2 shows are up for OFFIE Awards!
In February 2019, between finishing the NYT Rep Company and starting rehearsals at the RSC, I accepted an invitation from the Artistic Director at the Gate Theatre to be part of a show unlike any I’d seen or been in before. in Dear Elizabeth, 2 different actors a night would come together to ‘perform’ a show that had been prepared for them - but that they had never read or rehearsed. Ellen asked extreme bravery of us - I was paired with the brilliant Helena Lymbery, who I met on the day - but also held us in a strong creative hand. We learned what happened to our characters at the same time the audience did, and our growing relationship mirrored theirs.
In front of a sold-out audience, we followed written instructions, encountered props, read letters aloud from a script by Sarah Ruhl, and trusted one another to build something brave and beautiful about the relationship between two 20th century writers. No two nights were the same, as the performers were always different.
Dear Elizabeth has been nominated in the IDEA (innovative / devised / experiential / atypical) category of the OFFIE (Off-West End) Awards 2020.
Image by Helen Murray
“McDougall’s approach is full of play and wit, breaking up what could have been a very static exercise with outbreaks of poignant, surreal joy.”
While I was in Stratford Upon Avon in 2019, our drag company Pecs made and staged SEX SEX MEN MEN at the Yard in Hackney, London. While I was really sad not to be able to be part of it with the company (I’m usually in their large-scale shows eg The 80s Show), it was amazing to be able to observe and support the process externally, and most amazing of all was sitting in the audience and seeing the incredible beast that is Pecs Drag Kings at full pelt from the other side.
The phenomenal show sold out an extended run, garnered rave reviews, and really proved the distance we’d come as a company from our first outing on the Battersea Barge in 2013. Masculinity was torn open and the entrails were examined, from violence to body shaming to the gaze, but they found room for softness, queerness, endless vulnerability and, a new touch, the voices of ordinary men in verbatim text. I was floored, and incredibly proud. This week we found out that SEX SEX MEN MEN is also a finalist for the OFFIEs in the IDEA Production Category.
The cast was Rosie Potts, Kit Griffiths, Temi Wilkey, Helena Fallstrom, Victoria Aubrey, Lauren Steele and Jodie Mitchell. Directors Temi Wilkey and Celine Lowenthal'; Ligthing Jess Bernberg; Producers Daisy Hale & Ellen Spence
“From Drag King Cole’s glorious lip-syncing, to Thrustin Limbersnake’s condiment-strong food-play scene, all the way to John Travulva’s equally hilarious, smart and thought-provoking breakdown of contemporary masculinity, SSMM is a brilliant example of queer performance at its very best.”