Theatre will be heading outdoors this August, as four free shows pop up at locations across London.
Damsel Outdoors will feature four compelling new pieces of theatre and will take place in locations including Portobello Road and Bankside in London.
The shows are a collaborative project created by Damsel Productions, with an all women and non-binary inclusive team. It is a chance for the artists to explore the creative potentials of the outside, with no limitations on the subject matter.
Damsel has worked with local authorities and communities to find accessible and exciting spaces to stage these pieces which embrace theatre and performance outside. Maintaining social distancing, in line with government guidelines, the shows will be open for anyone to watch and free for all audience members.
Damsel Outdoors will open on Thursday 13th August with Take Back Control The Virus at Under the Canopy on Portobello Road. Take Back Control The Virus by Iman Qureshi (The Funeral Director) plays with the contradiction of rising anti-immigration sentiment in a Britain heavily reliant on frontline services dominated by immigrant workers.
The next show will be staged on a park bench in Ravenscourt Park in Hammersmith on Monday 17th August. Vixen, from Timberlake Wertenbaker (Our Country’s Good), is a piercing look at identity politics and stigma through the persona of a wandering vixen.
Transcendent will open outside the Tate Modern, Bankside, on Friday 21st August. Benedict Lombe’s (rise from the wreckage) piece is a lyrical celebration of Black Love fusing song, rap and poetry, all through the eyes of a couple grappling with a future in a world dominated by racial injustice.
Clapped by Abi Zakarian will conclude the Damsel Outdoors festival on Sunday 23rd August at Giffin Square in Deptford. Clapped is a provocative interrogation of culpability and hypocrisy of a Britain clapping for its NHS, as growing protests fight to be heard.
When: 13th, 17th, 21st and 23rd August 2020
Where: At various locations across London (see above)
£: Free
More info: damselproductions.co.uk/damsel-outdoors