Barbican and Mars.tarrab present Tomboy Blues at Exeter Fringe

Mars.tarrab and The Barbican Theatre, Plymouth will present Tomboy Blues – The Theory of Disappointment written and performed by Rachel Mars and nat tarrab as part of the Exeter Fringe Festival at the Exeter Phoenix on 1 -2 July.

Acclaimed live artists and performance makers Rachel Mars and nat tarrab in their first full length show, promise to be “funny, poetic and disarmingly honest”, in a bittersweet tale of how it feels to wonder what life would be like if you weren’t who you are.

In 2010 nat was asked for 94th time if she was in the right toilet, and Rachel refound the Spiderman trainers of her youth, and so began the journey towards Tomboy Blues – The Theory of Disappointment. They began conversations with each other, academics, doctors, children, parents and audiences about when and where our childhood hopes and expectations for the future change, and whether disappointment is an inevitable by-product of human existence.

“A powerful, visceral and blackly comic mosaic of stories of otherness.” – with humour, passion and poignancy, Mars.tarrab travel from glass blowing warehouses to supermarket aisles, from a female bootcamp to the scripts of ‘When Harry Met Sally’ in a quest to see where love can exist when you can’t even find yourself.

Mars.tarrab was set up in 2007 and started creating new pieces of experimental theatre, live art and installations that are joyful, sharp, sad and witty. Its work is concerned with both the joyful and dreadful times in life; the moments that change the course of your life as you know it, and the ones that whip past almost without your noticing. Rachel and nat have performed separately and together across the UK – in venues and festivals including BAC, Soho Theatre, Oval House and the Barbican London, Phoenix Theatre, Exeter and the Spill and Glastonbury festivals. They have collaborated with Stacy Makishi, Curious, Brian Lobel, Catherine Alexander and Red Ladder.