HOAX: MY LONELY HEART
04 June 14 - 07 June 14

Produced by Pippa Frith in association with the Royal Exchange Theatre


A dark musical based on a true story...

Written by Ravi Thornton and directed by Benji Reid

My lonely heart is a hunter’s trap, my lonely heart is a cage.

Rob is a young man struggling to find the right words.
Helen is the woman who loves him.

Hard and heartbreaking, HOAX is a dark musical fuelled by
those most destructive of tendencies: love and self-sabotage.

Based on a true story of desires and dependencies,
HOAX offers a voice rarely heard but important to share.

HOAX: My Lonely Heart is accompanied by the graphic novel
HOAX: Psychosis Blues, also written by Ravi Thornton.


VENUE
The Studio

BOOK TICKETS
Box Office: 0161 833 9833 / online

TICKET PRICES
£12 / £10
No booking fee!

PERFORMANCE DETAILS
Wednesday 4 June, 7.30pm
Thursday 5 June, 7.30pm
Friday 6 June, 7.30pm
Saturday 7 June, 2.00pm
Saturday 7 June, 8.00pm


Visit the Royal Exchange page HERE

Oh I do hope so! What a wonderful time we’ve all had!

So I was part of a panel event called Rocking with Horror: talking about horror in comics alongside Hannah Berry, Ian Culbard and David Hine; featuring HOAX composer Minute Taker; and chaired by Alex Fitch.

It really was great fun! Alex had me up first, so I spoke about how, for me, the worst horror is in the real. I referenced some of the many horror artworks that are based on real events (The Girl Next Door, The Blob, The Shining…), how they range from the very graphic, the fantastical, the psychological, through to biographical and auto-biographical. And I talked about my own comic works (The Tale of Brin & Bent and Minno Marylebone and HOAX) as being somewhere in the midst of all of those elements.

HOAX composer Minute Taker then performed two of the songs from the musical HOAX: My Lonely Heart. It was an amazing demonstration of how he’s using loop-pedal layering to develop soundscapes that can convey the horror of schizophrenia.

David then talked about his preference for looking into the dark corners of a horror story and showing head-on, in their full glory, the monsters he found there.

Ian questioned that, and asked whether psychological suggestion was the more effective way.

And Hannah talked about her methods of employing subtlety to lead the reader unaware towards the horror: such that the innocuous can become very suddenly ‘nocuous!’

We had a short but interesting debate on these different approaches, then were far-too-soon out of time as the festival roared on with its incredibly rich programme of events.

It was a brilliant festival in every single aspect. Superbly put together with a fantastic array of talent and interest. I feel certain we’ll be seeing it raise its fine, old-stone Kendal head again next year, and many more years to come after that.

Today is the first day of the first ever LAKES INTERNATIONAL COMIC ARTS FESTIVAL. I'm speaking there tomorrow, along with HOAX composer Minute Taker, on the Rocking With Horror panel, and so am heading up to Kendal today, along with the Beau, the Daughter and Friend-of-Daughter-Noah. Ordinarily I'd be a little more organised for something like this than I am, however, with work and recent events, I'm running a little behind.

As I hastily gather together my notes, clothes and waterproofs (Lake District + October = good chance of rain), I marvel over how amazingly well the founders and supporters have pulled this inaugural event together. The programme, the guests, the arrangements... all incredible. And the way the local community is involved is nothing short of inspiring. They've even created a beer!

"Staveley-based Hawkshead Brewery has teamed up with The Lakes International Comic Art Festival to produce a limited-edition beer for the event. The label design is by American cartoonist Gilbert Shelton, creator of Fat Freddy, and named after Fat Freddy’s beer of choice – Tall Toad."

It's going to be a great event for comics, graphic novels, writing and art. But it's also going to be a great event for real people to meet real people - and that's what I'm looking forward to most :)
 
http://www.comicartfestival.com/
http://www.comicartfestival.com/rocking-with-horror/

Next month (Friday 18th to Sunday 21st October) sees the inaugural Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal. It’s been modelled on the ‘en fete’ atmosphere of the European comic festivals, with the whole town being involved, and looks set to be a really happy and friendly affair.

I’m speaking there on the Saturday night as part of the panel talk ‘Rocking with Horror’. Fellow speakers are Ian Culbard, David Hine and Hannah Berry, with Alex Fitch of Resonance FM as our chair: a doubtless treat for the audience, with humour and wit abounding! And then there is me; with my themes of tragedy and pain, casting menace and shadow, darkness and despair….

Fear not, however! There is lightness to my dark in the form of HOAX composer Ben McGarvey aka Minute Taker. Ben will be with me, performing pieces from the score of HOAX: MY LONELY HEART, the musical theatre piece that accompanies the graphic novel HOAX: PSYCHOSIS BLUES, one of the projects I’ll be talking about at the festival.

Admittedly my involvement means the score is also pretty dark, but Ben is sweetness personified and his smile infectious. So I think we’ll get away with it ;)

In any project where you're juggling multiple collaborators there is the risk of a dropped ball. Being a 10-illustrator project, the HOAX graphic novel was always going to vulnerable to that risk, and indeed we have recently suffered a slight setback in the form of Andy Hixon, who sadly has had to leave the project due to bad timing. The good news, however, is that he is replaced by JADE MOSS.

With each section of the graphic novel having originally been written for a specific artist, Andy's replacement had to be of a certain ilk. Sydney-based fine-artist Jade is all that and more: quite simply striking in every sense.

Having worked with Jade before I know just how much of a pleasure it is to do so. I'm thrilled she's agreed to come on board and have no doubt whatsoever that the project will be stronger for her involvement.

Welcome to HOAX....

