Highly entertaining, satirical and slickly choreographed theatre featuring local girl Rachel Fullegar coming to Dorset
In a year when #metoo, gender pay inequality and the feminist agenda has rarely been out of the headlines, 2018 is an especially appropriate time for Gracefool Collective to tour their powerfully satirical Edinburgh hit This Really Is Too Much. Dorset audiences can see the show when it visits Weymouth Bay Theatre on Tuesday 27 November and Dorchester Corn Exchange on Wednesday 28 November.
Raucous, provocative and laugh-out-loud funny, the four-piece have created a genre-busting show that reveals the downright absurd realities of life as a three-dimensional, high definition, water-drinking, salad-eating, moisturising W.O.M.A.N. in modern society.
Gracefool Collective are based in Leeds but one of the stars of the show is Bridport (Little Cheney) born Rachel Fullegar who attended school in Weymouth and developed her love of dance and theatre in Dorset. She began at Bernard Gale’s School of Dance before going on to appear with Bridport Pantomime Players and Dorset Youth Dance Company and went on to study dance at GCSE and A-level and pursue her dream at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance.
In September 2018 the show won The Stockholm Festival’s top award, The Grand Prix Prize for excellence in performing arts.
The choreography is slick, the punchlines dark and the laughs constant, superbly written and fantastically performed’ ThreeWeeks *****
‘Gleefully compelling’ (Exeunt), slickly choreographed and dripping with feminist charm and anarchic wit, This Really Is Too Much combines dance, dark comedy and theatre. An accessible and humorous exploration of gender inequalities the show delves deeply into a world of farcical stereotypes and preposterous power struggles, wrestling with gender, identity and social convention along the way.
After 100 years of women’s suffrage in Britain how far have we really come in that time?
This Really Is Too Much is an outlandish, thought-provoking and wildly entertaining medley of absurd political speeches, talent contests, job interviews and box ticking. The four performers, Kate Cox, Sofia Edstrand, Rachel Fullegar and Rebecca Holmberg, fight themselves, each other and society’s expectations for women to be individual, political, beautiful, popular, in control – and in their place. It includes text from Kate Bernstein’s seminal text ‘Gender Outlaw’.
’Laughing at systems of power or oppression in order to undermine the power they hold over us is one of the strongest forms of protest’ said Rachel
Kate said ‘Our aim is not to point fingers’. ‘But to shine light on some of the ridiculous scenarios we observe in real life’ added Sofia ‘and to challenge how easily we accept these’ concluded Rebecca.
’A joy to watch… a gleeful, compelling piece’ Exeunt
Gracefool Collective is a four woman strong company of theatre makers formed in 2013. They make post-intellectual-
pseudo-spiritual-feminist-comedy-dance-theatre about the absurdities of modern existence. They aim to provoke, delight, and defy convention through irreverent physicality, sharp writing and arresting characters. Their work tackles serious issues while never taking itself too seriously. www.gracefoolcollective.com <http://www.gracefoolcollective.com>
The four Gracefool’s (collectively) say that ‘This show is for anyone interested in dance, theatre, laughing, crying, feminism, gender, identity, smashing the system, ticking the boxes, beauty pageants, political speeches, salad, moisturiser, water, turtle necks, disco, Steely Dan and/or Barry White’.
‘Comic verve and strong material skilfully performed’ The Stage
See a short promotional video here:
This Really is Too Much is supported through funding via CATAPULT (Llankelly Chase, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Spin Arts and Yorkshire Dance), Northern Connections (Northern School of Contemporary Dance), CARP (Barnsley Civic), Dragon’s Den (OneDanceUK) and Activate Performing Arts. Listings information follows.
Listings Info: This Really is too Much by Gracefool Collective
Powerfully satirical and wildly entertaining genre busting theatre/dance/comedy exploring gender inequalities, farcical stereotypes and preposterous power struggles.
60 mins Suitable for ages 11+
Tuesday 27 November, 7.30pm
Weymouth Bay Theatre, Cranford Avenue, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 7LQ
£12, concs £10 01305 208702 www.ticketsource.co.uk/thebaytheatre
Wednesday 28 November, 8pm
Dorchester Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High Street East, Dorchester, DT1 1HF
£12 £10 concs 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts.org.uk
