Adrian Edmondson to Star in BITS OF ME ARE FALLING APART at Soho Theatre This Fall

Adrian Edmondson is to star in an adaptation of William Leith's at once richly comic, darkly satirical and weepingly emotional bestseller Bits of Me are Falling Apart. Adapted by Adrian Edmondson and Soho Theatre's Artistic Director Steve Marmion, the play will make its UK premiere in Soho Theatre, November 2016.

I first came across the book seven years ago, and have been thinking of translating it to the stage ever since. When I met Steve Marmion last year, I found a collaborator who was as intrigued as I am. Working at Soho Theatre feels a bit like going home, it feels both comforting and exciting at the same time. It's the comfort of familiarity, but the excitement of doing something left field.

Adrian Edmondson on adapting Bits of Me are Falling Apart for the stage

The one-man play begins with William, who wakes up one morning, middle aged and cranky. He's alone, sleeping on a mattress in his office and about to visit his young child before his estranged partner takes him away on holiday for two weeks, a holiday he was supposed to be on, but it didn't work out. As he wonders where it all went wrong and if there is any hope in fixing any of it, William dissects the current state of economy and capitalism, the death of love, the life cycle of the Cod, fictional anti-heroes and why our immune system is D-Day.

A middle aged Catcher in the Rye.

Jon Ronson on Bits of Me Are Falling Apart

It's been a busy year for both, with Ade featuring in various television series (War and Peace, One of Us) and an eclectic 12 months for Steve, including premieres of new plays, new World War II musical in Wales and Oxford Playhouse's annual panto. Marmion is relishing collaborating with one of Britain's best loved actors and icon of alterNative Theatre.

This is Soho Theatre at its best: working with established top writers and performers as Adrian Edmondson and Penny Arcade alongside stage and screen's most exciting new voices Richard Gadd(Edinburgh Comedy Award winner), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (writer and star of the award winning stage and now television's hit of the summer, Fleabag) and the Olivier Award Winning Pat Kinevane(Underneath), to discovering and working with the next generation, including Phoebe Éclair-Powell (Fury) and Theresa Ikoko (Girls).

IF YOU GO:

SOHO THEATRE PRESENTS

BITS OF ME ARE FALLING APART

By Adrian Edmondson and Steve Marmion.
Adapted from the book by William Leith.
Performed by Adrian Edmondson.
Directed by Steve Marmion.
Designer: Lily Arnold. Lighting Design: Amy Mae. Music & Sound: Tom Mills.

Soho Theatre. Duration: 75mins.

Wednesday 2 November - Saturday 3 December 2016.

Tickets from £10.

sohotheatre.com / @sohotheatre / #BitsOfMe

Adrian Edmondson is no stranger to Soho, having learnt his trade at the Comedy Store when it was in Meard Street, and at the Comic Strip Club in Raymond's Review Bar, in Walker's Court. He is best known as a comedian in The Young Ones, Bottom and The Comic Strip Presents... He has since appeared in numerous TV series including Blackadder, Holby City, Jonathan Creek and War and Peace. He made a couple of improvised film with Les Blair for BBC's Screen Two - Honest, Decent & True, and the BAFTA winning Newshounds. He has directed pop promos for Squeeze, The Pogues & 10,000 Maniacs among others. He has appeared in the West End in Waiting for Godot, The Rocky Horror Show and Neville's Island. He's written a novel The Gobbler, has recorded three albums with his folk/punk band the Bad Shepherds, and has also won Celebrity Masterchef.

Steve Marmion joined Soho Theatre as Artistic Director in 2010. He has directed two Verity Bargate Award (VBA) winning plays - Vicky Jones' The One and Thomas Eccleshare's Pastoral, along with First Love is the Revolution, Death of A Comedian (also at The Lyric Theatre Belfast and Abbey Theatre), Only the Brave (Wales Millennium Centre), I Kiss Your Heart, the French and English productions of Address Unknown, The Night Before Christmas, Realism ­(WhatsOnStage Award-nominated), Mongrel Island, Fit and Proper People, Utopia and The Boy Who Fell Into A Book. Last year, for Oxford Playhouse, he wrote and directed the hugely successful Christmas panto Aladdin and is about to head into rehearsals for this year's panto, Cinderella. Prior to joining the company in 2010, Steve directed Macbeth for Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and Dick Whittington, Jack and the Beanstalk and Aladdin for the Lyric Hammersmith. In 2009 he directed the highly successful production of Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness for Headlong Theatre which received rave reviews on tour and at Soho Theatre.

William Leith has worked as a columnist and feature writer at the Independent on Sunday, the Mail on Sunday, and the Observer. He has written about a wide range of subjects, from food to celebrity, cosmetic surgery, fashion models, kings in Africa, tensions in Palestine, mineral water in Fiji, nightlife in Bangkok, Hollywood directors, diet gurus and the death of James Dean. He is currently writing a book about money.

Soho Theatre London's most vibrant venue for new theatre, comedy and cabaret.
As entrepreneurial as it is innovative, over the last five years under the joint leadership of Soho's Artistic Director Steve Marmion and Executive Director Mark Godfrey, the charity and social enterprise has almost trebled audiences, opened a new venue and produced more work than ever before. The vision for 2015-2018 is to ambitiously expand beyond Dean Street with an additional larger new venue, a digital and TV presence, and a national and international
touring programme. Current UK national tours include Spine and Pajama Men with their critically acclaimed 2 Man 3 Musketeers.

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