HORSEPLAY: BAREBACK Comes to Edinburgh Fringe in August
Horseplay: Bareback plays at the Belly Dancer at Underbelly Cowgate (venue 61) from August 4.
By: Stephi Wild May. 31, 2022
Horseplay asks "would you rather have sex or eternal bliss?" in a new absurd character comedy set for Edinburgh Fringe. Horseplay's Bareback is an absurd character comedy set in a sexless afterlife.
Comedy duo Horseplay, Kathy Maniura (Sketch Off winner 2020, SYTYF finalist 2021) and Derek Mitchell (2NorthDown semi-finalist 2021) have been chomping at the bit to get back to live performance, and like many performers returning to Edinburgh this year, Bareback did not have a smooth ride.
Development for Bareback was in full swing at the King's Head Theatre, London's new writing festival Playmill, the Camden Fringe, and Bedlam Late Night in Edinburgh... Then 2020 happened. Then the UK Home Office lost Derek's visa and he was trapped 500km away from Kathy in Amsterdam... They spent the year reworking Bareback over Zoom, and in summer 2021 were ready to bring it to stage. "Then Kathy got tonsillitis so severely that she was hospitalised for 2 weeks and had a litre of pus drained out of her chest. That's got nothing to do with the show but it's so gross we couldn't not mention it," says Derek.
"Bareback was finally written during lockdown when the questions of sex (who's allowed to have it), performance (literally restricted) and death, felt all the more relevant. The show provides escapist comic relief while addressing these ideas in a way that resonates with those who identify with - and are keen to laugh at - the contradictions of modern life, " say Kathy and Derek.
In the absurd comedy world of Bareback, absolutely anything is yours for the talking as long as you don't try to have sex. Or undertake any kind of performance - you can't do that either. But whilst sex may be the off the menu, and even the smallest display of jazz-hands is strictly prohibited, this is still paradise, and everyone is happy, happy, happy.
Or are they? As the stability of the afterlife starts to wobble, it turns out maybe everyone's not as delighted to be condemned to the heavenly afterlife as they pretend to be...
The afterlife is on the brink of collapse and Horseplay will give you a wild ride through musical numbers, quick changes and wigs galore.
Horseplay: Bareback plays at the Belly Dancer at Underbelly Cowgate (venue 61) from August 4
More information at: https://www.underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/events/event/horseplay-bareback
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