Underbelly, Belly Button
Thursday 31st July – Sunday 24th August: 12.40pm (Excl. Wednesday 13th)
Tickets £6 – £10
Fat Git Theatres present Winky by George Saunders
Developed in Association with Soho Theatre.
Adapted by the company from the short story by 2014 Folio Prize Winner, George Saunders
Neil Yaniky, a born loser, strongly suspects that his ‘yugly’ sister Winky is his metaphorical oatmeal-crapper. Spurred along by Tom Rodgers, founder of The Seminars™, Neil returns home to confront his sister. After all, “now is the time for him to win.” But while Neil’s thoughts revolve around self-help mantras, erotic fantasies and dreams of inner peace, Winky has been preparing a party for Neil, her brother, her pal to the end, the only loving soul she has yet found in this world. She may be ‘yugly’ and lonely and a little sad, but thank the Lord she has Neil-Neil.
A unique, thoughtful and hilarious satire staged verbatim from the short story written by George Saunders, Winky exposes the lie under self-help, pitting the fantastic dreams of fast cars and instant success against the loyalty one man has to his unbearable sister.
Winky was developed at Redbridge Drama Centre and previously enjoyed a limited, popular run at the Soho Theatre (June 10th – June 15th, 2014).
George Saunders won the 2014 Folio Prize for his ‘darkly playful’ short story collection, Tenth of December, and was referred to by Time Magazine as “the best short story writer in English. Not ‘one of’, not ‘arguably’ but the best.”
Josh Roche, Artistic Director of Fat Git, also works in the Artistic Team at Soho Theatre, as the Writers’ Centre Associate. He has also worked with Shakespeare’s Globe, English Touring Theatre, nabokov theatre and Sonia Friedman Productions.
Fat Git Theatre discovers new approaches to new writing – often concerning ugliness and the grotesque – and creates muscular, compelling work that is theatrically bold and politically engaged.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
