Battersea Arts Centre celebrates turning 50 with Figs in Wigs
To celebrate turning 50 in 2024, Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) are working with artists across the globe to present some exciting new shows.
As part of the celebrations, five brightly coloured performers – who market themselves towards audiences who “get bored of conventional theatre” – will take to the stage with one of the most unique performances you may ever see.
Big Finish by Figs in Wigs will show at BAC, in Lavender Hill, Battersea, from March 14 to 27.
Figs in Wigs is the theatrical collaboration of Ray Gammon, Suzanna Hurst, Sarah Moore, Rachel Porter and Alice Roots.
The group said: “We create our own music, costumes, hair and makeup, and work closely with set and lighting designers […] we draw our audiences in for a couple of hours, filling their heads with clashing colours and hallucinogenic dance routines, before spitting them back out into the auditorium, their brains shrouded in a haze of recurring motifs and ludicrous logic.
“Our work is for anyone who gets annoyed with conventional theatre, who enjoys laughing at themselves and poking fun at traditions.
“It chimes especially strongly with those who seek radical ways of looking at the world and those who see humour as a tool for exploring bigger themes. Jokes are at the heart of what we do and we take silliness very seriously”.
The five women behind Figs in Wigs met while studying Drama at Queen Mary University of the Arts London in 2009 and for the last 15 years, have collectively devised, produced and performed 10 original shows.
Figs in Wigs shows don’t appear to make much sense. Their work consistently and deliberately defies categorisation but always has a mischievous energy fitting for a dive bar or sweaty nightclub.
At a time when the financial constraints after more than a decade of austerity have caused independent theatre to become a lot smaller and more conventional in form and process, Figs has fought on.
The women offer bewildering aesthetic choices in their jokes and demeanour with which they approach the increasingly absurd situations their shows create.
They act with the conviction that they can live inside a world they have created for themselves, and that maybe their audience can too.
Picture: Figs in Wigs (Picture: Kate Bones)
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