Sunday the 19th and Monday the 20th.

Then we’re back to the US.  Thanks to all who came to our performances.

Three more shows to go, Monday and next Sunday/Monday.  Tell your friends!

Thanks, London, for a warm welcome!

If you mention “danceUK” when you buy your tickets by phone, you will get a FIVE POUND discount on the ticket price, making the price just 10 GBP.  This is by special arrangement with our friends at danceuk!

Here’s to a great London run, on the 12th, 13th, 19th and 20th.  See you at the King’s Head.

Thanks to Damien, Mike and all the staff at YTR for being great hosts and having such a professional and supportive facility.  The residents of York are rightly proud of this community asset.

Thanks to our great audiences, and we hope to return to York one day!

Tony, Kurt and Marc

“In Charlatan, the veteran actor (and writer, director, choreographer and dancer) Tony Tanner (right) is the wry, waspishly witty embodiment of Sergei Diaghilev, the great Russian-born impressario of the Ballets Russes.  Raised with “art and music at every orifice,” he later exerted a huge influence on 20th-century Western culture.

Speaking from beyond the grave, this Diaghilev treats us to tales of the creation of some key works and details his intimate, troubled relationship wiht the legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky.

One of Tanner’s strongest suits is how his richly-expressed, name-dropping script appeals to those in the know without leaving a non-dnace audience out in the cold.  The show would make an excellent warm-up for the Diaghilev-based exhibition opening at the V&A later this month.

Charlatan is at the King’s Head, London, N1 Sept 12, 13, 19 and 20. “

Photo: Enci

Thanks to all who attended our show at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and thanks to Rockey, Briney, Lee and the entire crew at the Assembly!

Our latest review was from The Arts Desk, with another FOUR STAR review. They said:

The ArtsDesk: FOUR STARS  “…the golden age of the Ballets Russes is all effortlessly conjured up by the art that conceals art… so uncondescending in its celebration of an artform that the faultlessly professional Tanner obviously loves to bits. A jewel.”

The full review is here.

The Scotsman

The Scotsman ran a full page feature on Tony today.  Our thanks to Kate Copstick and Mel Brown for even more visibility!

Feature Sunday 22 August Express

A wonderful story with some funny bits and a bit of nostalgia.

Janey Godley, one of the top comics in Britain, penned a review for One4Review, a respected Fringe review site that has been in operation for over 10 years.  She gave CHARLATAN FIVE STARS and said in part: “I walked into Tony Tanner’s one man play Charlatan expecting to be mildly entertained. I was stunned by the sheer talent of the actor and totally overawed by the story.”

Janey debunks the reviews of a few others who claimed that you need to be a dance or Diaghilev fanatic to be interested.  She describes herself as “regular base line philistine with a low grade tolerance for ‘up itself prose’ and with no real grasp or devout interest in the origins of the Ballet Russes,” but says it’s just a “cracking good story,” and is “as relevant today as any sharp, sassy sitcom and the writing is superb.

Read the full review here.

“. . . a fascinating glimpse into a pivotal time”

Review from The Scotsman

Just as Elvis Presley begat the Beatles, Sergei Diaghilev is responsible for much of the modern and classical dance we see today.

Without him, the world wouldn’t have been exposed to the Ballet Russes, featuring the incredible movement style of Vaslav Nijinsky and the choreography of George Balanchine, both of which were enormously influential on those who followed.

In short, Diaghilev was a giant, an impresario who quite literally changed the world of art, music and dance. But he was also a man. One who loved beauty on the canvas, on the stage and in the young men he courted.

Born in England but now based in America, actor Tony Tanner wrote Charlatan after seeing a friend perform a one-woman show about Gertrude Stein. That, and a life-long fascination with Diaghilev, prompted him to put pen to paper to craft his own homage to a legend.

The result is a fascinating glimpse into a pivotal time. On the simplest of stages, aided only by some lighting changes and a chair, Tanner becomes Diaghilev. Clad in a smart black suit, a single grey streak running through his hair, he takes us back to the excitement of 1909 and the Ballet Russes Paris debut, a key moment in dance history. Most touching of all is Tanner’s tender treatment of Diaghilev’s relationship with Nijinsky, and the dancer’s slow descent into mental illness.

Great artists of the era are dropped into his conversation – Fokine, Cocteau, Stravinsky – with little or no explanation, so this is no show for the uninitiated. For those in the know, however, it’s a chance to hear about a golden era, almost from the horse’s mouth.