I'M A PHOENIX, BITCH Comes to Arts Centre Melbourne

One of the UK's most significant performance makers, Bryony Kimmings, returns to Melbourne to present the Australian premiere of her solo masterpiece, I'm A Phoenix, Bitch from 11 - 15 September, 2019. The powerful, dark and joyous tour de force about motherhood, heartbreak and finding inner strength combines personal stories with epic film and original pop songs.

In 2016, Bryony Kimmings nearly drowned. Postnatal breakdowns, an imploding relationship and an extremely sick child left her sitting beneath the waves hoping she could slowly turn to shell. Three years later and she is able to deal with life again, but wears the scars of that year like a dark and heavy cloak.

"My shows are usually born out of me going: 'we don't talk about this enough, this is problematic in terms of a political or feminist narrative.' My hope with this show is to give the almost unspeakable traumas associated with postnatal depression and an ill child a voice. I wanted to create a show that cuts to the heart of these things but does it in a way that people can relate to, a way that we can still laugh and have fun," says creator Bryony Kimmings.

Renowned for her autobiographical works, I'm A Phoenix, Bitch explores questions of "who do we become after trauma, how do we turn pain into power and how do we fly instead of drown?" Her show sees a new legend created, that of the invincible and fearless woman, a tale Kimmings wishes she had known from birth.

I'm A Phoenix, Bitch was first developed at Arts Centre Melbourne's inaugural sector development program The Kiln in 2017.The work was co-commissioned by Battersea Arts Centre, Arts Centre Melbourne, Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts and supported by Latitude Festival and the British Council. It has been financially supported by Arts Council England, in association with Avalon.

Inspired by the taboos, stigmas, anomalies and social injustices around her, Kimmings creates mind-blowing, multi-platform art works to provoke change. The work centres on outlandish 'social experiments' that Kimmings conducts with genuine genius, intrigue and wholehearted fearless gusto. Previous works have seen her retracing an STI to its source, spending seven days in a controlled environment in a constant state of intoxication and becoming a pop star invented by a nine-year-old. Her past works include Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model (Theatre Work/FOLA), Sex Idiot (Theatre Works // MICF) Fake it til you Make it (Theatre Works// MICF) and A Pacifist's Guide to the War of Cancer (Malthouse Theatre).

Kimming's award-winning work has toured the world, most recently to BAGrandhall, Antifest (Finland), Culturgest (Portugal), Fusebox Festival (Texas), The Southbank Centre, Melbourne International Comedy Festival (Australia) and Lisinski Operahouse (Croatia).

Book: artscentremelbourne.com.au or 1300 182 183

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