Colourful pair of clowns

Anna Haskell-Thomas is flying into Bahrain this week to see her dad, Hugh, with her friend Verity Hicks, and hopes to spend the whole time clowning around the kingdom.

The colourful pair, known jointly as the Plumpkin Theatre Company, has been receiving rave reviews across the UK for doing just that.

Anna, 21, from Somerset and Verity, 22, from London, arrive tomorrow and aim to be entertaining folk throughout their stay until November 23.

“First and foremost I’m here to see my father, however, I am bringing Verity with me as we aim to take Plumpkin around the world – Bahrain being the first stop,” said Anna. “I have been visiting Bahrain around twice a year since I was 12 as it is where my father lives, however, it’s Verity’s first time in the Middle East and she is very excited!”

Plumpkin is a unique theatre company that specialises in contemporary clowning. Two Heads Are Better Than One – the current show – is a comic sketch showing the relationship between two clowns, Bumpkin and Plum, and also explores their daily antics.

“It centres on the habits we all possess, making light of mundane jobs and irritating incidents by exploring the relationship of someone you can’t live with and can’t live without,” explained Anna. “The show is extremely physical and contains little, if any spoken words, thus making it accessible to all nationalities.”

The duo formed whilst studying clowning at university, as their work together was acclaimed by tutors. “We both found a passion for clowning during this time and decided to come together for our final devised show at university.” Explained Anna. “After this we turned a 15-minute performance into a one-hour show and took it to the Camden Fringe Festival in London this summer. We haven’t looked back!”

Anna studied drama at Heathfield Community School in Taunton. She said: “This is where my passion for acting began, I played Mary Swan in Our Country’s Good before moving to Somerset College of Arts and Technology to complete a BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts.

“During my time there I had roles in plays such as Under Milkwood, Pravda, Seven Jewish Children and various devised productions. I also featured on TV performing The Canterbury Tales.
 
“I then moved on to the Arts University Bournemouth where I studied Acting and graduated with a BA (Hons) this June. Here I played Hedda in Hedda Gabler, Dottie Crocker in Cementville and Wendla in Spring Awakening. This is also where I met Verity as we studied together.”

Verity went to Haberdashers’ Askes’ Hatcham College in South East London, where she had roles in the Laramie Project and other devised productions. She also performed as a dancer at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London before moving on to the Arts University Bournemouth to study Acting. She too graduated with a BA (Hons) in June after playing Dani in Cementville and Juno and Procne in Tales From Ovid.

As Plumpkin Theatre Company, the duo first performed at the Art University Bournemouth’s Studio Theatre. They then moved on to the Etcetera Theatre in London where they had a successful run of shows during the Camden Fringe Festival.

“As an emerging company we hope to perform in many more places all over the world, hopefully starting with Bahrain!

“We can offer a fun, light-hearted and enjoyable show that is not affected by the boundaries of language. Whether you are a young child or an adult we believe audiences will all thoroughly enjoy the show and also have a chance to explore the world of clowning that is not seen enough of, nowadays. We are aiming to do shows to a range of audiences, from schools to public showings – we want to cover them all!”

Proud dad Mr Haskell-Thomas, 54, is the British founder and executive director of Azimuth WLL, an IT Systems Integration company based in Bahrain and working across the GCC. He lives in Amwaj with Susie Uba, spa manager for the Hani Group.

After careers in the British Army and Microsoft he was part of a buy-out team for a company in Paris. One of the co-investors was from Bahrain and suggested that he come over to fire up the business in the region.

Mr Haskell-Thomas said: “I saw an opportunity for a specialist IT company in the region and formed Azimuth and we have not looked back. The region is currently going through a massive round of capital development projects that exceeds almost everywhere in the world, these developments require ever more technical and complex IT solutions to support them and we hope to fill part of this need.

“I have lived in Bahrain for almost nine years and after five wonderful years in Budaiya we sadly had to leave in August 2011 due to the challenges in the area and moved to Amwaj Lagoon where we live in a home that enjoys beautiful views over the most northern part of Amwaj and out to sea.”

He also has a son, Darren, 28, the owner and director of an event management company in London, who is described as an ‘all round party animal and serial entrepreneur’.
 
“Anna is an aspiring actress and I’m really looking forward to seeing her and the clown act,” he said.

* If you would like to book the clown show call 36469080 for details.