The Boggits, part of Nitro’s exciting ‘Tales from the Edge‘ programme is based on the BBC book, “Boggart’s Sandwich”, by Martin Riley. It’s a larger-than-life musical comedy for children and their families about being different and celebrating that difference. We’re currently holding schools workshops throughout Yorkshire and the feedback we will receive will inform our week of rehearsals and showcase at The Albany.

The story is set on the corner of Cowper Street, a down-at-heel but up-and-coming suburb.

It’s Johnny “Greeny” Greenteeth’s 11^th birthday and his dad, Danny, has been sitting in a tree in their garden, howling at the moon, since Greeny was sent home (again) from school yesterday, along with his best mate Simmo (Nick Simmonds) from next door. This is all too much for Nick’s mum, Flossie, a dentist who runs her surgery from home.

Then Greeny’s loud and over-loving granny turns up with a wild and uncontrollable girl in tow called Tattery. And when Tattery also takes residence in the tree, loudly announcing that she is a Boggit, this is the final straw for Flossie. She calls for help and Mr Cleansaway, a smooth-talking reptilian man, arrives from an organisation called The Cleaners. He tells Flossie that she’s got an infestation of Boggits and they can deal with it.

Boggits are just like us, only more so. They are spiky, argumentative, dangerous, unreliable, noisy and emotional….with pointy ears. And, by that very evening, Greeny has discovered that not only is Tattery a Boggit but so is his granny, so is his dad and so is he.

This turns into a wild Boggit Bar Mitzvah for Greeny, with feasting, dancing and singing from the rooftops. All is celebration….until The Cleaners arrive and the siege of 39 Cowper Street begins…..

Excited? Yes, so are we. So, join us at 3pm on July 17th at the Albany, Douglas Way, Deptford, London, SE8 4AG.

The God Racket, part of Nitro’s lead project ‘Tales from the Edge,’ is a Gospel-musical comedy loosely based on the Book of Job but set in London’s swinging 60’s. It tells the story of Jobey Adamson, reformed villain and now multi-millionaire hotel and restaurant chain owner, who is unaware that he is the fall guy for a bet between Godfather Domini and the errant-son, Lucio. Overnight Jobey loses everything: businesses, home, children, respect. But Jobey still has one thing that he will never lose – his total and unwavering faith in Domini. He needs to talk to him and to know the answer to one simple question: “Why?”

Nitro and Cardboard Citizens will lead 4 workshops with homeless and displaced people that explores the relationships between loss, homelessness and faith – subjects closely related to The God Racket. The workshops will then help inform a rehearsed reading of The God Racket, directed by Adrian Jackson that takes place at Rich Mix.

The first set of members R&D workshops take place on April 6th with the invite-only God Racket showcase taking place on April 16th, after a week long rehearsal period.

So, we think you’ll agree it’s an exciting period of development for an already enticing play. Keep up to date with The God Racket, the workshops and the showcase via our Twitter and Facebook pages. Get involved too and tell us about your experiences with Faith via Twitter – #KeepingTheFaith

Now this is a comedy musical with its fair share of swearing, some raucous sex and god portrayed as a London villain running a protection racket. As it is loosely based on the book of Job, there are also lots of vivid descriptions of terrible sufferings meted out to our hero. Safe inside the hotel room, Martin and I attack the script with full-on loud energy – it’s the best fun.

It is at the part when Martin is shouting at the top of his voice:

“Come on baby – do it with the devil! And the devil will set your body free!….”

….that I remember the two cleaners working in the corridor outside my room. They had smiled at Martin and me when we arrived – the kind of smile that cleaners give to two men going into a hotel room at 1pm; I wanted to stop and explain that we were there to work on a play but I didn’t. With Martin grunting and me screaming in apparent ecstasy, I wish I had now.

Anyway, the script is really good and we must have been pretty convincing because when I go to the reception desk later that afternoon, I get the strangest of looks from the ever-so-polite lady there. I am tempted to reply to her pointed enquiry as to whether I was enjoying my stay (after three hours in a hotel in Leeds?) by asking for a pair of black candles and a leather strap but, instead, I just enquire where I might get a cab.

