Following the huge critical success of User Not Found, Dante or Die continue on the road with a new staging of their 80’s inspired show Take On Me, offering an intimate insight into the goings on at a local leisure centre. This unique production will tour to leisure centres in Dorset, Norfolk, Kent, Salford, London and Reading.
Beauty and loneliness collide in Andrew Muir’s dazzling and often surreal play, seen through the lens of an everyday fitness and leisure centre. Set in the 1980s world of headbands and leg warmers, it follows a lonely woman at the gym for the first time and a lifeguard who has never saved anyone.
At once brilliantly comic, touching and true, Take On Me is a revealing dissection of the anxieties and concerns which underpin each one of us, as we strive for better versions of ourselves.
Live musicians belt out classic 80’s hits including I Wanna Dance with Somebody and Flashdance, and lead the audience through the changing rooms, gym, an aerobics class and finally the pool. The audience become a fly on the wall for one extraordinary day in these people’s lives.
The cast includes Fiona Watson as Lisa and Eleanor Isherwood, George Hicks and Sophie Gunn are the Musicians. The role of lifeguard will be announced shortly.
At each location, there will be a different guest cast of local people, playing a variety of parts including aerobics class members, the Karate Kid and a poolside choir. Dante or Die artists will run an extensive three-week programme of outreach and engagement in each location, including training with local producers, rehearsals with the guest cast and workshops with leisure centre members.
Each performance will have integrated BSL communication by Dante or Die’s Access Associate, Sophie Gunn.
The production is presented in partnership with Lighthouse, Creative Arts East, Ideas Test, The Lowry, Ealing Council and South Street. It was first performed in a mini tour across leisure centres in Surrey in 2016.
