This Is My Story - The Shows
Upcoming shows of the This Is My Story line-up will appear here, followed by a catalogue of past work! For more information, check out the artist’s and the venue’s sites. All shows will be performed at The Lighthouse, Poole.
Show Date: 29th April 2023
Made in (India) Britian - Rinkoo Barpaga
Since leaving home in Birmingham, Rinkoo Barpaga has moved around England a lot, determined to find somewhere to settle. Along the way, he has encountered both racism and discrimination, and as a result he has been constantly asking himself the question, “where do I belong?” A British born, Rinkoo discovered at the age of three that not only was he required to tick the box, ‘ethnic minority,’ but also the box, ‘Deaf.’
Made In (India) Britain is an insight into one man’s life as he tries to fathom out exactly who he is and where he belongs, as he delves deep into past experiences to try and find clues which will ultimately help him realise his true self and a home he can finally call home.
Details About The Show:
Running Time: 75 minutes.
Age Guidance: 14+
Rinkoo is a talented and innovative artist. His work is pioneering and is bringing in a community that has otherwise been marginalised from mainstream theatre and comedy. Rinkoo is ambitious and his work touches a wide audience both in the deaf community and beyond and he is able to bring these two worlds together imaginatively.
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This Is My Story - The Past Works
While you’re here, why not take a leisurely browse of the festival’s past work? If you’re feeling sad you missed out on some of the work here, be sure to check out the shows still to come from This Is My Story! Remember to take a peek at the artist’s socials for their upcoming work as well!
She Seeks Out Wool - Klein Blue
Spoken word and large-scale live-knitting tell the story of the relatives lost in a Jewish family’s journey from Praszka to Liverpool. Award-winning writer-actor Sophie Ablett delivers this poignantly relevant solo piece: in this year of unravelling and recovery, how do we mend gaps in the fabric?
She Seeks Out Wool was developed for the Fringe Futures Festival at The Pleasance. It was programmed at Manchester Jewish Museum as part of Tsitsit Festival before being selected for an onward development grant by The Pleasance and funding from Arts Council England.
Details About The Show:
Running Time: 50 minutes.
Age Guidance: 12+
‘One to watch’ (The Independent). Award-winning actor-writer Sophie Ablett’s performance work includes London’s West End and BBC1/FX. Creating award-winning films through her production company, Rabbit & Rooster, and Arts Council-funded theatre through her collective, Klein Blue, Sophie focuses on beautiful storytelling that has unique visual impact with messages that resonate in the here and now.
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PER-SO-NA - Kafayat adegoke
A Yòruba girl or a self-described queer? Why not both?
PER-SO-NA uses delicious food to present a version of a stereotype in order to then break it apart. Social reform set against the backdrop of a factual market, biting sarcasm, right-on-the-edge humour, endless droning culture war, and salacious details- including stories of her fake orgasms. She is funny and has little to no dignity as she invites you to laugh at her insecurities and giggle at her inner struggles. It's about a Yòruba Nigerian girl that isn't so Nigerian.
Not a traditional play. Call it a series of non-linear episodes instead.
Details About The Show:
Running Time: 50 minutes.
Age Guidance: 16+
Content Warnings: Scenes of Nudity.
PER-SO-NA is in continuous development. An early version of the piece was staged at Tetley Art Gallery Leeds alongside the Simeon Barclay Bus2Move Exhibition, Theatre in the Mill Bradford as part of their RightQueerRightNow Festival, Main stage at Crucible Sheffield as part of their Together Season Festival, and South London Fringe venue; The Bridge House Theatre.
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Drowning in the Sound - The Midnight Florist Collective
The Midnight Florists presents a reperformance of unheard voices and unsaid things, about pain, recovery, dancing, and loneliness. Truth spoken through surrogate mouths, drowning in the sound and coming back up for air.
Collating together over twenty hours of verbatim recordings gifted by survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. Drowning in The Sound tells, in their own words, the very real stories of “Alex” and “Sarah”. Supported by music, dance, multimedia, and broadcast this performance redirects the #MeToo narrative from acts of abuse and those who conduct them to the slow and necessary recovery of those who survived. Exploring the dark nuances of survivorship, Drowning In The Sound is ‘relentless in its attack on the subject and celebrating of the voices of victims of abuse’ (Robert Daniels, Bootworks Theatre).
Details About The Show:
Running Time: 60 minutes with an additional Post-Show Support Forum for up to 60 minutes.
Age Guidance: 14+ with Parental Guidance as the themes of the show are useful if difficult to those under 18.
Content Warnings: Explicit and repeated mentions of domestic, coercive, and sexual assault, and mentions of suicidal ideation.
The Midnight Florists are a collaboration between performance makers Kayleigh Hunt and Andrew Martin Lee. Exploring autobiographic performance practices with audience/performer connections, the collective makes work that doesn’t end when the curtains close, but follows you home and sleeps on your sofa.
