Presenting an outrageous and laugh-out-loud production with no filter, Wallfrog takes Tipsy to The Cockpit theatre this summer. Written and produced by Birmingham Film Festival 2019 winner Edie Walwyn (The Frogs: Recroaked, Stockwell Playhouse, SUFUKU; Birmingham Film Festival), Tipsy is a vivid exploration into the mind of an overworked and overwrought young woman, spiralling into burnout and quickly unravelling – taking everybody down with her in the process.
Maria is exhausted, exasperated and erratic. As she walks into a nail salon to get a manicure after a stressful day at work, she has no idea the secrets she is about to spill. With this nail salon serving plenty of booze, the unsuspecting manicure station quickly turns therapist’s office. As her glass never empties, her thoughts are half-full – consumed by her emotions and plagued by the feeling that her nail technician hates her, she drinks, and drinks, and drinks… with disastrous consequences.
Dragging both the customers and nail salon workers into her own maudlin issues, Maria gets beyond tipsy. She battles her inner turmoil and those around her, addressing the audience with her stream of consciousness. But when Maria forgets to address the audience and instead addresses her nail technician, she is no longer alone with her thoughts.
Tipsy aims to explore the process of oversharing and when and why we feel content to do so. Why are some subjects so taboo, and who are the right people to share with? As internal monologues turn external, Maria’s innermost thoughts are shared and Tipsy begs the question, is a problem shared a problem halved? Intimate discussions revolving around relationships and their misgivings, sexual health and STDs and an open dialogue about mental health are thrust to the forefront of Tipsy, prompting conversation. Playing with genre and form, this production invites the audience into the nail salon to have these conversations too, and reflect upon their own misgivings as frank topics about cheating, HPV and fear of misogyny collide into one. How similar would we be if we all overshared?
Writer Edie Walwyn comments, with Tipsy, our aim is to create engaging theatre that brings both joy and impact, by putting on a new piece of writing that plays with genre as well as raising relevant social issues. We will bring joy to our audience with comedy and bring impact through tragedy and the social issues which the play highlights such as misogyny, STDs, and mental health.
Tipsy was written using a Theatre Writing Bursary awarded by the Bloomsbury Festival, and is supported by Fresh Therapies natural hand and nail care.
Tipsy is at The Cockpit Tuesday 13th – Saturday 17th Ju
