A Wee Ken to Remember

Versatile singer/organist, John Shuttleworth, has a dilemma: he wanted to tell the audience all about his most memorable weekends in his exciting new show – A Weekend to Remember. But next-door neighbour and sole agent, Ken Worthington has thwarted John’s plans, by cocking up the artwork of the show’s poster. ‘Weekend’ has become ‘Wee Ken’ and there’s nothing John can do about it. He is now duty-bound to steer the evening towards a celebration of the diminuitive impressario’s life in ‘A WEE KEN to Remember’.

And so we learn of Ken’s period as a beatnik in the 60s when he owned a finger monkey, his legendary appearance on New Faces in ’73, and Ken’s botched suicide attempt when he planned to throw himself into the canal. ‘But he tested the temperature of the water, and it was too cold for him!’ explains John. And what of John’s own past weekends? Surely some of them involved Ken, and what about his wife, dinnerlady, Mary? Is there a particular reason she’s giving John the silent treatment?

‘A Wee Ken To Remember’ is a hilarious new show from ‘The king of retro and old-school England’ (This Is Cornwall) and features onstage phone calls to Ken and Mary, plus musical interludes performed as ever on John’s Yamaha organ with built-in auto accompaniment. Old favourites like, ‘Two Margarines’ and ‘I Can’t Go Back To Savoury Now’, will nestle alongside newer ditties – ‘Visiting Time’, ‘Midweek’ and the rocknroll footstomper, ‘Early Tea’.

Tickets £16

www.exeterphoenix.org.uk