NOT F**KIN' SORRY! UK Tour Begins This Spring

Access All Areas, Not Your Circus Dog Collective and The Hale will present Not F**kin’ Sorry!, a shameless provocative crip queer cabaret by neurodivergent and learning-disabled performers.

Following their sold out run at Soho Theatre in 2019 and UK tour in 2022, Access All Areas, Not Your Circus Dog Collective and The Hale are staging Not F**kin’ Sorry! once again in Spring 2025. The tour kicks off at New Wolsey Theatre on Tuesday 4 March and ends at the Derby Theatre, Saturday 12 April.

With luscious lip syncs, sweaty dances and verbatim stories, the collective of neurodivergent and learning disabled artists welcome audiences to their space, on their terms. The show was a finalist for Best Cabaret in the 'Offie Awards’, 2022. The production is co-produced by Access All Areas, Not Your Circus Dog Collective and The Hale. The performers and co-creators are DJ (Housni Hassan), Stephanie Newman, Emma Selwyn and Adam Smith. They are learning disabled and neurodivergent performers who are unapologetic and perform shameless sexy, punk, crip cabaret. With luscious lip syncs, sweaty dances and verbatim stories. Think Children-In-Need, but for adults, a dirtier, filthier version. Not F**kin’ Sorry is co-created and directed by Liselle Terret, a neuro-divergent theatre practitioner, writer and Associate Professor in Performance at University of East London.

Not F**kin’ Sorry! is presented in a relaxed environment in which audiences are welcome to leave and come back to their seats at their leisure and respond to the show in the way that feels right, including making noise.  The show is co-created by the artists performing it and all sensory elements have been created with them in mind.

‘Not F**kin’ Sorry! is a wake-up call! A life affirming and outrageous cabaret-theatre production whereby audiences are welcomed into a risk-taking and brave parody that rightly implicates everyone who enters.  It’s the story of survival, testimony, resilience, and celebration. Through laughter and tears, audiences are gently provoked, and even shocked! Liselle Terret, Director.

This show is performed and co-created by Not Your Circus Dog Collective which comprises DJ (Housni Hassan), who is an actor and dancer. His work with Access All Areas includes ‘Imposter 22’ at the Royal Court in 2023, ‘unReal City’ at Battersea Arts Centre in 2020 and Brighton Dome 2022 in collaboration with dreamthinkspeak; ‘MADHOUSE re:exit’ at Shoreditch Town Hall and the Lowry in 2018, and a national tour of ‘Eye Queue Hear’ in 2014. DJ also performed in a promenade performance of ‘The Molly House’ at Duckie in 2021. He also performed in ‘Super Hot Hot Dog’ in 2022, ‘Origami Atoms’ in 2015, ‘Hearts and Faces’ in 2015, and ‘The People Race the Fish ‘in 2016 for Corali Dance Company. His two solo shows ‘The Manifesto for a Perfect Cup of Tea’ and ‘Over’ have toured nationally and internationally. He also toured in 2023 with disabled led group Freestylers production ‘Everybody With Me Always’. In 2021 he became one of 3 Associate Artistic Directors at Corali. 

Emma Selwyn has devised and performed two solo shows ‘#Binariesbegone’ performed in 2019 at Battersea Arts Centre ‘Occupy’ festival, as part of the GLYPT pride festival and the Autism Arts festival at the University of Kent. She has also performed ‘My Hands and Feet are Wiggling’ at Rich Mix in 2016 and has since been performed the show in Norway and at the Aespia festival. Emma also starred in ‘The Molly House’ at Duckie in 2021.The same year Emma made a directorial debut in ‘The Interrogation’, an app-based immersive show which went on to tour nationally. They co-directed NHS England’s Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training films, and they also teach on the Performance Making Diploma.

Adam Smith is a musician, composer, actor, cabaret artist and facilitator. He graduated from Goldsmiths College with a BMus in Music in 2013 and MMus in Composition in 2015. In 2018 he graduated from Access All Areas Performance Making Diploma at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. He composed some of the music for the previous staging of ‘Not F**kin’ Sorry’. Adam performed in ‘The Molly House’ at Duckie in 2021, and staged a national tour of ‘Everyone With Me Always’ by Deptford Freestylers in 2021-2022. Other professional performances include productions by Facefront at Theatre Royal Stratford East, Vital Exposure, Blue Sky Actors and Mind the Gap. Adam is the trainee Co-Director of Take Part and has also worked as a facilitator for Blink, Hackney Shed, Harringay Shed, Face Front and Tramshed. 

Stephanie Newman starred in ‘Imposter 22’ at the Royal Court Theatre in 2023. She co-created and performed in ‘unReal City’ at Battersea Arts Centre in 2020 and at Brighton Dome in 2022 in collaboration with dreamthinkspeak; and ‘Joy’ at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2017.

All of the performers graduated from Access All Areas Performance Making Diploma at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and are all Associate Artists of Access All Areas. They are all part of the cabaret group Not Your Circus Dog Collective.

Director Liselle Terret received a Foyle Foundation Commission that led to a residency at Battersea Arts Centre where she created ‘Chatterbox, on ADHD’ in 2022. In 2019, she curated and hosted for Women of the World’s ‘Wickedly Wild Cabaret’ at the Southbank Centre and ‘Take Up Space Cabaret’ for Royal Court Theatre. With Access All Areas, she co-founded the award-winning Diploma in Performance Making for Learning Disabled and Autistic Adults, that led to her co-founding Not Your Circus Dog Collective. 

The creative team includes Producers Daisy Hale and Sean Brooks, Assistant Director Heather Johnson, Lighting Designer Tim Kelly Composer, Sound Designer Anna Clock, Choreographer Janine Fletcher, Costume Tim Spooner, Dramaturg Lou Cope and Company Stage Manager Emily Norris.  

LISTINGS INFORMATION: 

Not F**kin’ Sorry running time: 60mins | Suitable for ages 16(+) Tour details: New Wolsley Theatre, Ipswich Tuesday 4 – Thursday 6 March, 7.30pm, tickets from £15 www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/not-fkin-sorry/ 

Mercury Theatre, Colchester Tuesday 18 & Wednesday 19 March, 8pm, tickets £16.50 www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/event/not-fkin-sorry/ (Wed 05 Mar performance will be BSL interpreted by Ali Gordon)

Dada Festival, Unity Theatre, Liverpool, Saturday 22 March, 7.30pm, tickets £6 - £20 www.dadafest.co.uk/

Brighton Festival, Brighton Dome, Tuesday 8 & Wednesday 9 April, 7.30pm, tickets from £5 https://brightondome.org/whats-on/VIS-not-fkin-sorry/ 

Derby Theatre, Saturday 12 April, 8pmm tickets £15/£17 www.derbytheatre.co.uk/event/not-fkin-sorry/ DaDa performance will be BSL interpreted and audio described

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