SWITCHFLICKER PRODUCTIONS ANNOUNCE LONDON PREMIÈRE AND UK TOUR DATES FOR PLANT FETISH
Switchflicker Productions present
PLANT FETISH
By Chanje Kunda
Vault Festival – CAGE
Director: Darren Pritchard; Costume Designer: Sidnie Pantry; Lighting Designer: Nigel Edwards
Following a successful run at HOME, Manchester, Switchflicker Productions today announce theLondon première and UK tour of Chanje Kunda’s Plant Fetish. Darren Pritchard directs Chanje Kunda in this one woman show. The production opens as part of the 2020 Vault Festival from 21-22 March, with previews at Oldham Coliseum on 10 March, before touring to Hull Truck Theatre, Bury MET, Salisbury Playhouse, Bernie Grants Arts Centre, and Pound Arts, concluding its run at The Holbeck on 28 June.
Chanje Kunda was suffering with anxiety when she discovered that plants reduce stress. She then learnt that some women in Mexico, fed up with men, were getting married to trees. The trees aren’t very talkative, but they are tall, do great things for the planet, and are renowned for their wood. Chanje was inspired and surrendered to this notion. She fell in love with plants, fleshy succulents, monstera’s hand shaped leaves, venus flytrap, the twining of a creeper. The pressures of life drifted away.
This show maps her journey and features a harem of stunning tropical plants. There will be music and movement, dramatic narrative and metaphors and growth and renewal, and the show ends on a climax…
With us forever comparing our lives to those of others on social media and the superficial numbers game that is dating via online apps, Plant Fetish will inspire audeinces to embrace foliage over FOMO!
Chanje Kunda said today, “I started buying and cultivating lots of plants in a bid to save myself and the planet from impending demise, it changed my life and I decided to make a show about it. The show is a celebration of diversity, and is designed to inspire people to reclaim the right to experience joy, to dance and enjoy exotic plants and nature, outside of the ideologies that make people stressed out in the first place. Engaging with plants and nature is a pleasurable way to lead more enjoyable and less stressful lives by becoming mindful of the beauty of creation”
Chanje Kunda is a playwright, poet and actor who performs nationally and internationally. As a poet she has performed at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Calabash Literature Festival Jamaica, Black Magic Woman Festival Amsterdam, Apples and Snakes at Soho Theatre, and Latitude Festival. She has also been published in literary journals and anthologies, and has written Amsterdam, a full-length solo collection published by Crocus Books. She is the winner of The Verb’s New Voices Award, and won a year-long Artist Residency in 2012 at the Heesterveld Creative Community in Amsterdam, where she performed extensively in the Netherlands.
Darren Pritchard directs. His previous directing credits include Rent Party (UK tour) and he is co-artistic director of the Black Gold Arts Festival.
Instagram @ChanjeKunda
Twitter @ChanjeKunda
#PlantFetish
PLANT FETISH Listings
Oldham Library
10 March, 7pm
Box Office: 0161 624 2829
Vault Festival, CAGE
22 March
Box Office: 0208 050 9241
Hull Truck Theatre
15 May, 7.30pm
Box Office: 01482 323638
Bury Met
26 May, 7.45pm
Box Office: 0161 761 2216
Salisbury Playhouse
26 May, 7.45pm
Box Office: 01722 320 333
Bernie Grants Arts Centre
29 May, 7.30pm
Box Office: 020 8365 5450
Pound Arts
28 June, 5pm
Box Office: 01249 701 628
The Holbeck
30June
Box Office: [email protected]
www.slunglow.org