Le Navet Bete successful in funding bid

Exeter’s very own award-winning company of four clowns, Le Navet Bete, have been successful in their funding bid to develop and tour their new original show, Once Upon a Time in a Western. A local success story, the company who originally met at Plymouth University and who have since gone on to tour internationally, have been awarded £34,000 by Arts Council England.

Their new show promises to take audiences on an interactive, fast-paced journey across the Wild West as the town of Kidneystone is threatened by outlaw and all-round bad guy Loco Pedro who is secretly in cahoots with the Mayor to rob the town’s train of all its gold. The show integrates live music, physical comedy, audience participation, pistols at dawn and sugar glass bottles.

The show, directed by John Nicholson of acclaimed physical theatre company Peepolykus and creator of BBC Radio 4 comedy drama Marley was Dead, premieres at Exeter Phoenix 24-26 September. It will then embark on a tour around the South West which includes Barbican Theatre Plymouth, Bristol’s Circomedia and The Egg, Bath.

Al of the company said “We’re over the moon to have received this funding to develop our most ambitious project yet. The support of Arts Council England means that in addition to us being able to invest in creating really high quality work, we’ll also be able to tour it more extensively, reaching much wider audiences. Our ambition, after first premiering the work in the South West this Autumn, is to tour the show nationally, and hopefully really help demonstrate that new and exciting work is being developed in the region”

Phil Gibby, Area Director, South West, Arts Council England said: “Creating opportunities for local artists to develop and tour their work through support from our National Lottery funded Grants for the arts scheme is part of our goal to see excellence thriving and celebrated in the arts, museums and libraries. This project has the potential to make a significant contribution to theatre in Exeter and Devon - and it’s a great deal of fun!”

Click here to book tickets for Once Upon a Time in a Western (7pm, Tue 24 Sep 2013 - Thu 26 Sep 2013).