For it is now late afternoon and I am going across Leeds to West Yorkshire Playhouse to see the premiere of Phoenix Dance Theatre’s new performance: Particle Velocity. I’m there for two reasons: one, I really like Phoenix. Always have done ever since I saw one of their first London shows over twenty years ago. Two, Phoenix and Nitro are co-producing a show next year called Requiem for a Witch-Child and West Yorkshire Playhouse are involved too. So I can get a bit of business mixed in with the pleasure.

It is a great show; you must all see it, particularly the final piece, Repetition of Change, choreographed by Artistic Director Sharon Watson, to some remarkable music by Kenneth Heskith. It’s also a double delight for me as I can sense that our work together over the next 18 months is going to be intense and very exciting. I even manage to have a strategy meeting with the head of education after the show, complete with champagne and a half-decent salmon meal.

However, I have to be up really early next morning and get the 8am train to Nottingham. I am attending a conference with the following title: Tackling Child Abuse Linked to Faith or Belief.

The astute amongst you will see the connection between the new show, “Requiem for a Witch-Child” and the title of the conference. And the sensitive among you will understand how harrowing some of it would have been. Case study after case study of abuse, physical and psychological, carried out largely by psychopaths dressed up as Pastors.

The room is filled with social workers and police, all desperately trying to find their ways through these complex minefields of cultural difference, religious misunderstandings and pure villainy. Social workers get a bad press, they are easy targets; no one notices the constant good work they do and their profile is only raised when a tragedy happens, such as with the Victoria Climbié case. In my very limited experience, bolstered by listening and talking to many at the conference, they are a group of – largely secular – angels, working very committedly to fix the broken bits of society that most of us would rather ignore.

Much of the discussion at the conference is around migrant communities, whose worlds are governed by their faith, which covers every aspect of their lives – family, health, education, moral behaviour, as well as spiritual welfare. For them, having to survive in our society where all these different aspects of life are dealt with by separate agencies – schools, hospitals, police etc. – is a huge challenge as it appears to strip away so much of their core cultural values. So, inevitably, when confronted with such a challenge, they stick together for strength, using the church as the focus of their energies and treating the Pastor as their confider, their shepherd, their king, their moral tutor, their judge and their jury.

Now, anyone can become a Pastor. You just need a room to rent, a bit of charisma and a microphone. If you’re clever you will convince a lot of people that you have some connection with god that they don’t have – the claim of all religious leaders – and you will find yourself in a very powerful position within your community.

It then becomes a matter of how you use that power and what is very clear is that a lot of people with power urges that range from the merely unpleasant to the psychopathic, find that running a church allows them to express these personal urges. It is not unlike the nature of Nazism in Germany attracting those who were naturally thuggish and sadistic as it gave them space and permission to carry out their instinctive behaviour.

The conference is extremely helpful and brings me into contact with many new ideas and useful people. If you are interested I would urge you to check out AFRUCA  (Africans United Against Child Abuse).

It takes me to the end of two days where I thought I was working on two completely separate projects; one a comedy loosely based on the Book of Job, the other a dance piece about child abuse. But somehow, as I write this, the notions of religion as a protection racket and Pastors as psychopaths seem obviously connected.

Because all we need now are a few other crazy ideas like – nuns maltreating young women who have had the misfortune to become pregnant whilst they are single and living in a place like, say, Ireland; or priests sexually assaulting little boys and getting away with it for years due to the complicity of the church; or jihads being pronounced on innocent people who don’t happen to share the same faith, or indeed the idea of faith; or the chopping off of limbs for petty crimes under Islamic Sharia laws; or the gassing of nearly 6 million Jews, just because they’re Jewish; or the enslavement of up to 50 million Africans by using a sword and a bible – just a few mad notions like that and we might start thinking that this religion thing isn’t doing us much good.

