Originally programmed by Katzspace in 2020 THIS DIVINE EXISTENCE made it to the stage at The King’s Head in 2022.
Victor is practicing his TED talk. Sam wants to be YouTube famous. Danny finds his voice in a podcast. Worried Charlotte is trying to get an online appointment with a doctor. Thomas calls the Samaritans. While Frank... Frank watches, and waits.
Part horror, part murder mystery, part psychological thriller, This Divine Existence explores the dark forces that drive our need for human connection in a digital world. A show for anyone who has ever drunkenly posted on social media, and regretted sharing their vulnerability.
Inspired by the classic tale of Frankenstein.
“…we are treated to actor Matty McCabe playing all six characters with differentiations of accent and fine physical theatre. There is humour to be found within the script and audiences could easily relate to the characters, although fascinatingly, everyone responded differently.” London Pub Theatres Magazine
ROAR: This one was real test of our perseverance, written in 2019 after a series of flippant Facebook messages with our frequent collaborator Matty McCabe, the one man show required him to play all six characters. It was programmed to go on at Katzspace in May 2020 but, well, we all know what happened there. Two years later, unwilling to be totally derailed by the pandemic the script was rewritten to reflect our our changing relationship with loneliness and isolation and quickly found a home thanks the King’s Head in Islington. Perhaps a bit quicker than we’d anticipated given that Matty was shooting a feature in Ireland until a few weeks before the show. Thanks to some amazing hustle and hard work from director Amelia Gray the show was up and running insanely fast. As a female led company it was great to give her the opportunity to direct while baby Jasper was still under the age of one.
Credits
Actor: Matty McCabe
Matty’s recent credits include upcoming feature film Irish Wish for Netflix, voice work on animated series The Prince for HBO, and Uncle David 2 which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival. He won Best Actor at the Independent Horror Movie Awards 2019 for Fire Lies. Theatre work includes Very Blue Peter and Modern Horror Stories at Edinburgh Fringe, and Brutus in Julius Caesar at The Courtyard Theatre.
Director: Amelia Gray
Amelia’s credits include The Perfect Companion/Dracula at the London Horror Festival and Anne of Cleeves House Lewes, Suicide Pact at PQA venue Edinburgh Fringe, Invicibilly at Cats Back theatre Wandsworth Fringe and A Calling, Etcetera Theatre. Amelia is drawn to stories that focus on the drama and delicacy of the human experience.
Writer: Meg Toogood
With thanks to...
Charmaine Kay, Andrew Gray, Jasper Gray, Grays and Feather, Ella Toogood-Pugh, Brannoc Toogood-Pugh, Stevie Cooke, akta photography, Grace Engelhert, Charlie Frances, Maxim Fisher and David Lloyd Acton Park.