Standup comics making theatre. Theatre artists making shows that look like standup.

Serious stuff by funny people and funny stuff by serious people. CPT’s Beyond the joke festival celebrates what happens when standup and theatre meet. When art and entertainment, jokes and deadly seriousness vie for the mic… Beyond the joke is headlined by Rachel Mars, with an unmissable solo show, The Way You Tell Them, about the compulsion and desire to be funny. Developed as part of CPT’s Starting Blocks programme, the show explores what it means to be funny, why performers and ‘real’ people often hide behind laughter, and what confronts us when humour is suddenly stripped away.

Rachel Mars is a performance maker with a background in theatre, live art, comedy and all-round rollocking entertainment. The festival also features performances Emily’s Very Sad Play by standup Sara Pascoe, The Price of Everything by theatre-maker Daniel Bye, and new work from Julian Fox, The Two Wrongies, Jamie Wood, Bush & McCluskey and many more.