Really too much for Newcastle?

Published: 4 September 2018
Reporter: Peter Lathan

This Really Is Too Much
This Really Is Too Much
This Really Is Too Much

Gracefool Collective bring their satirical Edinburgh show This Really Is Too Much to Newcastle’s Northern Stage this month.

This Really Is Too Much combines dance, dark comedy and theatre in an exploration of gender inequalities as the Gracefool Collective delves deeply into a world of "farcical stereotypes" and "preposterous power struggles", wrestling with gender, identity and social convention along the way.

In this outlandish medley of absurd political speeches, talent contests, job interviews and box ticking, the four performers—Kate Cox, Sofia Edstrand, Rachel Fullegar and Rebecca Holmberg—fight themselves, each other and society’s expectations for women to be individual, political, beautiful, popular and in control—and in their place.

It’s "a genre-busting show that reveals the downright absurd realities of life as a three-dimensional, high definition, water-drinking, salad-eating, moisturising W.O.M.A.N. in modern society."

Gracefool Collective is a four-woman-strong company of theatre makers formed in 2013 which aims to "provoke, delight, and defy convention through irreverent physicality, sharp writing and arresting characters." Their work tackles serious issues while never taking itself too seriously.

“This show,” they say, “is for anyone interested in dance, theatre, laughing, crying, feminism, gender, identity, smashing the system, ticking the boxes, beauty pageants, political speeches, salad, moisturiser, water, turtle necks, disco, Steely Dan and/or Barry White.”

The hour-long performance starts at 8:00 on Wednesday 26 September in Stage 3. Tickets (limited availability and for age 16+) are £10.

The show comes to Newcastle after two dates in Sweden and then goes on to the Laban Theatre, London (9 October), Harlow Playhouse (11 October), Stage@Leeds (17 October), Cast, Doncaster (23 October), ARC Stockton (24 October), Square Chapel, Halifax (25 October) and The Arts Centre, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk (14 November).

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