Show And Tell and Kieran Hurley Present HEADS UP UK Tour  

Following a solid sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe, the multi-award winning theatre-maker's depiction of the life of a city at the brink of an apocalypse embarks on a UK tour.

Written and performed by Kieran Hurley // Directed by Alex Swift and Julia Taudevin

UK TOUR: Wednesday 22 February - 10 June 2017

This compelling new performance written and performed by Kieran Hurley (Beats, Chalk Farm, Hitch) and co-directed by Alex Swift (Caroline Horton's Mess) and Julia Taudevin (Blow Off, Chalk Farm) weaves a picture of a familiar city at its moment of destruction, asking what we would do if we found ourselves at the end of our world as we know it. The performance intertwines the stories of starkly different modern lives: a teenage girl who boils up in rage in a toilet cubicle; a finance worker who preaches doom in a busy train station; an absurd coke-addled celebrity who races through town on a mission and a paranoid stoner who stares blankly at the endless disasters on the TV news. In just one moment all their worlds will end.

Writer and performer Kieran Hurley said: "Heads Up is about living in a world built on disaster. It's about how we make sense of our lives in the context of global catastrophe; economic, environmental and humanitarian. It's difficult to say what the impulse behind making it is, beyond needing to deal with the feeling of incredible anxiety I sometimes have when reading the news. There are some jokes too though, don't worry. It bears a clear relationship to some of my previous work if you liked that, but it's also unlike anything I've made before. I'm trying out some entirely new approaches as a performer, through a really innovative sound design by Michael John McCarthy which I'll be controlling and operating from the stage."

Kieran Hurley is an award-winning playwright, performer, and theatre maker based in Glasgow, whose work has been performed throughout the UK and internationally. He makes work that is experimental and innovative but accessible, for a wide audience. Sometimes he writes words for other people to perform, sometimes he tells stories to an audience himself. Often he collaborates with creatives in other fields including live bands, DJs, and audio-visual artists. Past work includes Hitch, Beats, Chalk Farm, and Rantin. Beats received the Best New Play award at the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland 2012, and Kieran was nominated for Best Solo Performer on the Fringe at the Stage Awards 2012.

Producers Show And Tell are a London-based, award-winning Production Company working in close collaboration with established and emerging comedians and theatre-makers to bring their work to audiences on a national and international stage. They are currently working with Kieran Hurley, Sh!t Theatre, Josie Long, Gary McNair, Ross Sutherland, Richard Gadd, Kieran Hodgson, John Kearns and more. Show And Tell enjoyed a very successful 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Fringe Firsts for Kieran Hurley's first Edinburgh Festival Fringe premiere Heads Up and for Sh!t Theatre's Letters to Windsor House.

Part of the Made in Scotland showcase 2016

Company:

Written and performed by Kieran Hurley Directed by Alex Swift and Julia Taudevin

Sound/music by Michael John McCarthy

Alex Swift is a performer, director and theatre-maker. He trained at École Philippe Gaulier in Paris and his work has won Best Ensemble in the Stage Awards for Acting Excellence, The Bush Theatre Directing Award, The Vault Pick of the Festival Award and an Argus Angel. He is also Artistic Director of permanent red Theatre Company and an Associate Artist with Daedelus Theatre Company. Recent work includes Me and Mr C by Gary Kitching, Error 404 by Daniel Bye, Fat Man by Martin Bonger, Mess by Caroline Horton, Puffball by Caroline Williams, and I Told You This Would Happen by Kathryn Beaumont.

Musician/sound artist Michael John McCarthy's performance work includes: Rapunzel, Into That Darkness, Fever Dream: Southside & Sports Day (Citizens Theatre); The Cheviot, The Stag & The Black, Black Oil, The BFG & Steel Magnolias (Dundee Rep); Light Boxes, Letters Home & The Authorised Kate Bane (Grid Iron); In Time O' Strife, Blabbermouth, The Tin Forest & The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (National Theatre of Scotland); The Weir & Bondagers (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh); A Gambler's Guide to Dying (Gary McNair/Show & Tell); Under Milk Wood (Tron Theatre Glasgow); Glory (Janice Parker Projects); Educating Ronnie (Utter). He has worked with The Arches, Lung Ha's, Macrobert, Platform, People's Light & Theatre Philadelphia, Playgroup, Poorboy, Theatre Uncut, Traverse Theatre and Vox Motus. He has twice been nominated for the Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland in the category Best Use of Music & Sound. He is lead artist on Turntable, a participatory arts project, in association with Red Bridge Arts. As a musician he has toured Europe & Japan with Zoey Van Goey, Lord Cut-Glass and Aidan Moffat. He appears as an accordionist on recordings by Emma Pollock, Alasdair Roberts, RM Hubbert, Jo Mango, Niall Connolly, Trembling Bells & Bonnie Prince Billy amongst others.

