BUTCHERED | Edinburgh Fringe 2023
West Midlands, United Kingdom
Aim
Our nightmarish show is coming to Edinburgh Fringe this year and needs a bit of help getting there...
HELLO SAUSAGE!
We are Expial Atrocious - a West Midlands-based theatre company who are carving a unique path into the horror theatre scene. We're taking our nightmarish show, 'BUTCHERED', to Underbelly at Edinburgh Fringe this year but need a bit of help to get there. As you're probably aware, times are hard, so any and all support we receive will be greatly appreciated and will go towards the evolution, development and betterment of 'BUTCHERED' as a touring production.
If you want to support LGBTQIA+ working class artists with a passion for genre-bending, gut-wrenching, and gruesomely thrilling theatre, and a show about challenging tradition, surviving in a cut-throat world and doing what has to be done, then you're in luck. And boy, do we have the show for you...
ALL ABOUT BUTCHERED
Welcome to the kitchen where dreams come to die.
After working in a basement kitchen for as long as they can remember, Master Sausage is content with their life. They work hard and cannot imagine doing anything else. They can't do anything else. But when a fresh-faced apprentice arrives, babbling streams of consciousness, artistic passions and a harsh reality are brought with them. With their daily routine disrupted, the Master is forced to look their life in the eye and climb into the belly of the beast. With tensions rising, sinister questions start to rear their heads. What does it mean to be happy? Is there more to life than this? What's in those sausages anyway?
'BUTCHERED' may sound big and horrible, but the messages at its core are what make it human. It's made by the working class, for the working class, and looks at the lengths people will go to survive, how we have to do what we must before we can do what we want, and that creating art is the key to everything. Told through our signature style of exaggerated physicality and a killer soundtrack, which you can listen to here, 'BUTCHERED' pushes the boundary of what theatre can be and holds a mirror up to the audience to show that the scariest creatures don't live under beds. The true monster is man himself.
'BUTCHERED' was born in a room full of whiteboards after the phrase "bags o' mystery" was thrown out. And once the initial creation of the show was done, we taught it to walk, then speak and then bite. Our first draft was completed in May 2022, and since then, our horrible little sausage show has gone on to perform at several wonderful venues and festivals including:
- Vesta Tilley Studio, Worcester Fringe 2022
- Bread & Roses Theatre, Clapham Fringe 2022
- The Coach House Theatre, Malvern's FEAST Festival 2022
- VAULT Festival, London 2023
- And has upcoming dates in Bristol, Bath, Cheltenham and Wolverhampton.
We took an earlier draft of 'BUTCHERED' to EdFringe last year at Greenside Venues for a total of 3 performances. This year, however, we're back and hungrier than ever to show audiences our new and improved take on our absurdist thriller. And for a total of 17 performances this time, we're determined to give it all we've got and give one hell of a show.
'BUTCHERED' is our big, angry monster child and we love it. And if this sounds like the kind of theatre you'd love too, then we would be beyond grateful to have your support in our Edinburgh endeavour.
WHO ARE WE?
Expial Atrocious was co-founded in 2019 by us, Nic Lawton and Ez Holland. After meeting each other on the Masters in Touring Theatre course at the University of Worcester, we quickly realised that we were theatrical soulmates, and our love for physical, absurdist theatre only grew stronger. Our drive to make unique, challenging and occasionally grotesque work reared its ugly head, and since then, we have not stopped creating; always coming up with something bigger, better, and bloodier.
We aim to find new and unusual methods of storytelling and present the familiar in unfamiliar ways. With the weird, wonderful and wicked at the heart of our practice, we are inspired by creating dynamic visuals, immersive soundscapes and shows that make you say "what the f*ck?"
When you come to an Expial Atrocious show, you know you're in for a bloody good time...
HOW YOUR SUPPORT WILL HELP:
As you know, Edinburgh Fringe is a MONSTROUS opportunity for any theatre company or artist. It offers a platform to new, exciting work, gives you the chance to network and meet talented people by the bucket load, and show audiences something they have never seen (or heard) before. We are beyond excited to be bringing 'BUTCHERED' back to the Fringe, but going bigger, better and bloodier isn't cheap...
With your support, you will help us to:
- Cover accommodation costs
- Cover fuel and travel expenses
- Update and improve our costumes, props and set
- Pay our Touring Stage Manager/Technician fairly
- Buy equipment/tools to ensure our set is in the best condition
- Cover additional EdFringe fees
By supporting this particular project, you will be encouraging a new theatre company to keep pushing, keep creating, and keep striving for greatness. You'll be supporting LGBTQIA+ artists and technicians, help to provide a platform for working class creatives, and show that our take on horror theatre has its place on the stage. You'll also be a part of the Expial Atrocious family, so, to say thank you for your support, we're offering some unique rewards which you can claim alongside your donation! They're completely optional, but if you know someone that would like to get their hands on some 'BUTCHERED' goodies, then please feel free to share this page with them!
REVIEWS & NOMINATIONS
***** Everything Theatre (read review here)
***** Fringebiscuit (read review here)
**** Broadway World (read review here)
**** Londontheatre1 (read review here)
OffFest Nominated for VAULT Festival 2023 (read more here)
Show of the Week Nominee for VAULT Festival 2023
THANK YOU!
We just wanted to say a huge thank you for visiting this page and taking a chance on us. Every amount of support truly does go a long way for an emerging company, whether that's through financial support, booking a ticket for their show, following them on social media, or reading their essay of a Crowdfunder bio. We appreciate you all, and hope to see you at one of our upcoming shows soon!
There are a lot of other artists raising money for their Edinburgh trips on this platform too, so please give them a visit if you have a spare moment. It really does mean the world.
Thank you so much again for your support! We can't wait to welcome you to the basement kitchen we call home...
Big butchered love,
Nic Lawton (they/she) & Ez Holland (she/her)
Co-Artistic Directors of Expial Atrocious
This project successfully funded on 8th May 2023