Part theatre, part drag cabaret, Lipstick: A Fairy Tale of Iran fuses storytelling, vaudeville, theatre, lip-synch and boylesque in a story of rage, redemption and weaponized whimsy, which straddles Tehran, Derry, and London.
In 2010, just after the contested 2009 Iranian election, during riots urging the removal of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office, writer/director Sarah Chew went to Iran on a theatre residency. The experience changed her life. Lipstick: a fairy tale of modern Iran is inspired by that time, driven by the passionate desire to address the rise in hard borders and cultural and ethnic exclusion – from a political and from a personal perspective.
Lipstick is about how it feels to be making sincere, charged, powerful art, even under the threat of censorship and imprisonment. At that time, Iran was part of a collection of Middle Eastern territories the US Government still titled “the Axis of Evil”. Prior to visiting, this title had coloured Sarah’s assumptions of what she would find there – assumptions which were challenged, on a daily basis, throughout her stay. When she got home, Lipstick was born.
26th Feb – 24th March 2019 OMNIBUS THEATRE – 1 Clapham Common Northside, London SW4 0QW
Lipstick: a fairy tale of Iran is part of the 96 Festival which is a glittering lineup of artists who have set up camp at Omnibus Theatre from Wed 20 Feb – Sun 24 Mar 2019 for a spectacular celebration of queerness and theatre. A no holds barred extravaganza of cabaret, drag, burlesque, theatre, music, art, and activism; 96 Festival was conceived in remembrance and celebration of the iconic Pride party on Clapham Common in 1996.