BLACK // Le Gateau Chocolat

Le Gateau Chocolat mines the personal and the political in this cabaret-infused performance, which embraces an intersectional understanding of identities and powerfully presents a life in progress, without happy endings or narrative closure. The work draws from Le Gateau’s autobiography – while often artists use pseudonyms to hide their personal story, here it feels like the pseudonym and character provide entry into the performer’s authentic self, with snippets of reflections, top tips, and animated interludes which guide the story through a challenging life. In a year of BlackLivesMatter and increased recent media attention to gender expression, sexuality, and body policing, a show about any one of these issues would be relevant, but it’s the blending of the issues together which makes the real impact. The final revelation of mental health difficulties, challenges and the spectre of suicide adds an important and unexpected dynamic. Presented without hyperbole, Gateau uses his baritone to push forward the impact that accompanies such a serious story and such a serious consideration of these issues. (BL)

BLACK, Le Gateau Chocolat, 7-30 August, Assembly Hall. Please confirm accessibility with venue: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/le-gateau-chocolat-black

More on Le Gateau Chocolat: http://legateauchocolat.com/

Other artists working on intersectional identities: Selina Thompson (http://selinathompson.co.uk/), Season Butler (http://seasonbutler.com/), Scottee (http://www.scottee.co.uk/), Ria Hartley (http://riahartley.com/)

Readings on Intersectionality: https://kclintfemsoc.wordpress.com/reading-list/

Recent controversy on body shaming and opera: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/operas-fat-shaming-controversy

DISABILITY FOR DUNCES // Lost Voice Guy

In Disability for Dunces, Lost Voice Guy, a 2014 BBC Comedy Award winner, presents a vicious show which unapologetically confronts the nondisabled people he encounters everyday. Lost Voice Guy’s guide demonstrates the often silenced voice in society and how it responds to ignorant comments from wankers (his words). The piece is similar in tone to Franchesca Ramsey’s “Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls” which exposes people to the permissible micro-aggressions experienced by others everyday. And in a climate of decreased benefits for disabled people, and an increased rhetoric around ‘scroungers’ in media and in government, Lost Voice Guy’s comedy is a bold retort, far from the inspirational tomes of many others. Even his occasional, casually misogynistic language works to prove that he is the empowered bastard (his words) he claims to be. 

His descriptions of looking at himself in the mirror are pointed and reminiscent of the work of Lucy Grealy who, in Autobiography of A Face, describes what it’s like to have an unconventional, or non-normative, appearance. And other potent reflections, on the ‘fixing’ of disabled people, feel to be sharing excellent artistic company with documentaries like ‘Fixed’, the play ‘Telethon’ and (plug for future Sick of the Fringe talk) activism by people like Liz Carr. The hour of standup reminds people to engage with all voices, even silent ones. 

DISABILITY FOR DUNCES, Lost Voice Guy, Stand Up Comedy Club - 5 & 6, August 9-30 (various dates). Please contact venue for Accessibility

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/lost-voice-guy-disability-for-dunces

More information on Lost Voice Guy:

http://lostvoiceguy.com/

Liz Carr - Talk on 'Rather Dead than Disabled'

http://thesickofthefringe.com/people/liz-carr

Francesca Ramsey's "Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylPUzxpIBe0

Lucy Grealy - Autobiography of a Face

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpYgEYhAd1c

Fixed - Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84TaYi15vps

Telethon - Play by Kristin Newbom

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/theater/reviews/24tele.html?_r=0

THE EULOGY OF TOBY PEACH //Toby Peach

We know that Toby Peach will live to the end of his cancer story, of course, because he is the performer, but the journey through his experience with illness remains harrowing. Peach’s solo performance walks the audience through one man’s growth into understanding his own mortality, with reflections on time, appreciation, and meaningful relationships. The work looks at cancer as a strange sort of illness – theoretically speaking – as it grows undetected for a long time (as reflected on by Jackie Stacey in her work Teratologies) and as it is the part of ourselves which is most successfully fights mortality (which is written about in Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies) – and it is particularly strange for young people, who have never had their life, and the privilege of a long comfortable life, challenged.

