Theatre Peckham have launched the Peckham Fringe bringing an exciting new festival to South London this May. Across 5 weeks, 27 visiting companies will take over the main theatre and studio space. The programme grapples with important and timely issues including the experience of a Black transgender immigrant in NO ID, the challenges of mental health inAnybody of Water, the impact of society on our vulnerabilities in true story Sunny Side Up and Black freedom on British soil in The Pocket. There’s also fun for all the family with works such as Errol’s Garden. With theatre, spoken word, live music, multi-media performances and live cooking on-stage, Peckham Fringe offers a smorgasbord of live entertainment as we once again embrace all that theatre can offer.
Suzann McLean (she/her), Artistic Director/ CEO of Theatre Peckham comments, I am blown away by the fantastic multidisciplinary, intergenerational, intersectionality of this festival. From African Myth to South American theatre through food to the Moon and back again, Peckham Fringe celebrates the UK’s cultural communities and champions them centre-stage.
Included in the Peckham Fringe programme are a series of events curated by Theatre Peckham, called Fringe Features, including a New Writing Scratch Night, Black Musical Theatre Night, Comedy Night, Music Night, and an In Conversation with.
A combination of verbatim and epic theatre, It’s Not Rocket Science is inspired by interviews with over twenty female aerospace professionals relaying their experiences navigating a male- dominated industry. A powerful and vulnerable female exploration about food, the kitchen, and looking after oneself as a woman, Eating Myself offers a communal South American experience through cooking on stage. Can I Call You Back? is a coming-of-age comedy exploring visible auto-immune disorders, female body image and overcoming all kinds of grief.
NO ID tells the story of a transgender immigrant in the UK using live music to show us what it takes to validate Black and queer identities in the eyes of the law. Based on a true story, Sunny Side Up explores how society tries our vulnerability and how our environments can shape our masculinity as young Black boys.
Set in London in 1772, a street singer, high class courtesan, man of letter and young dandy help lay the foundations of Black freedom on British soil in The Pocket. The latest instalment in The Voices of Black Folk in Unexpected Places, a series dedicated to shining a light on the forgotten rich history of Black voices across the UK and Europe looks at those including the Roman emperor Septimius Severus and Britain’s first Black Queen Philippa of Hainault. PlayFight examines the corrosive way in which racism determines the direction Black lives take, looking at two best friends and how things have started to get more complicated.
SLUMLORD is a work in development looking at Notting Hill in 1966 when the reign of the slum landlords ended but many were paying a punishing price. Set in a dystopian future in which censorship rules, The Underground Society for the Preservation of Human Kind uses pop, folk and soul music to tell the stories of those who have been silenced. Is it too late for their voices to be heard?
Full details on the website.
Theatre Peckham, 221 Havil Street, London SE5 7SB from May 2nd – 5th June
Booking:
www.theatrepeckham.co.uk or on 020 7708 5401.
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