Bristol City Poet Kat Lyons Tours DRY SEASON in Autumn 2022

Writer and performer Kat Lyons will tour Dry Season, an intimate, questioning and humorous show based on their difficult experiences of premature menopause, in Autumn 2022.

The tour includes Stroud Theatre Festival, The British School Hall (16-18 September), Sweet Venues, Hove (22 September), Upstairs at the Western, Leicester (14 October), Rondo Theatre, Bath (3 November) and Canada Water Theatre, London (show on 10 November, with a workshop on 27 October).

Menopause? Seriously? WTF? Kat thought they were far too young to worry about menopause; biology thought differently. Now their hormones are going haywire, their diary is full of NHS visits and sleep is a distant memory. Join Kat on a journey featuring anxiety, insomnia, and self-conscious jogging as they explore their changing identity, question societal expectations of age and gender and do their best to navigate the first chaotic year. Interweaving music, movement and medical texts with original poetry and animation, Dry Season is a witty, honest and intimate spoken word theatre show about questioning assumptions and learning to rewrite your story.

Dry Season was written in response to Kat's diagnosis and early experience of premature menopause at the age of 39, following 18 months of undiagnosed symptoms including chronic insomnia, depression, and paranoid anxiety. Through internet forums, surveys and interviewing menopausal women, Kat discovered that their initial feelings of shame, isolation and ignorance were shared by countless others. Despite being an experience shared by half of humanity, due to systemic ageism and misogyny, menopause is widely seen as something embarrassing and shameful. If it is mentioned publicly at all, then it is often the punchline of misogynistic jokes. Dry Season was created in an attempt to counter this.

Kat uses their autobiographical journey to explore societal expectations of age and gender, and to create space for open discussion and wider representation of menopause. Dry Season aims to generate knowledge and empathy between people of different ages, genders, and experiences.

Kat Lyons (they/them) is a Queer Bristol-based writer, performer, workshop facilitator and creative producer whose work is grounded in everyday politics and a love of storytelling. They were recently announced as Bristol City Poet (2022-2024) and nominated for the Jerwood Poetry in Performance Award 2022. Kat's debut collection Love Beneath the Nails was published in February 2022 by Verve Poetry Press. They perform widely at poetry nights, festivals and events throughout the UK. Kat believes everyone has a story to tell, and a voice worth hearing.

Dry Season is written and performed by Kat Lyons. The tour is produced by Rua Arts. The show has Dramaturgy and Movement Direction by Laura Dannequin, Lighting Design by Sarah Readman and Animation and Animation Design by Edalia Day. The production is funded by Arts Council England and supported by Artspace Lifespace, Camden People's Theatre and Apples & Snakes, with thanks to Bristol Ferment.

To find out more about Dry Season, visit: http://katlyons.co.uk.

Tour Dates

Fri 16 September 6pm Stroud Theatre Festival, The British School Hall

Saturday 17 September 4.30pm Stroud Theatre Festival, The British School Hall

Sunday 18 September 5pm Stroud Theatre Festival, The British School Hall

Thursday 22 September, 7.30pm Sweet Venues, Hove

Friday 14 October, 7.30pm Upstairs at the Western, Leicester

Thursday 3 November, 8pm Rondo Theatre, Bath

Thursday 10 November, 8pm Canada Water Theatre, London (there is also a workshop at Canada Water      Theatre on Thursday 27 October, 6-8pm)

Age guidance: 12yrs +

Running Time: 60mins, no interval plus post show Q&A

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