CABARET artists have been announced for These Trees Are Made of Blood, a new play about Argentina’s Dirty War, which plays in The Little at Southwark Playhouse from Wednesday, March 18 to Saturday, April 11, 2015.
Set in a timeless Buenos Aires cabaret club, an array of diverse and talented cabaret artists will populate the club at each performance, alternating each night from a collective of acts.
They are Vicky Butterfly, Rhyannon Styles, Kiki Lovechild, Lydia Darling, Ava Iscariot, Felicity Furore and Dott Cotton. They join cabaret artists Neil Kelso and Alexander Luttley who will appear at every performance.
Part Burlesque starlet, part innovative performance artiste and part music hall Vaudevillian, Vicky Butterfly’s beautifully choreographed routines take in everything from the ethereal and the breath-taking to the macabre and the erotic. In demand internationally from Paris to Bali, she has an enviable roster of clients including Beefeater Gin, the Sugababes, Kensington Palace, the Moulin Rouge and the Paris Ritz, and is also a cast member of La Clique’s Palais de Danse.
Butterfly was a founder member and curator of The Boom Boom Club from 2006 – 2012, and is now a lead cast member of The Black Cat Cabaret, which launched with a sell-out year at the Cafe de Paris and an acclaimed run at the London Wonderground Festival.
Rhyannon Styles is a performer, dancer and lip-synch artist who has performed at The Guggenheim Museum in NYC, Glastonbury Festival, Adelaide Ferstival and countless London venues. Styles has performed with The LipSinkers, East London’s original quintet of cross-dressing superstars, with theatre credits including Angel Cake for the Camden People’s Theatre Futureshock festival.
Kiki Lovechild is a silent clown whose routines incorporate mime, physical theatre, puppetry, illusion, escapology and more. He has trained in mime with celebrated physical theatre tutor Desmond Jones, clowning with the world famous Angela de Castro, puppetry with The Little Angel Theatre and circus skills at Circus Space.
Lovechild introduced the world to Furlesque – his quirky puppet burlesque creations, and in 2013 launched his first hour-long solo clown show which ran at Brighton Fringe to 5 star reviews. He has performed at venues including Madam JoJo’s, Cabaret Roulette, The Bongo Club, The Waterloo Vaults, London Burlesque Festival, The Pleasance Theatre, Brighton Fringe, The Brickhouse and many more.
One woman force of nature Lydia Darling is a multi-talented cabaret performer and live artist, whose talents include classic and neo-burlesque, circus sideshow, fire performance, and boundary-pushing live art pieces which combine fetish, technology, sonic art, dance and the body to create works of visceral beauty. Lydia has recently performed at venues including the Royal Tease Revue, the RR Club and the Twin Peaks Festival.
With the looks of a cherub, the heart of a demon, and dubbed the Queen of Gothic Burlesque, she is the fallen angel Ava Iscariot. Since she established herself on stage in 2010, her feisty burlesque performances have become known for a dark, sultry, vintage-Gothic and vampish style, mixing classic elements of burlesque strip and tease with rock, metal, and alternative music and aesthetics. She has also been known to expertly wield a microphone in the role of compere.
Iscariot has recently performed at venues including Bawdsville Cabaret, Cabaret Roulette, Proud Cabaret and The Hop Garden.
Felicity Furore is a sassy 60’s showgirl and style icon – the sparkling burlesque lovechild of Sandy from Grease, Brigitte Bardot and Felicity Shagwell! Tantalising burlesque temptress Felicity Furore began her burlesque career in the autumn of 2012 and has quickly launched herself onto the burlesque scene. A little bit sassy, extremely cheeky, and a bum that once had its own Facebook fan page, this cheekette is putting her glitter addiction to good use.
The international idiot that is Dott Cotton was discovered by the infamous Baron Von Sanderson dancing for pennies to a radio on the dirty back streets of East London. Plucked from obscurity and thrust onto every available stage, this one time homeless fool turned ‘endearing’ cabaret clown is an accomplished physical performer, at times…
Cotton has performed as part of the Late Night Shop Cabaret troupe and as a solo performer at shows including the Hippodrome Casino’s Boom & Bang.
Neil Kelso is an award-winning cabaret performer, actor-musician and illusion designer. His work includes The Mad Hatter in Edinburgh Magic Festival’s Wonderland dinner shows, a piano recital of Rachmaninoff’s Piano at Holbourne Recital, and performances with his jazz trio at the world-famous Concorde Club. His radio credits include the 2014 BBC War Years radio documentary. His first book Astonishing! about the science of illusion and the psychology of live performance is available from Amazon.
Alexander Luttley is best known for creating the character Pi the Mime for which he was nominated Best Burlesque in the 2015 London Cabaret Awards. His theatre credits include Storyteller inChildren of Eden, Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice and Policeman in The Pirates of Penzance.
Set in a timeless Buenos Aires cabaret club before, during and after Argentina’s Dirty War, These Trees are Made of Blood tells the story of one Mother’s search for her daughter, and a Nation’s search for answers.
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