Reece Lyons in Overflow. Image by Sharron Wallace
‘Club toilets have taught me more about sisterhood than any book’
Cornered into a flooding toilet cubicle and determined not to be rescued again, Rosie distracts herself with memories of bathroom encounters, drunken heart-to-hearts by dirty sinks, friendships forged in front of crowded mirrors, and hiding from trouble.
But with her panic rising and no help on its way, can she keep her head above water?
Following the success of the live performances which were curtailed due to lock-down and the huge international response to the online broadcast, Overflow, a hilarious and devastating tour of women’s bathrooms by acclaimed writer and performer Travis Alabanza (Jubilee, Burgerz), directed by Debbie Hannan and performed by Reece Lyons returns for a limited season.
Looking for show information and content guidance?
Overflow Pre-Show Information
Looking for online streamed performances of Overflow? Click here.
Amber is a director, writer and PhD researcher, whose work centres around the intersections of identity and the ways in which their blackness, queerness and OCD coexist.
Their recent work includes:
As Director: (wo)man monster (Writer/Director), extrem(IS)t R&D (Writer/Director), I Did A Bad Thing Once (Phoenix Arts Club), Title TBC – R&D with National Youth Theatre
(Upcoming – written by Roni Neale), (Upcoming) Resident Director on SIX The Musical (West End/UK Tour)
As Assistant Director: Leopards (dir. Christopher Haydon, Rose Theatre Kingston), Undetectable (dir. Rikki Beadle-Blair, King’s Head Theatre), Kiln Young Writer’s Programme (dir. Anastasia Osei-Kouffor, Audrey Sheffield, Kiln Theatre), Since U Been Gone (dir. Billy Barrett, Vault Festival), Anna Bella Eema (dir. Jessica Lazar, Arcola Theatre), and Dumbledore Is So Gay (dir. Tom Wright, Vault Festival).
Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster is a contemporary dance theatre choreographer, maker, teacher and movement director, and was a founding member of award-winning company, C-12 Dance Theatre. Theatre Credits include:
The Bee in Me (Unicorn Theatre), You Stupid Darkness (Southwark Playhouse), The Last Noel (Old Fire Station), Pavilion (Theatr Clwyd), Chiaroscuro (Bush Theatre), On The Other Hand We’re Happy, Dexter & Winters Detective Agency (ROUNDABOUT), Aesop’s Fables (Unicorn Theatre), Grimm Tales Phillip Pullmans Collection (Unicorn Theatre), Jericho’s Rose (The Hope & Anchor), POP MUSIC (national tour), The Court Must Have a Queen (Hampton Court Palace), These Bridges (National Theatre Connections, Bush Theatre), The Little Match Girl and Other Happier Tales (Shakespeare’s Globe, National tour), The Dark Room (Theatre 503).
Theatre includes: When the Crows Visit (Kiln Theatre), Princess and the Hustler (Bristol Old Vic/tour), Black Men Walking (Scottish tour),The Trick (Bush Theatre/tour), Again (West End), An Adventure (Bush Theatre), Abigail’s Party (Hull Truck), Black Men Walking (Royal Exchange/ tour), Handbagged (West End/Tricycle Theatre), Fences (West End/Theatre Royal Bath), A Raisin in the Sun (Sheffield Crucible/tour), Ticking (West End), Play Mas (Orange Tree), Chasing Rainbows and Female Parts (both at Hoxton Hall), The Invisible Hand, Ben Hur, A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes, The House That Will Not Stand, The Colby Sisters and One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show all at the Tricycle Theatre.
Films include: Samuel’s Trousers, Bruce, Gypsy’s Kiss, The Knot, High Tide, What We Did On Our Holiday (children), Common People, Tezz, Final Prayer, Love/Loss, Zero Sum, 10by10. Television includes: Outnumbered (children) Just Around the Corner (children), Dickensian (children), Inside the Mind of Leonardo.
Debbie Hannan directs for stage and screen. They trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and as Trainee Director at the Royal Court.
Credits include: Pah-La (Royal Court Theatre), The Unexpected Expert (Headlong, BBC), Little Miss Burden (The Bunker), Cuckoo, The Session (Soho Theatre), The Panopticon (National Theatre of Scotland), The Ugly One (Tron Theatre), Girl Meets Boy (National Theatre of Scotland and The Yard), Shielders (Traverse Theatre), Pandora (Etch, Pleasance), Things of Dry Hours (Young Vic), My Mum’s A Twat (Showroom), Notes from the Underground (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow), Latir (Compañia Nacional de Teatro, Mexico and Royal Court).
