Page 18 - NLP244603 "NE Volume" Magazine (56pp 240 x 170 self cover)

E
COMEDY
DAN NIGHTINGALE
AT THE FORUM, DARLINGTON
NOVAK/
LINDISFARNE
The Forum Music Centre in Darlington hosts Dan Nightingale on Thursday 11th August in presentation of his new show, Working It Out. Tellingly, the performance will shop ideas in development ahead of a national tour in the autumn, which will also wind its way through the North East. A regular headline act on the UK comedy circuit, and with firm roots in the North East having commenced his comedy career in Newcastle, Nightingale is a seasoned touring veteran with two decades of experience. All the same, his fame has been enhanced exponentially in recent years by the success of the podcast ‘Have A Word’, hosted by Nightingale alongside fellow comedian Adam Rowe. The cast has truly ascended since lockdown, both nationally and internationally, raising Nightingale’s profile and interest in his stand-up material. Harnessed largely around the tried, tested and oft-parodied podcast formula of blokes having a chat, the mixture has hit the jackpot more firmly than most, amassing fans of listeners and viewers with its ruminations on life, absurd anecdotes and pants-wettingly brilliant crescendos of communal laughter. The podcast is now evolving into a live extravaganza also, with a sense of scale appropriate to its major popularity. All of which brings into view the intrigue of a live show still in its laboratory setting being performed intimately by one of the chief stars of such a phenomenon. The transition from headset to the stage would be difficult for an upstart, but as mentioned, Nightingale is performing the journey in reverse and clocking back into his day job, a day job he is highly at ease with. The twinning of two different but equally contemporary comedic disciplines only serves to embolden and strengthen both in unison, despite the extensive differences which tend to be obscured by the extent to which comedians cross over between formats. Nightingale’s performances are typified by witty, bouncy storytelling and seismic punchlines, conveying his infectious sense of the playful, passionate and sometimes understatedly poignant. These qualities had buoyed him as one of the UK’s best kept stand-up secrets until the runaway success of ‘Have A Word’; and recent trends in his career suggest it will become increasingly difficult to see him perform live purely as a result of demand, especially in a setting like The Forum or in a work-in-progress mode. In an additional boon, support will be provided by an unnamed guest from the podcast’s revolving door. MICHAEL JOHNSON
Tickets: £8.50 Advance | Visit: hilaritybites.co.uk
GOSPELS
COLLABORATION
AT LAING ART GALLERY, NEWCASTLE
The Laing Art Gallery are working with video design specialists NOVAK to produce an immersive digital experience for the forthcoming Lindisfarne Gospels exhibition. The creative studio is renowned for producing site-specific innovative and ambitious art and design projects on a grand and spectacular scale that transforms and reimagines locations into extraordinary displays of colour and motion. The immersive digital experience will be the first gallery that the visitor will encounter and will establish the wider context for the Lindisfarne Gospels, the most spectacular manuscript to survive from Anglo-Saxon England. The book represents the golden age of design and craftsmanship in Northumbria and has survived in almost perfect condition for over one thousand years. NOVAK will be creating an animated audio- video installation that will immerse audiences within the stunning design of the manuscript and the environments that shaped the book’s creation. Based on a tidal theme, the installation will transport audiences to the early medieval period in Britain through light, visuals, and sounds. Visual elements will be strongly rooted in the physical landscape of Lindisfarne and reflect the twice-daily changing of the tides, which will be used as a recurring visual motif, enveloping the surrounding walls of the gallery, as it does the causeway at Holy Island. With each return of the tide, a new immersive environment will be revealed, providing audiences with an experiential journey that transports them from the birthplace of the Gospels to the farthest shores of the Mediterranean. Adam Finlay, Studio Director at Novak, says: “NOVAK are thrilled to be working with the Laing to create an immersive installation as part of the exhibition of the
18 \\ NE VOLUME MAGAZINE \\ CULTURE
VENT