Pants show wins top Fringe award (From Harrow Times)

Pants show wins top Fringe award

4:04pm Thursday 2nd September 2010 in

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An up and coming actor from Abbots Langley, who is starring in Pants on Fire’s production of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, is celebrating with the other cast members this weekend having won the most prestigious prize at the Edinburgh Fringe – The Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award.

Twenty-four-year-old Jonathan Davenport, who takes on the roles of Jupiter, Persius and other minor parts in the show, is still reeling from the success.

“We were all completely blown away by the news,” says Jonathan. “It will really help to get our faces out there.”

The award gives the company the chance to put their play on in New York, paying for a four-week run of the show, plus the flights and accommodation.

As co-founder of acclaimed Abbots Langley-based mask theatre company The Village Idiots, which has performed five sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Jonathan certainly knows his stagecraft. He cut his teeth with Hertfordshire County Youth Theatre and the National Youth Theatre, and graduated from Rose Bruford College last year.

“We came to Edinburgh knowing what a hard slog it is to get reviews. We knew we’d all worked hard and we were proud of our production, but we also knew how Edinburgh works. Sometimes a very good show can go under the radar; it’s all down to people’s opinions.”

Pants on Fire’s Metamorphoses fuses inventive storytelling, live music, original close-harmony songs by Lucy Egger, dance, puppetry and film to bring Ovid’s ancient myths to life. This actor-musician show transposes Roman mythology to 1940s wartime England.

“The aesthetic of World War Two fits very well. It was a vastly changing time and Metamorphoses contains more themes than just change – there’s love, chaos and the battle between nature, man’s humanity and industrialism.”

Metamorphoses began life as the final project for director Peter Bramley’s MA in Theatre Practices, which he studied at Rose Bruford while also working as head of movement.

“The script was about 40 per cent in place when I came on board but the show is devised by all the company,” adds Jonathan. “It’s a lovely feeling to know this is our show.”

Pants on Fire’s Metamorphoses is at the Croydon Warehouse from Wednesday, September 8.