Jonny Donahoe - writer, performer and frontman of musical-comedy-satirists, Jonny and The Baptists - will premiere his new one man show FORGIVENESS. Directed by Metta Theatre Artistic Director P Burton-Morgan, FORGIVENESS will tour the UK from Tuesday 8 February to Saturday 5 March, with a press performance at the Ustinov Studio in Bath on Thursday 10 February.
Jonny does not know his Dad. He is very suddenly a Dad. ‘Forgiveness’ is a new solo show about the cycles of abuse that form and affect who we are; if and how we can escape them and move on. A show about how the stories we tell about our lives become the stories we live and relive. A show about reluctant fathers, bad life choices and one very unfortunate chicken.
Hilarious and heart-breaking in equal measure, Forgiveness shows how despite a childhood shattered by abuse it can be possible to reach a place of peace.
Jonny Donahoe says, “For many reasons it’s taken a long, long time to eventually share this story with audiences. It’s the most personal thing I’ve ever made which makes it very scary to finally put out there, but I hope it’s been worth the wait for all of us.”
P Burton-Morgan says, “What a privilege to collaborate with the unique talent that is Jonny Donahoe in all his hilarious and absurd glory. And on this extraordinary piece of theatre that is painfully close to home for the both of us. Full of laughter, tears and vulnerability this a story the world needs to hear, now more than ever.”
Jonny Donahoe is the co-creator and original performer of Every Brilliant Thing, which he performed more than four hundred times over four continents, including five months off-Broadway. The show was eventually filmed and screened on HBO.
His comedy act Jonny and the Baptists tour regularly throughout Britain and the rest of the world. Blending comic songs, satirical stand-up and traditional theatre-making, they make funny shows about serious things like wealth inequality, the climate change crisis, and the rise of nationalism and populism. They have had a Number 1 iTunes comedy single (“Farage”), supported Mark Thomas at the National Theatre, and appear regularly on BBC Radio 4 including The Now Show, The Infinite Monkey Cage, and Sketchorama (BBC Radio 4); as well as Live at Television Centre and Fresh From The Fringe (BBC TV). His stage plays include “Thirty Christmases”, which opened at The Old Fire Station in Oxford, and then transferred the following year off-West End to the New Diorama, and starred himself and Rachel Parris. He is currently adapting this play for TV.
The tour will visit Farnham, Hemel Hempstead, Bath, Eastleigh, Corsham, Aldershot, New Milton, Fareham, Gravesend, Tonbridge, Chipping Norton, Farsley, Huddersfield, Oxford, Colchester and Doncaster, with full dates and tickets available here. A run at the Edinburgh Festival is also planned, with details to be announced.
