The Managing Director
The character of The Managing Director SPOKE by Tam Dean Burn
Any other characters SPOKE by the former Bill Drummond
THE PENKILN BURN PLAYERS
SPOKE
WRIT
From the Desk of The Managing Director of Penkiln Burn Recordings
Sunday, 2nd November 2025
Dear Interested Parties,
More rather dull information that I am being expected to share with you...
You may already know this but...
The Penkiln Burn Players are group of wandering players, who have been playing and wandering for some time.
On Friday the 14th of November 2025, The Penkiln Burn Players will be wandering into the Delia Derbyshire Building in Coventry to perform the play The Tied Toes.
With them will be their Artistic Director who goes by the name of Tam Dean Burn.
And...
Their Musical Director who goes by the name of Leo Condie.
And...
The Tier of Toes who goes by the name of the former Bill Drummond
The rest of the cast for this performance comprises of forty individuals who have bought tickets in the hope they are to witness the former Bill Drummond do something other than tie toes. What they did not know was...
The act of buying one of these forty tickets means they have unwittingly become a member of the cast for The Penkiln Burn Players for that evening’s performance of The Tied Toes.
The Costume Department of The Penkiln Burn Players, will provide work coats for The Cast to wear for the duration of the performance of the play.
Tam Dean Burn will be in character as The Minister.
And...
Leo Condie will be in character as The Precentor.
The Minister and The Precentor are also characters in the wider and ongoing performance that goes by the name of Voices From The Galloverse
The Stage Set for The Tied Toes, will include the following...
1: Forty chairs positioned in a circle at the centre of the Hyper Studio in the Delia Derbyshire Building.
2: A painting painted by The Part Time Painters that very afternoon during the creation of The Coventry Soup Line. The title of the painting is TIED TOES.
3: A large cumbersome easel to position the TIED TOES painting upon.
4: A public history of The Shangri-Las created by STEWY that very morning on the outside wall of the Delia Derbyshire Building.
The Stage Props for The Tied Toes, will include the following...
1: A large ball of twine.
2: A bottle of blood red nail varnish.
3: A brush to paint the nail varnish onto the nails forty pairs of Big Toes.
4: A copy of the record EMOTIONS by The Tied Hands.
And...
5: A record player to play the record EMOTIONS by The Tied Hands on.
The tech required will be recording equipment to record the various layers of the vocal performance of Past, Present & Future originally recorded by Shangri-Las in 1966.
The dialogue for The Tied Toes has not been scripted.
But...
It is hoped that the performance of The Tied Toes will include the following actions...
The Forty unsuspecting members of the cast will arrive at the Delia Derbyshire Building between 7:30 and 8pm on the evening of Friday the 14th of November.
They will be handed a work coat to wear.
They will be asked to sit on the Forty Seats in a Circle that are waiting for them.
Tam Dean Burn in his role as The Minister will appear and precede to the centre of The Circle.
The Minister will introduce himself and welcome the other members of the cast and introduce them to the fact that they are no longer a group of individuals that have bought a ticket for something. A ‘something’ they were not too sure what that ‘something’ was but they are now to be in character as one combined character that is to go by the name of The Congregation. And as such they have to follow his instructions given by Tam Dean Burn as The Artistic Director of The Penkiln Burn Players and in his role as The Minister of The Congregation.
The Minister will tell The Congregation that in 1801, Ludwig Van Beethoven composed his Piano Sonata Number 14, which was later anointed the title Moonlight Sonata.
And...
It was on this evening 85 years ago that Luftwaffe, under strict instruction from Adolf Hitler, carpet bombed the City of Coventry.
And...
That Adolf Hitler decided to call this carpet bombing of Coventry his Moonlight Sonata.
And...
That in the early months of 1966, Shadow Morton used the Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata to be the backing track of The Shangri-Las record Past, Present & Future.
And...
The Minister may play the original version of Past, Present & Future by The Shangri-Las and one or two of the other versions recorded by The Tied Hands during their tour of the World Wide Web. This will be done to give context to whatever may happen next.
As in...
The Minister will then introduce Leo Condie as both the musical director of the evening’s performance and as The Precentor.
The Precentor will then inform how he and The Congregation will construct a recording of Past, Present & Future with ‘nothing but their voices’.
This construction will involve risk and anxiety.
This construction will be recorded and mixed in the real time as part of the performance.
While this is happening, The Tier of Toes may want the forty members of The Congregation, to remove their shoes and socks, so that he can use his ball of twine, to tie their big toes together, and then paint the nails of their big toes, with blood red nail varnish.
But...
That tying of toes and painting of toenails might not happen, because sometime things don’t happen for both good and bad reasons.
But...
Recording of Past, Present & Future by The Tied Toes will happen.
And...
The Minister will then inform The Congregation that the complete cast of the performance of this play are to retire to the outside of the building, where STEWY has done his street art portrait of the original members of The Shangri-Las.
And...
Then the newly constructed version of Past, Present & Future will be played to the original line up of The Shangri-Las and to the night sky, where on that night, 85 years ago the bombs fell from the sky onto the streets of Coventry. And we will all imagine as strongly as we can what it is like to have bombs fall out of the sky on to us in this very real world that we are living in.
And...
That might be the end of this performance of that play.
The Cast will take their bows and retire into the night.
Anyway...
That is all that I have been told to tell you about.
Yours Faithfully,
The Managing Director of Penkiln Burn Recordings
