WE WERE PROMISED HONEY
Soho Theatre Upstairs
22nd Nov to 3rd Dec 2022
“Following its critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, We Were Promised Honey! returns for a limited run in the heart of London’s West End at Soho Theatre. From award-winning artist Sam Ward (Verity Bates Awards finalist 2022; Five Encounters on a Site Called Craigslist; YESYESNONO) the show will immerse audiences in the experience of what it means to tell a story when we’ve already been told how it ends. The show is a joyful and apocalyptic exploration of the future in which Sam Ward interrogates our generation’s collective feelings of uncertainty with a lyrical script.
Award-winning theatre company YESYESNONO brings a show of a hopeful and hopeless prophecy for earth and humankind. We Were Promised Honey! is a story of us, our future, of paradise and how we get there in the end. The company return to solo theatre-making, pushing its trademark audience participation techniques to brand new heights in an exploration of future imaginations, climate catastrophe, global despair and the political potential of the theatre space.”
Review by Richard Lambert, 3 Stars
Not sure what the title means but curious enough to go find out. I suspect that was also what my fellow audience members thought as we entered the theatre.
An hour later as the audience and I applaud, I’m still unsure what I’d just seen. An Eton’s Mess of lighting cues, a cacophony of sound, no set but an actor very passionately laying out his prophecies about our futures. Storytelling for adults. No set, no costumes, just a story well told.
With promises about what we’d be doing in 60 years’ time, 100 years, a billion years.
Scenes of audience participation which must be invited before commencement. In between these scenes is a running story about Rchard Russell, an untrained pilot, who illegally flew a plane in 2018. The randomness of everything in the show held together by a timeline spanning 8 billion years before and 8 billion years after.
Thoroughly entertaining, utterly believable. Sam Ward as a raconteur is a modern marvel.
Photos from Paines Plough Ed Fringe 2022, credit Mihaela Bodlovic
Dates and Times
Tuesday 22nd November – Saturday 3rd December 2022, 7pm Saturday matinees, 3pm
Location
Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London W1D 3NE
How to Get There
The nearest underground stations are Tottenham Court Road (Northern, Central and Elizabeth lines) and Leicester Square (Piccadilly and Northern lines). The nearest rail station is Charing Cross.
Writer/Performer Sam Ward
Producer Rhian Davies
Sound Designer and Composition Carmel Smickersgill
Lighting Designer David Doyle
Additional Direction Atri Banerjee
Dramaturgy Deirdre McLaughlin and Craig Gilbert
Running Time 65 minutes
Box Office Tickets are available from £16 with previews at £12 and concession rates at £18. Purchase is available from the box office on 020 7478 0100 or by booking online at
Age Guidance and Notes 14+. Includes description of suicide.
Social Media @yesyesnonotheat