Shine a TORCH on being a woman at Underbelly Cowgate

Girl. Woman. Bitch. Mother. Lady. Vixen. Virgin. Whore. We’re all told we’re looking for something, that some part of ourselves is missing, that somewhere we fall short – we’re not political enough, not skinny enough, not sexy enough, not brave enough. The search is over. Stop looking.

Part gig, part refracted and reflecting stories, Torch explores what it means to be a woman. From Flipping the Bird, in collaboration with Channel 4 Playwright Phoebe Eclair-Powell (Wink) and actor Jess Mabel Jones (Backstage in Biscuitland), comes a show that looks at freedom and celebrates choice in the world today.

Songs from the likes of David Bowie and Patti Smith to George Michael and Viv Albertine are interwoven with stories of contrasting female experience. Torch does not set out to solve feminism but provoke it, laugh at and with it, and detonate it.

Conceived and developed by an all-female creative team, Torch is inspired by material contributed to an anonymous online survey inviting women to share their experiences of gender. Writer Phoebe Eclair-Powell comments, "Torch is a show about being a woman now which is something I've always been too scared to write about. But this has become a liberating constellation of voices, looking at the brilliant and dynamic range of feminist thought - from the big to the exceedingly everyday and the beauty in our differences."

Torch has been developed with the support of Old Vic New Voices and The Richard Dawkins Foundation.

PERFORMANCES
Performance Dates Thursday 4th – Sunday 28th August (not 16th), 20:50
Running time 1 hour
Location Underbelly Cowgate (Big Belly), 56 Cowgate, Edinburgh, EH1 1EG
Box Office Tickets are available from www.underbellyedinburgh.co.uk
Previews: £6
Weekday: £10 (£9)
Weekend: £11 (£10)