A Gurt Time Was Had By All (Stage, 2021)

A Gurt Time Was Had By All is a loud, lively and euphoric celebration of great nights out past and present, inspired by interviews between Coin Toss Collective and the tenants of Brunelcare Colliers Gardens in Fishponds, Bristol. Highlights include a performance by country & western star Jeannie C. Riley, Margaret's story of singing 'Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner', and Brenda's routine for getting dressed up for a night out.

Our first production was originally co-directed by performance artist Tom Marshman and director Lisa Gregan, with the show's content written, devised and performed by Coin Toss Collective. We explored the theatre archives to discover the history of nights out at Bristol Old Vic, including newspapers, letters of complaint, playbills and programmes.  This was a production in connection with the Bristol Old Vic Heritage department, with photos and props from our show appearing in their Spring-Autumn 2022 exhibition. 

Gurt Time has a bingo game structure, with the stories & memories from Brunelcare transformed into an eclectic mix of mini performances and scenes (featuring songs, dance, audience participation and verbatim pieces) - each one assigned to a numbered ball picked out completely at random. We liked that the "storyline" of each performance of Gurt Time was entirely dependent on chance and always different, just like how the best nights out are often spontaneous and unpredictable. We also supplied our audiences with their own bingo cards so everyone could play along and win prizes! 

Gurt Time was first performed at Bristol Old Vic and Brunelcare in December 2021, and recently enjoyed a well-received run at Stroud Theatre Festival 2022.