Peach’s career as a model – particularly when he was photographed with cancer – interestingly, and unintentionally, echoes the work of both Susan Sontag’s in Cancer and Its Metaphors (which charts how standards of beauty were influenced by plagues) and Matuschka’s groundbreaking mastectomy photo Beauty Out Of Damage from 1993, still one of the most striking and bold images depicting illness. Peach engages with a kind of youthful male humour which is reminiscent of 50/50 (and Seth Rogen's incessant jokes which can be misogynistic and endearing) and a number of recent TCT campaigns. Even as we live in the shadow of Stephen Sutton and a huge increase in awareness of young people’s cancers, we are still in need of more stories – about cancer, about HIV, about invisible illnesses – in hopes of creating a community of bold storytellers creating work about their body and ours. 

THE EULOGY OF TOBY PEACH, Toby Peach, 7-30 August (Various dates), Underbelly Cowgate. No wheelchair access to theatre.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/eulogy-of-toby-peach

Jackie Stacey, Teratologies

https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/the-unspeakable-spectre-of-big-c/105435.article

Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies

http://www.theguardian.com/books/interactive/2011/sep/01/extract-the-emperor-of-all-maladies

Susan Sontag - Cancer & Its Metaphors 

http://www.susansontag.com/SusanSontag/books/illnessAsMetaphor.shtml

Matuschka - Beauty Out of Damage

http://www.beautyoutofdamage.com/Aboutphoto.html

Stephen Sutton

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27408818

THE ELEMENT IN THE ROOM: A RADIOACTIVE MUSICAL COMEDY ABOUT THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARIE CURIE // Tangram Theatre Company

Tangram’s retelling of the life and research of Marie Curie encapsulates the passion, dedication and creativity involved in both medical research (particularly early medical research) and art-making, demonstrating a life’s work filled with challenges and sacrifice in the name of uncertain progress. The work, performed by John Hinton (as Curie) and Jo Eagle (on accordion) highlights a number of critical themes important to biomedical research, these include: the ongoing struggles of women to be funded and encouraged in medical training and as research leaders; the uneasy relationship between medical research and private charities; and intellectual property and the winners/losers of extensively patented research.

Curie’s relationship with Missy Meloney (the fundraiser responsible for her not-so-whirlwind tour of America) nicely captures the historic and uneasy relationship between medical research and private funding – and the demands of fundraisers to set agendas – which is also highlighted in Murkherjee’s Emperor of All Maladies, which documents the history of cancer research in the USA. And Tangram’s passionate song about Curie’s decision not to patent her process of radium procurement provides significant proof for the overall rationale for open source technologies, open journals and free resources. While the struggles faced by Curie as a female researcher seem quite heightened by the marginalisation of Eagle (on accordion) into near-silence, the work celebrates the ground-breaking work by an important voice, regardless of gender, and seems to make a passionate claim for equality in research and science.  (BL/KB)

THE ELEMENT IN THE ROOM: A RADIOACTIVE MUSICAL COMEDY ABOUT THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARIE CURIE, Tangram Theatre Company, 5-31 August (various dates). Pleasance Courtyard. Please check accessibility with venue. http://www.tangramtheatre.co.uk

More on Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/11/08/cancer-world

On intellectual property – and the patenting of genetic code: http://www.genome.gov/19016590

A history of Rosalind Franklin, noted chemist/geneticist: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/10/28/photo-finish-2

A JAM-MAKER’S GUIDE TO SELF-PRESERVATION // MDs Medical Revue

The privatisation and struggle of the NHS to do its work, despite budget crunches and government inaction, provides the backdrop or loose frame for this series of sketches. The MDs Comedy Revue Society’s youthful energy provides both its most problematic and unexpectedly-positive qualities: a number of misogynistic and immature jokes feel frightening when presented by this troupe of medical students and future medical professionals, but the company’s passionate defense and love of the NHS also rings clear.

