07/06/2026
16 - 19 JUNE 2026, WHO HURT YOU?
At Bristol.
Direction & Choreography: BULLYACHE
( Deyn & )
Music: Original score and music by BULLYACHE
Costumes: & Lambdog 1066
Touring Lighting Design - Copenhagen:
The LX design for the creation and first remount was developed by Laurie Loads and by Bianca Peruzzi
Set Design:
Performed by:co.uk
Courtney Deyn (singer)
Jacob Samuel (music)
(violin, string arrangement/composition)
The piece was developed with: Oscar Li & Connor Scott
Producer & Tour Manager:
Producing & Touring Assistant:
Supported by: Arts Council England, Bold Tendencies & University of Birmingham, Studio Wayne McGregor, European Network Opera Academy, Britten Pears, FABRIC
About the work:
WHO HURT YOU? stages the final performance of an aged musician, hosted by a drag icon, alongside her embittered ensemble, all figures in fading glory.
The piece is a collage of influences, ranging from the 1995 film Showgirls to the later life of boxing legend Jake LaMotta, dragged back onstage in a chaotic off-Broadway show, barely conscious and being made to regurgitate lines that made him a star decades earlier.
Blending hyper-theatre and pop culture with a stark, sculptural approach to dance, BULLYACHE conjures a maximalist vision teetering on the edge of chaos and collapse.
Interwoven with pop songs and haunting ballads, the work explores queerness, class, exploitation, and community, testing the means of survival available within the spectacle of contemporary commercial culture.
Performed by Deyn and Samuel (BULLYACHE), alongside legendary drag pianist Barbs, dancers Sam Dilkes and Frank Yang, and composer-performer Magnus Westwell, the piece is a heady mix of biographical and autobiographical material platforming BULLYACHE's signature blurring of character and self, audience and participant.
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