Mention the name Morecambe and the first thing you think of is comedy. Truly great, born in the bone comedy beyond cancellation. Eric Bartholomew took the name of his home town as his stage name and now people hear it and smile as memories of laughter fill their minds.
Just along the seafront from the larger than life statue of the man himself, there is still a West End in Morecambe. At the risk of being a laughter killer, I should tell you it is the 34th most deprived ward in the UK. The town used to have about thirty theatres. When Matt Panesh arrived in 2016, there wasn’t a single bricks’n’mortar producing theatre, or even a comedy night, there. Just an all dancing, all smiling statue of one of the most loved comedians of all time.
Panesh and writer Nick Awde started the Morecambe Fringe in 2017 with fifteen hand-picked shows across a weekend, mainly in and around the gorgeous but sadly dilapidated Alhambra Theatre. I remember. I was there. I was not exactly sure why, because that first Fringe was not heavy on comedy, other than in the local bars, where the craic was as one might expect in the North.
I remember asking, even back then, why, when they started the Morecambe Fringe, did they not concentrate more on comedy? Let’s face it, it would have been an easier sell.
“When we started the Morecambe Fringe the idea was to reconnect the community to its heritage of entertainment, and that meant opening up ways for people to take part,” he said.
“Comedy, though loved by all (or most) would’ve been an easier spectator sell, but would have been restrictive for people taking part. Not everyone wants to be a comedian, nor should they try! Comedy could be a huge part of what we do, and it was and it is, but when it came to my running my workshops, I was able to make them completely multidisciplinary and catch everyone who wanted to be on a stage.”
The first Morecambe Fringe had 15 shows across two days. Pretty much all by known Edinburgh Fringe veterans. I remember the atmosphere more than the shows, the terrible weather, the people, the laughter and the feeling that we were there at the start of something, that, in 2017, had a gut feeling to it that I hadn’t had since I worked at Craigmillar Festival (at the time, the only place in the UK so deprived that it got an EEC anti-poverty grant) in the early 80s. A great feeling.
Fringe No 2 lasted a week and No 3 a fortnight with 47 shows, nine of which were entirely Morecambe home-grown.
“Yeah, 9 came from my course, Make Your Fringe Show,” says Matt, not without pride. “There were 3 full shows, 1 stand up comedy, 1 solo theatre, and 1 spoken word, and the rest were mixed bills which I think validated our choice back then.”
Stand Up Comedy, you say ?? Indeed. The comedy section this year is genuinely impressive. Exciting talents including (but not limited to, as they say) Pauline Vallance, Friz Frizzle, Becky Fury, Angela Bra, Matt Hoss, Laura Monmouth, Chris Kehoe, Bob Walsh and Wrong Comedy, Tom Little, President Obonjo, Mel Byron, Styrophobia, Robin Boot, Halls of Ridiculous, John Osborne, Richard Davenport, Richard Pulsford.
Some well-known names there …
“Our performers are mainly out of towners on their way up to Edinburgh Fringe,” says Matt, “I’d describe ourselves as a healthy parasite on the big Fringes’ backs. We want to give performers an opportunity to test their material out just before they go to the biggest arts festival in the world. Usually, they’re UK based, but as we grow, we had interest from both US acts and Russian acts. There’s also a big homegrown contingent from my workshops. It is vitally important that there is a local sense of ownership of the Fringe.”
A lesson there for Edinburgh. Oops, did I just say that?
“The community company I set up, the West End Players will open this year’s Fringe with a show written by a local, Geoffrey North, one of the NibCrib and a West End Player. It’s an updated version of Measure for Measure called Pleasure for Leisure, set in Morecambe, looking at a Mayor getting the town ready for the family orientated Eden Project and making plans to sweep away the boozers and bordellos…”
I am smirking already. And I don’t normally find many laughs in Shakespeare.
“And Morecambe Fringe has started to make an impact, there are signs. Some of the Make your Fringe show members got together and have opened up their own premises around the corner, the NibCrib, which run really supportive writing workshops. And they perform at our cabaret nights and so on. In Arts council speak, that’s empowering citizens, in council speak, that’s regeneration because an empty shop unit, of which there are a few is filled.”
In a sales pitch that is what they call a win-win situation.
Matt does not plan on relaxing. Well, what with all the boozers and bordellos being shut down for the Eden Project, relaxing is not the fun it once was …
“We want to help nurture and discover the next twenty Eric Morecambes and Thora Hirds.
I want to develop The Playhouse into a drama school, an apprenticeship based one to tackle the traditional exclusion of the poor from the arts (and I use that word, not working-class or underclass, because you can be working three jobs and not afford the heating). The Fringe I want to grow so that when Eden opens its doors there’s already another cultural event happening that keeps the tourists here and happy. I guess I’m after the moon on a stick!”
Until Covid restrictions hit and everyone was at home, saving lives, the 2020 Morecambe Fringe had 100 shows booked. The moon was getting pretty firmly balanced on that stick.
“We have fifty shows booked so far for this year and predict at least a hundred, two hundred next year, and four hundred the year after” says Matt. “That’ll take us to being the third-largest Fringe festival in the country, and then hopefully, the much talked about Eden Project will open its doors, and who knows what’ll happen then”.
Lest you think that you have to wait until July (9th to the 31st, allowing you to get to Edinburgh in time for the first previews …) to enjoy the kind of laughter-sprinkled, legacy of which Eric himself would be proud, Panesh himself is braving the Big City with Dr Frankulas Castle, a product of the cradle of creativity that is now the West End Playhouse.
Matt describes the show ( or his press release does) as “an anarchic yet affectionate comedy riff on the Universal Studios Monster Movies of the 30’s”. It is written by David Findlay, who has impressive form with Hull Truck, TIC TOC, and Northern Broadsides, and who is also on stage, which is just as well given that the piece involves a cast of 200 comedy monsters of one kind or another.
It opens for a three day run at The Courtyard Theatre in Hoxton on Thursday 24th Feb.
“If you’re looking for a connection,” says Matt, helpfully, “shows used to preview at Morecambe and transfer to the West End.”
Job done very nicely on the connection front, I thank you.
FYI, anyone interested in taking part can get all the information they need on Saturday 26th February at 4 pm during a session dedicated to that purpose.
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