Travis Alabanza's 'Overflow' and Impermanence Double Bill part of Bristol Old Vic's digital season

25 Mar 2021
Reece Lyons as Rosie. Photo by Sharron Wallace

Travis Alabanza’s hit show Overflow comes to Bristol Old Vic at Home digital season, alongside a digital double bill from Impermanence dance company, celebrating ten years of work.

A new online run of the Bush Theatre’s acclaimed production Overflow will be presented by Bristol Old Vic from 6-8 May. Bristol theatre-maker and writer Travis Alabanza’s latest play was premiered and recorded at the Bush Theatre in Dec 2020, and stars Reece Lyons as Rosie. It is a hilarious and devastating tour of women’s bathrooms; who is allowed in and who is kept out.

Cornered into a flooding toilet cubicle and determined not to be rescued again, Rosie distracts herself with memories of bathroom encounters. Drunken heart-to-hearts by dirty sinks, friendships forged in front of crowded mirrors, and hiding together from trouble.

But with her panic rising and no help on its way, can she keep her head above water?

Travis is one of the UKs leading trans voices whose first play Burgerz, was performed in late 2019 in Bristol Old Vic’s Weston Studio and took audiences by storm. They return to Bristol Old Vic’s digital season with this “warm, funny, sympathetic” play (Pink News).

Also announced today, Bristol Old Vic and Impermanence continue their creative partnership with a new double bill of online dance work, marking Bristol’s foremost Dance Company’s tenth anniversary. The first release, One More Edit (running 12-24 April), is a collection of works made for film from some of the most exciting artists working in dance, from the UK and overseas. This programme of evocative and inspiring dance works is curated by Impermanence and includes up-and-coming talent, contemporary artists and iconic choreographers, including Edits Film by Marisa Zanotti - a poetic document from 2014 of the final performance by Lea Anderson's all male company The Featherstonehaughs.

With costumes by three-time Oscar Winner Sandy Powell, Anderson's choreography imagines that Fassbinder's seminal film The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant is a score for the show’s choreography. Tune in for a tumultuous tour through the potential that is created by combining dance and the moving image.

Lady Blackshirt is the second in the online dance programme. A new feature length experimental film from Impermanence, looking back at the growth of modernism and the accompanying radical ideologies of the early twentieth century. Born out of a research project where Impermanence commissioned 100 artists to respond to articles and extracts from early modernist magazines, the film is an abstract-dance-based-collage work, with new material filmed on the Bristol Old Vic stage during lockdown. It will join the digital stage from 10-22 May.

LISTINGS:
OVERFLOW by Travis Alabanza - ON SALE NOW
6-8 May, 7.30pm (On Demand – 24hr rental)
A Bush Theatre production filmed at the Bush Theatre  in Dec 20
Presented by special arrangement by Bristol Old Vic
Tickets: Pay What You Choose £8/ £10/ £15
www.bristololdvic.org.uk/whats...
Watch the trailer https://youtu.be/QoEel2ZGX0o

Impermanence presents...ONE MORE EDIT - ON SALE NOW
12-25 April (On Demand film – unlimited viewing until 25 Apr)
Tickets: Pay What you Choose £6/£10/£16
www.bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/one-more-edit

LADY BLACKSHIRT by Impermanence - ON SALE NOW
10-23 May (On Demand film – unlimited viewing until 23 May)
Tickets: Pay What you Choose £6/£10/£16
www.bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/lady-blackshirt

Photo by Jake Duncan/Dan Broadbent (Lady Blackshirt)

Bristol Old Vic is the longest continuously running theatre in the UK, and celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2016. The historic playhouse aims to inspire audiences with its own original productions, both at home and on tour, whilst nurturing the next generation of artists, whether that be through their 350-strong Young Company, their many outreach and education projects or their trailblazing artist development programme, Bristol Ferment.

They use their funding to support experiment and innovation, to allow access to their programme for people who would not otherwise encounter it, or be able to afford it, and to keep their extraordinary heritage alive and animated.

On 24 Sep 2018, Bristol Old Vic completed its 2-year multi-million pound redevelopment project, which transformed its front of house space into a warm and welcoming public building for all of Bristol to enjoy, created a new studio theatre and opened up its unique theatrical heritage to the public for the first time.

Press Office: 0117 949 4901 | press@bristololdvic.org.uk