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With stories about queer culture and parenthood, vampires and Shania Twain, Park Theatre announces four-week festival
2nd – 28th May 2022 |
Twitter: @ParkTheatre | Facebook: ParkTheatreLondon | Instagram: ParkTheatreLondon | www.parktheatre.co.uk
A celebration of creativity in difficult times and developed in response to the cancellation of VAULT Festival 2022, Come What May Festival is a new venture for Park Theatre which aims to support emerging and experienced, local and UK-wide talent. Offering audiences a diverse range shows and styles, the festival includes stories about disability, queer culture, family, race, climate change, love, parenthood, addiction, sexual violence, privilege, childhood trauma and the experience of working-class communities. Each week will be a carefully curated mix of dramatic and comic, poignant and madcap, and includes Friday and Saturday late night cabarets and spoken word.
The festival rehomes 12 VAULT Festival 2022 shows, including the London premiere of two productions developed with Northern Stage: Ankles, A Book of Spells (20 – 21 May) casts away victim-blaming culture, born from teenage girls' experiences of gendered school uniform policies; and Mother’s Ruin (20 – 21 May) is a funny and heart-breaking musical exploration of motherhood.
Grappling with tough topics, Mediocre White Male (16 – 21 May) is about feeling confused and left behind by a progressive agenda in a small community, 4 (16 – 21 May) is a one-woman show about sexuality and identity in the wake of sexual assault, and Dolly (23 – 28 May) deals with childhood trauma in adulthood.
Bringing some comedy to the festival, POLICE COPS: Badass Be Thy Name (9 – 14 May) is a kitchen sink drama that turns into a vampire-slaying horror epic, complete with a 90’s rave soundtrack, and Pickle (2 – 7 May) is the story of a Jewish woman still living at home in North-West London, dominated by overbearing parents, traditions, and expectations. From Bruntwood Prize-longlisted writer Hugo Timbrell and director Nikhil Vyas, My Life as a Cowboy (24 – 27 May) sees gay 17-year-old lifeguard Conor given the chance to prove himself to the world – through the local talent show, Croydon People’s Day. A joyous new comedy about friendship, glory, Shania Twain and what happens when you embrace your weird side.
Artist Director Jez Bond said: “We firmly believe that the sector will be enriched by disrupting the straight, male euro-centric lens which still dominates and, if anything, has been strengthened by the pandemic and the need across theatres to programme more mainstream, commercially driven work for financial reasons. In spite of those acute financial pressures which we are also experiencing, Park Theatre believes it is important to do everything in our power to support these artists and to serve our whole community.”
Park Theatre presents exceptional theatre in the heart of Finsbury Park, boasting two world-class performance spaces: Park200 for predominantly larger scale productions by established talent, and Park90, a flexible studio space, for emerging artists. In eight years, it has enjoyed eight West End transfers (including Daytona starring Maureen Lipman, The Boys in the Band starring Mark Gatiss, Pressure starring David Haig and The Life I Lead starring Miles Jupp), two National Theatre transfers, twenty-five national tours, six Olivier Award nominations, has won numerous Off West End Offie Awards and won a Theatre of the Year award from The Stage. Park Theatre are grateful to all those who have donated to the Park Life fund, supporting the venue through the pandemic.
Listings information
Park Theatre, Park 90, Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 3JP
2nd May – 28th May 2022
Early Bird tickets: £10 for 1, £18 for 2, £25.50 for 3, £32 for 4, £37.50 for 5
Standard prices: £15 for 1, £27 for 2, £38.35 for 3, £48 for 4, £56.25 for 5
www.parktheatre.co.uk | 020 7870 6876*
* Telephone booking fee: 10% capped at £2.50 per ticket
Show listings:
The Net Kill
Presented by Incognito Theatre Company in association with Park Theatre
Director: Catherine Cranfield
Set at the end of the nineteenth century, Incognito use their award-winning physical style and theatrical bombast to tell this absurd and heart-warming story. A five-man badminton team are sent on a quest to vanquish a mysterious beast that has been terrorising the English countryside. Along the way, challenges are faced and truths are revealed, as Incognito interrogate the notions of friendship, brotherhood, and how men express their emotions and support each other in the face of grave danger.
2nd 7pm | 3rd, 6th 8.30pm | 5th, 7th 4pm Age recommendation 12+
Pickle
Presented by Tanya Truman Productions in association with Park Theatre
Writer: Deli Segal | Director: Kayla Feldman
“I want to celebrate life. L'chaim! What could be more Jewish than that?”
Here’s the shtick: Ari is caught between two worlds. Still living at home in North-West London, she has her Jewish life, dominated by overbearing parents, traditions, and expectations. Then there’s her day-to-day life - the job, the pub, the foreskins. Expect smoked salmon, guilt and a large dose of self-deprecation.