As actor and theatre maker Julia Taudevin has performed with companies including the National Theatre in London, the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS), Traverse Theatre and ThickSkin and her screen work includes Katy Morag (CBBC), The Glasgow Girls (BBC) and the feature film Sunshine On Leith. She co-directed Beats (winner CATS Best New Play 2012) and Hitch (nominated CATS best New Play 2011) both by Kieran Hurley. As playwright AJ Taudevin's plays include Mrs Barbour's Daughters (???? The Herald/The Scotsman/The List), Some Other Mother (???? Times/Scotsman/Herald/The Stage, shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award 2014) and Chalk Farm (????? Everything Theatre/???? Scotsman/Herald, shortlisted for Brighton Festival New Talent Award, long-listed for Amnesty International Award 2013) in which she also performed. She is published by Oberon books. Her latest show, Blow Off (???? The Guardian/Scotsman/Herald/The List/The F Word), which she performs with a band is currently touring.

www.showandtelluk.com | @show_and_tell | @kieran_hurley | #HeadsUpKH

Running time: 60 minutes (no interval) | Age restriction: 14+

Listings information:

Tron Theatre

63 Trongate, Glasgow, G1 5HB

Wednesday 22 February 2017 (as part of TAKE ME SOMEWHERE, a new citywide festival of contemporary performance that builds on the legacy of The Arches arts programme)

7.45pm | £14 (£10)

Tickets: 0141 552 4267 | www.tron.co.uk

Traverse Theatre (Traverse 2)

10 Cambridge Street, Edinburgh, EH1 2ED

Thursday 23 - Saturday 25 February 2017

Post show discussion: Thursday 23 Feb 2017

8pm | £16.50 (£13.50/£8.50)

Tickets: 0131 228 1404 | www.traverse.co.uk

Crewe Axis Arts Centre

Cheshire Campus, Manchester Metropolitan University, Crewe Green Rd
Crewe, CW1 5DU

Thursday 2 March 2017

7.30pm | £8 (£5)

Tickets: 0843 2080 500 | www.axisartscentre.org.uk

Dundee Rep Theatre

Tay Square, Dundee, DD1 1PB

Tuesday 14 March 2017

7.30pm | £14

Tickets: 01382 223530 | www.dundeerep.co.uk

Crucible Theatre (Studio Theatre)

55 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, S1 1DA

Thursday 16 March 2017

7.45pm | £12

Tickets: 0114 249 6000 | www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

Battersea Arts Centre

Lavender Hill, London, SW11 5TN

Monday 20 - Saturday 25 March 2017 | £10 (all tickets)

Monday 27 March - Saturday 1 April 2017 | £12.50 (£10)

8pm

Tickets: 020 7223 2223 | www.bac.org.uk

Oxford Playhouse

Oxford Burton Taylor Studio, 11 - 12 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2LW

Monday 3 April 2017

8pm | £10

Tickets: 01865 305305 | www.oxfordplayhouse.com

Marlborough Theatre

4 Prince's Street, Brighton, BN2 1RD

Tuesday 4 April 2017

8pm | £12 (£10)

Tickets: 01273 570028 | www.marlboroughtheatre.org.uk

South Street Arts Centre

21 South Street, Reading, RG1 4QU

Wednesday 5 April 2017

8pm | £12 (£10)

Tickets: 0118 960 6060 | www.readingarts.com/south-street

Northern Stage

Barras Bridge, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 7RH

Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 April 2017

7.45pm | £10 (£8)

Tickets: 0191 230 5151| www.northernstage.co.uk

HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, M15 4FN

Thursday 18 - Saturday 20 May 2017

7pm (Thu & Fri) // 2.15pm & 7.45pm (Sat only) | £10 (£8)

Tickets: 0161 200 1500 | www.homemcr.org

ARC, Stockton Arts Centre
Dovecot Street, Stockton on Tees, TS18 1LL

Thursday 8 June 2017

7pm | Pay what you decide

Tickets: 01642 525199 | www.arconline.co.uk

& further tour dates tbc