A JAM-MAKER’S GUIDE TO SELF-PRESERVATION, MDs Medical Revue, 8 & 10-15 August. Wheelchair Access and Level Access available. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/jam-maker-s-guide-to-self-preservation

Day in the Life of NHS – BBC Documentary (2013): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rn7pp

Other work about NHS at the Fringe :https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/nhs-don-t-ask-it-s-private

NOT DISABLED… ENOUGH // Romina Puma

For Romina Puma, as for many people who engage with medical and social models of disability on a regular basis, the question of ‘proof’ remains nagging: assessments for disability benefits are increasingly scrutinised, certain resources are only available to patients with certain kinds of cancer, and there are forever competitions which praise the supersurvivor or supercrip while denigrating those who are unable to inspire with their narratives. Puma’s stand up comedy act guides the audience through her journey with a Muscular Dystrophy diagnosis, particularly as Puma fails to ‘fit in’ to the limited discourses on disability currently available.  There are, thankfully, a number of great comics who look at disability and intersectional identities (Maysoon Zayid for example, who talks beautifully about being both disabled and Palestinian), and Puma covers some of the more challenging topics, such as sex and drugs (and how Viagra is seemingly a cure for MD-related exhaustion) which adds important examples of how these questions are negotiated not only by disabled people, but by those around them.

Carrie Sandahl and Philip Auslander’s book – Bodies in Commotion – as well as Rosemarie Garland Thomson’s Staring are great reads for further consideration on how many disabled individuals see themselves and how they are seen in public space. Puma’s work adds a unique and challenging dimension to this canon – bodies with degenerative illnesses are often not looked at in depth as they often engage more with medical lenses of disability than the more acceptable social model. As her doctor tells Puma, after revealing that there is no cure for Muscular Dystrophy and that the condition is degenerative: “If anything comes up, I’ll call you.” This rarely heard voice and perspective necessarily adds depth to a rich body of discourse on health, disability and dignity.

NOT DISABLED ENOUGH Romina Puma, Laughing Horse @ The Three Sisters, 7-30 August, FREE. Wheelchair Access, Level Access, Wheelchair Accessible Toilets. 

Link to Romani Puma’s show:https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=%22Not%20Disabled...%20Enough!%22

TED talk with Maysoon Zayid:   https://www.ted.com/talks/maysoon_zayid_i_got_99_problems_palsy_is_just_one?language=en

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s work Staring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jALsDVW63wo

On Disability Benefits and ‘Proof’: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/disabled-people-are-trapped-in-assessment-nightmare-by-benefits-regime-says-dr-stephen-duckworth-9272423.html

I AM BEAST // Sparkle and Dark

Comic books, graphic novels, videogames and animated films have always been serious business, from Magneto’s origin as a Holocaust survivor, to Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. Even Godzilla was originally conceived of as the byproduct of nuclear warfare.

In I AM BEAST, Sparkle and Dark (one of our Partners in Sickness and Health) demonstrate the capacity of our imagination to provide an important mirror to our reality, no more how difficult it appears to be. I AM BEAST is a tale of bereavement, in which a girl, Ellie, and her father do their best to avoid talking about their respective grief, and Ellie regularly escapes into a world of comic books, where her sadness can take on an active (and aggressive) quality, and she can intervene in the helplessness which comes from serious grief. The reflection on bereavement and on (lacking) communication is powerful, with the young girl feeling the pressure to be ‘fixed’ and being unable to see anything other than the fact that the cure to her sadness (ie, the continued life of her mother) is an impossibility. With so little ordinary writing on death and dying (particularly from the perspective of children), the fact that Sparkle and Dark choose to engage with the aesthetic of comic book is noteworthy, particularly because it demonstrates the heightened or strained reality which is lived by those experiencing trauma.

I AM BEAST’s coverage of bereavement is quite extensive, and looks at the state from many angles – including guilt, blame, anger and silence – without placing things chronologically or conveniently. Instead of happily coming together with sadness being nicely incorporated into a person’s narrative of growth (as so annoyingly happened with The Last Tango in Halifax this year), in the end of I AM BEAST, the audience is still unsure how long this grief might last. As a person who has experienced significant grief myself, this lack of easy ending is probably the work’s most psychologically salient and relevant feature. (BL) 

I AM BEAST, Sparkle and Dark, 6-31 August, Pleasance Dome Above (Venue 33) Please check accessibility with venue.

