A Catch Up

We just thought we'd keep you up to speed with everything that's been happening at Pear Shape HQ recently.  We're very excited to be travelling to the glamourous Chester this weekend, where the Double D's will be spreading a little love and mischief to the good people of the North!  You can watch a shortened version of our street show here:

https://vimeo.com/52564572

We're planning some new surprises for this weekend, which showcase some of our never-been-seen-before talents!  If you're in Chester on Saturday and Sunday, pop by and see us outside the Church in the middle of town.  You're in for a treat!

Also now available is an edited version of our day with Lost and Found Festival in Manchester, performing our interactive walkabout 'Here Come the Brides'.  You can see the Pear Shape crew from 3 minutes to the end.  Also thanks to the marvellous Lucy Lost-It and Matt Pang for their guest appearances.

https://vimeo.com/50362129

And finally, we're busy beavering away with new characters, including The Chavs, The Songbirds and some angelic flirty ethereal beings who appear all in white and just can't wait to tell you how beautiful you are.  Or how good your balance is.  Or how symmetrical your ears are...  We're struggling to find a name for these characters, so answers on the back of a postcard...

That's all for now.  We'll keep you updated with where you can see us soon, but in the meantime feel free to follow us on Twitter: @PearShapeProd, and like us on Facebook.  Thanks!

The Brides Hit Manchester

So, now that the dust has settled and we've got our wedding dresses back from the dry cleaners, we're ready to tell you all about our time at 'Lost and Found Festival', supported by Contact Theatre and popping up in surprising locations all over Manchester...

We performed our act, 'Here Come the Brides' to a great reception.  The first set sees 3 Brides arrive for their wedding at Manchester Cathedral, to be met with the dawning realisation they are all there to marry the same man.  This involved a long walk for each Bride down Market Street, one of the busiest shopping streets in the centre. Each of us got a lovely warm reception from passers by, who commented on how beautiful our dresses were, and one man even offered to get his car so that he could drive Mary to the Church rather than having her walk on her own. At the Cathedral itself some builders joined in the story, advising the Groom which Bride he should choose, and even the Vicar was enjoying the action.  The walk back down Market street at the end of this set was very different to the first, with all three Brides now grouped together with faces like thunder.  We were met with shouts of 'Did he not turn up?' and 'I'll marry you', and ironically accompanied to the strains of 'Here Comes the Bride' by some helpful buskers.  Matt, our Groom, followed at a distance, or hid behind burly workmen,one passerby commenting to him 'You've got some decisions to make, young man...'

We made our next appearance on the tram network, shuttling in various configurations between Piccadilly Gardens and Cornbrook tram stops.  Here's what one onlooker emailed to the Festival:

I happened to be going to Manchester on the Tram with my 84 year old Mother, who was visiting us from California.

The 'Bride and Groom' performance was really quite convincing at first [...] I have to admit being fooled in the early stage of the performance, but when the girl began to sing ' I cried a river over you,' with such a professional and well trained voice, I just burst out laughing. It was terrific, my Mother will be telling everyone in Santa Barbara about it !

Thank you so much Manchester, it was a thoroughly enjoyable and memorable experience.

Let's have a lot more of them. 

James Hadfield-Hyde 

We couldn't agree more, James.

Also big thanks to whoever started the tweet that lead to Cat's picture appearing on The Sun newspaper's twitter feed, with a call to arms to find that Bride!  Cat feels particularly proud to have fulfilled a lifelong ambition to appear in The Sun, having always been held back in the past by the size of her assets.

Our final set was played out in glorious Piccadilly Gardens, where Matt received 3 whole pints in the face, Mary slid across the rain-soaked ground like Bambi whilst trying to execute a cartwheel, and a whole crowd gathered to witness the final showdown.  All in all, a great day.

 

 

So we just want to say a massive thanks to Jenny, Rachel and Phil at Lost and Found, not only for the opportunity but also the huge support that they have given to us, Maz from Albino Mosquito and Sam Ryley for some wicked photos and video footage, Avi from Contact Theatre for his great hosting and bouncer skills, and finally Ben Entwisle for offering to smuggle Cat in his suitcase to Germany.  She nearly took him up on the offer.

Oh, and also the glorious people of Manchester.  Wouldn't have been any fun without you.

Lost and Found Festival

So here it is!  The Pear Shape team are delighted to announce that on Wednesday this week we shall be performing 'Here Come the Brides' as part of Lost and Found Festival in Manchester.

'Here Come the Brides' is a unique form of walkabout street theatre, fused with a giant public game of cat and mouse, interactive story-telling and our own special brand of ‘secret circus’.  Over three 45 minute performances we tell the story of a hapless Groom who just can’t help falling in love, and has to decide what to do when faced with three angry Brides…

We would also like to introduce the arrival of a new Groom to the Pear Shape fold, the gorgeous Matt Pang, street performer and juggler extraordinaire, who's just arrived back from a summer working with his own Circus Theatre Company, PanGottic in exciting locations such as Berlin, South Korea and, ahem, Peterborough.  We truly can't wait to get married to Matt, and hope you'll be able to join us on September 26th in various locations around Manchester (including the tram network!) to see which one of us will get her man...  Find out more at about the Festival and all of the other lovely companies involved at www.contactmcr.com/lost&found.

And finally, we now have our very own logo, with hoodies and T-shirts to boot.  We think they're rather snazzy, although Mary is threatening to wear hers everyday without ever washing it.  Hmmm... not sure that'll help the quest for love.

Hello world...

Welcome to Pear Shape Productions!  We are Catherine Boot and Mary Maw, and Pear Shape is an emerging female theatre company, which creates work that tells true stories (some of which we made up), and blurs boundaries between the everyday and the some day...

We met whilst studying Contemporary Circus and Physical Performance at Circomedia in Bristol, where we discovered a shared love for street theatre, honest, humorous and sometimes tragic narratives, and pink wine.

Currently, Pear Shape consists of two street theatre acts, which are available for booking.  The first is The Double D's, aka Dangerous and Delicious.  This is a static circle show which sees both performers desperately trying to find boyfriends before their biological clocks run out of batteries.  We win over the audience (and our future husbands) through breathtaking circus skills and charming (if a little hopeless) comedy and, or course, love.

"This fleeting moment was pure unadulterated fun!  Thanks Double D's, it was a pleasure!"

-Justin John, willing volunteer, Bath

Our second act is 'Here Come the Brides', a unique form of walkabout street theatre, mixed with a giant public game of hide and seek, interactive story-telling and ‘secret circus’.  Over three 45-minute sets, we tell the story of a hapless Groom who just can’t help falling in love, and hasn’t really considered the consequences of his romantic actions.  This Act utilises the local architecture and landscape to create a bespoke story for every setting we play.

Watch this space for a very exciting announcement of where you'll be able to catch this Act in the not too distant future...