Help us get DAMIS to the Edinburgh Fringe!

What is the project?

Hello! Our names are Briony Martha and Zak Reay-Barry and we’re a duo of early career artists from Greenock, Scotland and Cumbria, England respectively aiming to take our new dark comedy, Do Astronauts Masturbate in Space? to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

As a writing duo, we are passionate about celebrating regional voices and examining the potentially volatile nature of the everyday norms in which we live. Our work embraces the absurdity of the geopolitical climate in which we live, with a deeply human voice.

We are over the moon to announce that our play Do Astronauts Masturbate in Space? will be premiering at this year’s Fringe as part of Greenside Venues’ programme. We will be performing every day from the 1st of August until the 23rd (excluding the 10th and the 17th) at 7:50pm in the Willow Studio at Greenside @Riddle’s Court venue. 

Why do we need your help?

As we are emerging artists, we are producing this play ourselves and would be so grateful for your help in getting us to Edinburgh. The costs of producing a show at the Fringe Festival are very high- our total costs are over £8000 including venue costs, registration fees, marketing and insurance. 

Before heading to Edinburgh, we would love to do a preview of Do Astronauts Masturbate in Space? in Paris as it is the city where we both trained, met and began our writing journey together. We also would love to preview the play in London in early July.  

No contribution is too small! Anything you can contribute will be gladly and gratefully appreciated by all of us at team DAMIS?. All of the donations we receive will go towards paying for venue costs and marketing fees. 

Our Creative Team

We’ve enlisted the help of some brilliant fellow emerging artists to help us bring this project to life. Here are the whole creative team’s official roles: 

Briony Martha- Creator, producer and actor

Zak Reay-Barry- Creator, producer and actor

Nathalie Allison- Director

Kevan Salahkar- Producer 

Camille Dreyfuss- Producer

Ruben Sparks- Stage Manager

A little bit about the world of our play…

Do Astronauts Masturbate in Space is set in present day Britain, where a law called the ‘Parental Act’ requires all couples to apply for a license or ‘Stork Card’ to have children. In this world we follow young, infectiously charming couple Lily and Gareth, who after falling pregnant, are required to attend a week long ‘Retreat’. The stakes are high, failing the retreat means forced abortion. Madly, deeply in love, these two are caught off guard by the pregnancy but think the whole process will be a walk in the park. However, once there, things take a sharp turn.  Lily and Gareth discover hidden truths about each other, putting their relationship into question. Throughout the 'Retreat' our dynamic duo are systematically unravelled by a group of scrupulous psychologists mandated to determine who is granted the right to a child, and who isn’t. Forever changed and clinging on to their past naivety, their future and life of their baby is left unclear.