Getting a gig at the NT Studio is very cool – it’s like playing for Fulham and getting a week’s training at Manchester United, with all their facilities. And everyone is so helpful; virtually everyday we needed 10 copies of a new draft printed – no problem; the tech team were falling over themselves to offer us equipment that we might just want at some point (“you must need a piano” they said, I though that might be a good idea; they got me three); those who turned up to the – very low-key – read-through on the final day behaved, as the saying goes, like critical friends, which is exactly what you need when you’ve got a just-about-ready first draft of only act-one plus three recently cobbled-together songs and an audience of NT staff.

Yes, it was weird ploughing through the snow each morning to work on a play set in Somalia. I tried to pretend it was white sand, that I was in fact sweltering, but my fingers just refused to go along with the deception. However, once inside, the creative temperature was turned up to the max and we sweated over the script, finding layers of meanings in places where we didn’t know there were places, inspiring both writer Dipo Agboluaje and myself to write and compose furiously each evening in order to have new challenges for the next morning as we explored this extraordinary world of our story – love and loyalty in a lawless land.

All sorts of remarkable things happened: within a day, with a few barrels and boxes, we had set up a café on a beach a few hundred miles north of Mogadishu; Dipo re-wrote an act; men now played women, women now played men; we ranted angrily and lustily about politics; Dipo again re-wrote an act; the would-be lovers would now become lovers – or would they???; having assured the cast there would be no singing, I presented them with three brand new songs…..and they sang like angels, creating an opening scene that will live long in the memory; in the evenings, when no one was listening, I practised some Beethoven on the piano. And Dipo again re-wrote an act.

A Brazilian rainforest of wood had to be pulped to make the paper we used that week. As a vague environmentalist I will have to ride a bike, drink my bathwater and recycle my toilet rolls for five years to make up for it. But it was worth it, for we now have the beginnings of a truly wonderful piece of theatre – a unique and exciting piece of musical-theatre, one that blends the roughness and intimacy of township style with the rigour of musicals.

So, thank you to all at the National Theatre Studio. Thank you to David James for your excellent dramaturgy; to Ben Bennett, for your calmness and sensitive staging; to Charlie Folorunsho, to Nyasha Hatendi, to Debbie Korley, to Cornelius Macarthy, to Yusra Warsama and to Dylan Kennedy for all your skills, hard work and excellent spirits. Finally, well done Dipo for ignoring that weather and refusing to be snowed under by the barrage of re-writes.

Felix

• Telling stories of people on the margins of society; whether by choice or circumstance
• Developing and exploring new styles of musical theatre
• Engaging the many communities whom we write stories for and about

Specifically, Tales from the Edge will include the following productions:

Requiem for a witch-child

by Felix Cross; choreographed by Sharon Watson (Phoenix Dance Theatre)

In the collisions that occur when cultures mix, so much happens that is exciting: jazz music, when black musicians played songs written by Jewish composers; Picasso experiences African art and is inspired to develop Cubism; Indian influences in the food of the Caribbean.

But sometimes the results are not so positive and here we only have to look at the combustible mix of traditional African religious beliefs and evangelical Christianity. Add to this the vapours of poverty, power and fear and you have all the explosive ingredients that lead to accusations of spirit possession, crude exorcism and tragedy.

Requiem for a Witch-Child is about the fate of children believed to be possessed by evil spirits. In certain parts of Africa there is a potent mix of traditional spirit belief and Evangelical Christianity. A central part of this is the belief in Kindoki, spirit possession. A musical-dance piece in the form of a Requiem Mass, subverted to tell a tragic story that has resonances from the Congo and Angola to Europe and England.

Recently, through migration, these beliefs are making their way to Europe and now to England. In London for example, some Congolese families, fearing their children are possessed, are sending their children back home for ‘Deliverance”, their term for exorcism. And in notorious cases like Victoria Climbié, ‘Adam’ and Kristie Bamu, accusations of Kindoki can lead to abuse, torture and murder. But this is not simply about religion or brutalisation. This story will also be about colonial legacy, education, money, fear and power.

Those of us concerned with black cultures have dealt with a wide range of issues through the years; except this. As far as we are aware – and we would be pleased to be proved wrong – child abuse in African cultures because of religious beliefs has been met with a gaping silence. Yet this is happening now, in parts of Africa, in parts of Europe and here, in England.

