dramaturgy
I'm always keen to help bring new, exciting projects to life as a dramaturg/outside eye.
Deeply personal? Formally weird? I'm your guy.
Here's some stuff I've helped with recently...
Antichrist by Amiot Hills
(FemFest Brighton/Theatre Deli/Pinch Of Vault, 2023)
Amiot Hills is pregnant with the Antichrist, and they’re not sure what to do next. Equal parts silly and horrifying, join them for an hour of high camp body horror exploring transness, fear of pregnancy and shame. Combining object theatre and cabaret, Amiot Hills (***** ‘Physical. Visceral. Ecstatic.’ - The Tab) tracks an imagined journey of being pregnant with the spawn of Satan, and explores exactly why the idea of pregnancy as a trans person can feel like the end of the fucking world.
ANTICHRIST revels in the glory of reclaimed monstrosity. Hills walks the line between the authentic, bizarre, and riotous in an hour long satanic panic craze. Inspired by all the classic horror tropes, from the naff to the downright terrifying, hilarity and horror combine in a truly visceral experience. Going from shame to monstrous empowerment, ANTICHRIST is a ritualistic queer celebration of fear without shame, and a love letter to all of the monsters we hide within ourselves.
Image by Amiot Hills, 2023
Truly, Madly, Baldy by Sam MacGregor
Hen by Josh husselbee
(The Hope Theatre, 2022)
Two privileged, East London-dwelling flatmates have to keep a chicken alive for a year in order to inherit a large fortune.
Hen is a percussive, surreal examination of intergenerational trauma, addiction and the madness of grief. Crucially, it is also a comedy about an invisible chicken. As the challenges of living with a barn animal become more and more unbearable, Alister and Andrew have to ask themselves what they are willing to forgo of their sanity for the sake of money.
This is a chaotic and unflinching look at the toxicity of privilege that highlights the inherent absurdity of class. Thematically Hen explores co-dependency, addiction and the membrane between homo-social and homosexual relationships. The play also explores the relationship with grief and addiction as Alister substitutes substance abuse with his new found obsession with his deceased mother. Despite is long-ranging and dark subject matter, however, Hen remains a comedy.
(Directed by Sarah Fox)
(Pleasance Theatre, London/Edinburgh, 2023)
Truly, Madly, Baldy is a hilarious two-hander comedy based on the brutally honest stories of people who suffer from the hair-loss condition Alopecia. Told through a surreal and whacky lens, our characters Baldy 1 and Baldy 2 encounter doctors, dates and deluded opinions on beauty standards as they come to terms with their hair loss. Strap yourself in as things are about to get hairy!