Hi. We're Something Underground Theatre Company.
We've been going since 2006 with many plays that have touched many people, and won several awards (see below).
We work with new writing and with material that's universal and sometimes uncomfortable.
This year's new play is called F*cking Foreigners
The plays asks “How much did the tabloids swing the EU Referendum by their depiction of immigrants and refugees?"
AND.... "Even if they had any point (whatsoever), how much can we... close our doors, and our hearts?"
F*cking Foreigners
“If I had a bowl of Skittles and I told you just three would kill you….”
Meet Saif, refugee & doctor, travelling to get to Europe, with Amira, baby Mahdi, and friend Hussan.
When their boat capsizes, they’re brought to Greece.
Meet Micky, volunteer on the same Greek beach, welcoming refugees with open arms.
Meet Paul. Editor of Britain’s most xenophobic & anti-EU tabloid looking to dish dirt on refugees, and help swing the pending EU referendum.
But 2 weeks of direct personal contact with heartbreaking stories leave Micky, a seeming Mother Theresa, disillusioned.
Now as she helps Saif to cross Europe, & into the UK, both are painfully slow to realise that the other is not what they appear.
Has the agent of a paper whose mission is to divide a continent and swing the referendum finally found their scoop?
Will the last explosively ambitious scenes prove that refugees are a bowl of dangerous Skittles,
or help them regain their humanity, avert more suffering, and bring the truth home?
If you're uneasy about how Brexit happened, how refugees are being turned away, how the Middle East is being used.... you'll want to back us.
Our writing is proven, our play is an ambitious project spanning 7 countries, 2 continents and many lives. We cross the deserts of Libya, the Mediterranean, the Balknas, into Western Europe and finally across the Channel into the UK, before again reversing and coming, explosively, to The Nation of The Cross, before ending once again on a Greek beach.
We create beaches, leaky boats, border crossings, cars, apartments, ferry terminals, motorways, interrogation rooms and the cab of a speeding death truck.
We turn the spotlight on the tabloids, and the ethos they cultivate in the run up to the 2016 EU Referendum.
We contemplate the Iraq war, the rise of Malaki and his death squads, the fall of Mosul to ISIS, the indiscriminate killing of civilians in Iraq by coalition forces, the Chilcot enquiry, radicalisation, secularism and conscription into ISIS.
The play is a filmic, fast moving thriller and at the same time, a tender love story. which questions how much love we have for our fellow humans as we struggle with those who do all they can, on all sides, to cultivate hate.
How much we can still..... give.
If you 're a "Bremoaner", like good theatre, didn't like the tabloid press's depiction of refugees and immigrants, or their potrayal of similar issues in the run up to the EU referendum, have a concern for the plight of refugees in the current crisis, have questions about the Iraq war, or Chilcot, but don't mind a challenging watch where the worst case scenarios are thrown into the air alongside bowls of Skittles... then you'll want to see this piece come to fruition.
We're creating a 2-evening Showcase of 2/3 of the play, June 2017. (28th & 29th) at South Hill Park.
We need to rehearse paid actors (26th-28th June) to get them to a point where what we show is good for potential backers, producers, venue managers, industry professionals....
....and is good to be filmed and photographed to move us forward toward a full tour in 2018.
We are aiming to raise a total of £4000 (skeleton budget) to enable this. (£8000 would make it work better).
Your donations will help us begin to meet that target, and we, Something Underground, will be funding the balance.
We've set our target at £1000 for now, but hope to excel that and enable as full a showcase as we can.
OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO
Who are we? See some of our accolades below
More info about us here
Winner: Best New Play Award, Brighton Fringe 2012 (The Last Lunch).
Shortlisted: Best New Play Award, Brighton Fringe 2013 (The Silent Stream)
Winner: Best Male Performer, Brighton Fringe 2013 (Jonathan Brown for The Silent Stream)
Winner: Best Female Performer, Brighton Fringe 2014 (K Goodfellow, Smoking Ban)
Nominated: Best Female Performer, Brighton Fringe 2013 (Rachel Guershon for Betsy: Wisdom of a Brighton Whore)
Nominated: Best Male Performer, Brighton Fringe 2007 (Jonathan Brown for The Father Monologues)
5 Stars (Latest 7 Magazine, Licence 2012)
4 Stars (Fringe Review, Licence 2012)
4 Stars (Three weeks, Licence 2012)
5 Stars! Fringe Review, Betsy: Wisdom of a Brighton Whore 2013.
4 Stars! fringeguru.com Betsy: Wisdom of a Brighton Whore 2013
4 Stars! (Fringe Guru, Smoking Ban 2014)
4 Stars! (Broadway Baby, Smoking Ban 2014)
4 Stars! (3 Weeks, Smoking Ban 2014)
Argus Angel Winner, Brighton Fringe 2015, (Moon Tales, an SUTC-Supported Production.)