So why the silence? Are we embarrassed? Don’t we care? Does it reflect badly on our overly religious cultures? We’d be very interested to hear your views.

Pirates of somalia (w/t)

by Oladipo Agboluaje and Felix Cross

When you hear the two words, “pirates” and “Somalia”, you think you know the whole story. A lawless country, harbouring murderous criminals who hijack innocent ships going about their business and tourists cruising through the narrow Gulf of Aden; ransoms of millions of dollars, kidnappings that last for months, even years. But of course, we only ever hear half the story.

Pirates of Somalia is a musical telling of a love story set in war-torn and lawless Somalia. Ahmed, a struggling fisherman, wants to marry the beautiful Mariame but needs more money than he can earn in order to pay his dowry. Yes he could join the pirates netting obscene amounts of wealth along the coastline. But Ahmed has ambitions for his bride-to-be, his family and his village; and these fly in the face of the life of a pirate.

This will be complete storytelling: the performers talk directly to us then melt into scenes as characters – actors are singers are musicians are dancers. The language of the music and dance tell us that we are on the edge of the Horn of Africa, neighbours with Ethiopia and facing the incoming currents from Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the Indian Ocean. There is a wonderful tradition of love stories and poetry from this region that is providing the starting point for this show.

We had an excellent workshop week at the National Theatre Studio in January 2013 where we were able to develop the first draft of the script and explore how the piece works creatively.

Like every piece we’d like to hear what you think. Are you from that part of the world? Are you tired of Somalia being only associated with “piracy”? We notice that similar illegal fishing has recently been occurring off the coast of parts of West Africa. Do you know about this? What should be done? Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, forced US fishing vessels out of his country’s three mile limits when he discovered they were dredging for fish just off his shores. It nearly became an international incident but he stood firm, now they’re gone.

the god racket (W/t)

by Martin Riley and Felix Cross
A musical comedy adaptation of the Book of Job, set in London’s swinging sixties. The story of Job Adamson, reformed villain and now multi-millionaire hotel and restaurant chain owner, who is unaware that he is the fall guy for a bet between God and Satan. Overnight he loses everything: business, home, family and the respect of his neighbours.

Set during a time when young people in particular, raised with a liberal education, were beginning to challenge age-old assumptions of the way we live, our behaviour and our beliefs. Through cults, drugs, music, they set out in search of different truths, new philosophies and metaphysical answers to the big questions. Fifty years on we now live in a far more secular age. Were the sixties perhaps, the beginning of the end of God?

If you or someone close to you suffers from an Act of God, what does this do to your faith? Has your belief in God – assuming you had one in the first place – been affected? We’re very keen to hear from people who do believe in God and who can explain what keeps you believing when all around them is the evidence to the contrary.

the boggits

by Martin Riley and Felix Cross

What happens if a family of Gypsies moves in next door? They’re friendly enough, but loud and their front garden is a mess.

A comedy musical for children and their families, adapted from Martin Riley’s Boggart Sandwich stories for the BBC. Boggits are the ancient and elemental guardians of the wild but there is nothing cuddly or worthy about them; they are spiky, argumentative, dangerous, unreliable, noisy and emotional. This story is about young Johnny 11 years old, who discovers he is from a world of people who have amazing qualities, not always appreciated by the rest of us.

The Boggits is about being different and learning to accommodate and enjoy that difference both with others and within oneself. It is thus both entertaining and very topical.

As mentioned above, we have also developed a music training project. We’re working with Ebony Steel Band to create a course called Musicianship for Pan Players. Here we will teach steel pan players – who traditionally learn their music by ear – to read, arrange and understand music theory.

We’ve raised vital funds for the first stage of the Tales programme and are continuing to raise further funds so that we can bring these productions to fruition. We will of course keep you regularly updated.

The comments section is open, so let us know what you think so far.

I completely accept that the work of some priests, ministers, imams and other religious leaders has been hugely beneficial to members of our communities struggling with, amongst many things, the cultural clashes that affect migrants here. Their jobs as pastoral leaders, social workers, community spokespersons are vital and I applaud all they do in often very difficult circumstances. It is their spiritual roles that I have problems with.

