Over the decades, Mark Thomas has poked his nose into enough things to cause a politician to resign, arms deals to collapse, reform inheritance tax law, force the odd multinational to clean up its act a little and accidentally become Guinness World Record holder for political protests.
Following his critically acclaimed, award-winning and deeply personal theatre show Bravo Figaro, Mark is back to doing what he does best; mischief. On the 13 May 2013, Mark set himself the task of committing 100 Acts of Minor Dissent in the space of a year and, on the stroke of midnight 13 May 2014, the task will end. The show is his catalogue of those acts from the smallest action to the grandest confrontations, and just sold out its entire month’s run at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. The results are hilarious, subversive, mainly legal, occasionally inspiring and, most importantly, soon to be seen at ARC on Thursday 6 February.
In 2010, Mark walked the entire length of the Israeli wall in the West Bank and his subsequent 2011 show, Extreme Rambling: Walking the Wall, went on to tour nationwide from the National Theatre to the North Western Reform Synagogue and was named the Telegraph’s Show of the Year 2011. His last Edinburgh show, Bravo Figaro, was his first ever theatre show; a moving account about his father which was originally commissioned by the Royal Opera House and won Mark a Scotsman Fringe First, a Herald Angel and was broadcast on Radio 4 earlier this year.
With six series on Channel 4, numerous awards, TV documentaries, three books, a published manifesto, a fifth series of Manifesto commissioned for Radio 4, a Sony Award for his show My Life in Serious Organised Crime, a magazine column that caused a diplomatic incident, the occasional arrest (mainly other peoples, though not exclusively), court cases, giving evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees, stopping multinational infrastructure deals and no small amount of messing about, it’s no wonder that Mark is the UK’s favourite political comedian.
Engaging… Thomas’s earnest commitment to fighting the corporate power is tempered by a strong sense of the ridiculous and a welcome degree of self-irony.
– The Telegraph
Downright heroic…hilarious… it comes across as a genuine work in progress. Go – get involved, and be entertained in the process.
– The Skinny
• Mark Thomas presents 100 Acts of Minor Dissent on Thur 6 Feb at 8pm. Tickets are F: £15 C: £10 and can be purchased here.