<< back to gallery
A Fail Better Theatre production:
ANDY WARHOL PRESENTS: VALERIE
Toronto Fringe Festival (July 2014) & NIGHT/SHIFT Festival (November 2014)
creator/producer/performer · Ali Joy Richardson
creator/performer · Ben Hayward
director · Matt White
SCUM chorus · Nicholas Potter, Ray Jacildo, Emily Johnston, April Leung, Natasha Ramondino, Jonathan Walls & Neil Silcox
You’re invited to a party at The Factory. It’s for Val. She hates men. In fact, she’s written a manifesto about eradicating them. That’s why Andy is throwing the party: to launch her manifesto. Only things don’t go exactly as planned. Party games, pop art and violence collide in this radical, interactive piece about one of the "crazy" women history forgot.
photos: Neil Silcox
“...Brilliance...Chalk that up to Ali Joy Richardson’s chilling, intense performance as Valerie, and strong direction by Matt White...Ben Hayward perfectly captures Warhol’s look and passive aggressive tone, and Nick Potter is eerily effective as assistant Gerard Malanga. NNNN.”
— Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine
“...a perfect balance of wild, chaotic, frenetic Factory culture and airtight theatre. Hayward and cast are on from the moment they start interacting with the audience ...The evening is exactly what theatre should be...”
— Michael Lyons, Daily Xtra
“I must mention the amount of bravery it takes to perform a show as open to audience participation as this show is...Andy Warhol Presents: Valerie opens itself up to a certain chaos that only strong performances can keep in line – something this team managed to pull off perfectly...it is exactly this take on theatre [which] will keep the medium from floundering into irrelevancy. You can’t be wildly successful if you don’t risk epic failure – a sentiment that seems to ring true to a production company that calls itself “Fail Better”.”
— James Ryan Gobuty, The Theatre Reader