Pip Utton

Pip Utton - Brochure Text and some graphics for Chaplin

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Adolf
Written and performed by Pip Utton, directed by Guy Masterson

What made Adolf Hitler so compulsive? How could any cultured person follow him to destruction, desolation and genocide to leave a long deep scar on the 20th century?
Created from the words of "Mein Kampf" & "Table Talk", Pip Utton's amazing play furnishes an acute anatomy of fascism; its ideological justifications, its poisoned utopias; He takes his audience on a journey into themselves, gently coaxing an understanding of the mindset of a nation that could allow a man such as Hitler to take control...
But Utton doesn't stop in the bunker... He plumbs the very source of racism and exposes just how near the surface of our own lives lurks its insidious influence.
Great for all audiences, this is live theatre at its best... Powerful, dramatic, challenging, divisive, illustrative and educational. It is utterly provocative and totally necessary.
 

Bacon
Written by Pip Utton & Jeremy Towler, performed by Pip Utton, directed by Geoff Bullen

‘Life is just a game played out for no reason, so there is no need one shouldn’t try to achieve everything one wants. After all, life is nothing but a series of sensations. So one may as well try and make oneself extraordinary, extraordinary and brilliant, even if it means becoming a brilliant fool like me and having the kind of disastrous life that I have had. People think my painting is very violent. But life is violent, Very violent. So perhaps my painting is very violent. My painting is a representation of life, my own life above all.  The creative process is a cocktail of instinct, skill, culture and a highly creative feverishness. It’s a little like making love, the physical act of love. It can be as violent as f***ing, like an orgasm or an ejaculation. The result is often disappointing but the process is highly exciting. Welcome to the concentration of camp.’  –  Francis Bacon

Described by critics as the greatest British painter since Turner and by Margaret Thatcher as ‘that dreadful man who paints those horrible pictures’, Francis Bacon remains one of the most challenging and controversial artists of all time. Bacon’s paintings have the power to horrify, excite, disgust, revolt and haunt. It is impossible not to react to his work.

It was probably not only the paintings that so distressed Mrs Thatcher but the man himself. Francis Bacon could spend his mornings painting, his afternoons and evenings drinking champagne and eating, and his nights roaming around Soho dressed in fishnet stockings and a long leather coat looking for ‘rough trade’. His lifestyle full of alcohol, gambling and homosexual promiscuity has created an iconic enigma.

Chaplin
Written by Pip Utton and directed by Geoff Bullen

Click Alternative Poster to download a different Chaplin poster as a  300k Word document.

Kean
Written and performed by Pip Utton, directed by Jeremy Towler

Edmund Kean, arguably the finest English actor of all time, is dying in poverty. He looks back on the highs and lows of his life and career. He examines his obsession with stardom, the two-way relationship of performer and audience, and the fickle nature of fame. As relevant to performers of today as it was to the stars of the 19^th century.

Labels
Written by Louis de Bernières - adapted and performed by Pip Utton directed, by Jeremy Towler

Louis de Bernières is one of the country’s leading writers, and is the prize-winning author of the best selling ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’.
This is a whimsical tale of an obsession that leads our hero down the slippery path of self-destruction. An obsession that proves in the end to be the means of his salvation.
 

Only The Lonely
Written and performed by Pip Utton, directed by David Lavender

There could only ever be one Roy Orbison, one Big O. But there have been many imitators, many impersonators, many tributes to that unique haunting high operatic voice. This is the fictional tale of one such impersonator.
Dave Williams isn’t happy. He has a dead end job with the post office but dreams of stardom, dreams of his name in lights. But he hasn’t got what it takes to be a star as himself. So for a while he becomes John Revolta. Then he pads himself out and tries to be Dennis Ruossos. He blacks up and tries to be Nat King Coal. But now he is the proud wearer of a black wig and shades, and with his high wobbly voice, he is now ‘Troy Orbison’. Dave is to receive the highest award his profession has to offer, ‘The Tributes of Tributes’.
As Troy Orbison, Dave looks like Roy, Dave sings like Roy, but of course Dave isn’t Roy. Although there are times when Dave wishes he were Roy.
Wry humour, personal weaknesses and tragedies combine with an uncanny impersonation, heaping cliché upon cliché, as Dave journeys from obscurity to fame with a number one Christmas hit to his name … as someone else.
 

Resolution
Written and performed by Pip Utton, directed by Guy Masterson

It is three years since his daughter was killed in a hit and run accident on her 18^th birthday and he still can’t come to terms with the effects the tragedy has had on him. He can’t come to terms with the driver being released from prison so soon. But what can he do about it? What should he be able to do about it?
It is three years since he ran over and killed the girl on her 18^th birthday and he still can’t come to terms with the guilt and the repercussions it has had on his family. He had only had a couple of drinks. Now he was to be released. The father has forgiven him. Can he forgive himself? Should he ever be allowed to forget?
Just how far should you and, would you go to get justice?
 

Son of the Father
Written by Pip Utton performed by Mae Brogan and Pip Utton, directed by Geoff Bullen

Jesus has been crucified and his body placed in a tomb during Passover celebrations, to await preparation for burial. It is now the morning of the resurrection. Mary, Jesus’ mother wakes from a troubled sleep to find herself confronted by her husband Joseph. To Mary, Jesus is the Messiah come to free his people. To Joseph Jesus is just his son. A mother looking to the future and a father grieving the past.
 

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