Much of it is harmless – if people want some form of comfort in the belief that there is a better world beyond this, then fine, doesn’t bother me. If they think that moral codes are somehow divinely handed down to us, carved in a tablet of stone or magically transcribed from the words of a bloke with wings, rather than being sophisticated behaviour patterns evolved over generations to ensure our survival, than that’s sort of fine by me too – I have no problem with them dressing up the basic rules of societal survival – don’t kill, don’t steal, treat others as you’d like them to treat you – in cloaks and dog-collars.

It’s when it isn’t so harmless that I, and many, many others, have serious problems. The social and national divisions, induced fear, justification of outrageous actions, all in the name of whatever god, lay in the underbelly of most religions. That is why I have always been amazed as to why black people, from the Caribbean and the Americas believe in Christianity so much. I don’t get it; we were brought over, enslaved, treated as animals, subjected to abduction, torture, rape, forced work, murder; all justified by the invocation of God, Jesus and the complete biblical works. And what do we do? Do we set up in direct opposition? Does it occur to us that the evil perpetrated upon us might just be connected to the book and the cross waved in our faces as we bled, suffered, died?

No, we turn round and start praying to those same iconic symbols of our oppressors. Not only do we do that but we do it with more energy, verve and inner belief that the Europeans have ever mustered. Didn’t we ever stop and say, “hold on, they’re treating us like this in the name of Christianity. If their god can do this to us, we ought at least to give it the widest berth possible, for as long as possible.” But no, we built churches, sang hymns, went into trances, claiming we were possessed by spirits from Damascus or some such place. The Europeans must have been congratulating themselves on a job well done, and perhaps they still are; and perhaps that is a problem for us.

I’d like to hear what you think. I’m a dog with a bone and I’m not letting it go.

And it’s been exciting!

We’ve got four new musical-theatre pieces in development and a music training project, which we’ve been raising some money for. If they all come through the next four years will see us producing shows all over the UK. We’ve called the whole project, “Tales From The Edge”.

Tales From The Edge is about:

• Telling stories of people on the margins; whether by birth or circumstances: travellers, the homeless, children who are victims of abuse and violence in the name of religious salvation, those trying to live normal lives in lawless societies.
• Developing and exploring new styles of musical-theatre. We will achieve this through ensemble-style storytelling, with dance, with actor-musicians and by working with the best artists possible and helping them create the best work they can.
• Reaching the many communities to whom the stories are most relevant and who traditionally do not engage with the arts in general and theatre in particular. We will be working with homeless groups, through our partnership with Cardboard Citizens for The God Racket; children of African heritage in Yorkshire, through our partnership with Phoenix Dance Theatre for Requiem; primary school children in Leeds, and North Yorkshire through our partnership with Alive & Kicking for The Boggits and Somali community groups through our partnership with Rich Mix for Pirates of Somalia.

And this is what is in it:

The God Racket – by Martin Riley and Felix Cross

Requiem for a Witch-Child – by Felix Cross and Sharon Watson

Pirates of Somalia (W/T) – by Oladipo Agboluaje and Felix Cross

The Boggits – by Martin Riley and Felix Cross

We’re working with some great companies too: Phoenix Dance Theatre, Cardboard Citizens, Rich Mix, National theatre Studio and Alive & Kicking. We’re also working with Ebony Steel Band to create a course called Musicianship for Pan Players.

For much more detailed information about each piece, go over to the Tales From the Edge page in our What’s On section. We’d love to hear what you think about this new project and each of the pieces, so take advantage of the comments sections to have to your say.

So it’s going to be a busy time – we’ll keep you well informed on how we’re doing! Of course, you can keep up with us daily via Nitro’s Twitter and Nitro’s Facebook pages.

On August 22nd, we performed Mass Carib at the Trinidad & Tobago Cultural Village at the Tricycle Theatre, London in celebration of 50 years of independence. It was a wonderful way to celebrate! (and warm up for Carnival!)

Check out some of our exclusive photos

Of course, Mass Carib is one of our most well known and respected productions but for those that are new to it or would like a recap…

Mass Carib was originally composed in 1987 and played to sell-out audiences at the Albany Empire and the Purcell Room at the South Bank.  As a result, the show received the largest ever single grant from the Arts Council, which led to a national tour of major (2000+ seater) venues in 1989.