The brownies are all eaten, the baby fish fortunately not… and I’m back. Back to discussing my greatest passions: projects, stories and collaborations. And if I’ve seemed quiet over the last couple of weeks, it’s only because of all the exciting stuff that’s been going on behind the scenes:

- I complete the First Draft rough of TREADING AIR. (Hooray!!)

- HOAX final artworks for the graphic novel PSYCHOSIS BLUES continue to arrive and delight, with a new illustrator joining the team.

- The excitement around LAKES INTERNATIONAL COMIC ART FESTIVAL grows and grows, and I begin to prepare for my Saturday night panel there.

- Great news on the partner front for the HOAX musical MY LONELY HEART.

- Another graphic short-story sweetly beckons, collaborating with Keara Stewart for Mike Medaglia’s WU WEI.

- BRIN & BENT gets an edit for its US release, and a wonderful write-up that explains why!

- BRIN & BENT becomes a set text for the second-year syllabus of Nottingham University’s Literature and Popular Culture course.

- I develop another picture-book text with OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, this time about a little boy and lots of snow….

- And I join newly-formed, immersive-storytelling collective VERY CROSS MEDIA.

More on these in upcoming posts, and plenty more besides, as we thunder on through this year at a rather alarming but very exhilarating rate!

According to independent graphic fiction magazine Your Days Are Numbered, Julian Hanshaw is very rad. I thought this meant he was very radiator, as both he and I have turned 40 and the looseness of lingo tends to get replaced by the humdrum of household essentials the older you get….

However, I can now state for a FACT that Julian Hanshaw is indeed very rad – and this is because I have just seen his finished artwork for the HOAX graphic novel.

Wow.

And I mean freakin-amazin-my-oh-my-oh-my-wow. You are in for such a TREAT!

Julian has a blogspot (fromjuliansbrain) and has posted ‘two tiny, tiny slithers from two of the pages’ there, along with this missive:

“Ravi Thornton (Brin & Bent and Minno Marylebone) has rounded up 10 outstanding names of the British Graphic Novel world and somehow I managed to sneak in when no one was looking.

Names such as Bryan Talbot and Hannah Berry have been given sections to illustrate of Ravi’s deeply personal project.

To find out more about this wonderful project and how in God’s name I was invited along for the ride, have a peek here [Ravi’s website]!”

So not only devastatingly talented, but endearingly humble too. What a lovely man.

The PSYCHOSIS BLUES graphic novel (part of the HOAX project) involves 10 illustrators each working to separate briefs. This means not only do their artworks have to cohere, but so too do their schedules, ideas stages, deliverables etc. along the way….

HOAX as an overall project has its own academic research strand, headed up by Prof Matt Green. Through Matt came a further research strand of in the form of Ellie Reedy. Ellie is currently doing a Masters in publishing, and one of her main research threads is how project management strategies bring together several creative collaborators on a single project.

As such Ellie has been acting project manager for PSYCHOSIS BLUES, gathering essential research for her dissertation whilst simultaneously providing invaluable support by way of her brilliant organisational skills and whipcracking.

Last week Ellie interviewed me as part of her dissertation, asking things like:
- What are the advantages of working on a collaborative project?
- What do you consider to be the biggest challenges of working in a collaborative team?
- How do you think project management strategies differ when working on a creative/arts project compared to more business focused projects?
All of which were really interesting questions for me to sit down and really think about.…

Her final question was: Can project management be a barrier to artistic projects such as HOAX and if so how?

I replied that I could only imagine it would be a barrier if you had the wrong person in the role. In my experience, Ellie, it’s been the complete opposite :)

You may recall me mentioning the call out (asking attending comic-people to submit artwork for auction) that went along with last weekend's conference in Brighton. Not being an illustrator myself, I submitted a piece drawn by my brother Rob.

Around 20 prints were auctioned, raising over £500 for the Creative Therapies Fund of mental health charity MIND.

The fund helps people make sense of their mental health problems through local arts projects in supportive environments with trained therapists.

'The therapeutic effects of creative activities can be enormous. For those who can't find words to express how they feel, they can be a lifesaver. For some people, creative therapies provide more profound and long-lasting healing than more standard forms of treatment for mental health problems. They provide a powerful means of expression and a release from trauma.'

It's a great cause, the auction was a great idea, and I'm glad that Rob and I have been a part of it all.


Find out more at www.mind,org.uk/get_involved/creative_therapy_campaign

Brighton was lovely. The sun, the sea, The Beau, the Brighton Sussex Medical School… and the host of really nice people attending it for this fascinating meeting of Graphic Medicine minds.

As mentioned previously, Prof Matt and I were down to talk about HOAX / THE TALE OF BRIN & BENT AND MINNO MARYLEBONE, and the ethics of fictionalising autobiography and biography.

It was great to hear comics and medical professionals alike, discussing themes and topics ranging from responsibility, psychology, trauma, perception, depression, sex, and much more besides….

Some highlights for me were hearing Graphic Medicine’s Ian Williams interviewing Nicola Streeten (of the infamous Laydeez Do Comics), and Paula J. Knight’s beautifully honest presentation concerning motherhood and miscarriage.

My shout-out goes also to fellow panel members…

Andrew Godfrey and Emma Mould of Sicker Than Thou, who talked about representation and responsibility in autobiographical comics;

Katie Green, who talked very movingly about questions raised in illustrating an eating disorder;

John G. Swogger, who discussed the ethical journey of a collaborative comic on dependence, and suggested the need for some ethical guidelines to be put in place – very interesting indeed;

And finally to our chair, the formidable MK Czerwiec.

Thank you to everyone who made the conference possible. And to Hannah ‘Beachbabe’ Berry for knowing the best place in town to watch the sun go down….