30th March 7.30pm (£5)
*Part of shared evening with Mama Tokus
Book your ticket here
Unknown to most, there is a large, clumsy, furry orange monster living in Stokes Croft, Bristol’s dilapidated, graffiti-scrawled cultural quarter. By day, he watches over its people and records their stories. By night, he wanders alone and paints their dreams. Or nightmares. A live graphic novel with stop-motion animation by MC and Poet Jack Dean, Under Stokes Croft takes inspiration from Dylan Thomas’ legendary Under Milk Wood to document 24-and-a-bit hours in the life of Bristol’s own Bohemia, centering around the infamous night of 21st April 2011, the Tesco riots. Expect fires, fears, flights and top-notch veggie burgers.
Developed in partnership with Bristol Ferment
“Dean’s talent as an actor as well as writer comes into play as he brings each character to life” Venue Magazine
Audience feedback on Under Stokes Croft:
“Fabulous”
“Dylan Thomas would be flattered”
“A brilliant play about a part of Bristol I love”
“Really enjoyed it. Very different to anything I’ve seen recently”
Jack Dean: I have been writing and performing spoken word for over three years now, and it has indubitably taken me to some interesting places. The Poetry Stage at Latitude, the beer garden of a pub in Corsham, a male beauty contest in Hackney, colleges and abandoned fire stations and other places I’ve probably deliberately forgot. What I’ve realised is that poetry people, like any community, are so much bigger and brighter and filled with potential than the often exiguous, troublesome or just bizarre circumstances that society and geography confines them to. This, I think, is what Dylan Thomas was trying to get at with Under Milk Wood, a tale of an otherwise unremarkable Welsh backwater town. From meeting and living amongst the people of Stokes Croft, I got to understand that, while it may be a run-down pile of junk, it is our pile. To many of them, this identification is important enough to fight for, so I believe it is worth chronicling.
Flourish have very kindly offered me the chance to present my work to a new audience and receive professional feedback. This will be truly invaluable to my artistic practice and the continuing development and progress of the show.
Watch some of Jack’s work here
