Camden People’s Theatre presents a season of refreshing, inventive and bold works this Spring, featuring their flagship festival of brand new, unexpected performance, SPRINT and a roll-call of the most exciting and well-respected names in fringe theatre.
Following a barnstorming Edinburgh Fringe with CAttS, Frankie Thompson returns to Camden People’s Theatre with The Sex Party (11-22 Apr) after being developed on CPT’s Starting Blocks programme. The show is billed as an electrifying and disgusting dispatch on the scandalous sex lives of politicians which is part performative essay, part clown show and part animal documentary. Directed by Liv Ello (Swarm, Edinburgh Fringe 2022).
Also returning to CPT after festival success is James Rowland (***** – “a riveting, remarkable hour of theatre”, The Guardian on Learning to Fly, Edinburgh Fringe 2022) with Piece of Work (23 May). Rowland embarks on a nomadic quest to scour the country for a sense of home and hope, painting a picture of the beauty, grime, pain and kindness embedded in the landscape of our small island in this work-in-progress from the acclaimed storyteller.
Live to Tell: (A Proposal For) The Madonna Musical (4-15 Apr) is a searing commentary on the realities of day-to-day living with HIV disguised as a proposal for a jukebox musical delivered to the Queen of Pop herself! Brian Mullin, writer and performer of Live to Tell, fantasises about reinvention, just like his ultimate idol, Madonna.
After living with HIV for over ten years, and the ever-present stigma of the virus impossible to shake, Live to Tell redefines not just what it means to live with a chronic condition, but what it takes to survive. Performance dates also include Clapham’s Omnibus Theatre from 7 – 18 February.
Other highlights of CPT’s Spring Season include The Queer Historian’s My Dear Aunty Nell, which unearths more hidden LGBTQ+ history alongside We Live in a Human Dream, a cheerfully surrealist panic attack about the climate crisis from alternative comedian Siân Docksey.
The season also champions diverse voices through innovative modes of theatre in I’m Sorry I’m Not Lucy Liu, a playful and political choose-your-own-adventure work-in-progress from CPT Starting Blocks artist Eden Jun, Ramalama Ding Dong, a darkly funny and experimental multimedia theatre show about real life experiences of racism from Roshi Nasehi, Votive Theatre’s immersive audio-theatrescape Choose Your Fighter which allows audiences to follow one of four perspectives of the same Queer story, and Before I Go, a contemporary tale of limbo told through poetry, movement and song which brings Black lived experience to the fore. It is written and performed by Tobi King Bakare, best known for Temple Series 1 and 2 (Sky One), Cursed (Netflix) and I May Destroy You (BBC), who began his stage career at CPT in 2017 with the in-house production Fog Everywhere.
Already announced is CPT’s dynamic festival of new and unusual theatre, SPRINT, which takes over the venue’s programme this March. Ambitious examinations of mental health and trauma (Landfill of Memories, That’s Not My Name, D E S C E N T) sit side by side with explorations of Queer identity (He/He/He, My Dad Wears a Dress) and theatre which defies regular conventions (Seven Strikes, The Final Approach, Doxbox Trustbot). SPRINT also showcases the cutting edge of access-led theatre in Extant Presents: No Future & I Dream in Colour. The two works are created by blind and visually impaired theatre artists, Helen Ascough and Jasmin Thien respectively.
Rounding off the season, CPT celebrates a decade of its landmark feminist theatre festival Calm Down, Dear. This year, the feast of innovative performance is curated by multi award-winning theatre company RashDash (Two Man Show, Oh Mother, Look at Me Don’t Look at Me) and spans three weeks from Wednesday 31 May – Saturday 17 June. Full details to be announced soon.
