Following in the footsteps of the success of their previous adaptations of Our Man in Havana (2017) and Woyzeck (2018), Young Pleasance graduates, Spies Like Us, bring their first original work, Murder on the Dancefloor, to the Pleasance Theatre this October fresh from a critically acclaimed Edinburgh run.
In a city that feels less and less like home, ever-rising house prices propel Sabrina into a moral dilemma, forcing her to sacrifice her principles for a chance to leap onto the property ladder. Murder on the Dancefloor explores the consequences of a hopeless job market clashing with extortionate housing costs in an increasingly farcical and playfully physical show about the drive for financial security. Spies Like Us will this year be supported by New Diorama Theatre as one of their Graduate Emerging Companies.
Sabrina spirals into a frenzy, jeopardising relationships with her loved ones in a farcical attempt to find happiness. Lurching from dodgy pubs to dysfunctional dinners, her and her friends must figure out who they can trust and how far they’ll go to get what they want. Spies Like Us explore a dark narrative in their trademark playful physical style.
Director Oliver Norton-Smith said, “As a group mostly made up of university graduates, the current narratives surrounding the housing crisis are a source of great anxiety for us and for a wider generation whose story needs to be told now. I can’t afford to call the city I grew up in ‘home’. As with any restriction and constriction, there’s only so far you can squeeze something before it explodes. This show is that explosion – a sweaty, frustrated, lashing-out at what’s in the way.”
Spies Like Us is an ensemble physical theatre company comprised of seven Young Pleasance graduates. With a combined total of 32 Edinburgh and London fringe runs between them, Spies Like Us was formed to produce Our Man in Havana, their award-winning debut show (Theatre Weekly’s ‘Best Fringe Debut’ 2017) which played at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as the Pleasance Futures XYP company in 2017. They returned to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018 with a fresh and critically acclaimed adaptation of Buchner’s Woyzeck that won Theatre Weekly’s ‘Best Physical Theatre’ award 2018 and Voice Magazine’s ‘Pick of the Fringe’ 2018.
Murder on the Dancefloor is at The Pleasance 11th – 13th October 2019. Tickets are on sale here.
