FAMEHUNGRY is a helter-skelter nosedive into the TikTok universe and a grudge match with the attention economy.
Fresh from an award-winning, critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe FAMEHUNGRY begins a UK and international tour this Autumn, with performances in Chichester, London, Leicester, Preston, Nottingham, Norwich, Exeter, ARKEN Festival in Denmark, and SoHo Playhouse New York. More dates to come.
Flipping the script on the mentor/mentee relationship, acclaimed UK performance artist Louise Orwin has enlisted Gen Z TikToker Jax Valentine (21yo, queer, 80k followers) to guide her (37yo, queer, 5k followers) through a brave new world of dance trends, 24 hour live-streaming, enforced face filters and endless monetizable content. The aim? To answer a very personal question: how can performance art compete in the digital age?
Orwin and Jax are both queer artists who exploit their lives for content. Over four years of conversations with Jax and a year on TikTok as an undercover performance artist, Orwin experiments with the Algorithm live on stage to ask what it means for the future of Performance Art when the 24 hour entertainment machine in everybody’s pockets is your competition.
Performed simultaneously for an in-person theatre audience and online, Orwin plays a game with a TikTok Live audience, challenging them to get her to 20,000 likes while mentor Jax beams in live from their bedroom in Sheffield via the power of the internet. Meanwhile, the theatre audience become voyeurs to a seemingly endless reality-blurring piece that asks what we’re willing to consume as entertainment – and why we’re so desperate to be watched as individuals.
A bold hybrid of online and IRL experiences – and with a few surprises along the way – this is a vital show that taps into an existential question about the live arts and the future of performance: in a crumbling arts economy and a growing digital monoculture, where do we turn to find hope?
In a world in which all roads lead to TikTok, FAMEHUNGRY asks how social media is changing us and the art we make, what young people think about the future, and what it feels like to be hungry for fame in the face of a world on fire.
FAMEHUNGRY was Louise Orwin’s fourth show presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Humiliation Piece, A Girl and a Gun, Oh Yes Oh No). FAMEHUNGRY is being made with support from Arts Council England, The Space, Colchester Arts Centre, The Place, and BAC. Made in partnership with Dr. Amy Orben, University of Cambridge researcher and TikTok star Jaxon Valentine.
WINNER The List Sit-Up Award for Best Production with a Social Impact
WINNER Summerhall Lustrum Award
“Unlike any live theatre you will have ever experienced… unlike any live theatre you will have ever experienced” ★★★★★ – Corr Blimey
“Urgent, powerful and frightening theatre performed with courage, precision and clarity of purpose” ★★★★★ – British Theatre Guide
“A portrait of humanity as it desperately tries to wring love and affirmation from the machine” ★★★★ – The Scotsman
The ShowRoom Chichester – 26 September
The Place, London – 03 & 04 October
Lancashire Fringe – 09 October
Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester – 11 October
Nottingham Playhouse – 17 October
Norwich Arts Centre – 20 October
Exeter Phoenix – 07 November
ARKEN Festival, Denmark in partnership with Live Art Danmark – 24 & 25 November
SoHo Playhouse New York Transfer in 2025
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