English Touring Theatre launches brand-new podcast F**ked Up Bedtime Stories (for adults)

English Touring Theatre launches their brand-new podcast F**ked Up Bedtime Stories (for adults) – a series of short stories for adults performed by Paapa Essiedu and Amber James. 

Directed by Jennifer Bakst with sound, music and editing by Max Pappenheim, F**ked Up Bedtime Stories explores the weird and wonderful world of dreamscapes and nightmares and the impact that lockdown has had on our sleep cycles. Featuring seven short stories written by Alissa Anne Jeun Yi, Dipo Baruwa-Etti, Tim Crouch, Vivienne Franzmann, Matilda Ibini, Amy Jephta and Anthony Neilson, the project is available through acast, Spotify, apple or wherever you get your podcasts. 

English Touring Theatre today said, “Bedtime stories is a digital offering for a f**ked up world. In a time when sleep has never been harder to come by, we asked 7 brilliant and provocative writers to tackle the strangeness of our night-time imaginings and twist the familiar form of bedtime stories into something uncanny, dark and surreal.”

Writers: 

Alissa Anne Jeun Yi is a writer and performer. Her debut show Love Songs premiered in 2018 (developed through the Soho Theatre) and was shortlisted for the Tony Craze and two Edinburgh awards; for radio her credits include Avocado Fried Rice (BBC Radio 3). After an attachment with BBC Writersroom Drama Room 2020, Alissa is developing new work for audio, film and TV; whilst continuing to work on her next drag, comedy and performance art show. 

Dipo Baruwa-Etti is a playwright, poet, and filmmaker. Currently Channel 4 playwright on attachment with Almeida Theatre, his debut play An Unfinished Man was due to premiere at The Yard Theatre in 2020, published by Faber & Faber. For screen, he is developing several projects including a short film as writer-director with BBC Drama and BFI, and a TV pilot with Duck Soup Films as part of BBC’s TV Drama Writers Programme. 

Tim Crouch is a writer, director and performer. As a writer his credits include Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation (Royal Court Theatre/National Theatre of Scotland), I Cinna (The Poet) (RSC/Unicorn Theatre) and Adler & Gibb (Royal Court Theatre/Unicorn Theatre); and for TV credits include, Don’t Forget The Driver (BBC 2). 

Vivienne Franzmann’s previous theatre credits include The IT (Connections, National Theatre), Bodies, Open Court, The Witness (Royal Court Theatre), The Snow Queen (Bristol Old Vic), The Most Horrific Theatre Uncut (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/UK tour), Pests, (Royal Court Theatre/Royal Exchange Theatre), Sounds Like An Insult (UK tour), Scars (International tour) and Mogadishu (Royal Exchange Theatre/Lyric Hammersmith).  

Matilda Ibini is a bionic playwright and screenwriter. Her theatre credits include Little Miss Burden (Bunker Theatre), Choice and Control (The Old Vic), Muscovado (UK tour); and for TV her credits include Unprecedented (Headlong/Century Films/BBC4). 

Amy Jephta’s previous theatre credits include This Liquid Earth: A Eulogy in Verse (Royal Court Theatre/Edinburgh Festival Fringe), All Who Pass, Shoes (Royal Court Theatre), Kristalvlakte (The Fugard Theatre), Flight Lessons (Jermyn Street Theatre/Theatre503/Edinburgh Festival Fringe) and Free Falling Bird (Bush Theatre).  

Anthony Neilson is a writer and director. His previous theatre credits include The Menu, The Tell-Tale Heart (National Theatre), The Prudes, Unreachable, Narrative, Get Santa!, Relocated, The Lying Kind (Royal Court Theatre), Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Realism (The Edinburgh Lyceum), The Haunting of Hill House (Liverpool Playhouse), God In Ruins (Soho Theatre), The Wonderful World of Dissocia (The Edinburgh Lyceum/ Theatre Royal Plymouth/Royal Court Theatre/UK tour), Stitching (Traverse Theatre/ Bush Theatre). His TV credits as a director includes, I Hate Suzie (Sky) starring Billie Piper.

Performers:

Paapa Essiedu’s theatre credits include Pass Over (Kiln Theatre), TheConvert (Young Vic),Pinter One (Harold Pinter Theatre), Hamlet, King Lear (RSC, Kennedy Center and Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York – Ian Charleson and UK Theatre Award winner for Best Actor), Racing Demon (Theatre Royal Bath), The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Mouse and his Child (RSC), You For Me For You (Royal Court Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Tobacco Factory), King Lear (National Theatre), Black Jesus (Finborough Theatre), Outside on the Street (Pleasance Theatre), and Dutchman (Orange Tree Theatre). For television, his work includes I May Destroy You, Gangs of London, Press, The Miniaturist, Black Earth Rising, Revolting, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kiri, Not Safe for Work and Utopia; and for film, Murder on the Orient Express and Women at the Well (Screen International Star of Tomorrow 2017).

Amber James’s theatre credits include Snowflake (Kiln Theatre), Vassa (Almeida Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (ETT), Antony and Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus and Dido, Queen of Carthage (RSC), Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare’s Globe & International tour), Much Ado About Nothing (Queen’s Theatre) and The Gathered Leaves (Park Theatre). For television, her work includes Doc Martin and Ransom. 

Creative associate at English Touring Theatre, Jennifer Baskt is a director and dramaturg. She was previously New Work Associate at Kiln Theatre. Her theatre credits as a director include Dear Future Generation (Kiln Theatre), Armstrong’s War (Finborough Theatre) and her theatre work with young prisoners for the Synergy Theatre Project. Her credits as an associate director include Handbagged (Tricycle Theatre/59E59 New York) and The Great Wave (National Theatre).

Max Pappenheim is a composer and sound designer. His theatre credits include The Tempest (Theatre Royal Bath/Jermyn Street Theatre), Othello (Cambridge Arts Theatre), Waiting For Godot (Sheffield Theatres), Beckett Triple Bill (Jermyn Street Theatre), Hogarth’s Press (Rose Theatre), The Ridiculous Darkness (Gate Theatre), The Gall (Hull Truck Theatre), CommonWealth (Almeida Theatre), New Jibla (Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Cultural Centre), Mrs Lowry and Son (Trafalgar Studios), Amsterdam (Orange Tree Theatre/UK tour), The Night of the Iguana (Noël Coward Theatre), Crooked Dances (RSC), One Night In Miami (Nottingham Playhouse), My Cousin Rachel (Theatre Royal Bath/UK tour), Macbeth (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Way of the World (Donmar Warehouse), The Children (Royal Court Theatre/ Samuel J Friedman Theatre) Dry Powder, Sex with Strangers, Labyrinth (Hampstead Theatre), Humble Boy (Orange Tree Theatre), The Habit of Art, Monogamy, Teddy, Toast, Fabric and Invincible (UK tour). 

ETT tour theatre across the UK and internationally, collaborating with visionary artists to create engaging and imaginative work which interrogates and celebrates contemporary England and reflects the diversity of our nation. ETT won the UK Theatre Awards Best Touring Production in 2014, 2015, 2016 and Best Play Revival in 2019.

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