Synopsis Meet Bush Associate Artists Sabrina Mafhouz and Caroline Horton in these two intimate, frankly spoken and widly funny solo shows performed over one evening. You're Not Like the Other Girls Chrissy by Caroline Horton - January 1945. Paris has been liberated. Christiane, an eccentric and acutely myopic Parisian waits at Gare Du Nord for a ticket to England to be reunited with her fiance. Whilst she waits, this gloriously irrepressible mademoiselle recounts the story of her love affair with Cyril, a tongue-tied English teacher from Staffordshire. A fond, comical and ultimately poignant portrait of one woman's experience of love and war. Best Solo Performer, The Stage Awards 2010. Dry Ice by Sabrina Mahfouz Meet Nina, a 24-year-old stripper on the edge; her half-art-half-drug dealing boyfriend, and 18 other eccentrically entertaining characters from the world of surreal, sleazy, velvety strip-clubs and gentrified London dinner parties. Dry Ice is a debut solo show from the award-winning playwright and poet Sabrina Mahfouz. Mahfouz worked as a waitress in a strip-club for 5 years. But Dry Ice is not just a strip club expos? - it's a story of a young girl trying to find her place in the world. It is also quite funny. Developed with David Schwimmer, High Tide, Genesis Lab, New Wimbledon Fresh Ideas
Two one-handers, two incredibly talented women, two disparate stories: Encounters makes for a delicious evening of storytelling. A 24-year old stripper and a Parisian woman from the Second World War couldn’t be further apart in subject, but their stories are equally well contrived and etched on the bare stage by these masterful narrators.
You can practically taste the Dry Ice filtering into the grungy exotic dancers club as Sabrina Mahfouz - with help from her celebrity director David Schwimmer - conjures the girls, the punters, the conversations with the boyfriend. And it’s immaculate; slipping through perfectly paced verse to the expertly rendered accents of the people that wash through the life of her protagonist, Dry Ice with its dry wit will leave you just that little bit enraptured. Perhaps it’s the down-to-earth northern quality of her voice that keeps it just this side of tasteful, but Mahfouz’s script never falls into grisly detail. Less shocking exposé, more intimately coloured account. It’s – as Nina would probably tell you – in the tease, after all.
By contrast You’re Not Like The Other Girls, Chrissy is gentler in topic: a sweeter tale of a wartime Parisian woman and her English fiancé. From her skittish, mole-like movements to her adorable suitcase props, Christiane is utterly charmant. The audience fall as in love with her as she is with Cyril, eagerly follow her through the pre-war English tennis clubs to occupied France, so perfectly in character is Caroline Horton. Every wobble of her petit head is finely honed. Each little world inside her luggage, a treat.
Together they prove impeccable word play and characterisation are all that is needed to pull an audience into the heart of the story. No shock tactics, no flesh flashing. Just excellent oratory, a chair, a stack of suitcases... and two talented women.
7 Uxbridge Road Shepherds Bush Green Inner London London W12 8LJ
Telephone
020 8743 5050
Station
Description
Bush alumni include Conor MacPherson, Anthony Neilson, Bob Hoskins, Alan Rickman, Catherine Johnson, Julie Walters, Kate Beckinsale, Richard Bean and many many more. Only new plays are produced at this intimate venue and The Bush reads every script it is sent - currently 1500 a year, commissions up to 7 new plays a year and works with young writers to develop their skills. If you want to see the best, first - see it at The Bush. Moved in 2011 from Shepherds Bush Green to the old Shepherd's Bush Library.
Whatsonstage.com - Discount London theatre tickets, theatre news and reviews, Theatre videos, Theatre discussion, National Theatre Listings. Covering London's West End, all of Theatreland and all UK theatre. The best
for London Theatre Ticket Discounts.
