Christopher Stanton and Susanna Fournier. Photo by Trevoe

For immediate release: August 27, 2014
Please include in listings and announcements
Media contact: Amy Lam amyclam@gmail.com
Phone: (416) 827-4503

Small Wooden Shoe presents

The Fun Palace Radio Variety Show

October 2, 3, 4; November 6, 7, 8; and December 4, 5, 6
Toronto ON

A live show and podcast from the acclaimed experimental theatre company Small Wooden Shoe.

Jacob Zimmer and friends launch the first season of a groundbreaking new project that combines the best of old time vaudeville and music hall revues with contemporary theatre and podcasts.

A real treat. Smart, funny, self-aware but not self-satisfied, it was great live theater that also makes for excellent radio. - Culturebot.org

Both incredibly entertaining in person and as an online entity … a variety of content for our listening pleasure. - Tunes for Tea

Part theatrical experience, part podcast, The Fun Palace Radio Variety Show mashes-up historical vaudevilles and revues, the golden age of radio, The Muppet Show, and CODCO with doses of the best in radio programs like This American Life, Spark, Radiolab, and Prairie Home Companion.

Each night, the Fun Palace Players – exciting talents from Toronto’s theatre and comedy scenes, including Susanna Fournier, Becky Johnson, and Christopher Stanton – along with host Jacob Zimmer, present everything from a detective radio drama about Walter Benjamin, to Dramatic Readings of the Internet, to interviews with experts in Toronto politics, neurochemistry, and other topics that matter. All of this is woven together with special guest musicians, storytellers, and comedians… and after the show, local musicians play a live set, Live at the Fun Palace.

Named after the visionary “Fun Palaces” – radical concept buildings imagined by influential architect Cedric Price and renowned theatre director Joan Littlewood, merging the arts and sciences under one roof for the pleasure and education of the public – the Fun Palace Radio Variety Show brings big ideas into an intimate setting.

Launching this fall on the 100th anniversary of Joan Littlewood’s birthday, the Fun Palace Radio Variety Show joins over 100 Fun Palaces worldwide – including in the UK and Iceland – that will pop up in locations as various as theaters and swimming pools to celebrate Littlewood’s revolutionary concept.

Intimate, fun, vulnerable and smart, Small Wooden Shoe engages with the world in an honest, informal way while maintaining the need to step up and entertain. Small Wooden Shoe has presented vital new work dealing in both scientific and theatrical traditions including Dedicated to the Revolutions, a show about the seven scientific revolutions and their effect on our lives (Buddies in Bad Times, 2009; Touring 2010-2), and a reading of The Life of Galileo for Tracy Wright (2010).

A Small Wooden Shoe project
Produced and hosted by Jacob Zimmer
with the Fun Palace Players including Christopher Stanton, Susanna Fournier, and Becky Johnson under the direction of Chris Earle with music direction from Jonathan Adjemian sound by Richard Feren

New special guests each night, including Jessica Moss, Fiver, David Hulchanski, Thom Gill, Malcolm Sutton, Anamai, the cast of Concord Floral, Isla Craig and more.

Live shows
at the Monarch Tavern
October 2, 3, 4; November 7, 8, 9; and December 4, 5, 6
$12 /ticket
Purchase online: http://funpalace1.eventbrite.ca/

Podcasts released weekly
on iTunes at: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/fun-palace-radio-variety-show/id912005674?mt=2
on the web: funpalace.ca/episodes

Season One launches October 6th

Beta episodes recorded November 2013 and February 2014 live now

Jacob Zimmer and Richard Feren. Photo by Trevor Schwellnus.