OH MY PAIN, MY BEAUTIFUL PAIN!
PLEASANCE THEATRE 2025
a Play by Evie Fehilly
“Oh My Pain, My Beautiful Pain! can’t quite be described in words, but deserves a wide and enthusiastic audience”
“Blending abstract performance scenes with a linear drama, Fehilly creates a lucid and emotionally literate piece of theatre, with surprising humour”
When does making this work start to help? When does the healing bit start?
Natalia makes the type of work people describe as ‘RAW’, ‘BRAVE’, and ‘HEARTACHINGLY VULNERABLE’. And everyone loves it - critics, audiences, the people who do bookings for TED Talks. They all want more, and she’s promised it to them. Only she’s run out of trauma to write about. More specifically, her own trauma. Perhaps she can borrow some from those around her? Or can she create some?
This fast-paced satirical play uses drag, cabaret and clowning to explore the cultural impetus on artists to exploit deeply personal stories in their work, and exposes the personal cost of working in an industry that wants more pain, more truth, more trauma.
“Packing in plenty of comedy, this weird, wonderful production is wildly entertaining from start to finish”
Produced by Morag Davies
Written by Evie Fehilly
Directed by John King
Choreography by David Allwood
CAST
Natalia | Evie Fehilly
Matts | John-Luke Roberts
Dani | Posey Mehta
“The combination of drag, clowning, poached egg themed tap dancing and hallucinatory dream sequences swirl together to create a genuinely joyful piece of absurdist theatre”
CREATIVE TEAM
General Manager | Rob Ellis
Production Manager | Pete Rickards for eStage
Associate Producers | Ben Quashie and Pleasance Theatre
Assistant Producer | Ella Dale
Costume Design | Daniel Hall
Lighting Design | Catja Hamilton
Sound Designe | Hattie North
Projection and Video Design | Douglas Baker
Dramaturgy | Alan Fielden
Casting Director | Matt Sheppard
Artist Wellbeing Coordinator | Lou Platt
Marketing Assistant | Pippa Conway
Company Stage Manager | Danae Crawford
Assistant Stage Manager | Reuben Bojang
Sound No.1 | Chadrak Lousiela
