As part of Growth Spurt, the Arts Council England funded year-long programme of performances, The Marlborough Theatre is delighted to announce their Radical Softness Season.
Radical Softness refers to the perception that emotional vulnerability can be forged into a political weapon and that power can be found in sharing our emotions. It’s about harnessing power in your vulnerability, about not shying away from your emotions and being proud to feel in a society which prioritises a lack of feeling. Join us at the Marlborough and Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts for three very different shows exploring notions of care, of healing and of openness as a form of strength.
Bottom – Willy Hudson 2nd – 3rd March
Willy Hudson is a performer and writer from Devon. His debut solo show Bottom had a successful run at Edinburgh 2018, before transferring to Soho Theatre.
Willy likes to confront social hang-ups with autobiographic storytelling, comedy, fusion of theatrical form and cracking soundtracks. And Beyoncé. Willy graduated from The Oxford School of Drama and is an Associate Artist of the Exeter Phoenix. Join Willy for a queer coming-of-age remix Bottom at the Marly, as he questions if ‘bottom’ in the bedroom means ‘bottom’ in life – and whether Beyoncé can help put his love on top.
With a cracking soundtrack, Willy’s funny, honest and open-hearted storytelling yanks the lid off the queer experience. He faces performance anxiety and the realities of being overworked, underpaid and under-respected.
This is for anyone who hates making the first move. Anyone who thinks they are unlovable.
Anyone that’s ever tried to be someone they’re not.
to care – Louisa Robin 6th March
Louisa is a multidisciplinary artist and writer who makes work about her lived experience of depression and recovery. She lives inside a body boxed as black, female and queer, she allows it to present itself in her work. Louisa is intent on making art that explores the beauty in ritual and the self (self-care, self-harm, self-esteem).
to care is a ritual, it’s a process and a pattern. It follows a maker, creating a product for their self-care. The maker is me, the product is body butter. It’s about self-hate, the impostor syndrome and pretending to be ok. It’s messy and desperate and gross and naked. It’s about trying.
VIOLENCE – FK Alexander 7th March
FK Alexander is a renowned Glasgow based Performance Artist whose work is concerned with issues of wounds, recovery, aggressive healing, radical wellness, industrialisation and noise music. FK’s work predominantly puts her body at the centre of ritualised, action based, often durational work, in often ridiculous attempts to communicate ideas around new language, new violence and new love.
VIOLENCE is meditation on the cruelty of love, the weight of loneliness, the gift of desperation, the freedom of anxiety, the chrysalis of hopelessness, and the power of dreams. VIOLENCE is a personal anti love tribute to crushed hope and renewed desire, combining variously sourced text, live percussion, non-dance and flowers. VIOLENCE offers a non-linear fantasy panorama in praise and confusion of codependency between you, between them, between god.
