FALLING FOR THE USHERS: My show for Nottingham LIGHT NIGHT!

Just posting details of FALLING FOR THE USHERS, the storytelling show I'm performing for Nottingham Light Night at Nottingham Central Library on Fri Feb 6th.

21^st. CENTURY POE: FALLING FOR THE USHERS

Nottingham Central Library, Light Night, February 6th, 7.30pm. Tickets £2.50. To book: 0115-915-2825 or email:

enquiryline@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Scottish storyteller & playwright Marty Ross (BBC Radio horror; Doctor Who audio) drags The Fall Of The House Of Usher kicking & screaming into the modern world, in a show already a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe & London Horror Festivals!

Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall Of The House Of Usher is long-established as a classic horror tale, but Marty Ross is a ‘modernist’ on the live storytelling scene, keen to rescue this resurgent form from backward looking quaintness. Thus, in his version, Falling For The Ushers, haunted twins Roderick and Madeline Usher have left behind the misty Gothic manor of the original story to become superstars of Glasgow's contemporary art world, thanks to their macabre conceptual installations in the manner of Damien Hirst and the Chapman Bros. But when Madeline’s old art school admirer Ed shows up, their tragic downfall is as inescapable as ever. And Marty Ross's unique performing style, combining evocative language with expressionistic mime and gesture, makes full-blown theatre out of the story as he embodies a whole cast list of larger than life characters.

FALLING FOR THE USHERS has already been a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and London Horror Festivals, as testified by the reviews it received:

“Insanely good storytelling… a master craftsman who never turns down the pressure… Ross’ violently impressive performance make this a heart-pounding triumph… Trainspotting meets gothic horror….” – Broadway Baby *****

“…What Marty Ross does with literature’s most mystical and macabre works is make them sing with new energy and beguile an audience all over again…. poetically re-worked ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ manages, in its modernisation, to preserve and revere the original, even intensifying its impact… a bewitchingly good story that leaves a haunting reminder long after the lights have gone down.” - 3 Weeks ****

“Ross has a great aptitude for suspense and terror, and he hurls himself into his tale with energy and passion, in words which ring with Glasgow rhythm. An accomplished piece of work… a chilling conclusion.” – The Scotsman

“Visceral. A compelling narrator and onstage presence. … left you thinking as well as reeling… theatre that kept you on edge… an immensely entertaining ride that scared and shocked in equal measure – a fair ground ghost ride for the 21st Century….” – Fringe Review

Well established as a playwright, particularly with dark drama for BBC radio (Ghost Zone, Catch My Breath, Darker Side Of The Border, Rough Magick & Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk; another Poe show, Moyamensing, BBC Radio Scotland's 2014 Halloween show this year, as well as 2014's The Dead Of Fenwick Moor, plus Doctor Who & award-nominated Dark Shadows audio drama, as well as Blood And Stone, nominated for a 2012 Rondo Award (horror fandom’s Oscars), Ross also regularly performs as a live storyteller, particularly in Scotland, his native country, and in the East Midlands, where he currently lives, this year having already seen him perform his latest show The Strange Tale Of The Glasgow Golem at Chilwell Arts Theatre, Nottingham. Two plays of his have been commissioned for the last two Buxton Festivals – Redder Than Roses: A Glimpse Of Mary, Queen Of Scots & The Woman On The Bridge.