Aim

With the extortionate price of travel to Edinburgh during the Fringe, and their student budget, any contribution helps the Body Parts team!

Iola King Alleyne began writing Body Parts in the summer of 2025 after living with the most fascinating characters in her head for a good few years. May, 60, recently widowed. Carmel, 32, May’s oldest daughter. Margot, 22, May’s youngest daughter. Russell, 36, Carmel’s 12-year-long on-and-off partner.

The plot began with a thought: what if a family of three women went to a house in rural Scotland? 

Then another thought: what if an older woman formed a relationship with a younger man, built upon being seen and listened to, not sex? 

What if this relationship was not the backbone of the plot, but a consequence of circumstance, left open and still questioning? 

And, most importantly, what if we meet four characters at a precipice in their lives, searching for guidance, purpose and self-love, with overlapping paths and intertwining futures? What if no one was bad, and no one was good, but they were all real; real parts of the writer, of the actors, of the audience?

From there, the story of an older woman and her two daughters riding the whirlwinds of relationships, self-love, faith and grief began. Russell, the older daughter's on-and-off partner, assimilates into the family’s orbit around the complexities of the human, particularly the female, experience. The play oscillates between naturalism and surrealism, with its revelatory monologues, naturalistic dialogues and abstract intersections, woven together with a breathtaking original soundtrack designed by James Hattan from observing each rehearsal. Body Parts cutting-edge is the combination of its style with its ethical use of technology. In a climate where concerns about technology’s future in theatre dominates theatrical discourse, this play does not write around technology. Instead, it uses it to support and accompany the story being told and the performances given. It uses it to move the play between what we expect theatre to be, and live performance art. Body Parts uses the facial mapping software invented by Alensi Studios (under the artistic direction of Leon Norton) to present the aged self. Its forward thinking use is a taste of the future of the ethical use of technology in theatre. 

Body Parts is ultimately a deep character examination, with an ensemble and production team of University of Bristol current or recent graduate students (a cast of Lily Robinson, Cleo French, Méabh Brolly and Tom Bayman) whose participation in deep character development sessions reflected upon editing the script and the storyline during the rehearsal process, under the direction of Iola King Alleyne and Madeleine Morgan. With co-producing from Morgan and Daisy Nissen, tech and sound design by James Hattan, and the facial mapping projection run by Leon Norton, this team of nine need help covering the expenses of travel up to fringe. 

With the extortionate price of trains , coaches and planes to Edinburgh during the Fringe, and their student budget, even a contribution of £5 helps the Body Parts team with their travel up to Fringe.

Even if this is the price of a cup of coffee, this is still incredibly helpful.

Thank you very much!

With Love, 

The Body Parts Team and Cast

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 14th September 2026 at 12:31pm