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About
Raucous historical theatre with bite, anarchy, and a bouncy castle.
August 1792. Twenty-thousand people storm the palace of King Louis XVI. Six months later he is guillotined: France is a Republic.
July 1794. Fifteen thousand more people have had their heads chopped off. Republican leader Robespierre gets guillotined as well. The Revolution is over.
January 2024. Members of the international elite assembled in Davos for the final meetings of the World Economic Forum where they enjoyed saunas, spas, and high-class food. Child poverty levels are the highest they’ve ever been. The richest 1% own half of the world’s wealth. A politician was hit by a flying egg.
Award-winning YESYESNONO are making their biggest show yet - the story of the French Revolution. It’s a show about angry, hungry citizens demanding a better world (It’s not Les Mis). It’s a show about rage and violence and taking to the streets. It’s a show with some music and a bit of dance (It’s really not Les Mis though). It’s about what it would feel like to guillotine a king… or maybe like… a billionaire? Just thinking about it, obviously not actually DOING it… just imagining… just a thought experiment… not serious, obviously we’re not serious but maybe… maybe… maybe..?
Drawing on a fiery tradition of Brechtian political theatre, five actors blast us through one of the most vital, controversial moments in European history in a completely one-sided, biased, irreverent account of what it feels like to crave a guillotine today.
Quotes & Reviews
Events Programme
All events are free with your ticket to The Glorious French Revolution (or: why it sometimes takes a guillotine to get anything done).
Panel: Performing the Past – Staging History
Monday 25th November, post-show
Emma Clark (emma + pj, Ghosts of the Near Future) is joined by Sam Ward (YESYESNONO, The Glorious French Revolution), Lydia Higman (Dirty Hare, Gunter), and David Cumming (SpitLip, Operation Mincemeat) in a post-show panel on the challenges, ethical responsibilities, and intricacies of creating historical and political theatre. How do we talk about history onstage? What does genuinely political theatre look like?
Workshop: YESYESNONO x YOUNG DRAMATURGS
Saturday 30th November, post-matinee
'Protestors emerge. They are torn about the decision to execute the king – they turn to you with scattered questions.'
Join YESYESNONO and their 2024 YOUNG DRAMATURGS cohort as they facilitate a discussion exploring various attitudes towards the ruling class. YOUNG DRAMATURGS is a year-long theatre programme for young people aged 16-21 led by YESYESNONO, which looks to improve their creative skills, provide experience of a professional creative environment and build expertise in real-life creative dramaturgy.
Reviews for The Glorious French Revolution:
★★★★★ 'Brutal, brilliant, and bloody' - London Theatre 1
★★★★★ 'Carefully orchestrated creative carnage' - The Arts Dispatch
★★★★ 'Daft, anarchic performance piece... Intensely relevant political theatre' - The Stage
★★★★ 'Bold, imaginative, and entertaining' - Reviews Hub
★★★★ 'Unique and absorbing' - Longstaff Reviews
★★★★ 'Truly remarkable and unnervingly relevant' - Everything Theatre
The Company
Credits
Director & Writer - Sam Ward
Set/Costume Designer - Hazel Low
Lighting Designer - Han Sayles
Sound Designer/Composer - Tom Foskett-Barnes
Dramaturgs - Josie Dale Jones and Ben Kulvichit
Producer - Rhian Davies
Cast - Joe Boylan, Paul Brendan, Sha Dessi, Jessica Enemokwu, and Alice Keedwell
Commissioned by New Diorama Theatre.
About the Company
YESYESNONO is artist Sam Ward and producer Rhian Davies.
They make live performance pieces. Most people call their work theatre. Some people don't.
They've shown work across the country at spaces including HOME, Paines Plough’s Roundabout, Soho Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, Theatre Royal Plymouth, The Royal Exchange, Traverse Theatre and Camden People's Theatre.
In 2017, they won the Total Theatre Award for Best Emerging Company for their debut show Five Encounters on a Site Called Craigslist. In 2019 they were nominated for the Total Theatre Award for Innovation/Experimentation for the accident did not take place. In 2022 they were a finalist for the OffWest End Award for Best Production for we were promised honey! and had their international debut at 59E59 Theaters in New York City.
www.yesyesnono.org / @yesyesnonotheat