In a place where evenings extend into the early hours, where cigarette smoke drifts silently over dimly lit tables and around the glistening instruments of a jazz band – five characters improvise the story of their lives.

Set exclusively in a seductive, enchanting jazz club where the bar opens late and the music plays through the night, Three Bar Solo takes its audience on a journey through the hopes and lost dreams of a jazz singer and the other inhabitants of this intimate world. Those that visit and those that work at the club each have their own tale to tell – a businessman in a surreal world, a jazz pianist with a disturbing past - stories of celebrity, of imagination and obsession.

Three Bar Solo exposes the distorting mirror of performance, amidst the empty shot glasses and discarded cigarettes of opening hours through to the cold daylight of closed doors. Envision Theatre invites you to attend the confessions of a mélange of characters alone and connected…

Using a six-piece live jazz band to create the musical world of the play, Three Bar Solo aims to integrate sound and music in exciting new ways, building on the company’s reputation of experimentation with musical forms. Mixing original song, cinematic underscore and character themes as well as innovative instrumentation – Three Bar Solo will create an aural atmosphere to complement the savage and uncomprimising drama of the play, rarely seen elsewhere.

Welcome to the jazz club of lost dreams…

Photography - David Oakes Photography

Jim Bradshaw

"Colin"

Tom Guest

"Luke"

David Oakes

"Rich"

Helen Spencer

"B"

Susannah Tresilian

"Krissy"