Meet Bush Associate Artists Sabrina Mafhouz and Caroline Horton in these two intimate, frankly spoken and wildly funny solo shows performed over one evening.
You’re Not Like the Other Girls Chrissy by Caroline Horton
January 1945. Paris has been liberated. Christiane, an eccentric and acutely myopic Parisian waits at Gare Du Nord for a ticket to England to be reunited with her fiancé. Whilst she waits, this gloriously irrepressible mademoiselle recounts the story of her love affair with Cyril, a tongue-tied English teacher from Staffordshire.
A fond, comical and ultimately poignant portrait of one woman’s experience of love and war. Best Solo Performer, The Stage Awards 2010.
Created and performed by Caroline Horton. Commissioned by China Plate, Warwick Arts Centre and mac birmingham
Dry Ice by Sabrina Mahfouz
Meet Nina, a 24-year-old stripper on the edge; her half-art-half-drug dealing boyfriend, and 18 other eccentrically entertaining characters from the world of surreal, sleazy, velvety strip-clubs and gentrified London dinner parties.
Dry Ice is a début solo show from the award-winning playwright and poet Sabrina Mahfouz. Mahfouz worked as a waitress in a strip-club for 5 years. But Dry Ice is not just a strip club exposé – it’s a story of a young girl trying to find her place in the world. It is also quite funny. Recommended for ages 15+
Developed with David Schwimmer, High Tide, Genesis Lab, New Wimbledon Fresh Ideas
Ben designs sets, spaces, lighting and interactive environments. He’s made installations, animations, and written performance texts.
Design includes The Mostly Everything People’s Very Important Child; Greg Wohead’s Comeback Special; Adventures of the Little Ghost for Sophie Nüzel; Kiln Ensemble’s A Journey Around My Skull; Melanie Wilson’s Landscape II (co-design).
Lighting includes Sleepdogs’ Dark Land Light House; Thrive for Zest Theatre; Leila McMillan’s Family Portrait; Uninvited Guests’ This Last Tempest and Make Better Please; Kiln Ensemble’s The Furies; and Melanie Wilson’s Autobiographer.
As an artist/maker, he co-directs Dens & Signals (Feast of the Dead, The Wake, A Thousand Shards of Glass). He’s an associate artist of Coney.
Caroline Horton is a theatre maker, performer, writer and director based in Birmingham.
She was nominated for a 2013 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre for You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy, which also won Best Solo Performer at the 2010 Stage Awards and was nominated for Best Theatre Performer 2011 at Adelaide fringe. Chrissy was shortlisted for the Holden Street Theatres Award 2010 and New Writing South Best New Play Award 2011.
Caroline’s second show Mess continues to tour after opening at The Traverse in August 2012, where it won Best Ensemble at The Stage Awards. Mess also won an Argus Angel award and was nominated for an Offie for Best New Play.
This year Caroline created and performed Penelope Retold for Derby Theatre (The Guardian ★★★★) and her first radio play for BBC Radio 4, Paris, Nana & Me.
Current projects include directing Ishbel & I for Julia Voce and creating a new show about The Staffordshire Hoard with the New Vic.
She’s an associate artist at The Bush and has just finished a year’s residency at the Oxford Playhouse on their Evolve programme. In August, she starts a year’s associate-ship at Birmingham Rep.
Caroline directed/co-adapted Grisly Tales from Tumblewater for Teasel. She has also collaborated with Shams, MAKE/SHIFT and The Plasticine Men and on Hetty Feather directed by Sally Cookson. In 2013, she made a podcast for Fuel’s series While We Wait. Recent acting credits include: Heidi at the egg, Bath, directed by Lee Lyford; the White Witch in The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe at The Brewhouse; Olga in Heldenplatz at the Arcola directed by Annie Castledine and Annabel Arden and performed as Cinderella in the version by Melly Still and Ben Power at Warwick Arts Centre. Caroline performed Almost 10 for Tangram at the Edinburgh Festival in 2009 and was nominated in The Stage Awards for Best Solo Performer. Caroline adapted and performed I’ll Show You Mine (TimeOut Critics’ Choice, August 2011).
David Schwimmer is a co-founder of Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago, which won the Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre in 2011. He has acted in and directed many productions for the company, including Trust, Our Town, West, The Master and Margarita, The Jungle, Eye of the Beholder, The Odyssey, The Idiot, Of One Blood, and his and ensemble member Joy Gregory’s adaptation of Studs Terkel’s book RACE. He starred in the premieres of D Girl and Turnaround in Los Angeles, Glimmer Brothers in Williamstown, Some Girls in London and the revival of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial on Broadway.
Television and film credits include: Nothing But The Truth, Madagascar I & II, Duane Hopwood, Big Nothing, Band of Brothers, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Days Seven Nights, Apt Pupil, The Pallbearer and the hit comedy series Friends, for which he received an Emmy Award nomination. His film and television directing includes Since You’ve Been Gone, Run, Fat Boy, Run, the HBO series Little Britain USA, and the upcoming film version of Trust starring Clive Owen, Catherine Keener and Viola Davis. He is on the Board of Directors of the Rape Foundation in Santa Monica, California.
Omar is an award winning Italian/Palestinian theatre director, deviser and performer, who trained at Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris. He joined the Bush in 2012 alongside Madani Younis and since then has been the resident Associate Director. He is in charge of the Bush’s talent development, leading on the Associate Artists and Project 2036 schemes. He is also involved in the development and delivery of the Bush’s artistic program and lead the programming of the RADAR festival between 2012 and 2015. His directing credits for the Bush include gig theatre sensation Misty by Arinzé Kene, the Edinburgh Fringe First winning NASSIM by Nassim Soleimanpour, One Cold Dark Night by Nancy Harris and Islands by Caroline Horton. As Associate Director, he has worked alongside Madani Younis on the Bush’s productions of The Royale, Perseverance Drive and Chalet Lines. Other credits include acclaimed site-specific production The Mill – City of Dreams, Olivier Award nominated You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy, Testa di Rame (Italy), Les P’tites Grandes Choses (France) and L’Envers du Décor (France).
Sabrina Mahfouz was raised in London and Cairo. Her work as a writer includes the plays Chef, With a Little Bit of Luck, Clean, Battleface and the love i feel is red; the poetry collection How You Might Know Me; the literary anthology The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write and the BBC shows Breaking the Code, Railway Nation: A Journey In Verse and We Are Here. She received a Fringe First Award for Chef and won a Sky Arts Academy Poetry Award.
