Hippodrome to host ‘raucous, road-trip’ rom-com
GOYA Theatre Company, award-winning creators of contemporary Queer musical theatre, will bring their hit show, Four Felons and a Funeral to Birmingham Hippodrome.
Taking place between Thursday, 26 September to Saturday, 28 September, the show is a raucous, road-trip rom-com, starring four emerging, LGBTQIA+ music theatre actors.
Four Felons and a Funeral follows four dysfunctional friends as they navigate grief, love and the law on a road trip to scatter their mate’s ashes. En route, they go through the five essential stages of grief: screaming, shouting, fighting, fainting and fleeing from justice.
Written by Sam Woof and with music and lyrics by Sam Woof and Math Roberts, Four Felons and a Funeral is a feel-good caper with a sharp musical score and a fiercely comic script.
Both funny and acerbic and nostalgic and melancholy, this is an uplifting show that blends musical theatre with pop and jazz to create a distinct and accessible new sound.
GOYA Theatre Company are an award-winning theatre company. In 2023, Four Felons and a Funeral sold out previews at the King’s Head Theatre and Other Palace Theatre in London, before transferring to the Pleasance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for a further sell-out run.
Four Felons and a Funeral is written and directed by Sam Woof. Sam Woof (they/them) is a theatre-maker based in London. As writer/director, their credits include Sex with Friends and other tiny catastrophes (North Wall Arts Centre, Pleasance Courtyard - Winner of Musical Theatre Review’s Edinburgh Fringe Special Award), Fine Thanks: A Verbatim Musical (Savoy Theatre). Assistant director credits include Enron (Oxford Playhouse), Something in the Air (Jermyn Street Theatre), Top Hat (The Mill at Sonning) and The Swell (Orange Tree Theatre).
Sam is one of The Stage’s Fringe Five 2023. They have most recently been the Resident Associate Director at the Orange Tree Theatre and they are the artistic director of GOYA.
The cast features Robyn Sinclair (she/her) as Millie; Conor Dumbrell (he/him) as Simon; Gareth Moriarty (they/them) as Wilf; and is completed with Maddy Maguire (she/her) who plays Bex. Four Felons and a Funeral is produced by Mrinmoyee Roy and Lowri Spear as GOYA Theatre Company. Set is designed by Sonya Smullen.
Formed in Oxford in 2019, GOYA Theatre Company create young, Queer, music theatre. GOYA is a Creative Associate at the North Wall Arts Centre and the recipient of the Musical Theatre Review’s Special Award for their programming at the Edinburgh Fringe 2022. Artistic Director Sam Woof was named one of The Stage’s Fringe Five in 2023.
Four Felons and a Funeral will run at Birmingham Hippodrome from Thursday 26 September – Saturday 28 September. Tickets can be booked by calling 0844 338 5000.
