Workshy

“messy, anarchic and very funny”  ★★★★ The Stage

This remarkable debut performance work from UK artist and activist Katy Baird takes a brutally truthful look at her career of more than twenty years working within the service industry.

From selling you drugs to super sizing your whopper meal, she feels she has done everything she can to make you, the public happy and fulfilled.

With unflinching humour and a radical performative style Katy questions how we value work as a society and paints a truthful portrait of the often-invisible service workers with whom we interact with everyday.

Chaotically stirring, loud and touchingly vulnerable this performance seeks to question how we value work and is a powerful and honest portrayal of the relationship between work, class and aspiration.

Press

★★★★ The Stage
★★★★ Reviews Hub
★★★★ Broadway Baby
★★★★ London City Nights

“Baird is a brilliant, clever and funny performer“ – Exeunt

“A really great piece of theatrical social commentary” – Vice

“You can just imagine the Arts Council symposium. It would be called “What If Live Art Falls Into The Wrong Hands” and the main topic of discussion would be Katy Baird.“ – The Scotsman

  • A woman lying on the floor, in front of a screen projecting her image holding a glass, with a coat rack and clothes nearby.
  • A woman with long curly hair, holding a microphone and speaking on stage. She's wearing a shiny dress, with a spotlight on her against a dark background.
  • People gathered around a bar counter labeled "Katie's Bar" with drinks and a bartender in a busy indoor setting.
  • Performer singing on stage with colorful lighting and a microphone, wearing a sparkly outfit.
  • A person lying on their stomach on a leopard print blanket, using a laptop. The setting appears to be a performance or theater stage. Nearby are a glass carafe and some scattered items including keys.
  • Person pouring liquid from a bucket onto another person's face

Watch a video related to the show

Battersea Arts Centre and Barbican (London), Marlborough Theatre (Brighton),
CLAY (Leeds), Old Fire Station (Oxford), Colchester Arts Centre, Norwich Arts Centre, Platform (Glasgow), Derby Theatre Studio, Waterside Arts Centre (Sale), The Arts Centre (Liverpool), Folkestone Fringe, White Rock Theatre (Hastings) and Thom Thumb Theatre (Margate), SPILL Festival (London), IBT17 (Bristol), Expermentica (Cardiff).

Live Collision (Dublin), Nowy Teatr (Warsaw), Real Deal Festival (Vienna), Kampagnel (Hamburg) and the Performance Biennale (Wiesbaden).

In 2017 Workshy had a 26 date run at Summerhall during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Workshy has been performed at…

Credits.

Devised, Directed & Performed by Katy Baird

Producer - Emma Beverley
Production Manager - Hannah C Moore
Drugs Video – Dasa Raimanova 
Wetherspoons Video – Blanche Blue

Co-commissioned by SPILL, The Yard, The Arches and Chelsea Theatre.

Further artistic support from Lucy Hutson, Catherine Hoffmann, Marcia Farqhaur, Vacuum Cleaner, Gillie Kleiman and Nic Green Special thanks to Aaron Wright.

Funded by Arts Council England

I would like to thank the following organisations for their huge support over the years and without whom this show would not have been possible:  

Balearica, Bar 38, Burger King, Butlins, Café Clear, Cam4, Department of Work and Pensions, Generation X, Eat Fresh, Job Centre Plus, Lauries, Live Art Development Agency, O’Neil’s, Orient Expresso, Philippe’s Green Books, The Black Cap, The Champion, The Frisco Hotel, Uncle Bobby inc, V2 Records and J D Weatherspoons.