Oh My Pain, My Beautiful Pain! at Pleasance Theatre

When does making this work start to help? When does the healing bit start?

Natalia makes the type of work people describe as ‘RAW’, ‘BRAVE’, and ‘HEARTACHINGLY VULNERABLE’. And everyone loves it - critics, audiences, the people who do bookings for TED Talks. They all want more, and she’s promised it to them. Only she’s run out of trauma to write about. More specifically, her own trauma. Perhaps she can borrow some from those around her? Or can she create some?

This fast-paced satirical play uses drag, cabaret and clowning to explore the cultural impetus on artists to exploit deeply personal stories in their work, and exposes the personal cost of working in an industry that wants more pain, more truth, more trauma.