As Associate, credits include: Constellations (Donmar), Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour (National Theatre of Scotland), A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer (Bryony Kimmings and Complicité), Little on the Inside (Clean Break).
Francis Botu is a classical guitarist and sound designer based in London and has recently worked on Cherry (The Vaults), This Is Black (Bunker Theatre) and The Clinic/Chaos (Southwark Playhouse). He trained in composition at Trinity College of Music.
Lois trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Credits include: Benidorm Live (UK tour), Oliver! (Aberystwyth Arts Centre) Mr Stink (Chickenshed), HMS Pinafore (Opera Della Luna) and Cinderella (Paul Holman)
Maariyah Sharjil is a designer and supervisor.
She is a recent first-class graduate from BA Design for Performance at the Royal Central School of speech and Drama (2021). Before her design training, Maariyah worked at Sands Films as a costume constructor.
Her most recent productions include; Assistant Costume Supervisor for The Father and the Assassin (National Theatre), Costume Designer for The Key Workers’ Cycle (Almeida).
She has a passion for detailed research and often has an expansive reading list that inspires her work. The heart of her practice is turning the stories of minority communities and the diaspora into a visual language while also embedding historical and cultural themes into her work and designs.
Max Johns trained in theatre design at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and was the recipient of a BBC Performing Arts Fellowship in 2015. Prior to this he worked for a number of years as a designer in Germany. His most recent UK productions include The Climbers (Theatre by the Lake), The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (Manchester Royal Exchange), Once Upon a Time in Nazi Occupied Tunisia (Almeida), King John (RSC), The Panopticon (National Theatre Scotland), Overflow, Strange Fruit and Rust (Bush Theatre), Heartbreakin’ (WLB Esslingen, Germany), Buggy Baby (Yard), Yellowman (Young Vic), The Half God of Rainfall (Kiln/Birmingham Rep/Fuel), Urinetown (Central School of Speech and Drama), Wendy and Peter Pan (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh), Kes and Random (Leeds Playhouse), Utility and Twelfth Night (Orange Tree), Fidelio (London Philharmonic Orchestra), Enron and Our Town (the Egg), Birthmarked, Life Raft, Medusa, The Light Burns Blue and Under a Cardboard Sea (Bristol Old Vic), and Hamlet and All’s Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory). Upcoming productions include Sound of the Underground (Royal Court).
Training: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
Theatre includes: Wonderful Town (Opera Holland Park), Ragtime (ArtsEd), The Glee Club (UK Tour), Two Trains Running (UK Tour), Kiss Me (Other Palace).
Tabitha is a production manager for theatre and opera, with a particular passion for new writing. She trained at LAMDA and is now a production manager with eStage.
Her credits include Connections 2022, Barrier(s) (National Theatre); Red Pitch, Overflow (Bush Theatre); Old Bridge (Bush Theatre/Papatango – winner of the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre); Moreno (Theatre503); The 4th Country (Park Theatre); and The Dancing Master (Buxton Opera House).
Travis Alabanza is an award-winning theatre maker, writer, and performer. A previous member of the Royal Court Young Writers group and Barbican young poets, their recent show Burgerz, which explored the intersections of transness and harassment, toured internationally to Sao Paolo, Southbank Centre, Bristol Old Vic, Smock Alley Dublin, HAU Berlin and Edinburgh Festival Fringe where it won the Total Theatre award. Other work includes My White Best Friend (Royal Court online), Skype d8 (Bush Theatre online) and In Tandem (Paines Plough online).
Alabanza has performed their solo work in a range of venues, galleries, and mediums including clubs such as the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Latitude Festival, the V&A museum and universities and colleges including Oxford, Harvard and Bristol. In 2016/17, Travis was the youngest recipient of the Tate Gallery Workshop residency. Travis has written for Metro, Vice, Gal-Dem, The Independent, Dazed, Gay Times and more.
In 2018/19, Alabanza was listed on the Dazed100 – 100 people defining culture, awarded a Gay Times Honours award for their work in the LGBT+ community, and listed in the Evening Standard 25 Influential people under 25. Recently in The Times Style Bernadine Evaristo picked Alabanza as a ‘trailblazer of the future’ to watch.
