Bitches Ball

Its League of Gentlemen does Les Liasons Dangereuses - ripped corsets, stained teeth, white face paint and big frocks. Live music on cello and accordion, fast chaotic action, saucy song and dance numbers and surreal gothic characters.

Penny Dreadful brings innovative physical comedy to new audiences, based on forgotten true histories. Fast-moving, imaginative and extremely funny THE BITCHES BALL is their newest story.

Directed by Mick Barnfather (Theatre de Complicite, Peepolykus, The Right Size, Hoipolloi, Told by an Idiot) and scripted by Dawn King, an exciting young writer also currently under commission to the UK Film Council.

The cast of 4 women and 1 man - all of whom look amazing in corsets - are physical performers with a background in circus, stand-up, comedy, cabaret and street theatre (John Wright, Improbable, Company FZ, Cartoon de Salvo, Soho Theatre).

There was an atmosphere of foreboding on the night of her birth. The wind whistled and the rain beat in torrents.

“Throughout life the tempest has followed my footsteps”

This is a true tale inspired by the life of the multi-talented Mary Robinson, high flying courtesan and acclaimed poet. An 18th century celebrity of her time. Bold, disgraceful, beautiful, extraordinary, she was shunned by respectable society. Coleridge called her a “genius” for her tormented gothic verse, much of it written under the influence of opium.

“I never knew a human being with so full a mind - bad, good and indifferent I grant you, but full and overflowing.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge