A new version of The PappyShow’s GIRLS comes to New Diorama Theatre this August. Spanning decades of lived experience, GIRLS is a whole-hearted dance that takes the audience on an emotional and empowering journey. A celebration, an interrogation and a reclamation of all things loved, lost, desired and fought for.
This brand-new version of GIRLS is the latest work by New Diorama Associate Ensemble The PappyShow, creators of runaway hit BOYS. With a brand-new cast, new director and a new creative team, all of whom are female or non-binary, GIRLS comes to New Diorama Theatre after a sold-out run at Incoming Festival and winning the VAULT Festival ‘Show of the Week’ Award 2019.
Directed by Josie Daxter, Associate Artist of The PappyShow and Complicité. With music by Naomi Hammerton, choral conductor and founder of The Kings Place Choir. Dramaturgy by Jess Murrain. Set and Costume Design by Rianna Azoro. Lighting Design by Martha Godfrey. Movement Direction by Rachel-Leah Hosker. Stage Managed by Crystal Gayle. Produced by Molly Jones.
The cast of seven includes Saida Ahmed, Sam Hardie, Bea Holland, Jamie Randall, Kim Tatum, Seda Yildiz, and Colette Zacca.
Initially devised by a community of women whose ages have ranged from 17 to 70, GIRLS takes the cast’s stories and lived experience and shares them directly with the audience through movement, dance, song, testimony, charm and cheek. Raucous, tender and unapologetic, GIRLS is messy, confrontational and vulnerable in equal measure. With laughter, tears, sweat and joy, they ask: “Before we became nanas, mothers, aunties, sisters, friends and lovers: who were we?”
This version of GIRLS incorporates The PappyShow’s reflections on the year gone by, embracing and championing unheard voices to enrich their previous research with fresh insights into womanhood. The diversity of voices in this intergenerational cast allows for a unique and rich celebration and interrogation of womanhood.
GIRLS is produced by The PappyShow, a playful and physical ensemble theatre company formed in 2013 by Kane Husbands. Diverse and collaborative, their productions explore identities that are rooted in the lived experience of their performers and their work spans from the stage to the screen. The PappyShow are associates of National Youth Theatre and The North Wall, Oxford. They are an NDT Associate Ensemble.
Girls is at New Diorama Theatre 17th – 21st August 2021. Tickets are on sale here
