INTERVIEW: JOYFUL PUNK

Image: Alphabetti’s outgoing founder, artistic and executive producer Ali Pritchard, with new artistic and executive producer Ed Cole

As one of Newcastle’s much-loved cultural institutions, Alphabetti Theatre seek expression through innovation and experimentation. Their next season of shows come under the banner of Joyful Punk, and marks the culmination of founder and executive and artistic director Ali Pritchard’s tenure at the helm; in typical Alphabetti fashion, it’s all about shaking up the system.

“Punk is all about deep self-expression, boundless creativity and boldly defying societal norms.” He explains. “It’s made a powerful comeback as a platform for social activism, rooted in the belief that art can truly change the world. And why joyful? Well, we all need a bit of joy in our lives right now, and Alphabetti is here to bring it!”

The season kicks off from Tuesday 6^th August with Let’s Create Not Apply! festival, an open call-out to creatives to submit work in any format they desired. “Our goal was to keep things simple and say YES to as many artists as possible. We wanted to create a space for artists to experiment, evolve and discover excellence.” Ali explains. As such, the season’s line-up is spectacularly varied and includes shows about sex anxiety (Does My Fanny Look Big In This?, Wednesday 7^th); rogue AI (Why Won’t You Talk To Me?, Wednesday 14^th); a triple bill of short plays telling the stories of unwritten women (A Night With Night-Light Theatre, Thursday 15^th); a show from drag king Benjamin Dover (Man Spread, Friday 16^th); a theatrical clown show of laundry and friendship (Friend of Frankenstein, Wednesday 21^st) and much more. “This festival is all about giving North East-based artists a real chance to shine without the usual hassle of filling out endless applications and waiting for approvals.” Ali says, enthusing that the festival provides an ideal opportunity to see fresh, raw and exciting work from local artists.

we’re going to raise our voices and work towards positive change — powered by joy, laughter, art and community. This is my rallying goodbye

The festival strives to encourage artists to create and perform their work unhindered by financial constraints, and it’s an approach that Ali acknowledges is hard to come by. “One of the biggest challenges theatre makers and creatives face is, without a doubt, money. Here’s the thing, though — if people want to see more diverse, genuine Geordie voices on mainstream platforms like Netflix and want more new, exciting art, they need to support grassroots artists now. The best of these artists could be the ones lighting up your TV screens in less than a decade. If we don’t support them, they won’t survive and we’re going to end up with the same old boring shows or even worse, AI-generated content.”

The rest of the Joyful Punk season continues to push work made by exciting creatives, from folk gig theatre show The Nurse’s Station, created by musician Ruth Lyon and directed by Ali (10^th-28^th Sept); to the debut production from North East-based LGBTQ+ company Wet Arts Ltd, My Name Is Rachel Corrie (8^th-26^th Oct); and Fixing, the poetic world premiere of Matt Miller’s drag persona (5^th-23^rd Nov).

Ali’s departure inevitably marks the ushering in of a new regime; forward-thinking theatre maker Edward Cole will take up the mantle with his own season of work in January 2025, but Ali’s not quite ready to hand over the reins just yet… “Even though we’re tired and disillusioned with the state of things, we’re not just going to sit around and moan. Instead, we’re going to raise our voices and work towards positive change — powered by joy, laughter, art and community. This is my rallying goodbye.”