Gricer EN

🇬🇧 Liverpool, United Kingdom

🏠 11 Oxford Road, L22 8QE

'A master class in improvised comedy theatre' ★★★★★ The Reviews Hub “It’s Detectorists meets Waiting for Godot trackside.” The Gricers is a bittersweet, profound, and completely spontaneous theatre show created to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the modern passenger railway. Inspired by Francis Bourgeois’s The Trainspotter’s Notebook and Tom Quinn’s Railways' Strangest Journeys, this beautifully scored production is an affectionate celebration of the brilliant absurdity of British hobbies and the enduring friendships that keep us grounded. Meet Mike and Mark. Their quest isn’t for fame or fortune. It’s for the 4:32 from Manchester Piccadilly, the 11:05 to Carlisle, and the one elusive engine number that will make their collection complete. They are ‘Gricers’—standing trackside in rain or shine, a fiercely passionate, uniquely British tribe. But the real journey isn’t on the rails; it’s in the waiting. It’s found in the shared flasks of lukewarm tea, the comfortable silences, and the decades of shared history. This is a story of what happens in the quiet spaces between arrivals and departures—a tale of two men driven by a passion to complete a collection, and the unspoken hope that they might finally find what they are looking for. Performed by veteran improvisers Mike Burton (Stupid, The Atom) and Mark Smith (Hoof!, Taxi Tales), alongside live, atmospheric soundscapes mixed on stage by Fergus Wynne, this spontaneous theatrical event features compelling long-form storytelling, a brilliant cavalcade of characters, and an exquisite live DJ score. Concept and structure created by: Mark Smith Co-Development by: Mike Burton and Mark Smith Performed by: Mike Burton, Mark Smith and Fergus Wynne Press: 'A heartfelt story of male friendship’ ★★★★ Arts Review Hub 'This is fresh, funny, and inherently “dangerous” improvised theatre' ★★★★★ The Reviews Hub