“ARE YOU WITH ME?”

Enter Frankie Foxstone: perfectly poised, unapologetically ruthless young property developer. Famous for award-winning schemes in Mumbai and Slough, join her on a hair-razing tour of her development plans for a site near you.

Sell out shows at HighTide Festival 2018, Edinburgh Fringe 2019, VAULT Festival and Adelaide Fringe in 2020.

Taking onward, socially distant bookings.

“Deliciously clever...multi-faceted and thrillingly subversive.” **** THE SCOTSMAN

“Unstoppable … Knockout satire with a taste for the ridiculous.” (Pick of VAULT Festival, The Guardian)

“Ridiculous, yet painfully believable, in other words the perfect vehicle for this scathing yet hilarious attack on the world we live in” (UK Theatre Network)

“A glorious monster of a character". (@DustyLimits)

Video here

“Think about it, there must be a higher love / Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above / Without it, life is wasted time / Look inside your heart, and I'll look inside mine “

(Steve Winwood, then Whitney)

Introducing new character sensation: celebrity “Carpe Diem” coach and humanitarian goddess, Cornelia Dacre. Fresh from spreading joy across the 3rd world, Cornelia is back on our shores: here to fix you and your shabby soul.

A divinely intimate and blisteringly satirical ritual about hubris, hope and higher love.

Following various work-in-progress performances at HighTide Festival in 2019 and at the Adelaide Fringe 2020, this was the show that was somewhat sidelined by the pandemic and my journey into motherhood. It will never come to full fruition, but the themes and thrust are finding their way into future projects.

“Wacky, unexpected, surprising, bonkers, unique, alarming, unpredictable, eccentric, fun and funny. (Zina, audience member)

“True delight … really enjoyed” (@deborahwarner59)

"I suppose it's the way we do it in Britain. Women don't gather and weep for days; we don't anoint the dead and bind them in swaddling; we don't sit around a fire roasting rabbits or dance until we're on the floor. We buy a sympathy card and send it. Or take round lasagna. I f**king hate lasagna."

Inspired by the death of her own mother - TV comedy director Liddy Oldroyd (Drop the Dead Donkey, Gimme Gimme Gimme) - comedienne Amy Gwilliam brings MUMMY back to the stage. Where she belongs.

Nominated for the Prague Fringe Inspiration Award 2016

Previous shows in London (Live at Zedel’s; Tristan Bates; Mimetic Festival); Barcelona (Barcelona Solo Festival); Burgos (Schools Tour); Santander (Cafe de las Arts); Prague Fringe Festival; Brighton Fringe; Guildford (produced by Guildford Fringe), Basingstoke (Creation Space).

This show is tour-ready and adaptable to many kinds of venues. Previous performances include black box studios, a cabaret, a conference hall, large proscenium theatre spaces, a cafe, a museum and an art gallery.

For a trailer of the show, follow this link.

For an interview with Amy about the making of the show, follow this link.

For further information about the show – including a full recording and Tour Pack - please contact Sophie at Solar Productions – sophielarsmon@gmail.com or 07810 167 694. 

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Reviews / Audience feedback:

 "Mummy or the Art of Saying Goodbye is a brilliantly conceived, directed and performed piece of tragi-comic, food-for-thought theatre […] Teetering on the edge between hilarity and devastation, it challenges us to rethink the space we give ourselves to love and grieve." (Fringe Review, Brighton)

“Amy Gwilliam is most definitely a talent to watch out for. Her writing is tight, witty, pithy and clever. Her performance was well paced, confident, fluid, enticing and very, very convincing.” (As above)

Written and performed by the very talented Amy Gwilliam, this one-woman show packs more thought-provoking theatre into 60 minutes than most West End dramas do in twice the time, and for at least three times the price. (Just Retiring, Guildford)

"Achingly, brilliantly creative; warm, funny, devastating" (@pianodiva11)

"Oh SH*t. Go see MUMMY. I have no words." (@tomas_ford, Perth Comedy Porducer)

“Spot on! They were all the questions I wanted to ask my Mum.” ! Gilly, audience member!

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Written & performed by Amy Gwilliam

Co-created & directed by Sophie Larsmon

Dramatrugical support from Jenny Lee and Lucy Hopkins

Sound Design by Jo Walker

Produced by Solar Productions

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Synopsis:

Seventeen years ago, during break, Elizabeth lost her mother. She was sixteen. Two days later, she started her period. Ouch.

Today, a celebrated Egyptologist, Profesor Niccoll has returned as Guest of Honour to her secondary school's annual Alumni event. She has chosen to use the platform to promote her new book: MUMMY or the Art of Saying Goodbye.

She knows everything about death. She thinks.

But confronted by ghosts of her past, memories stir and a Mummy returns.

The time has come to unwind.

ExperTeaZe

This cutting edge and raucously topical variety show is an experimental platform for women in the arts to respond to current politics and expose murky pasts.

Join us for a savage night of misplaced intentions, seething satire and perverse physical comedy.

It’s is always riotous, daring, brave - and very, very important!

Performers include Annie Bashford, Elf Lyons, Helen Duff, Julia Masli, Lucy Hopkins, Eve Fehily, Nina Baldini, Sophie Larsmon, Rebecca Bogue, Becca Greig, Marga Villalonga, Roisin Greene, Angela Yeoh and Melissa Riggall. 

Elsewhere I have performed for Finger in the Pie at Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Thom Foole's House Party at The Queen's Head, The Rah Rah Cabaret aboard the Village Butty, BALLS, Scratch That Hackney, Rotating Rosta at the Omnitorium and Tutti Frutti, both as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. 

Acts include Carpe Diem coach CORNELIA DACRE ("not only did she carpe my diem, but she ergoed my sum"), 131 year old DR MSSKIN ("brilliantly weird, weirdly brilliant"), NAKED NESS the not-for-children's entertainer from Kent, Susan the Swedish PSYCHOTIC-ANALSYST and Property developer FRANKIE FOXSTONE, who is busy developing her full length show (see EDINBURGH FRINGE 2019). 

Since 2011, I have created site-specific and site-adaptive performance for street and outdoor performances, as well as interactive theatre events. I have worked with Clowns Without Borders, Theatre for a Change, Bearded Kitten, Teatro Entre Escombros and Chronyko.

As well as the 1-hour itinerant, interactive performance of Frankie Foxtstone a.k.a. The Profit, I have developed a 20 minute street act with the character, performing as part of the street acts at the Edinburgh Fringe 2018 - for a video, press here.

With Clowns Without Borders, I have devised and performed shows at camps and centres for refugees in Bangladesh (March & May 2019; April & September 2018), Hungary (August 2018), Istanbul (July 2017) Athens (January 2017), and Kosovo (October 2011). 

As part of Teatro Entre Escombros, I participated in festivals, street theatre, improvisation shows and large-scale events, including -

"Seat 600" - an interactive show commissioned by the Burgos Town Council as part of their annual Carnival celebrations, February 2013. 

"Despues del Fin" - commissioned by Espacio Tangente in Burgos. Site-specific and itinerant adaptation and translation of Dennis Kelly's "After The End". September 2012.

Young Vic's 40th Anniversary Celebration Fundraiser. September 2010.

Saatchi Gallery Charity Ball. September 2010.