Flying Solo Festival 2017 at Contact
Andrew Anderson
Flying Solo Festival, Contact’s festival of solo performance, is back with a bumper programme that features some of the North West’s best comic talent – Kate O’Donnell and Jackie Hagan – as well as international acts like American comedian Desiree Burch and Dutch spoken word artist Sheyda Darab.
Let’s start with Hagan, whose breakout show Some People Have Too Many Legs was a big success in 2015. Hagan’s humour reminds you of the kid at the back of the class who always comes up with a clever comment, while her subject matter – in this case, “skint disabled people” in a new work titled Jumble Soul – is deeply human.
As for O’Donnell, it’s now 14 years since she transitioned. In You’ve Changed she wonders whether the world has moved on in that time, or whether we are still stuck with our old ideas. Expect her to explore these big concepts in between many wardrobe changes – all of which will be fabulous.
Elsewhere, Burch’s show This is Evolution is acerbic comedy at its finest as the American explores the plight of the over 30s; those living with the expectation that they should have a ‘real life’ while dealing with the actuality that they don’t.
Finally, Sheyda Darab’s Treasuries of Mysteries mixes spoken word with hip hop and theatre in a show that invites audiences to “look for treasure”. Where else could you see a show that is influenced by both Iranian writer Nizami Ganjavi and krumping?
Full line-up announced soon.
