Blog – Lucy Nordberg

Brutality of Fact video launched

Lucy Nordberg — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 14:52:53 +0000

I’ve completed producing the music video The Brutality of Fact, based on the work of Francis Bacon, for the band ART-O-MATIC. Collaborating with the talented editor Deborah Espect, this was an exciting project to work on for an arts fan. Many thanks to the Estate of Francis Bacon for permission to use the images of the paintings alongside photographs of Bacon’s studio, as well as their careful research for the reference photos Bacon used for his paintings.

You can view the video at the link below:

The Brutality Of Fact

ART-O-MATIC was formed by David G. A. Stephenson (also of The Groovy Arts Club Band) with his collaborator of many years, Mike J. Gosling, to celebrate art, artists, architecture, photography, and design philosophy.

The Groovy Arts Club band also have a strong arts connection, with a name inspired by London gallerist Robert Fraser (1937-1986), known as ‘Groovy Bob’. In 2019, David co-curated an exhibition at Gazelli Art House featuring work by artists Fraser represented, including Clive Barker, Peter Blake, Derek Boshier, Brian Clarke, Jim Dine, Jean Dubuffet, Richard Hamilton, Keith Haring, Jann Haworth, Bridget Riley, Ed Ruscha and Colin Self. The band have an upcoming gig at the Pipline in Brighton on 24th January, as part of their series of Groovy Arts Club nights.

Meanwhile, ART-O-MATIC are planning a gig to celebrate the launch of The Brutality of Fact video. We’re currently developing ideas for videos for further songs in the new year.

Tickets on sale for Space Camp Fear

Lucy Nordberg — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 15:18:41 +0000

Tickets are on sale at this link for Space Camp Fear, the latest in a series of comedy musicals I’ve written, set to be performed in Brighton by the fantastic LGBTQ+ theatre group Out Cast from 30th October to 1st November 2025 for Halloween. While last year’s riotous sell-out Halloween production, Camp Fear, was a nod to the past, now we head to the future, satirising certain current events along the way.

You, the audience, our latest Cadets, gather at Space Camp to learn a cautionary tale about how humans first explored space, and how badly they once behaved…

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the egomaniac billionaire Pecan Husk sets up another distant space colony. His new crew sense something strange is going on, but what is his secret? As his actions unleash alien terrors, will they be able to stop him?

Audience feedback for Out Cast’s previous shows, with the same creative team:

“So many great moments – too many to pick a favourite, everyone shone. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Glad it’s a sell-out show!”

“It was really apparent what the theme of the beautiful writing was, and it was incredibly moving. I cried at the end of the first half, and I stood up and danced at the end of the second….funny and fulfilling.”

“It should be on every year so we can learn the words and sing along. You’ve all got great comic timing. I’m so glad we got to see it, my face hurt from smiling so much! Encore!”

Review by Bespoke Black Book for Out Cast’s Brighton Fringe show, Eurovision: NOTBIG Decides!

“A riot of original songs, comedic chaos and exaggerated characters. Even casual Eurovision fans will be swept up in the sheer joy of it all.”

You can find out more about the last year’s Halloween show here

Blank Canvas selected as quarter-finalist in ScreenCraft Film Fund

Lucy Nordberg — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 16:05:05 +0000

I was excited to find out that Blank Canvas, my short film script containing dialogue in verse – along with its accompanying production plan – was selected as a quarter-finalist in the ScreenCraft Film Fund Spring 2025. This year’s fund had 1100 submissions. ScreenCraft is an organisation that offers “production grants to talented creators for narrative features, short films, TV pilot series scripts, and documentaries that display originality, vision & exceptional potential”. Its film fund is a programme designed to help realise filmmakers’ ideas and connect them with companies looking for new stories to develop.

I received some great feedback on the script, which was especially encouraging as I know that verse dialogue is unusual as part of a film script. You can read more about Blank Canvas here

Comedy musical ‘Eurovision: NOTBIG Decides’ to be performed at Brighton Fringe

Lucy Nordberg — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 16:18:02 +0000

I’ve written a comedy musical, ‘Eurovision: NOTBIG Decides’, which will be performed by new Brighton LGBT+ musical theatre OutCast for the Brighton Fringe from 23-25th May at St.Mary’s Church Hall in Kemptown at 7.30pm. Tickets are available here

Featuring a mix of original songs and fan favourites, the musical follows the fortunes of a tiny island country, the Northern Overseas Territory of Biglandia Island Group (NOTBIG) as it attempts to enter Eurovision. Having tried several failed schemes to make NOTBIG great again (or great in the first place!), the president decides that entering – and hopefully winning – the Eurovision Song Contest will help the country make its mark on the international stage.

The whole island becomes devoted to a nationwide musical effort to write their winning entry – and the audience will help them decide the act they should send though to the contest. But not everything goes according to plan…

I last wrote a script performed by Out Cast for their sell-out Halloween musical, Camp Fear. For this latest show, Simon Gray returns as musical director, while Dave Mantle has written the music for the original songs.

Script given reading for short film featuring dramatic verse

Lucy Nordberg — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 10:29:06 +0000

As my next short film Blank Canvas goes into pre-production, here’s a look back at the reading of the script at Rising Phoenix, an arts collective holding a monthly new writing night in the atmospheric Net Loft venue at Brighton Fishing Museum. I knew the founder of Rising Phoenix, actor Isabella McCarthy Sommerville, from her role in my short film The Mirror, which was part of my ongoing practice to bring modern dramatic verse to screen and stage. Blank Canvas builds on The Mirror and Time and Tide to a present a full narrative drama using verse in certain sections of dialogue. The rehearsed reading to a packed audience, with written feedback, was a great way to assess the impact of the verse and how best to incorporate it into the interactions between the characters. You can read more about the film here

A sell-out musical for Halloween

Lucy Nordberg — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 11:19:51 +0000

I had great fun writing Camp Fear – a light-hearted Halloween musical – for exciting new theatre company Out Cast. Founded by Elliot Toms, Out Cast has a mission to create a safe space to access the world of theatre in all its forms for the LGBTQ+ community and allies across Sussex. As the company’s first production, Camp Fear was a sell out across both nights. The story four friends who might seem familiar (intrepid investigators with a van and a dog!) who agree to go camping on Halloween – but one of them is hiding a dark secret, and they soon meet a group of strangers who are not what they seem.

In the words of Elliot Toms: “More that just a humorous origin story of a certain famous cartoon franchise, Camp Fear is a take of confronting our inner demons, conquering hate with love, and embracing differences.”

The cast featured professional actors, those returning to acting, and singers acting for the first time. Musical direction was by Simon Gray, who has a career in opera and musical theatre, on national tours, in the West End, regional theatres and in major concert houses in the UK and worldwide. Katie Mayfield, director and choreographer, has worked both locally in Sussex and further afield on productions including Jack and the Beanstalk and Sleeping Beauty for Ropetackle Arts.

The whole team was pleased to receive great audience feedback, which was invited after the show to inform the company’s future productions.

“Super inclusive! Felt joyful.”

“Really moving and funny. Had a tear in my eye.”

“The right amount of silly!”

“So many great moments – too many to pick a favourite, everyone shone at some point… Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Glad it’s a sell-out show.”

“My face hurt from smiling so much and it’s left me in such a good mood. Encore!”