F**KING LEGEND Comes to Edinburgh Next Month

In an experimental storytelling show blurring the lines between fiction and non-fiction, a man playing a part or making a confession, Olly Hawes picks apart the consequences of modern masculinity. F**king Legend is played in three distinct acts, opening with the story of a stag do before disintegrating into a dystopian action movie set amid full climate breakdown during a refugee crisis, and then closing on a dramatic monologue. The show draws a parallel between the state of men and the state of the world, critiquing the everyday white, middle-class cis man and the consequences of late capitalism in an absurdist, yet thought-provoking, dark comedy. It's a show about socks and sex and loving someone even though they're quite annoying, and buying tat on holiday, and fear of death, and cognitive dissonance, and whether or not it's an issue that you're watching the world burn.

Olly Hawes said, “This show is both an emotional, unthinking splurge and a painstakingly crafted response to the toxicity of our culture. I look at the world and can't work out whether to laugh until my sides split, cry until I'm dead or quietly try to make the few things I have influence over better. I want people to come and laugh and cry and feel anger – but most of all be moved, stirred, provoked. I've tried to make something that's trashy but intellectual, silly but serious, and super thought provoking – because it feels like to properly respond to the world we're in today, it has to be all those things.”

Olly Hawes is an independent theatre maker who plays with theatrical form to interrogate the tension between the desires of individuals and the stability of collectives. He is co-artistic director of Take Stock Exchange, a theatre company that uses storytelling and conversation to build stronger communities, working with venues such as Royal Court Theatre. His previous shows as writer and performer include The Absolute Truth About Everything (2018, Camden People's Theatre and UK tour) and You, Me and the World (2014, ZOO and UK tour)

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