This Much I Know (Part One) was our second piece of studio theatre. Someone described it as ‘basically being like an episode of Friends’. We weren’t sure about that summation.

The show was set in a single room, a very heavily propped space with a lino floor, lots of furniture and books and trinkets. There was an excellent ‘Del Boy’ bar stage right. The tech desk was also on stage, just outside the confines of the room.

Essentially a development of the playful, improvisatory relationships we established in Underneath All the Noise, This Much I Know (Part One) is a show about endings, about trying to finish something and about destruction and boredom. We spend the show milling around the room, killing time. We’re waiting for something. Is it the end of the world? Is it the arrival of someone. And in the meantime we create a series of increasingly fucked-up games. Prank calls are made to vulnerable old women, a teddy bear is molested, a party is enforced by Nina as a strangely demonic flame boy; dens are made and vodka drunk. As the show plays out, the flat is packed up and the boxes are moved off stage. At the end of the show all that remains are empty shelves and the lino floor.

We made this shows in 2005 and 2006 and it premiered at Bristol Old Vic before touring the UK. It was the first show we made with Sara Jane Bailes as out Creative Advisor.

2005
16-17 May: Mayfest, Bristol Old Vic Studio
9 October: BAC, London
17 November: Alsager Arts Centre, Crewe
18 November: greenroom, Manchester
25 November: Prema Arts Centre

2006
19-20 January: Ustinov, Bath
24 January: Exeter Phoenix
9 March: Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead
14-15 March: Leeds Met Studio Theatre
3-4 October: Bristol Old Vic Studio
22 November: The Showroom, Chichester

“An inventive, cool, original creation exploring expectation and endings, reality and fantasy” The Stage

Developed in association with Bristol Old Vic. Funded by Arts Council England.