Working Birthday and PlayWell Productions present two triptychs from the mind of award-winning writer, composer and actor Natasha Sutton Williams. Natasha stars in her Gary Strange triptychs CLOWN SEX and LOVE RASH across the Off West End in the coming months.
Natasha Sutton Williams, who identifies as queer and disabled, is an Associate Artist at The Albany 2022-24. Her one-woman show Freud The Musical has been a Time Out London and Time Out New York top pick and her plays have been produced at multiple London venues including the Pleasance, Arcola Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, and VAULTS. She has twice been a finalist for the Old Vic 12 playwriting programme and twice shortlisted for Soho Theatre’s Young Writers’ Award. She is a graduate of the Criterion Theatre’s New Writing and Story Development programmes.
Both shows contain three stories about sex which are funny, grotesque and surprisingly relatable. These tales are boundary-blurring rollercoaster rides of theatre, comedy, and performance art. The shows bounce from hilarity to tragedy and back again.
Long-time dweller of the London sewer system, Gary Strange has discovered a unique way to become intimate with his high-rise neighbours: listening to their innermost secrets through plug holes, drainpipes and washing machine fittings. They all have one thing in common – they are desperate for connection. Join Gary amongst the fatbergs and flushed pets as he basks in the joy of filth, encountering stories of bad sex, sad sex and even clown sex.
CLOWN SEX, which was originally commissioned by Arcola Theatre, will play as part of the VAULTS Festival at The Pit from 24th–29th January. The triptych, which follows long-time dweller of the London sewer system Gary Strange, has previously been performed at King’s Head Theatre, 2Northdown Comedy Club, and Aces & Eights. Natasha adapted CLOWN SEX into a 6-part comedy drama podcast series, which has recently been nominated for the Offies ONCOMM award. For its previous runs CLOWN SEX received Culture Calling’s Pick of Female Led Shows 2019, Time Out London’s Pick of the Camden Fringe 2018 and Camden New Journal’s Pick of the Camden Fringe 2018.
We meet Dead Lucy. When the sun rises, she’s a failed educator. When the sun sets, she’s a failed party animal, until a single misplaced child changes everything. JJ is a double bass-playing, drug-taking, sex-fuelled firecracker of a woman who keeps taking the wrong turns in life. Gary Strange recounts his fondest memory: the first time he had sex with a clown.
LOVE RASH, the companion piece to CLOWN SEX, will debut at the Pleasance Theatre from 14th-18th February and continues to follow Gary Strange’s exploits as he eavesdrops on his neighbours.
We meet Ian Bartender, a man on a mission to understand menstruation; Augusta, an intrepid journalist who receives cat cunnilingus in South Africa; and a fatberg flusher who discovers a gigantic sexual deity deep down underground. All lead very separate lives but are united by their desperation for connection at any cost.
Writer and actor Natasha Sutton Williams has created this dark comedy to tackle loneliness through humour. “A little-discussed epidemic of loneliness is ravaging our society, which has only been exacerbated by the last two years,” states Sutton Williams. “Humans are hard-wired to seek out love, respect and a sense of belonging. This play is about what happens when people are willing to do almost anything to gain connection.”
