CO-PROMOTION
impassioned investigation into the human cost cocaine production and consumption has in Latin America and further ai eld. Winner of VAULT Festival People’s Choice Award 2018. MEDEA ELECTRONICA Pecho Mama Pleasance Courtyard, Tue 14–Sun 19 Aug, 6.30pm, £9–£11.50 (£8–£10.50). Pecho Mama exploded onto the theatre scene this year with their bold, imaginative and genre-defying debut: a heart-stopping story of a family caught in the brutal throes of a marriage unravelling. This is a powerful and deeply moving retelling of the Greek tragedy set in 1980s rural England and staged amid an electrifying live gig.
UNSPOKEN Bravo 22 Company Pleasance Courtyard, Wed 22–Mon 27 Aug, 3.15pm, £9.50–£12.50 (£8.50–£11.50). Preview Tue 21 Aug, £7. From the team who brought you the winner of the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award for the groundbreaking The Two Worlds of Charlie F, Bravo 22 Company’s new drama, Unspoken, brings to light the lives interrupted and forever changed by war, on a heart-wrenching and hilarious journey of love, loss, loneliness and hope, performed by ex- service personnel.
KEN Pleasance and The Showstoppers present a Hampstead Theatre Production Pleasance Dome, Sat 4–Mon 27 Aug (not 13, 20), 3.20pm, £11–£14.50 (£10–£13.50). Previews Wed 1–Fri 3 Aug, £7. Terry Johnson returns to the boards with his interrupted monologue KEN: a freewheeling reminiscence of his turbulent and inspiring relationship with the truly original and unclassii able theatre maverick Ken Campbell. Aided and abetted by Jeremy Stockwell, Terry pays tribute to the legendary seeker, fearsome goader and unique comedic thinker. For 90 intriguing, amusing,
Tetra-Decathalon 70 PLEASANCE | SUMMERHALL | ZOO | FESTIVAL 2018
occasionally alarming minutes, audiences are invited to share Ken’s idiosyncratic perspective on life, and to muse on how one might live it. signature biting humour and raw, vivid imagery, Cardinal expertly portrays over a dozen characters in his captivating solo performance.
SUMMERHALL
ALMA, A HUMAN VOICE Nina’s Drag Queens Summerhall, Fri 3–Sun 26 Aug (not 8, 13, 20), 11.50am, £10 (£8). Previews Wed 1 & Thu 2 Aug, £5–£8. The Italian company Nina’s Drag Queens spearhead drag queen philosophy into the modern age, blending songs, i lm extracts and lip-syncing with live performance. In Alma, two characters are driven mad by love: Oskar Kokoschka who turned his lover Alma Mahler into a life size doll, and the nameless woman on the phone in Cocteau’s The Human Voice. Intertwining their stories with an ironic touch, a male actor in drag investigates femininity. VALERIE Last Tapes Theatre Company Summerhall, Fri 3–Sun 26 Aug (not 2, 13, 20), 9.15pm, £12 (£10). Preview Wed 1 Aug, £5. Named Stand-Out Cabaret of the Year by the NZ Herald, Valerie is an intergenerational, interdisciplinary and interrupting piece of theatre reaching into the guts of family mythologies. Music, genetics and storytelling combine to unravel one family’s history. A love letter from grandson to grandmother, this celebration of resilience is gig theatre at its i nest.
HUFF Cliff Cardinal CanadaHub @ King’s Hall in association with Summerhall, Fri 3–Sat 26 Aug (not 6, 13, 20), 4.15pm, £11 (£9). Previews Wed 1 & Thu 2 Aug, £9. Huff is a daring solo show by award-winning indigenous playwright Cliff Cardinal, which tells the wrenching yet darkly comic tale of indigenous brothers caught in a torrent of solvent abuse and struggling with the death of their mother. With his
LOVE SONG TO LAVENDER MENACE James Ley Summerhall, Fri 3–Sun 26 Aug (not 6, 13, 20), 12.55pm, £12 (£10). Previews Wed 1 & Thu 2 Aug, £5–£7. After a sell-out run at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland’s 80s gay romantic comedy hit is back. So are nostalgic bookseller Lewis and party-boy Glen, in this funny, celebratory play about Scotland’s radical, lesbian, gay and feminist bookshop that began in the cloakroom of Scotland’s i rst gay nightclub and became the beating heart of Edinburgh’s LGBT+ community. COCK, COCK . . . WHO’S THERE? Samira Elagoz in association with From Start to Finnish Summerhall, Sat 4–Sun 26 Aug (not 8, 9, 20), 6.45pm, £10 (£8). Preview Fri 3 Aug, £5. Samira Elagoz takes us along on her personal research project across three continents. From online platforms to close encounters, she showcases gender relations in their brutal and wonderful ambivalence and takes the audience on her journey of regaining power, reinventing autonomous expression of sexuality and attempts to relate back to men after being raped. An award-winning performance about violence and intimacy.
THE FLOP A Hijinx production in association with Spymonkey Summerhall, Wed 3–Sun 26 Aug (not 13, 20), 4.55pm, £12 (£8). Previews Wed 3–Sun 5 Aug, £6. See preview, page 68.
PUSSY RIOT: RIOT DAYS One Inch Badge Summerhall, Fri 10–Sun 19 Aug, 7pm, £17.50. Pussy Riot need little introduction. The Russian protest art collective gained global notoriety in 2012 when three members, Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were imprisoned for ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred’ for their performance inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The accompanying piece to Alyokhina’s memoir of the same name (Penguin Books), this touring play merges punk, electronica, theatre, documentary footage and protest.
THE MIDNIGHT SOUP Making Room Summerhall, Tue 14–Sun 26 Aug (not 20), 7pm, £15 (£12). The Midnight Soup is a piece of theatre during which the audience prepare a meal that they share at the end. Starting as a monologue and gently opening out to become a conversation, it tells the story of an unremarkable woman who every day sat down to meticulously record the facts of her life in a diary, until one day she chose her own death. The Midnight Soup is the love letter of a grandson to his grandmother. It is also an edible memorial, celebrating a life lived to the rhythm of the seasons. DOLLYWOULD Sh!t Theatre and Show And Tell Summerhall, Tue 14–Sun 26 Aug, 6.25pm, £10. Sh!t Theatre return with their 100% sell-out show from 2017. It’s about Dolly Parton and they still f*cking love her. It’s also about cloning, branding, immortality and death. Becca Biscuit and Louise