Hannah Ringham and Glen Neath

Co-founder of the award-winning Shunt – a collective of artists creating and curating live performance in unusual London locations – Hannah Ringham has also devised and performed work with a range of other highly talented theatre-makers including Tim Crouch (she appeared in England at Edinburgh Showcase 2007) and Sound&Fury. Glen Neath, her collaborator here, is a respected novelist and experimental playwright who has previously joined forces with performance groups such as Rotozaza.

Directed by John Hardwick (best known in the context of Edinburgh Showcase for his collaboration on Adrian Howells’ An Audience with Adrienne), Hannah Ringham’s Free Show (Bring Money) is both a stripped-back investigation of theatrical form and a gently provocative and playful questioning of the value of art itself. Appearing on the surface to be improvised, the ‘show’ actually revolves around a tightly scripted story of a woman’s failed relationship and the birth of a daughter she couldn’t afford to bring up. The terrible stories that unfold, however, are merely part of the moral arguments Ringham employs to manipulate the audience, continually interrupting the action to negotiate a price for her performance and attempting to coerce money from her spectators.