More on Sparkle and Dark:http://www.sparkleanddark.com/#!

http://thesickofthefringe.com/partners

Winston’s Wish (UK’s largest children’s bereavement charity): http://winstonswish.org.uk/

Hannah Eaton’s Naming Monsters (fastastic graphic novel on bereaved young adults: http://forbookssake.net/2013/10/07/naming-monsters-hannah-eaton/

DAS ORGIEN MYSTERIEN THEATER // Hermann Nitsch

Hermann Nitsch’s work is famous (or infamous) for its bloody, gruesome, and intensive processes – the carcasses of cows paraded through streets, the nudity, and crowds and crowds of spectators which mix quite spectacularly with performers. Summerhall’s three-room exhibition of documentation of Nitsch’s work looks both critically and lovingly at the challenging work which is based on orgiastic and bacchanalian ritual.

By viewing the body, and all of its parts, as a tool for expression, Nitsch’s work has always harkened back audiences to the gruesomeness of medical and religious history, which was as bloody and horrifying as it was searching and curious. With the addition of Nitsch’s tools for performance – presented quite clinically and with precision – viewers can understand a method to the mess, and the work will be of interest to those interested in body-based performance practice (like that of jamie lewis hadley, Kira O’Reilly or Ron Athey) or those who have looked at their own bodies as specimens (a practice captured by Clod Ensemble’s Under Glass previously, and explored in Gianna Bouchard’s research on medical history). The work can be challenging to look at, and perhaps not for those with a weak stomach, but can be instructive and engaging for those interested in the blood and guts which are the stuff, the raw materials, of humanity. (BL) 

DAS ORGIEN MYSTERIEN THEATER, Hermann Nitsch, 5 August-5 October, Summerhall, Free Entry, Exhibition is on the Ground Floor

More about Hermann Nitsch: http://www.nitsch.org/index-en.html

More about jamie lewis hadley: http://www.jamielewishadley.com/

More about Clod Ensemble’s Under Glass: http://www.clodensemble.com/performance/underglass.htm

PORTRAIT // Rachael Ofori

Rachael Ofori’s multi-character examination of the lives of young black women is encapsulated in one of her central character’s first lines: “What do you see when you see me?” Portrait presents Ofori travelling through a number of quiet, peaceful reflections on body image, religion, education, class and, above all, the perception of black women in the media, to other black women, and to others. The format of the multi-character drama, championed by the likes of Anna Deavere Smith, Sarah Jones, Danny Hoch, and debbie tucker green – provides short case studies for any number of women who exist both as stereotypes/archetypes in society, and real women whose voices are often unheard. The format works to build empathy and to spend time with women in a private moment, a moment usually misunderstood by society at large.

One of the most striking aspects of Ofori’s performance is the way her voice switches between characters, alongside her physicality. While this is a trait of a great actor, it also resonates with how people negotiate the way their voice may or may not give them access to certain cultural capital. There has recently been a controversy over ‘gay voices’ with David Thorpe’s new documentary ‘Do I Sound Gay’ and a number of research studies and twitter responses. At the heart of the matter, and particularly relevant to Ofori’s work, is how the voice, and the control of the voice, is often a strategy (for better or for worse) that is taught, enforced and praised by some, reminding us of how inequitable a world is in which a certain tone of voice – be it black or gay or Northern or American (I often find that I use my more British accent on the phone when doing official business) – can so radically shift not only how we are perceived, but how we perceive others. This fascinating and difficult subject reminds us that we should not only be asked “What do you see when you see me?” but “What do you really hear when you hear me?” (BL) 

PORTRAIT, Rachael Ofori, Pleasance Dome 7-29 August. We are unsure of access to this theatre, please contact Pleasance directly. http://www.fueltheatre.com/projects/portrait

More about Rachael’s work: http://vilearts.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/portraying-dramaturgy-racheal-ofori.html

Other links that may be of interest: 

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/17/camp-the-voice-gay-rights

https://www.ted.com/talks/anna_deavere_smith_s_american_character

FAKE IT 'TIL YOU MAKE IT // Bryony Kimmings + Tim Grayburn

Bryony Kimmings has made a name for herself as a fearless performer creating work explicitly about a particular social issue through a lens which is colourful, abstract, and always personal. The process of creating Fake It Til You Make It, in collaboration with real-life partner Tim Grayburn, initially appears similar, until we realise the fragility and danger of the work which focuses on their relationship, and their relationship’s relationship with mental illness, as Tim experiences severe clinical depression.

