DOLLYWOULD Will Embark on UK Tour
By: Stephi Wild Jan. 29, 2018
Following their sell-out run at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe, Sh!t Theatre announce a full UK tour for their unique love letter to Dolly Parton following the announcement of a month long run at London's Soho Theatre.
Devised and performed by Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole the tour will run Monday 19 March - Saturday 23 June 2018 at Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London, W1D 3NE
Oh look, it's 2016 Fringe First Award winners Sh!t Theatre again. What is it this time? Oh, is it unemployment? Is there a crisis? Did the government do something wrong again?
Following their award-winning sell-out hit Letters to Windsor House - which was named one of Time Out London's top ten theatre shows of the year - Sh!t Theatre announce a month long off West End run for their bold new show about country legend Dolly Parton, cloning, branding, immortality and death.
Sh!t Theatre f*cking love Dolly Parton and this is the story of their trip to the first lady of country's theme park, DollyWood. This sharp and hilarious performance takes you on an adventure into the heartland of country music, Tennessee and beyond to explore real and plastic, mortality and immortality, original and clone.
The inimitable duo head to Knoxville in search of Dollywood, built on the legendary performer's childhood home, and while there they try to visit the original Body Farm, the forensic medical facility which researches human decomposition. One is plastic immortality, the other the inescapable reality of death. Enlisting the expertise of the 'Nigella of science' genetic scientist Dr Kat Arney, Sh!t Theatre explore the enigma that is Dolly Parton and her namesake Dolly the sheep in this rollercoaster ride of a show complete with live music and sing-a-longs.
Louise Mothersole and Rebecca Biscuit said of DollyWould: "We love Dolly Parton. We have always made shows from a place of anger and this year especially - with everything that is going on in the world - we wanted to make a show from a place of love. And we both love Dolly Parton. The show is also the story of us getting to Dollywood - the first trip we've made together after falling out last year.
"Dolly Parton has created a plastic brand of herself, an avatar with big blonde wigs and boobs which can be recreated, cloned - is immortal. There's a famous story where Dolly entered herself in a Dolly Parton drag competition, and lost. The drag queens were more Dolly than she was. Yet she is completely her authentic self. She does everything her own way, she has her own wit, her own mind and writes her own songs. She is plastic yet real, ridiculous yet respected, we laugh at and with her. She embodies an overblown version of the male fantasy, yet it is an open secret that she is a lesbian. She's important to us as an artist, role model and probably queer woman."
Sh!t Theatre are multi award-winning duo Louise Mothersole and Rebecca Biscuit. They are associate artists of Camden People's Theatre (www.cptheatre.co.uk). They have been told many times by theatre professionals to change their name. They have won a Fringe First, a Total Theatre Award, The Arches Brick Award and a Three Weeks Editors' Choice Award. They won four star reviews from critics for their sell-out show Letters to Windsor House, have been shortlisted for the 2014 Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award and 2015's Women's Hour was one of the Daily Telegraph's 'Top Five Plays to see in Edinburgh'. Their work is informed by their trained disciplines of music, performance art and long-form improvisation. They consider performing the 'sh!t' to be theatrically political and use different theatrical and artistic devices.
DollyWould was a Spring Festivals co-commission in 2016. Sh!t Theatre are Associate Artists of CPT.
Sh!t Theatre are associate artists at CPT and the Bush Theatre. They are currently under commission to HOME, Manchester.
Web and social media links:
www.showandtelluk.com | www.shittheatre.com | @show_and_tell | @shittheatre | #DollyWould
Dolly Parton holds the record for the best-selling single by a female songwriter of all time and has released over 40 top ten albums. She has 46 Grammy nominations and has written over 3000 songs to date. She has been nominated for an Oscar twice as a songwriter, once as an actress. She has been nominated for a Tony and has won multiple Emmys. She has had three hit TV shows: Dolly, Dolly exclamation mark, and The Dolly Show. She has written autobiographies, children's books, inspirational self help books and recipe books. She runs an international children's literacy charity called the Imagination Library which mails a book a month to over a million children for the first five years of their life. Last year a fire destroyed the town of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee; Dolly gave every single resident $1000 a month each for 6 months to help rebuild their lives. In March 1986, she did something no female country singer songwriter, or male country singer songwriter, or singer songwriter had ever done before. She did something only Dolly would do. She bought the site and area surrounding her childhood home, built a theme park and named it after herself.
Tour Listings:
Soho Theatre (Soho Upstairs)
21 Dean Street, London, W1D 3NE
Monday 19 March - Saturday 14 April 2018 (not 21 March, 1, 2 and 8 April)
7pm | From £10
Box office: 020 7478 0100 | www.sohotheatre.com
The Wardrobe Theatre
The Old Market Assembly, 25 West Street, Old Market, Bristol, BS2 0DF
Wednesday 18 - Saturday 21 April 2018
8pm | £11
Box office: 0117 902 0344 | www.wardrobetheatre.com
The Marlowe Theatre (Marlowe Studio)
The Friars, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2AS
Wednesday 25 April 2018
8pm | £13.75
Box office 01227 787787 | www.themarlowetheatre.com
Norwich Arts Centre
St. Benedict's Street, Norwich, NR2 4PG
Friday 27 April 2018
8pm | £TBC
Box office: (01603) 660352 | www.norwichartscentre.co.uk
HOME
2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, M15 4FN
Thursday 3 - Saturday 5 May 2018
7.45pm | £12.50 (£5.00)
Box office: 0161 200 1500 | https://homemcr.org
Colchester Arts Centre
Church Street, Colchester, Essex, CO1 1NF
Wednesday 9 May 2018
8pm | £PWYW
Box office: 01206 500 900 | www.colchesterartscentre.com
South Street
21 South Street, Reading, RG1 4QU
Thursday 10 May 2018
8pm | £13 (£12)
Box office: 0118 937 3456 | www.readingarts.com
Live Art Bistro
Regent Street, Leeds, LS27QA
Friday 11 - Saturday 12 May 2018
8pm | £9 (£6)
Box office: http://www.liveartleeds.com/
New Theatre Royal
20-24 Guildhall Walk, Portsmouth, PO1 2DD
Monday 14 May 2018
8pm | £TBC
Box office: 023 9264 9000 | www.newtheatreroyal.com
Cambridge Junction
Clifton Way, Cambridge, CB1 7GX
Wednesday 16 May 2018
7.30pm | £12.50 (£8)
Box office: 01223 511 511 | www.junction.co.uk
The Old Market
11a Upper Market St, Hove, BN3 1AS
Tuesday 22 - Friday 26 May 2018
7.30pm | £12.50 (£10)
Box office: 01273 201 801 | www.theoldmarket.com
The Lighthouse Poole
21 Kingland Road, Poole, BH15 1UG
Friday 8 June 2018
8pm | £14.00 (£12)
Box office: 01273 201 801 | www.lighthousepoole.co.uk
Harlow Playhouse
Playhouse Square, Harlow CM20 1LS
Saturday 9 June 2018
8pm | £PWYW
Box office: 01279 431 945 | www.harlowplayhouse.co.uk
Royal Parade, Plymouth, PL1 2TR
Tuesday 12 - Saturday 16 June 2018
7.30pm | £13.50 (£9.50)
Box office: 01752 267 222 | www.theatreroyal.com
Comments
Videos