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THEATRE

Caveman comedy comes to Zurich in English

Caveman is a successful solo comedy about a man, woman and relationships. It is being performed in English in Zurich on March 22nd and 29th at the ComedyBühne Weisser Wind, Oberdorfstrasse 20 at 8pm. And it's a must see if you haven't.

Published: 6 March 2014 15:05 CET
Caveman comedy comes to Zurich in English
Tischendorf Productions

Caveman holds the record as the longest running solo play in Broadway history and is now a worldwide, rock-solid tour de force that has won the hearts of millions in over 30 countries. And it's sure to win yours. Caveman pokes a large portion of fun at all the ways men and women fight, laugh and love. Don't miss you chance to catch a performance.

Company name: Tischendorf Productions
Interviewee: actor Kevin Buckmaster

How do you explain Caveman’s success?
Unlike any other text relating to male and female relationships, Caveman always seems to create the same genuine hilarity. It's a really universal play that takes us right to the heart of the everlasting clichés of our civilization. It also tackles a timeless theme, which travels beyond the boundaries of culture and language and explains male mystiques and contemporary feminism with great humour.

And how does the author Rob Becker explain Caveman’s success?
He believes the show gives people a way to understand themselves and their partners while they’re laughing and that healing takes place when a couple sits in a darkened theatre, laughing with other couples, realizing they’re not alone.John Gray author of “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus” described Caveman as follows: “Absolutely brilliant”! Should be seen by anyone who wants to understand the opposite sex!”.

What is the message behind Caveman? It explores the differences between men and women and how those differences have led us to misunderstand each other. It looks at how we live and love, convincingly sending the message that it’s ultimately our differences that make our relationships stronger.

What makes the script so distinctive?
It's a highly contemporary script that has the advtantage of standing the test of time. It enlightens men about themselves and enlightens women about men. It explores the common themes in relationships that go straight to the funny bone. It’s also really clever and generally just great entertainment !

And what about the actor Kevin Buckmaster?
Our press kit describes me as an Anglo-French actor who was originally given the task of frenchicising Caveman for the French audience in Switzerland in 2006. Under popular demand, he has also embodied Caveman in its original version in English for the first time in Zurich for the English audience here in Switzerland.

"Kevin is a comic, a clown, an improviser who has a discreet and subtle sense of humour yet can also be hilarious. He perfectly embodies the description and character of a Caveman with unpretentious and sensitive features… he is light and subtle with a lively and bouncy wit."

How does the audience usually respond after seing Caveman?
We have had so much positive response on our website since we started the show. Here's a taste of the comments: 

Entertaining, funny, to-the-point, and no-one – whether male or female – will emerge with ego intact. A very enjoyable evening. – Emma

I laughed so much, my head ached afterwards! Very warm welcome, spot on dialogue, excellent delivery, insightful, enlightening, and frighteningly accurate. Go see the show – and enjoy a great evening. – Philippa

Very funny show. Some great points made and I shall now consider my partner to be from a different culture even species!!!! – Jane

You have to see this show! Your life depends on it! – Gerry

This hilariously funny but horribly truthful stand-up comedy could be the saviour of your relationship as the basic male-female differences are brought brilliantly to light. 

Book your tickets now at www.tischendorf.ch or www.starticket.ch or contact us on: [email protected] – 076 329 59 65

PARIS

Top Paris theatre reopens as Covid occupy movement ends

French actors, stage technicians and other members of the performing arts ended a more-than-two-month occupation of the famous Odéon theatre in Paris on Sunday, allowing the show to go on after this week's easing of Covid-19 curbs.

Published: 23 May 2021 15:58 CEST
Top Paris theatre reopens as Covid occupy movement ends
A picture taken on January 26, 2011 in Paris shows the facade of the Odéon theatre. LOIC VENANCE / AFP

The protesters took down the banners they had slung across the facade of the venue in the Left Bank as they left at dawn, leaving just one inscribed “See you soon”.

“We’re reopening!,” theatre director Stéphane Braunschweig exclaimed on the venue’s website, adding that it was “a relief and a great joy to be able to finally celebrate the reunion of the artists with the public.”

The Odéon, one of France’s six national theatres, was one of around 100 venues that were occupied in recent weeks by people working in arts and entertainment.

The protesters are demanding that the government extend a special Covid relief programme for “intermittents” — performers, musicians, technicians and other people who live from contract to contract in arts and entertainment.

READ ALSO: Protesters occupy French theatres to demand an end to closure of cultural spaces

With theatres shut since October due to the pandemic, the occupations had gone largely unnoticed by the general public until this week when cultural venues were finally cleared to reopen.

The Odéon, which was inaugurated by Marie-Antoinette in 1782, had planned to mark the reopening in style, by staging Tennessee Williams’ masterpiece “The Glass Menagerie”, with cinema star Isabelle Huppert as a former southern belle mourning the comforts of her youth.

But the protests scuppered the first five performances, with management saying the venue was blocked — a claim the protesters denied.

“What we wanted was for it (the performance) to go ahead, along with an occupation allowing us to speak out and hang our banners. We don’t want to stop the show,” Denis Gravouil, head of the performing arts chapter of the militant CGT union, said on Sunday.

Two other major theatres — the Colline theatre in eastern Paris and the National Theatre of Strasbourg — have also been affected by the protests.
 
France has one of the world’s most generous support systems for self-employed people in the arts and media, providing unemployment benefit to those who can prove they have worked at least 507 hours over the past 12 months.

But with venues closed for nearly seven months, and strict capacity limits imposed on those that reopened this week, the “intermittents” complained they could not make up their hours.

The government had already extended a year-long deadline for them to return to work by four months.

The “intermittents” are pushing for a year-long extension instead.

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