11 November – 10 December

The uniquely talented DICKIE BEAU stars in iSHOWMANISM! – the final commission by Deborah Warner in her inaugural season as Artistic Director of Bath’s Ustinov Studio

Award-winning Deborah Warner’s first season as Ustinov Studio Artistic Director has encompassed Shakespeare, song, contemporary dance and opera. Now her final commission for 2022 brings a celebration of the art of performance itself, devised and performed by Dickie Beau.

From Friday 11^th November to Saturday 10^th December, the uniquely talented Dickie Beau presents iSHOWMANISM!, a brand-new stage production taking audience members on a surprising and inspiring off-road journey through thousands of years of theatre and its history.

Expect revelations on everything you think you know about performance as live lip-syncing phenomenon Dickie Beau channels the voices of stage and screen legends – Ian McKellen, Fiona Shaw and renowned theatre director Peter Sellars (not the actor) – as you have certainly never seen or heard them before – alongside a host of actors, impressionists, journalists, lecturers and other enchanting voices from the shadowlands of performance.

Dickie cuts up and then “re-members” this compelling collection of voices to trace a path through the world of performance itself in all its permutations, from Greek Theatre to nightclub drag queens; from politics to puppetry. Created from interview footage that Dickie has personally collected with his subjects over many months, in iSHOWMANISM! he “plays back” those conversations through his own body in a surreal theatre trip that promises to be by turns hilarious and haunting.

A lip-syncing sensation, Dickie Beau dazzled Bath audiences at the Ustinov Studio this summer as the mercurial Ariel in Deborah Warner’s highly acclaimed The Tempest. Now he delivers a live audio-visual treat which talks to audiences about art, about the world and about being human.

Hollywood and Broadway actor Nathan Lane describes Dickie Beau as “an extraordinary artist and a brilliant actor”, saying “every time he steps on a stage something amazing happens”.

Dickie Beau trained at the University of Manchester and Teatro della Contraddizione in Milan. His wide-ranging credits include playing The Dame in Dick Whittington at the National Theatre and the title role in Botticelli in the Fire at London’s Hampstead Theatre; television roles including James I in The Windsors and The Shredder in The Sandman, and film roles including Kenny Everett in Bohemian Rhapsody and Wague in Colette. Dickie has an international reputation for his solo performance work. He has toured extensively with his repertoire of solo theatre shows, including to festivals in Australia, America, Canada, Europe and the UK. He has been awarded The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award, Best Supporting Actor in the Off-West End Theatre Awards and Best Alternative Performer in the London Cabaret Awards.

Director Jan-willem van den Bosch is a longstanding collaborator of Dickie Beau, with previous shows which toured nationally and internationally including Blackouts and Re-member Me, for which Dickie was nominated in Australia for a Helpmann Award. Jan is an award-winning theatre director whose far-travelled productions and co-productions have travelled to stages across the world from Africa to Eastern Europe, Asia and the USA. A vast body of his work has also been staged at iconic London venues including the Almeida, Royal Festival Hall, Shakespeare’s Globe and Young Vic.

Designer Justin Nardella has worked on over 50 productions in stage, screen and events. A design graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, he has been awarded an Offie for Best Costume Design and a BMW Young Artist Award.

Dramaturg Rupert Christiansen is currently the dance critic for The Spectator, after twenty-five years as opera critic for the Daily Telegraph. He also teaches at Keble College, Oxford and is UK and Europe Director of the Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation. His many books include Prima Donna, Romantic Affinities, Paris Babylon and Diaghilev’s Empire: How The Ballets Russes Enthralled The World.

Deborah Warner CBE is a British director working internationally in theatre and opera. In the UK, she has directed productions for the National Theatre, English National Opera, Barbican, Opera North, Royal Opera House, Royal Shakespeare Company, Glyndebourne, Almeida Theatre, Old Vic and London’s West End. She has twice won the Olivier Award for Best Director. Her inaugural season as Artistic Director of Bath’s Ustinov Studio has featured four new productions: The Tempest, Phaedra and Minotaur, Dido and Aeneas and iSHOWMANISM!

iSHOWMANISM! appears at Bath’s Ustinov Studio from Friday 11^th November to Saturday 10^th December. To book tickets contact the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 or book online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk

Photo credit: Hugo Glendinning