2nd, 4th, 5th 8.30pm | 6th 7pm I 7th 10pm Age recommendation: 16+
We’ll Dance on the Ash of the Apocalypse 3 – 7 May
Presented by Bluestocking Pictures & Women’s Writes in association with Park Theatre
Writer and director: Melissa-Kelly Franklin
I'm scared. Why? I'm beginning to hope.
A young couple living in a world ravaged by climate change face a terrifying prospect; an unplanned pregnancy. Together they must decide if they can bring a defenseless child into a seemingly hopeless world.
3rd, 4th, 7th 7pm
Baby What Blessings
Presented by Three Sisters Productions in association with Park Theatre
Writer: Siofra Dromgoole | Director: Caroline Yu
“I am young, I am naive, I am filled with … (possibility.) And I begin to stalk Amal.”
Meet Billie. 19 at the start of the play. Hilariously self-aware and hopelessly naive. She’s at the age where every new thing she experiences causes her to entirely reassess her life. And the largest thing to happen is Amal. Baby, What Blessings follows a relationship between a white woman and a black man through their student years. Darkly comic, the play tells a story of first love: joy, jealousy — and just how much is at stake in a relationship. Touching on themes of privilege, race, unconscious bias and mental health, it asks how far we are bound to our personal realities and whether naivety is ever an excuse.
5th & 7th 2.30pm | 5th 7pm | 7th 8.30pm Age recommendation 16+
Yes Queens
Presented by J Clare Productions in association with Park Theatre
Yes Queens is the West End’s first female-led improvised comedy night. Featuring top UK impro talent from such Olivier Award-winning productions as Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, Austentatious and Mischief Theatre, it is interactive theatre at its best, with the audience playing a key role in a night of games, scenes, sketches and songs – all improvised from their suggestions.
6th, 13th 20th, 27th 10pm
The Polished Scar
Presented by AboutFace Theatre Company in association with Park Theatre
Writer: Duncan Henderson | Director: Joanna Rosenfield
There are some things so deeply rooted in our history, our public psyche, our national behavior, that living without them seems unimaginable. We act in certain ways because we always have. Injustice is built in, cruelty, can be part of the course. To question this is seen as potentially undermining, dangerous, even treacherous, both by those who appear to gain from it and those that don’t.
What does it take to shape a leader? Why is this shape so familiar? How do we get from innocent newborn to manipulator? What hurt is meted out? What damage done? Who carries the scars? What is the cost? Who pays?
9th 7pm | 10th, 12th 8.30pm | 12th 4pm Age recommendation 16+
POLICE COPS: Badass Be Thy Name 9 – 14 May
Presented by POLICE COPS in association with Park Theatre
Manchester 1999: A kitchen sink drama turns into a vampire-slaying horror epic, complete with a 90’s rave soundtrack,. Supercharged physical comedy with more vampires than you can shake a stake at, this latest hour from the acclaimed trio promises to be a rip roaring hour of raucous physical comedy.
9th, 11th, 13th 8.30pm | 10th, 12th, 14th 7pm: | 14th 4pm Age recommendation 14+
MUCK
Presented by LJ Hope Productions in association with Park Theatre
Writers: Joseph Connolly and Gabriella Padula | Director: Toby Clarke
MUCK is commissioned by Norwich Arts Centre and is the creation of the FenCityPlayers, an emerging East of England theatre company committed to making socially significant work.
MUCK is a play about the pull of family taking you back to the last place on earth you really want to be. Set against the backdrop of a tough London estate, where a drug dealing former lover prowls and the debt collector is at the door, MUCK pulls no punches in its exploration of loss, love, redemption, loyalty, suppression, poverty, graft and surviving.
12th, 14th 2.30pm | 13th 7pm | 14th 8.30pm Age recommendation 14+
Mediocre White Male
Presented by Metal Rabbit Productions, Will Close and Joe Von Malachowski in association with Park Theatre
Writers and directors: Will Close and Joe Von Malachowski
30, still living in the same town and trapped in a job where he can’t open his mouth without offending a younger colleague. Everything seems to be changing but him. He longs for a simpler time of Pokémon cards, school nicknames and stable pronouns. But nostalgia is always dangerous... with his job under threat of cancellation and a figure from his past returning to haunt him, it might just be time to face up to some uncomfortable truths.
Mediocre White Male is about being left behind in a small community, feeling abandoned as the world changes, and feeling confused in the face of a progressive agenda you don’t fully understand. How do we handle the increasing anger and detachment felt across British society, where town is pitted against city, tradition against woke-ism’, and in the extreme white against black?
As society grapples with how to deal with its wider history of abuse, colonialism and uncaring capitalism, the protagonist (a relatable, complex and conflicted character) must deal with his own historical misdeeds, mistakes and demons.
16th, 18th, 21st 7pm | 17th, 19th 8.30pm | 19th 4pm | 21st 2.30pm Age recommendation 16+
4
Presented by Bruised Sky Productions in association with Park Theatre
Writer: Sarah Milton | Director: Rosa Crompton
4 is a new one-woman play telling the story of one woman’s immediate response to a sexual assault, fueled by a toxic friendship and crisis of identity.
