THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER RETURNS TO AUSTIN IN SONG, FILM AND SEVERAL AND SUNDRY COMEDIC (AND TRAGIC) TURNS

 

Return to Wigan Pier: A Right Ol’ Knees-Up features the songs, films and excepts from writer-director Robi Polgar’s original 2004 production, The Road to Wigan Pier: A (Socialist) Tea-Time Travelogue and Historical Musical Revue. One night only, January 26, 2019 at the Carousel Lounge.

 

Fifteen years after the wildly successful premiere of The Road to Wigan Pier: A (Socialist) Tea-Time Travelogue and Historical Musical Revue, writer-director Robi Polgar brings highlights from the original production to Austin’s iconic Carousel Lounge on January 26, 2019 for a right ol’ knees-up in an evening of live music, film, comedy and community. The performance features music by the Late Joys, eclectic projections by Lowell Bartholomee and excerpts from the 2004 production performed by an all-star cast, including some of the original cast members.

 

Listen to the house band the Late Joys and their special guests as they perform the songs from the 2004 foray to Lancashire, England’s most famous mining town. See Lowell Bartholomee’s films and visual shenanigans, including the highly educational “A Short History of Coal and Coal Mining in England.” Learn to speak “Lanky,” as taught by the miners of Wigan. Enter the raffle for a chance to win “dinner for two and a movie.” Experience the daily lives of the working men and women of the north of England. And sample a “cuppa tea.” Maybe. Special appearances by Margaret Thatcher and George Orwell included!

 

Dubbed “a ridiculous amount of fun” by the Austin Chronicle, the original production ran for four weeks in Jan. – Feb. 2004 at the Off Center. 2019’s version also promises some amount of fun, though we won’t venture a guess as to how ridiculous that fun will be. 

 

Read the Austin Chronicle Review of the 2004 Production 

 

Watch A Short History of Coal and Coal Mining in England

  

Listen to A Song from the Show 

 

 

 ABOUT ROBI POLGAR 

Mr. P is a writer, producer, director and musician living in Austin, Texas with his wife and kids.

 

In addition to Wigan Pier, he has written, produced and directed The Tree Play, Burnt (co-authored with Catherine Rogers) and adaptations of The Wars of the Roses (Shakespeare) and Mephisto (Klaus Mann). The Willie Wells Story (commissioned by the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum) is his biography of Austin's most famous baseball player. Robi was the co-founding artistic director of The Public Domain Theatre Company, where he produced and/or directed more than 40 plays between 1993 and 2001. 

 

Musically, Robi fronts the Brit-Pop combo the Late Joys, and he shares performance duties as part of the acoustic duet, The Study Session. His EP of protest songs [ samizdat-001 ] Thug Nation: Songs from the Resistance was released in August, 2017.

 

More information about Robi’s artistic output can be found at http://www.robipolgar.com/

 

ABOUT THE CAROUSEL LOUNGE

 

The Carousel Lounge is a longstanding monument to the spirit of Austin. Funky, arty, groovy and a great place to hear a wide variety of music. Beer, wine and setups. BYOB