When I saw the first draft of what is now online and on sale as the Festival Programme - about three months ago - it essentially meant nothing to me. It was just a list of company names, some performing familiar plays, some not.

 

Over the weeks that followed, I gradually got a better handle on what was what about the productions that Sam and Charlotte (our co-artistic directors) wanted to put on. Bits dropped off the programme, and bits appeared, and as it went on I gradually learnt more about what TakeOver was going to look like.

 

But it is only in the last three weeks that I have really got a real grip on what the festival is going to be like. And that is, of course, by seeing the shows.

 

Inevitably, since seeing some of what is to come at TakeOver, I am immeasurably more excited about the festival programme. No matter how many times someone tells me 'oh, it's a great piece of theatre', I never quite believe it. Not until I have seen it, anyway.

 

So the things that are really getting me buzzing - and the things that I am able to sell with total commitment when my friends ask me what is on the programme for TakeOver - are the following:

 

1) The Man Who Planted Trees - This is probably (alongside The National Theatre's epic His Dark Materials) the best judged piece of theatre I have ever seen. No part of Puppet State's amazingly charming story-telling jars: it is all interesting, enthralling, exciting and uplifting. It may be a piece of children's theatre, but the humour and charm is far from childish, and anyone who sees this of any age will enjoy it fully. I had the amazing pleasure to see the show at Pocklington Arts Centre, and was totally blown away. There was a reviewer from the Pocklington Post at the show I saw, but unfortunately I can't find a link to that, so you'll have to read the many lovely pieces of feedback here (http://www.puppetstate.com/reviews.html) if you don't believe me...

 

2) The Tartuffe - in a preview at the University of York's Drama Barn I was exposed to my first helping of Belt Up's high-energy, high-humour take on Moliere's comedy. It's hard to describe the show, but the humour is so full on and so varied, and the actors (particularly those with mime-artists' make-up on) so exuberant that it is a total pleasure.. And the beauty of this production is that depending on the venue and the audience, it will be a significantly different show. So I feel calm in telling you to see this at the Edinburgh Festival if you can, because it will be a totally different experience to seeing it in the Main House at the Theatre Royal.

 

3) Hamlet and The Seagull - The Factory I had heard of by reputation before I saw the programme, and this was the part of TakeOver that I have always been most excited about. Partly because Shakespeare - more than anything else - has maintained my love of theatre in the past couple of years, and partly because of the stories my friend Cass had told me about seeing the Factory's Hamlet in London. The idea for Hamlet is that each actor can play several parts, and who plays what is decided in front of the audience just before the show starts. Not only that - there are no props except what the audience bring. This means that - as Cass told me - you might find Ewan McGregor in front of you with an accordion, or you might find one of the actors reaching into the crowd to take a baby from it's mother's arms! The Seagull is almost more fascinating - for this reviewer in the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/apr/09/the-factory-chekhov-seagull) it was 'as unforgettable and moving as any theatre I've seen'.

 

I hope my effusiveness has rubbed off on you a little if you've read this blog. TakeOver is going to be great - I can't wait to see some of the other potentially magical stuff, which is coming.

 

And I can't believe that I can get in to all of it for free... (with my yellow U26s pass, not because I'm Producer!)