The Six Twenty’s Redcoat
Meet Lewis. He's a Redcoat. Living the dream and living it large in Bognor Regis. He likes to make you smile and show you a good time. But what happens when you're having an 'off day'? And you tell Barney the Dinosaur to p*ss off (in front of a load of kids)?
Redcoat is a fun and fabulous one-person show, that's loosely inspired by Lewis' experiences as a Butlin's holiday camp entertainer and has been developed with LGBTQIA+ youth group Cozmic 3phiphany. Set in 2012, Redcoat is a flash dance of mishaps and misbehaving. It's about getting your first real job, leaving home, making new friends, gagging over 'The Slushie Guy' and going out into the big bad world of Children's entertainment.
You can expect classic holiday tunes, adult weekender mischief, dance routines, balloon modelling, karaoke sing-a-longs and that extra special bit of Redcoat sparkle! After the show we'll share food together and you'll get to try one of Redcoat Lewis' famous slushies!!!
Helen Hawthorne Pallion Working Mens Club
“We’re thrilled to be one of the host venues for this year’s “Redcoat” Spring Tour on Thursday 25th of May 2023. Our friends at The Six Twenty have put together another fantastic event, a warm welcome awaits everyone attending The Volt Sunderland.”
A message from Lewis and Melanie:
Are you ready to Redcoat?
We said, are you ready to Redcoat?
Well, we most certainly are!
Back in 2015, in a dark cavern somewhere at the Edinburgh Fringe, Lewis told Melanie a story about a little lad from Newcastle (just out of Uni) going to live it large and make it big in...Bognor Regis! A flash dance of mishaps, mischief and misbehaving. They thought, wouldn't it be fun to turn that adventure into a show? After several pints, many jobs (a pandemic) and a lot of support, Redcoat was born!
Based on Lewis' experiences as a holiday camp entertainer in Bognor Regis in 2012, Redcoat is about memories, new friendships, gagging over 'the slushie guy' and going out into the big bad world of children's entertainment and trying not to lose it in front of a load of kids (and their grown ups).
Redcoat was originally shared as a work-in-progress performance at Live Theatre in March 2020 before premiering at the theatre in November 2021. In 2022, Redcoat went out on the road in its first tour around theatre venues from Hull to Edinburgh!
Since November 2022, we have been working with Cozmic 3piphany (a group that gives young LGBTQ+ people in Sunderland a voice) to help us shake up Redcoat and put their own stamp on the performance. We have been designing out of this world Cozmic Redcoat jackets (Butlins will never have seen so much stardust), sharing holiday stories with one another, making balloon animals and learning what it takes to make a theatre production happen. With plenty of extra sparkle, we could not be more excited to be taking the show out directly to local communities and give people the opportunity to experience Redcoat, right on their own doorsteps!
If you attend we would encourage you to have a boogie, make new friends, sing-along (we know you want to) and have fun! So join us, sit back, relax, take off your bra because Bognor Regis 2012 here we go!!
Lots of love,
Melanie & Lewis
xx
