FREAK OUT!
This town is falling apart.
Welcome to Portsford, a seaside town fighting a losing battle with coastal erosion. When a sudden announcement threatens to tear the community apart, in an attempt to raise spirits, everyone comes together for a night of drinking and dancing. But as the party becomes a pressure cooker, difficult conversations surrounding shared loss of home, and collective and individual responsibility rise to the surface. But wouldn’t you rather just dance the night away?
Inspired by the UK’s disappearing coastline and drawing on our research on affected communities in East Anglia, FREAK OUT! experiments with theatrical styles and genres, blending human stories with live art elements into an offbeat, high-energy cocktail of a show. Enjoy it while it lasts because things are about to get messy… literally.
FREAK OUT! @ CPT 2024
It's 2024 and we're BACK!
Following its successful run at VAULT Festival in 2023, FREAK OUT! returns to London as part of Camden People's Theatre's spring season on 16th & 17th April.
Grab your tickets from the CPT website here!
Some tasty ticket deals:
Book before 14th Feb to get a 20% earlybird discount
Book more than 2 shows at once to get 25% off
Take a look below for more info about the show...
VAULT FESTIVAL 2023
CAST
Coin Toss Collective as the ensemble and characters:
Claudia Kurucz as Louisa
Lydia Lakin as Kate
Sol Woodroffe as Eli and Sandy
Rosie Mullaney as Hannah
Ben Notice as James
Weronika Dwornik as Kal
Sophia Oriogun-Williams as Alex
Alyssa Thomas as Gabby
Devised, co-written and co-directed by the company
CREATIVES & CREW
Consultant Dramaturgs
Matt Grinter
Ben Atterbury
Choreography
Lydia Lakin
Anthony Matsena
Deepraj Singh
Set Design
Claudia Kurucz
Video and Projection Design
Weronika Dwornik
Sound Design
Sophia Oriogun-Williams
Ben Notice
Lighting Design
Robb Gosset
Andy Simpson
Weronika Dwornik
Lighting and Sound Technician
Tom Younger
Producer
Weronika Dwornik
Assistant Producer
Claudia Kurucz
Marketing and Communications
Rosie Mullaney (lead)
Alyssa Thomas
Production Manager
Millie Wood-Downie
Stage Manager
Maddy Raven
Stage Hands
Alex Dexter
Dan Seymour
Rafael Parker
SPECIAL THANKS TO...
Bristol Old Vic Theatre; Andy Simpson; Lisa Gregan; Lucy Hunt; Lucy Topham; Aiden Connor; Robb Gosset; Ben Atterbury; Elinor Lower; Rhys Thomas; Clara Zita; Amber King; Clare Packham; Bedford House Community Association; Desperate Men Studios; Space 238 Studio; Exchange, Bristol; Resilient Coasts Project & Coastal Partnership East; Happisburgh Village Notice Board; East Anglia Coastal Group; UEA Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research & University of East Anglia
Our Process
We wanted to use the opportunity of taking FREAK OUT! to VAULT 2023 to evolve our show and further explore and develop the choices we made in our original run of FREAK OUT! in 2022. The first place to start was delving into deeper research into seaside communities affected by coastal erosion in the UK.
This then informed our rehearsal process when we were devising and writing in the room. We discussed our characters' careers, class, and home life and how that would inform their personal and communal relationships and decisions within the show. We scrutinised the performance art we used in the show, interrogating the purpose and effect of each symbol and 'language' (from the sand, to Sandy, to the cake, to the water...). Our dress rehearsal was at Bedford House Community Association, a dementia-friendly charity for the local elderly community.
We were thrilled to secure National Lottery Project Grant funding from Arts Council England for FREAK OUT!'s run at VAULT! It allowed us to welcome other artists such as choreographers Anthony Matsena & Deepraj Singh and dramaturg Matt Grinter into the rehearsal room to work with us to strengthen our movement and writing. We also brought on other great people to help facilitate the smooth running of our show, including our PM Millie, stage manager Maddy and technician Tom to name a few!
We also hosted a free captioned stream of the first performance of our show at VAULT, filmed and edited by ChewBoy Productions, on Sat 20th & Sun 21st May 2023.
Audience reviews
"A tragicomedy about how people respond to the earth literally falling out from under them, from the absurd to heartbreaking."
"Tackles a serious issue with humour, theatricality and great choreography"
"Explores the grief and despair of land loss with humour and grace"
"A comedic, fast-paced and honest reflection on the human price of climate change"
Let us know what you thought of FREAK OUT! here!
HERE'S WHERE IT ALL BEGAN....
Our collective baby FREAK OUT! was first born out of the Made in Bristol theatre-making residency as our end of year show. Our debut performance was in the Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic in July 2022.
CAST
Coin Toss Collective as the ensemble and characters:
Claudia Kurucz as Louisa
Lydia Lakin as Kate
Sol Woodroffe as Eli
Rosie Mullaney as Hannah
Ben Notice as James
Weronika Dwornik as Kal
Andy Simpson as Sam and Sandy
Sophia Oriogun-Williams as Alex
Alyssa Thomas as Gabby
Devised, co-written and co-directed by the company
SPECIAL THANKS TO...
Lisa Gregan; Robb Gosset; Aiden Connor; Bristol Old Vic Box Office; Lucy Hunt; Hattie De Santis; Kara Black; Harriet Wilson; Tom Marshman; Anthony Matsena; Adam Peck; Louise Worrall; Sally Cookson; Penelope Rubach; Helena Middleton; James Newton; Imogen Senter; The Wardrobe Ensemble; previous MIB graduates; Bristol Old Vic Engagement Department; Young Company facilitators; Andrew Barton; all the staff at Bristol Old Vic (special shoutout to the bar staff!); Cobey Smith; Catastrophe Bay, BOVTS 2022
Our Process
As a company, we collaboratively devised, wrote and directed FREAK OUT! from scratch in the space of about 6 weeks.
Our show was first inspired by two stimuli brought to the table during our R&D, the first being 'The Masque of the Red Death' by Edgar Allen Poe, a short story about a party which takes a sinister turn. The second was the 'Apocalypse Creep' episode of the This American Life podcast, which highlights the terrifying reality that many American people living on the coast face of losing their homes to coastal erosion, which is rapidly accelerating due to climate change. Merge the two together and you have FREAK OUT!
Our research quickly showed that coastal erosion is an issue which is also hugely impacting the UK, our particular case study being the town of Happisburgh in East Anglia. Britain has some of the fastest eroding cliffs in Europe, with land disappearing at a rate of 4 metres per year. Over the last two decades, at least 35 homes have been lost to the waves in Happisburgh alone. By 2080, an estimated 1.5 million properties will be located in areas with an annual risk of flooding, with 100,000 exposed to coastal erosion.
When crafting our show, we incorporated elements of video projection and performance art to visually convey the visceral effects of coastal erosion and infused them into our dialogue/narrative scenes, with our characters - the residents of the fictional town of Portsford - speaking the words of real people currently affected.
As a company we also took on production roles (see the VAULT section below for a full list). We worked closely with our two technicians Robb Gosset & Aiden Connor and we credit them with giving us some invaluable creative suggestions and expertise, as well as all of the staff and creatives at Bristol Old Vic (mentioned above) who supported us and gave us much-needed feedback during the devising process.
Audience reviews
"Thought provoking"
"Experimental and gripping"
"A wild, surreal and devastating celebration of loss"
"Playful and entertaining"