The performance mixes interviews of Tim with songs, dances and monologues, and is notable for its unflinching look at mental illness – with some incredibly difficult stories told without dramatic affect – and for its unique focus on mental health and relationships. Like Spalding Gray’s Monster in a Box, Fake It shares its focus quite evenly between the effects of illness on the person who experiences it and those who surround them. Fake It serves as both a performance and a piece of advocacy, providing examples for impactful public discussion.

Researchers will be interested in Bryony’s engagement with Tim (as a professional performer crafting his story) as an opportunity for reflection about qualitative research and the ethics inherent in patient engagement.  What does it mean to use your partner’s mental illness as the territory for collaboration? How are researchers currently looking at support, how to be an effective support, support for supporters, etc? And what about audiences who don’t have a partner, or a supportive community around them? What might success look like, and is this different when creating a show not about health? What are the safety mechanisms put in place, professionally and personally, to allow for the ups and downs of mental health and arts practice? There are no simple solutions, but lots of high-energy and engaging exploration around these questions and many more. (BL) 

FAKE IT 'TIL YOU MAKE IT  Bryony Kimmings + Tim Grayburn  Traverse Theatre, Venue 15 Aug 6-9, 11-16, 18-23, 25-30: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/fake-it-til-you-make-it Wheelchair Access and Level Access, BSL interpreted shows available

Bryony and Tim are also speaking at the first Open Meeting of The Sick of the Fringe! August 10th, 12-1pm at Summerhall: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-sick-of-the-fringe-2015-tickets-16972998696?ref=estw

For further information on Bryony Kimmings' work visit: http://bryonykimmings.com/

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/fake-it-til-you-make-it-bryony-kimmings-has-made-a-drama-out-of-her-boyfriends-depression-10395322.html

Some Related News:

Mind study on Mental Health and Relationships

http://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/mental-health-and-romantic-relationships-research-released-today/#.VcJJ0VxViko

International Studies on Mental Health and Caregiver Burden

http://medical.cloud-journals.com/index.php/IJANSP/article/viewFile/Med-18/pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2936431/

BACKSTAGE IN BISCUITLAND // Touretteshero

Brainchild of Jess Thom, who performs under the name Touretteshero, Backstage in Biscuitland is a challenging stage show featuring Thom and performer Jess Jones. The show is part lecture, part participatory activity, part puppet show, part singalong – the performance’s wild and shifting styles being a clear nod to the unpredictability of the neurological condition which Thom has lived with, particularly in its extreme form, since her early 20s.

Backstage in Biscuitland explores the particularities of Tourette’s Syndrome with a frank and humorous approach and feels miles away from disability or illness narratives which induce pity or words like ‘suffering’ or ‘brave’. Once the audience realises they truly can laugh with/at these tics which are the subject of so much public fascination, they can also open themselves up to Thom’s poignant and political reflections on inclusivity and the gutting true stories of Thom’s exclusion from a number of cultural spaces.

The most resounding feature of Backstage in Biscuitland is not Thom’s tics – although they are magnificent and fascinating to watch – but the relationship between Thom’s and co-performer Jones, which serves as a model for how one can live independently without living or working alone. With the recent closure of the Independent Living Fund and cuts to the  Access to Work scheme Thom’s engagement with her performance facilitator, and Thom’s and Jones’ seemingly genuine friendship resonates deeply – one doesn’t need to stand alone in order to be independent, and, in fact, independence is perhaps most beautifully demonstrated through effective partnership, exchange and a recognition of our capabilities and our limitations.  (BL) 

BACKSTAGE IN BISCUITLAND Touretteshero Pleasance Courtyard, Venue 33, August 24-30. Wheelchair Access, Level Access, Hearing Loop, Audio Described, Relaxed Performances, BSL Interpretation available. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/backstage-in-biscuit-land

For more about Jess Thom and Touretteshero: http://www.touretteshero.com/

http://www.whatsontv.co.uk/tv-news/news/meet-jess-thom-the-channel-4-continuity-announcer-with-tourettes-syndrome-video#

http://www.unlimitedimpact.org.uk/access-to-tears/