Top Stockholm Fringe Award Goes To Leeds Based Gracefool Collective

On the eve of their UK tour, Leeds based theatre/dance company Gracefool Collective are celebrating winning the top prize at the 2018 Stockholm Fringe Festival with their show This Really is Too Much.

The Stockholm Fringe Festival GRAND PRIX is the overall prize for excellence in performing art, and is selected by a panel of industry delegates and reviewers.

Stockholm Fringe Festival is a multidisciplinary arts festival, acting as a stage for home grown and International Artists to present innovative work ranging from performance to installation art and anything in between. This year's festival was the 9th and saw 70 acts from 23 countries take part, all whom were eligible for the GRAND PRIX prize.

'We're really thrilled to win this just as we're about to set out on our British tour, especially in a year where #metoo, gender pay equality and feminism has rarely been out of the headlines' said Rachel Fullegar of the ensemble. Rebecca Holmberg added 'We feel that by wrapping the themes and messages of feminism into a show that is raucous, provocative and laugh-out loud funny we can share our experiences with audiences in an accessible and meaningful way. It was wonderful to see that this was so enthusiastically embraced by Scandinavian audiences'.

'That the Award was judged by industry delegates and reviewers is especially rewarding' said Sophia Edstrand 'and with our first international award in tow we're excited to be bringing our post-intellectual-pseudo-spiritual-feminist-comedy-dance/theatre to UK theatres this Autumn' concluded Kate Cox.

Slickly choreographed and dripping with feminist charm and anarchic wit, This Really is Too Much is a powerfully satirical genre-busting show. It reveals the downright absurd realities of life as a modern three-dimensional, high definition, water-drinking, salad-eating, moisturising W.O.M.A.N. Combining dance, dark comedy and theatre in an accessible and humorous exploration of gender inequalities the show delves deeply into a world of farcical stereotypes and preposterous power struggles, wrestling with gender, identity and social convention along the way.

Featuring extracts from Kate Bernstein's seminal text 'Gender Outlaw', the four performers, fight themselves, each other and society's expectations for women to be individual, political, beautiful, popular, in control - and in their place.

Kate Cox, Sofia Edstrand, Rachel Fullegar and Rebecca Holmberg became Gracefool Collective in 2013. They make post-intellectual-pseudo-spiritual-feminist-comedy-dance-theatre about the absurdities of modern existence. They aim to provoke, delight, and defy convention through irreverent physicality, sharp writing and arresting characters. Their work tackles serious issues while never taking itself too seriously. www.gracefoolcollective.com

The four Gracefool's (collectively) say that 'This show is for anyone interested in dance, theatre, laughing, crying, feminism, gender, identity, smashing the system, ticking the boxes, beauty pageants, political speeches, salad, moisturiser, water, turtle necks, disco, Steely Dan and/or Barry White'.

UK tour listings: This Really is Too Much by Gracefool Collective

Powerfully satirical and wildly entertaining genre busting theatre/dance/comedy exploring gender inequalities, farcical stereotypes and preposterous power struggles.

60 mins Suitable for ages 11+

Tuesday 9 October, 7.30pm

London, Laban, Creekside, London, SE8 3DZ

£16 £12 concs 020 8463 0100 www.trinitylaban.ac.uk

Thursday 11 October, 8pm

Harlow Playhouse, Playhouse Square, Harlow, CM20 1LS

£11.50 01279 431945 www.harlowplayhouse.co.uk

Wednesday 17 October, 7.30pm

Leeds, Stage@Leeds, University of Leeds, 18 Cromer Terrace Leeds LS2 9JT

£12 (concs £10) 0113 343 8730 www.stage.leeds.ac.uk

Tuesday 23 October, 7.45pm

Doncaster, CAST, Waterdale, DN1 3BU

£11/£9 01302 303 959 www.castindoncaster.com

Wednesday 24 October, 7pm

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

£pay what you decide 01642 525199 www.arconline.com

Thursday 25 October, 8pm

Halifax Square Chapel Arts Centre, 10 Square Road, Halifax HX1 1QG

£12 01422 349422 www.squarechapel.co.uk

Wednesday 14 November, 7.30pm

Ormskirk, Edge Hill Arts Centre, Edge Hill University, St Helen's Road, Ormskirk, L39 4QP

£10/£8 conc 01695 584480 www.edgehill.ac.uk/events/arts-centre

Tuesday 27 November, 7.30pm

Weymouth Bay Theatre, Weymouth College, Cranford Avenue, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 7LQ

£12, concs £10 01305 208702 www.ticketsource.co.uk/thebaytheatre

Wednesday 28 November, 8pm

Dorchester Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High Street East, Dorchester, DT1 1HF

£12 £10 concs 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts.org.uk

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