SCAFFOLDING Comes to Pleasance Dome in August

Documental Productions, Bristol Old Vic, Pleasance will present Scaffolding by Lucy Bell. Performances run 31st - 26th August.

If you're going to lose something, isn't it better to say when?

What if you told the story of a woman's life entirely through the questions?

Sheridan, played by Suzanna Hamilton, is reeling from the news that her beloved church will close, until she decides to sidestep the vicar and take matters straight to the boss: God.

In a quiet Devon village, church parishioner Sheridan climbs the scaffolding around a leaking steeple with a few questions for God, like, 'Why is there suffering?' and 'Does anybody really understand how to use semi-colons?', 'Did the Devil invent semi-colons to make people doubt themselves hundreds of times a week?' and (seeing as God doesn't seem to be listening), 'How do you make a bomb?'

Award-winning writer Lucy Bell (Kevin Elyot, Ronald Duncan & Toast of Plymouth Fringe Awards) brings dark, car-crash humour to the Edinburgh Fringe '24 in a dramatic collision between religious faith, the responsibilities of caring for loved ones with disabilities and the profound loss of shared community spaces in rural areas, in the most unique of two-handers: a production that involves casting the part of God.

Brought to the stage by Bristol Old Vic and Documental Productions, and part of the Pleasance Theatre Trust's Edinburgh National Partnerships Programme, the show has been built around the lived experience of both carers and those with cognitive disabilities, using first person interviews and archive materials to bring realism to the work. The production's chief aim being to document British life in all its variety through playful, thought-provoking audio, theatre and music.

Writer Lucy Bell said, 'I can't wait to see how people respond to Scaffolding. My family is part of a big network of learning disability families and it is hard to describe what a privilege this is. You get to meet such a diversity of people who are so strong, quirky and resilient. They have triumphed over often-impossible circumstances in all sorts of brilliant ways and not lost their hope, despite austerity and constantly changing public services, despite their non-verbal loved ones literally not having a voice. These families are still not very integrated or visible in mainstream society. But I hope that everyone buying a ticket for Scaffolding will leave with a shot to the arm of their humour and hope.'