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For Dom - Theo Moore
In September 2019 Theo interviewed Dom. Dom is 25 now. He thought about killing himself every day for a number of years. He didn’t talk to his Dad. He didn’t talk to his mates. Dom is Theo’s best friend. For Dom is an autobiographical solo performance piece. Using verbatim audio footage from two interviews, Theo tells a story of friendship, adolescence and recurring suicidal thoughts.
For Dom is Theo’s second solo show. In March 2022 a work-in-progress performance of For Dom was staged at Camden People’s Theatre; it has been created with support from the University of Chichester and Arts Council England.
Details About The Show:
Running Time: 50 minutes.
Age Guidance: 15+
Content Warnings: Contains frank references to suicide, suicidal thoughts, anxiety and depression.
Theo Moore is an interdisciplinary theatre maker, writer and producer. His solo work weaves together original sound design and storytelling alongside interviews conducted with people in his life. His first play, Everytime We Touch, was commissioned and performed as part of Mountview’s IGNITE festival. He is co-founder of Brightmouth Productions, a theatre company that champions work at the cutting edge of the performance world, more info can be found on their website.
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Hole - Holly Spillar
Join Holly Spillar in her debut comedy about sex, pain and the brain. This one woman show is full to the brim with surreal storytelling, live music and NHS gifted dildos!
HOLE is about navigating the world of sex when penetration is IMPOSSIBLE. After Holly’s vaginismus diagnosis she began creating HOLE hoping to raise awareness and break down the (vaginal?) wall of shame around female sexuality.
Details About The Show:
Running Time: 60 minutes.
Age Guidance: 16+
Content Warnings: This show is about vaginismus and mentions pain during sex and penetration, explicit sexual language, swearing.
Holly Spillar is a theatre maker and comedian, whose ‘vibe’ has been described as ‘Tim Minchin bumping into Kate Bush at full speed.’ Holly’s shows are often full of dyspraxic mishaps, feminist flirtations and the sweet sweet music of a little red loop pedal.
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The Story So Far…
Pests Production are an organisation who collaborate with emerging performers to produce high quality live performance in Dorset and the South of England. Our work takes place across a range of platforms and within traditional and non-traditional spaces. We engage with emerging performers that are local, national and international. Our aim is to put Dorset on the map as a hub of creative and cultural engagement, rivalling other coastal cities such as Brighton or Bristol.
Through crowdfunding and funding from the Arts Council England, we are proud to present a 6 month theatre programme called This Is My Story. This Is My Story is a season of DIY, small scale, low tech theatre performances centering round contemporary expressions of identity. We will be helping to show some of the incredible plethora of human identities through these artist’s work, telling unique, challenging, engaging stories in amazing, daring, new ways. More information about each piece, the performers behind them and where you can watch them can all be found here, so watch this space!
Throughout the project, we hope to be able to:
Give emerging artists the opportunity to perform in a town that doesn't often provide these artistic opportunities.
Help emerging artists reach as large an audience as possible by creating engaging marketing materials and being able to push these in larger scales than we have previously.
Buy vital equipment that helps us programme more technically complex shows, not just for this project but for all our future projects.
Making sure that we can keep our ticket prices at affordable and accessible prices, so that no one feels that they are priced out of going to the theatre.
This project has been partially funded with the help of a dedicated Crowdfunder, the page for this can be accessed below. While the Crowdfunder is finished, there’s information about how the funds raised will be used and loads more!
With our donors' support, we’re able to give emerging performers the opportunity to showcase their talents and bring new, exciting creative performances to Dorset. We cannot thank everyone enough for this. If you want to see a list of the amazing people that have donated, please click on the donors button at the bottom of the page.
If you are at all interested in working with Pests in the future, get in touch!
Meet the Festival Team!
kAYLEIGH hUNT - Creative Producer
Kayleigh Hunt is a Creative Producing graduate from Central School of Speech and Drama. With a background in devised theatre, they work across a multitude of artistic disciplines, including their work with Chichester company The Midnight Florist Collective. As well as this, Kayleigh is currently working towards touring their debut show, PG14, which focuses on oversexualisation of young women in the media. In the future, Kayleigh plans to return to Lincolnshire to create new work for local communities.
Rebecca Standen - Festival Assistant
A recent Theatre graduate of the University of Chichester, Rebecca has worked on Chichester’s INTERACT festival where she managed the acts and took charge of organising the other festival committees. Currently aside from her work with Pests on This is My Story, she is beginning her PGCE in Secondary Drama.
Mel Gilbert - Festival Assistant
Having recently graduated the Theatre (Performance and Production) course from the University of Chichester, Mel is the second of the three new-graduates to be working on This is My Story. Her specialisation is in technical theatre where she has worked with Burning Attic and alongside other graduates in putting on the INTERACT festival.
Fergus Ross - Festival Assistant
The final University of Chichester graduate helping out with This is My Story, Fergus has worked previously with Rebecca in managing the INTERACT festival’s various committees and performances. At the moment he’s working at a local theatre and is researching into making theatre with Mel and their company Odds and Sodds.
Are you a theatre maker interested in applying to be part of this is my story?
Want more information about the call out for performances? Click below!
Fundraising information
Want to know how you can support Pests with This Is My Story? Click below!