Since then Mass Carib has been performed many times, for various occasions, including: Trafalgar Square for the Mayor’s Festival, Greenwich & Docklands Festival to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, Hackney Empire and Kings Place as a Requiem to remember the victims of the Haitian earthquake.

We were honoured that Mass Carib was chosen to commemorate the 50th anniversary of trinidad & Tobago’s Independence.

Mass Carib is a musical setting of the full Mass by Trinidadian-born composer Felix Cross. Sung in Latin, English, French Patois and Yoruba it draws on historical, cultural and spiritual references from the Caribbean, most specifically Trinidad.

Mass Carib represents and explores the points of cultural collision between Europe and Africa that is the Caribbean and as such it is a work of musical fusion par excellence. The music reflects various styles from different islands intermeshed with European classical forms appropriate to the 18th century.

As with the liturgical mass, Mass Carib begins with a voice declaring:

“My brothers and sisters, in order that we might celebrate the sacred mysteries, let us call to mind the sins of the world”,

From that moment to the final chords of the Agnus Dei, Mass Carib uses and subverts the structure of the mass – The Penitential Rite, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and adds readings from such important figures as Dr Eric Williams and CLR James, in place of the usual biblical extracts – to reflect the story of the struggle from slavery to Independence.

Mass Carib also follows the journey of Africans enslaved and shipped to the Caribbean and then forced to convert to Christianity, the religion of their oppressors. This caused the many syncretic religions – blends of African and Catholic beliefs – that exist throughout the Caribbean and plantation America: for example Shango in Trinidad; Santeria in Cuba and Voudon in Haiti. Mass Carib recalls this crucible powerfully and passionately and celebrates the presence of the vital and complex cultural entity that is the Caribbean.

Mass Carib at the Cultural village was performed by eight singers, a steel pan quintet and two percussionists and conducted by Allyson Devenish. Don’t Miss out!

How were they to know that such a life could be so rewarding? This is not to say that working in the arts doesn’t have its faintly ludicrous moments: no one ever stood up and applauded my father for completing his work at the end of each day in his office at the Department of Social Security (what might he have done if they’d demanded an encore?); no critics ever wrote and published in the Guardian a two-hundred word review of my mother’s child-rearing skills and no one who knew me from my early years as a failing rock musician, a die-by-night stand-up comic or a rather less-than-dedicated music-teacher would ever have imagined that I would be honoured with an MBE.

I noted the citation, “For services to Music Theatre”. The word, “Black” was absent; a significant step. When I was in my twenties, playing in bands, I was known as a guitarist, occasionally as a singer; then later as a song-writer; after that, thankfully fewer people knew me as a stand-up comic but that was what I was. Then I began to work in the subsidised theatre and suddenly I was recognised as a Black playwright, a Black composer, a Black lyricist. Definitions are often useful but they can also become a straightjacket. Now don’t get me wrong, my race informs my work, very much so; I may be a BME MBE but my race has to compete with other influences: my age, my gender, my sense of parenthood, my political views, my passion for stories, my love of music. So it was gratifying to see simply, “music theatre”.

There are many people I’d like to thank at this time: my long-suffering wife who runs her own theatre company and still finds the time, space and energy to support me; my two fabulous boys without whom I would have written most shows much faster but without the level of understanding they have brought to my life.  Significantly however, the citation also read, “Artistic Director of Nitro”, and I know that without Nitro this honour would not have happened. So I would like to thank all the staff throughout the past sixteen years, yes even the ones who messed up and I would like to thank all the board members who have put their names and their valuable time to the service of the company during those years, yes even the difficult ones who didn’t understand the difference between Governance and Management…. And I’d like to thank in particular those members of the board who, in 1996, decided to take a punt on me as their new Artistic Director. Allowing for a few bumps along the way, it has been the best job in the world (just nosing it with that of BBC Test Match Special commentator or Manager of Fulham) for the last 16 years and I hope it will continue to be so for a long time to come.

Felix