Following the successful tour of “Jones and Smith” last year. Griff Rhys Jones brings his one-man, stand-up and story show about his partner, his untimely death, their relationship and the onset of ageing, back on the road this spring to explore the subject of travel.
Where was I? takes as its starting point some of Griff’s personal jaunts from the last fifteen years. He has sailed a boat to St Petersburg and around the Med. He has travelled in Morocco, the Galapagos, India and Australia. But mostly he has ventured forth to work for TV. Making Greatest Cities, A Slow Train to Africa, In Search of the Black Rhino, Burma and The Forgotten Army, several series of Three Men In A Boat and programmes on mountains, rivers, lost routes and tribal art.
He’s going to look behind those “making of” snippets for the real truth about TV travel. He has wandered from The Torres Straight Islands to Mali. From Moscow to Dar Es Salam, ridden “the train of death” and jumped from a burning boat in the Galapagos. He has sat with tribal elders and been ordered off their island. He has unwillingly climbed up mountains and abseiled down waterfalls, gone window cleaning on New York skyscrapers without a safety rope and clambered through Manchester’s most demanding sewers. And this, all without the help of Bear Grylls.
He will be telling plenty of funny stories but also musing on the nature of travel itself – about the differences between travel and tourism. Why do we go? What are we searching for? What do you need to pack? Why does television demand jeopardy, incident and immersion? And what exactly does that mean for your sanity? Ben Loyal in a blizzard. Upside down in the Wye rapids. Falling out of a coracle. Why does it all have to be so arduous? It’s the truth about making travel television. And the truth about wanderlust.
He has never lain on a beach with a cocktail in his life. Isn’t it time for a holiday? Why do holidays have to be improving and what’s the point of looking at ruins? What are all us old people doing taking gap years? And most important of all – how to get an upgrade. Every aspect of the mania to leave home will be under consideration and some for the armchair traveller too.
20 January 2018Bridgwater MacMillan Theatre
24 January 2018Bury (Greater Manc) The Met
25 January 2018Workington Carnegie Theatre
26 January 2018 Norwich Playhouse
27 January 2018Bristol Redgrave Theatre
01 February 2018Berwick Upon Tweed Maltings
02 February 2018Lancaster Grand
03 February 2018Liverpool Epstein Theatre
04 February 2018Warwick Arts Centre
09 February 2018Christchurch Regent Centre
10 February 2018Yeovil Octogan
13 February 2018Maidenhead Norden Farm
15 February 2018Bedford Quarry Theatre
16 February 2018Newbury Corn Exchange
17 February 2018Milton Keynes The Stables
18 February 2018Bognor Regis Regis Centre
20 February 2018Tring Court Theatre
21 February 2018Oxford North Wall Arts Centre
22 February 2018Peterborough Cressett
23 February 2018Leicester Curve Theatre
24 February 2018 Lincoln Drill Hall
27 February 2018 Brighton The Old Market
01 March 2018Aylesbury Waterside Theatre
02 March 2018Farnham Maltings
03 March 2018Letchworth Broadway
04 March 2018Epsom Playhouse
08 March 2018Telford Oakengates Theatre @ The Place
09 March 2018Tunbridge Wells Trinity Theatre
14 March 2018Cardiff Sherman Theatre
16 March 2018Jersey Opera House
17 March 2018Margate Theatre Royal
22 March 2018Redruth Regal Theatre
23 March 2018Exeter Corn Exchange
24 March 2018Great Torrington Plough Arts
29 March 2018Hereford Courtyard Theatre
