Random Acts is a brand new short-form daily arts strand on Channel 4. Over the course of a year, it will showcase 260 specially commissioned three-minute films chosen for their bold and original expressions of creativity.

If you’re interested in spoken word stuff, you could do worse than make sure you’re on Apples & Snakes‘ mailing list.

It was good – the place was busy, there was a nice, relaxed atmosphere and the performers were an entertainingly mixed bunch. I’ve seen Polarbear a few times and usually enjoy his stuff so it was good to catch him again. I’d heard of Byron Vincent but hadn’t expected him to be quite so funny as he was. On the musical side of things, Tom Peel was a revelation, Martyna Baker was impressive and there was a young lady called Mahalia who blew everyone’s socks off.

Everything was admirably compered by Jodi Ann Bickley and Matt Windle, who were both very good too. A good night out, all told. Keep an eye out for the next one of these (if there is one – hopefully there will be).

OLD ME is me speaking directly, warts and all about what happens when you’ve figured out what you want and where your inspiration comes from. What happens when the life you have created is a million miles from the one you grew up with? What happens when someone goes from being a single boy in Birmingham working on a building site sleeping at his moms house, to a full time artist living with his pregnant partner in the big city of London in the space of 6 months?

The Rep – The Final Curtain

The Rep’s closing for a couple of years while they finish off the new library (which will integrate with the Rep to a fair degree). They’ll be touring around venues across Birmingham but before then they held one last little event. Joanne Malin hosted and Polarbear had written a piece for the audience to perform with some help from performers from the Young Rep.

It was short, sweet and good, wholesome fun and a nice way to see off the current place.

They were doing backstage tours after that but we didn’t have time for that because we wanted to go and see…

Birmingham Hippodrome – (re)Stretch

This was ace. I went to a little preview on Friday night and it was so good I went back on Saturday. (re)Stretch answers the question ‘how much fun would it be to string up 8 miles(!) of fine elastic to make a 10 metre-wide screen and then project things on to it and make it make noise too?’. The answer is, of course ‘very fun’, especially as you’re encouraged to get involved and play with the thing.

At the preview on Friday a couple of dancers cavorted in and around the piece (it’s presented in association with DanceXchange), which was lovely, but they were no match for the unrestrained glee shown by a class of young ballet dancers on Saturday when they were let loose on it.

It’s free and it’s there until Sunday 16 January. Martin Pickard’s taken some lovely pics from the Friday which you can see in this slideshow:

The Old Rep – The Firework Maker’s Daughter

We managed to score some tickets to this at the last minute, leading to the admission that I’d never actually been to the Old Rep before. It’s a good place and the staff were very nice and friendly. The show itself (written by Philip Pullman) was more kiddy-friendly than the sort of thing I’m used to (this was the Christmas show, after all) but it was entertaining enough – the elephant costumes were ace and it had a good energy about it.

Also on a theatrical tip

• Stan’s Cafe are doing an earlybird ticket offer for The Cleansing of Constance Brown at AE Harris from 1 to 19 March
• The first show of The Rep’s next peripatetical two years is The Rememberers on 4 February, also at AE Harris. It’s a ‘classic tale of good versus evil, told through rap narration, lyrics, projection, music and graphic novel illustration’ which sounds good to me

A celebration of young people’s written and spoken words. Verbalise showcases the talents of Birmingham’s emerging spoken word artists and performance poets, kicking off with a series of Saturday afternoon workshops led by renowned spoken word artist PolarBear. Verbalise culminates in two days of performances, in and around Birmingham City Centre and appearances as part of the Young Readers festival in Birmingham Central Library and at Aston Hall’s Book Bash.

And Visualise, which is slated for the end of October 2010:

At its heart will be a major open visual arts competition for young people of all ages, to be hosted in a high profile city centre venue. The festival will also offer the chance to see the work of other arts and community organisations from across the city, working with young people and the visual arts.

A coordinator is needed for that one, if you’re interested.

Return is very recommended. Weds and Thurs this week at mac. I’ve just got myself a ticket.

As a bonus, there’s an interview with Polarbear here.

I’ve gone on a bit about how good I think Polarbear (Steve Camden to his mum) is and a few weeks back I went to see his show ‘If I Cover My Nose You Can’t See Me’ at the REP (who joint-commissioned it with others).  In short (and I’d be prepared to go on at length if you really want) it was brilliant.

After the show everyone was ushered up to the REP’s mezzanine where musical partner Afrosaxon was manning the decks and graphic designer Goonism was sketching characters from the show. We also had a reading from one of Polarbear’s inspirations – a fantastic lady whose name, I’m ashamed to say, I didn’t get.

The photo below might need a bit of explaining.  Polarbear works with the West Brom-based Multistory on arts projects with kids, doing all sorts including making these masks (his black eye is make-up from the show, by the way).

Anyway, it was great and if/when he comes back it’d be well worth checking his show out.  For that matter, I reckon spoken word in general is a hugely underrated artform.  I know there are a few things about but if you know of/organise anything of that ilk around Birmingham then feel free to hit the comments below with detais of your next event.

All photos by Lee Allen of Front Row Photos.

The Decypher Collective presented a work in progress back in 2007 but this here is the finished article.  The collective:

originally formed after taking part in huge grime workshops put on by Punch Records and the Rep theatre. Hailing from various crews and production houses from all over Birmingham these intervals came together to develop the UKs first ever example of Grime Theatre

It’s the list of people involved that made my ears prick up though – Punch, Polarbear, Charlie Dark and Mark de Clive Lowe.

Here’s the trailer:

And here’s the flyer:

Spoken word/hip hop lyricist Polarbear will be performing ‘If I Cover My Nose You Can’t See Me‘ will be at The Door from 14 to 16 October.  See the vid to see what Polarbear‘s about:

and here’s the flyer:

I’ve heard a rumour about some aftershow parties somewhere but I’ve not had anything confirmed, so let’s just keep that between us for now.