This August will see Damsel Outdoors take place in locations including Portobello Road and Bankside as four compelling new pieces of theatre are staged across London. This exciting collaborative project from Damsel Productions, with an all women and non-binary inclusive team, is a chance for the artists to explore the creative potentials of the outside, with no limitations on the subject matter.
Damsel has worked with local authorities and communities to find accessible and exciting spaces to stage these pieces which embrace theatre and performance outside. Maintaining social distancing, in line with government guidelines, the shows will be open for anyone to watch and free for all audience members.
The festival opens on Thursday 13th August when the Damsel Green creative team will come to Under the Canopy, Portobello Road. Directed by Abigail Graham (Carmen the Gypsy, Arcola theatre and tour) and designed by Anna Clock (I WANNA BE YOURS, The Albany, Bush Theatre and UK tour), Take Back Control The Virus by Iman Qureshi (The Funeral Director) plays with the contradiction of rising anti-immigration sentiment in a Britain heavily reliant on frontline services dominated by immigrant workers.
The Damsel Blue creative team will take to the stage on a park bench in Ravenscourt Park in Hammersmith on Monday 17th August. Vixen from Timberlake Wertenbaker (Our Country’s Good) is a piercing looking at identity politics and stigma through the persona of a wandering vixen. It is directed by Sita Thomas (The Rose and the Bulbul, Kadam) with design by Anna Reid (The Sweet Science of Bruising, Wilton’s Music Hall).
Transcendent from the Damsel Yellow team will open outside the Tate Modern on Bankside on Friday 21st August. Benedict Lombe’s (rise from the wreckage) piece is a lyrical celebration of Black Love fusing song, rap and poetry, all through the eyes of a couple grappling with a future in a world dominated by racial injustice. It is directed by Beth Pitts (Spine, Soho Theatre and UK tour) and designed by Khadija Raza (A History of Water in the Middle East, Royal Court Theatre).
Damsel Pink concludes the Damsel Outdoors festival with Clapped by Abi Zakarian (Fabric) on Sunday 23rd August at Giffin Square in Deptford. Directed by Lakesha Arie-Angelo (soft animals, Soho Theatre) with design by Nicola Chang (White Pearl, Royal Court Theatre), Clapped is a provocative interrogation of culpability and hypocrisy of a Britain clapping for its NHS, as growing protests fight to be heard.
Damsel Productions’ Hannah Hauer-King and Kitty Wordsworth comment, We are thrilled to have confirmed four locations in different communities across London. Damsel has a pre-existing relationship with the Westway Trust, Southwark and Hammersmith & Fulham, and is excited to get to know Lewisham through these performances. Though our locations differ, we have been excited by a uniting theme across the work: an outcry against the racial and social injustices amplified by the current pandemic, and an articulated need for community and solidarity.
