Initiative.dkf and Theatre503 present
by their fruits
12 Nov - 30 Nov 2024
Written by dkfash
Directed by dkfash
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“i want you to suffocate in goodness until your breath smells like euphoria”
Choreo-poetic and raw, this psychological romance examines the evolution of a disorienting relationship; presented through vignette glimpses into the lives of Him+Her. Toying with themes of fixation and familial trauma, they question whether they are able to outrun their shared truth and inner demons.
Offering a blend of sensuality, grit and physical theatre, by their fruits will take audiences on a rhythmic journey through the poetry of love set against the backdrop of a surrealist world.
A weighty yet funny unpicking of connection and (co)dependency.
Initiative: do.know.feel cultivates culture through instinctual, interdisciplinary and collaborative work across stage, dance and events. Led by Creative Producer Wofai (LTC x MOBO Fellow, China Plate, Gate Theatre) and Artistic Director dkfash (National Theatre, RSC, GDIF, Resident 6 Studio Wayne McGregor). Creators of Melanin Box Festival, Albany Theatre: Artists of Change & 20/21 Eclipse Award Winner. Associates include Olivier Award nominated theatremaker Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu (For Black Boys..) and International Choreographer Patience J (BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, ITV’s X Factor)
Running time: Approx. 120 minutes (including a 15-minute interval)
Age guidance: 16+ (Parental Guidance advised for under 18’s).
Content Warnings: This show contains themes that some audience members may find distressing. If this sounds like it could apply to you, you can view the content information by clicking the hyperlink. This show contains use of haze & flashing lights.
RAPID WRITE RESPONSE: Attendees of Previews are invited to submit for our Rapid Write Response initiative. To unlock an £8 Writers’ Preview ticket, email boxoffice@theatre503.com to be digitally tagged as a Writer. If you have previously been tagged as a Writer, your ticket will automatically adjust to £8 on the final page of booking – you do not need a Promo Code. There will be an online informal chat with our Literary Manager, Steve Harper on Thursday 7 November which you can book onto here.
TAILORED PERFORMANCES:
19 November 7:30pm & 23 November 2:30pm PAY WHAT YOU CHOOSE: These are our two Pay What You Choose performances, where tickets start from £6. Please note, unlike previous seasons, the final Saturday of the run is no longer a Pay What You Choose performance.
23 November 2:30pm FILMED PERFORMANCE: This performance will be filmed – there will be 2 cameras in the auditorium back rows. Only the back of audience members’ heads will be in shot. If you have any questions or issues, please email boxoffice@theatre503.com
dkfash
dkfash is an interdisciplinary artist working across stage, film and entertainment.
Her instinctual practice is one where many things co-exist, often; text, movement, chorus, surrealism.
As writer and director, work includes: Brixton House (Is Dat U Yh?); Theatre503 (Fragments of a Complicated Mind); Without Walls National Tour (Scalped). Movement includes: National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Unicorn Theatre and Sheffield Theatres. A range of other work includes the UK premiere of Bootycandy (Gate Theatre; Offie nomination Best Ensemble), choreography for Wizkid (Zinarts), twerk artist for bounce legend Big Freedia and 21 Eclipse Award. Soho Lab & Royal Court Writers’ group Alumnus
By Their Fruits review – couples therapy meets multidimensional movement - 4*
Posted on 19 November 2024
The heightened body language of a tempestuous couple breaks out into choreographed scenes in this play that reaches far beyond its restricted space
It doesn’t look like much: the stage is tiny, the set is a single room, spare and compact, and there are only two characters, Him and Her. Yet writer-director dkfash makes By Their Fruits feel deep and dense, and wide and open – as if reaching into the ground beneath and the sky above that central relationship.
Him and Her (winningly played by Ivan Oyik and Reba Ayi-Sobsa) are quite a pair, taking swipes at each other and making up, enjoying then falling out over the games they play – not in a toxic, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf way, but with heart and soul and humour. And body too: their language is as much physical as verbal, full of stances and glances, their touches, swerves, brush-offs and embraces enforcing or contradicting the words they speak. The action is often freewheelingly funny, and sexy too (they may argue a lot, but they’re definitely hot for each other). It’s as if dkfash observes all these dynamics with the benevolent, non-judgmental eye of a couples therapist, even as she scripts them with the relish of a drama director...
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