The play opens with two best friends in their flat about to go on yet another night out. The protagonist, known as ‘She’, is hoping to win over her crush - Isaac the bartender, at their favourite drinking spot. That night, her best friend Trixie decides to invite a group of men home that she likes the look of, promoting She as her sexy, obtainable friend, to help seal the deal. But when She wakes up the next day, confused, sore, laid next to a man she doesn’t recognise, She is forced to re-evaluate everything she thinks she knows about her friendships, identity and sexuality.
16th, 18th 8.30pm | 17th, 19th 7pm | 19th 2.30pm | 21st 4pm Age recommendation 16+
Ankles, A Book of Spells
Presented by BRASH Theatre Company in association with Park Theatre
This is our book of spells. We put words in here, so that a change comes out. In here, you will find spells that protest. That rebel. That reclaim. That reconjure. That seep under your skin and haunt. In here, you will hear stories you’ve probably heard before. But we hope that we never have to tell again. Now, as we begin, we ask you to be open. To fall under our spells. And be the change that emerges.
Born from teenage girls' experiences of gendered school uniform policies, Ankles is a live Book of Spells to cast away victim-blaming culture. Through a whirlwind of poetry, movement, and a haunting musical score, we ask, when will we stop teaching kids that it's girls' responsibility to keep themselves safe from sexual violence?
20th 7pm | 21st 8.30pm
Mother’s Ruin
Presented by Calico Cats Cabaret in association with Park Theatre
Writer: Jenni Winter | Director: Rachael Walsh
Mother's Ruin is a funny, heartbreaking, gin soaked exploration of modern day motherhood, full of original, live music, hilarious tales of parenthood, plus tips on how to fail miserably at meeting everybody’s expectations.
Feeling the pressure from her own mother (a leading Feminist Academic), as well as her boss, her partner, not to mention the other local mums, Mother Ruin is on the verge… of what exactly?
Featuring a piano, a fake fur coat and a bottle of gin, Mother’s Ruin is a safe space to celebrate parents one and all, all their brilliant differences, without judgment!
20th 8.30pm | 21st 10pm
How Disabled Are You?
Presented by The Queer Historian in association with Park Theatre
Writer: Tommy/The Queer Historian | Director: Alistair Wilkinson
Tommy – a writer and performer with experience of living with disability and the benefit system - asks two disabled people with no performance background to join him on stage and read a script for the first time in front of you, the live audience. This powerful and experimental piece of theatre explores the challenge for the disabled community to be heard in the face of broad stroke Daily Mail prejudice and aggressive, institutionalised opinions.
23rd 7pm | 24th 8.30pm
Dolly
Presented by Bruised Sky Productions in association with Park Theatre
Writer: Chantelle Dusette |
Until you own your story, your story will own you.
Dolly is an uncompromising, dynamic story, using spoken word and movement. This high octane drama, with biting comedy, examines how childhood trauma manifests itself into adulthood.
We meet WOMAN, who has visible third-degree burns, as she unpacks how she navigates all her relationships with COUNSELLOR. During therapy sessions WOMAN is forced to revisit her childhood and in particular, her relationship with her estranged mother. With her 40th birthday fast approaching, WOMAN’S desire to work out how this has affected her comes into sharp focus as she considers becoming a parent herself.
23rd, 25th, 28th 8.30pm | 27th 7pm | 28th 2.30pm Age recommendation 14+
My Life as a Cowboy
Presented by Grace Dickson Productions in association with Park Theatre
Writer: Hugo Timbrell | Director: Nikhil Vyas
Conor is a gay 17 year old lifeguard, trapped in the suffocating suburbia of Croydon. But the opportunity to prove himself to the world is finally here – through the local talent show, Croydon People’s Day. His friends Zainab and Michael aren't convinced. Will his all-singing, all-dancing Country & Western tribute act be enough to get them onside and bring it home?
From Bruntwood Prize-longlisted writer Hugo Timbrell and director Nikhil Vyas comes a thrilling, joyous new comedy about friendship, glory, Shania Twain and what happens when you embrace your weird side.
24th, 25th, 26th 7pm | 26th 4pm | 27th 8.30pm Age recommendation 12+
The Co-op
Presented by Make It Beautiful in association with Park Theatre
Writers: Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson and Felix Grainger
Welcome to The CO-OP. The dysfunctional acting agency, run by three nobodies, that you’ll never want to leave. After Jimmy and Caza watch their best friend leave the agency, it all seems to be over. But can exciting and talented Charlie be the answer to their woes? Or will the secrets beneath The CO-OP be revealed?
Using popular music and film genres, this play is a love letter to theatre and film, brought to life by a bunch of rejects.
26th 2.30pm | 26th 8.30pm | 28th 4pm | 28th 7pm Age recommendation 16+
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