Following the success of Brute at Soho Theatre, Damsel Productions teams up again with award-winning writer Izzy Tennyson to present Grotty, a semi-autobiographical piece centred on East London’s lesbian scene. The play is a provocative, satirical and at times grotesque exploration of intergenerational tension in the lesbian community, as well as struggles with mental health, identity and grief.
Izzy Tennyson who will be playing Rigby, won the Ideastap/Underbelly award with the debut show Brute (Edinburgh fringe festival 2015). Tennyson will be starring alongside Grace Chilton who will be playing Witch/Elliot, Rebekah Hinds playing Toad/Kate and Anita-Joy Uwajeh who will be playing Josie/Natty/Dr Alexandra.
Grotty is not a sentimentalised view of the London lesbian scene and is certainly not for the faint hearted. Told through the eyes of a young and reckless Rigby, a series of flashbacks expose Rigby’s taste for self-destruction and girlfriends with nice flats. Rigby doesn’t just fall down the rabbit hole, she hits the very bottom of it – mind games with no logic, laddish girls with a ‘fuck them and leave them’ attitude, desperate nesting 30-somethings and fetish club outcasts who, if they were men, would probably be on some sort of list.
Director, Hannah Hauer-King comments, “Damsel is thrilled to bring this new, provocative and caustically funny play by Izzy Tennyson to our recent venue of residence, the Bunker Theatre. There is a dearth of stories focused on the queer female experience, and Grotty is a fantastic exploration of this underrepresented part of the community, and ultimately a compelling piece that will engage a diverse audience.”
Grotty is at The Bunker Theatre 1st – 26th May 2018.
