02 September 2019
Newsdesk
Reuniting the whole team behind last year’s hugely successful How To Catch a Krampus, Sink The Pink and Ginger Johnson return to Pleasance Islington for five-weeks of queer, campy, Christmas fun all set to an out-of-this-world live score.
It's 2050 and in a galaxy not too far from our own, Planet Trash is the most dangerous place in the solar system - the dumping ground for the universe. As the countdown to Christmas begins, the planet faces a new danger, an impending solar flare that threatens to obliterate Planet Trash, and a discarded weapon the Intergalactic Government is desperate to retrieve. All that stands between Planet Trash and complete annihilation is a crack team of unlikely queer space explorers, and Ginger Johnson, the last remaining resident of the doomed planet, who is refusing to return home. Can they escape the planet before it explodes, can they find the weapon and disarm it, and will they make it home for Christmas?
Glyn Fussell, director of Sink the Pink said, “After the joy of last year’s show, we can't wait to take you all to another planet! I've always been the biggest Sci-Fi fan, so this show combines the best of outer space, with my other loves DRAG and CHRISTMAS! Earth may never be the same again!”
An antidote to the soulless mega clubs, Sink The Pink are a collective of queens, club kids, pop superstars, creative juggernauts, flamboyant dancers, and acclaimed designers. Founded in 2008 by two best friends Glyn Fussell and Amy Redmond, Sink The Pink has grown from humble beginnings at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club to be one of the biggest LGBTQ nights in the world, selling out venues such as the Brixton Academy, Roundhouse and Troxy, and touring the world with Melanic C.
Wildcat gin will be taking over the Pleasance Bar for the duration of Escape From Planet Trash, keeping space travellers well lubricated with classic G+Ts and a show inspired cocktail.
@SinkThePinkLDN | #STPPlanetTrash | sinkthepink.co.uk
@ThePleasance I pleasance.co.uk
Running Time: 120 minutes | Suitable for ages 16 +
Cast
Ginger Johnson, Mahatma Khandi, Maxi More, David Cumming, Mairi Houston, and Lavinia Co-op.
Pleasance Theatre, Carpenters Mews, North Road, London N7 9EF
www.pleasance.co.uk | 0207 609 1800
19th November - 22nd December
Tues-Sat at 7.30pm and Sunday at 5.30pm. Saturday matinees at 3 pm (excluding 23rd November)
Previews: £20 , Full price: £30 (£25 concs)
www.pleasance.co.uk | 020 7609 1800
Sponsored by Wildcat Gin
Cast biographies
GINGER JOHNSON
Ginger Johnson is a helium balloon in the shape of a woman. She makes loud, surprising work for theatres, cabaret, nights clubs and beyond. Having cut her teeth on the drag and alternative cabaret scenes of East London, Johnson combines disarming honesty with the irreverence of spit-and-sawdust entertainment to create work that is at once outlandish and sincere. As a solo performer, her unique brand of no-holds-barred nonsense mixed with existential dread has seen her wow audiences including Southbank Centre, Pleasance Edinburgh, Soho Theatre, Hackney Empire, Roundhouse, Bristol Old Vic, The Glory, Bestival, Lattitude, Wilderness, and countless other fields full of festival-goers. In 2014 she took up the microphone as resident host and emcee of queer clubbing behemoth Sink The Pink, performing to tens of thousands of revelers every year since. Her fast mouth and penchant for the ridiculous also has seen her take up the mic as a resident host of Glastonbury Festival’s infamous NYC Downlow.
LAVINIA CO-OP
With almost 50 years of experience under her belt as an artist, performer and agitator, Lavinia Co-op has spent her entire adult life entertaining audiences and challenging perceptions of queer people from countless stages around the world. From her early days as an experimental dancer, to her globe-trotting exploits with revolutionary queer performance troupe BLOOLIPS, Lavinia is the very definition of drag royalty.
DAVID CUMMING
Newcastle-born, London-based David Cumming is an experienced theatre-maker and musician. Undergoing an MA in Acting at Arts Educational Schools, he went onto make his name as 1/5th of multi-award-winning dark comedy theatre company Kill the Beast (whose credits include sell-out national tours, BBC Radio 3, Manchester Studio Theatre Award 2015, The Stage Edinburgh Award 2016 & Peter Brook Fringe Award 2016). A trained flautist and singer, David has been Assistant Director to the Roundhouse Choir since 2012.Most recently he co-devised/co-directed the BAC’s smash-hit, sell-out beatbox production of Frankenstein: How to Make a Monster.
MAIRI HOUSTON
Mairi Houston is a Glasgow born actress who studied Acting at Sidcup’s Bird College. She’s previously appeared in How To Catch a Krampus and The Queens Head for Sink The Pink. Other credits include ‘The Naked Truth’ at the Leicester Square Theatre ‘Trash’ at Theatre N16 by Daniella Disilva.
MAHATMA KHANDI
Half Sri-Lankan, half-Filipino via Rome, Mahatma Michael’s credits cross both the performance and fashion worlds. From the London Olympic ceremony to last year’s Sink The Pink presents How To Catch A Krampus, Mahatma has relished the opportunity to be in the spot light. Mahatma also appeared in Long Live Queen James this year, written by Mark Ravenhill and produced by Historic Royal Palaces.
SARAH BODALBHAI
Sarah is a London-based pianist, MD, arranger and songwriter. As a stalwart of the cabaret scene she works with many top performers including David Hoyle, Dusty Limits, Tricity Vogue and Michael Twaits and has performed at venues including the Phoenix Artist Club, Wilton's Music Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Purcell Room, Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Cellar Door Aldwych and more. Sarah has previously collaborated with Ginger Johnson for Sink The Pink presents The Queen's Head at Selfridges in 2017. Sarah is an arrangement coach at RADA.
ALICIA JANE TURNER
Alicia Jane Turner is a composer, performance artist, sound designer and violinist whose work spans live art, theatre, and new classical music. Her practice focuses on the visceral affectivity of sound and live music in performance, using compositions and immersive sound design to explore the relationship between the internal and external body.. She was a composition fellow at the Bang on a Can 2018 Summer Festival where her new orchestral works were premiered, and has toured internationally with her collaborative and solo theatre works and performance pieces, including Breathe (Everything Is Going To Be Okay), This Is How We Die and Kissing The Shotgun Goodnight with Christopher Brett Bailey. She trained classically as a violinist before studying a BA Honours in Commercial Music and is currently studying an MA in Theatre and Performance.
