Head Set

Head Set Victoria Melody

Selected as one of the best shows to see at the Edinburgh Fringe by Time Out, The Times and The Stage.

What if success doesn’t look like winning a Nobel Prize (or just managing to get a mortgage) but is more about becoming your true self? 

When reenacting a funeral on-stage each night feels too much like the symbolic death of her theatre career, Victoria Melody turns to her Plan B: stand-up comedy. But in her search for creative freedom, she finds constraints and rules that she struggles to fit herself to.  

Keen to succeed, Victoria finds speech and language specialists who, at the grand old age of 40, diagnose her as neurodivergent. Cue a hyper-focused dive into dopamine mining, teaming up with a neuroscientist and performing with a Faraday cage on her head to explore the potential of stand-up as self-medication for ADHD.  

A social chameleon, Victoria has previously become a pigeon fancier, northern soul dancer, beauty queen, championship dog show handler and funeral director, all in the name of art. But when she realises she’s hiding behind her headset on the comedy circuit, she starts to question: what it would feel like to really share herself, divergent and messy brain included?  

Head Set is the chronicle of Victoria’s journey, a bonkers, hilarious and galvanising celebration of becoming your authentic self. 

Creative Team

Created and Performed – Victoria Melody

Neuroscientist – Silvana De Pirro

Dramaturgy – Bryony Kimmings

Director – John Gordillo

Musical Director and Original Music – Tom Parkinson

Lighting Designer and Production Manager – Sean

Set and Costume – David Curtis-Ring

Producer – Farnham Maltings

Credits

The research and development for this project has been supported by the Watershed’s Winter Residency, Farnham Maltings, South Street, University of Sussex and Arts Council England. The production has been supported by Farnham Maltings and Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts.

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