour. So I'm now saying the quiet bit out loud: I am firmly of the view that Durham Fringe should pay ALL its tech operators, if not the entire production workforce. And if it means passing the costs on to performers, so be it. This is perfectly normal practice amongst all other fringes, and I do not know of a single organisation Durham Fringe's size that doesn't work this way. I'm not going to go to war with Durham Fringe over this. And I'm not going to tell other volunteers where they should or shouldn't be putting their time. But I'm in the unique situation where I often work professionally. That makes me a free substitute for someone who has skills and experience to full professional standard. I can't justify this to myself any more.

Anyway, here we are ...

I'm aware that some of word-of-mouth publicity of Durham Fringe on the fringe circuit has been through me. If you applied to the City Theatre and were looking forward to working with me, I'm sorry - I was looking forward to working with you too. Not bothered either way if I get takers for paid tech operation work. In case you're interested, my rates will be comparable to rates charged by other fringe venues. I am quite happy to go over and above normal tech work and do sound design for you if you like - that will be a freebie. (I'm also happy to offer the same for lighting design, but I'm not certain I'll be in a position to offer extra owing to the limited time available in the venues. Oh, and I'll give photography a go too, but I'd recommend asking other people first - although I can at least guarantee actually turning up.)

As for what happens after this year, I have told Durham Fringe that I hope we can learn lessons from this year, take a step back, and establish a new different more constructive relationship for the future. I hope, when we have this conversation, they will remember the many hours of work I put into this because I believed in it. Nothing much is likely to happen before September - most of the people I am currently reaching out currently have their hands full with Edinburgh Fringe. After that, everything is on the table.

But I will say this now: I may be stepping away from working directly with Durham Fringe this year - but I will never turn my back on fringe artists in Durham. My loyalty will always be with the local grass roots. If have something you want to show the world but are denied the chance to perform it ... rest assured, I am on your side. Durham Fringe is a VAST improvement on the time when there "local" representation meant importing talent from Newcastle and saying that was the same thing, but as long as there is a single fringe act who is shut out, the job is not done. The most successful fringes in the country are all about inclusion, not exclusion. And whatever I decide to do from here will be driven by inclusion.

I want to make an opportunity out of a setback. I intend to be back soon with something better. And I hope it will be part of Durham Fringe. Until then, everybody, never stop believing in yourself. And never think you need permission to show what you can do.

Footnote: For the record, when I last performed at Durham Fringe in 2022, I paid my techie even though I didn't have to. The only time I didn't pay my techie for The Rats in the Walls was one occasion where the techies declined my offer. Don't intend going on a moral crusade over this, but I nonetheless have to set an example.