MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: UNITY THEATRE

The Suitcase Ensemble in association with unitytheatre present Clunk, which opens at unity on 12 & 13 March 2010 before embarking on the company’s first tour of the North West.

Two women and an incoherent male live together but can’t quite work out why. The radio is broken, another mysterious relative has died and there’s a parcel on the step. It’s like this every day. But last night I dreamt of George again…

The story follows the daily drudgery of three cohabiting young adults who are struggling to engage with a world that baffles them. With an informal comedic style, set off by beautiful and surreal dream sequences, this is a unique piece of theatre that will be enjoyed by fans of comedy, puppetry, and anyone who likes a good existential ponder.

Liverpool-born Andrew Gledhill directs the piece. He said: “I didn’t grow up seeing theatre at all and so in many ways my chief influences are from radio and TV comedy. Like Monty Python, The Goons and The Young Ones, Clunk tells a consistent tale but also unfolds like a stream of consciousness – and within that tradition Clunk is a hugely accessible comedy at the same time as being utterly absurd and fantastical.”

Following a successful premiere in June 2009, Clunk has been further developed by The Suitcase Ensemble with additional visual and puppet direction from Liz Walker of the world renowned surreal puppet company Faulty Optic. This delightful new version of the show will tour to venues in the North West and Yorkshire this March and April, taking the company’s unique style of visual comedy theatre to audiences across the region.

This exciting next step for the emerging company has been made possible by support from Arts Council England, unitytheatre and from Liverpool-based creation centre Hope Street Ltd, who have nurtured The Suitcase Ensemble from their inception.

Peter Ward, Director of Hope Street Ltd comments: ‘The Suitcase Ensemble is a group of enthusiastic, creative and dedicated artists who create exciting and imaginative theatre… I was impressed by their scratch version of Clunk and inspired by the style of the theatre they had developed; quite bizarre and totally different to anything being produced in the Merseyside region’

For more info on The Suitcase Ensemble go to www.suitcase-ensemble.com

Clunk at unitytheatre, Hope Place, Liverpool. Fri 12 and Sat 13 March 2010, 8pm. Tickets: £9/£7 conc. Book now on 0844 873 2888 or click unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk

About The Suitcase Ensemble:

The Suitcase Ensemble are a Liverpool-based theatre collective who createcontemporary performance work through play, skill-sharing and cross-artformcollaboration.

Core Members of the ensemble trained together on the Hope Street Limited Apprenticeship in Liverpool. Before forming the company, group members worked together on several projects including:

Lock (August/September 2007). A carnival-style celebration of life on the

Liverpool-Leeds canal led by artists from Welfare State International, directed by John Fox.

People Show 119: Ghost Sonata (April 2008). A site-specific adaptation ofStrindberg’s Ghost Sonata performed at Liverpool’s Sefton Park PalmHouse. Commissioned as part of the European Capital of Culture 08 artisticprogramme, directed by unitytheatre patron Josette Bushell-Mingo

The Suitcase Ensemble recently performed three pilot episodes of their epic cabaret Edgy in an intimate theatre at the newly renovated Edge Hill Station.

About The Tour:

12 – 13 March 8pm UNITY THEATRE, LIVERPOOL £9/£7 (0844 8732888),

25 March 7.30pm THE BRINDLEY, RUNCORN £8 (0151 9078360),

14 April 7.30pm THE MET, BURY £8/£5 (0161 7612216),

15 April 7.30pm ROSE THEATRE, ORMSKIRK £8.50/£6.50 (01695 584468),

16 April 8pm SQUARE CHAPEL, HALIFAX £10/£8 (01422 349422),

22 April 7.45pm THE LOWRY, SALFORD QUAYS £5/£7.50/£10 (0843 2086000)