Unique theatre show Unnatural Cycles stops off on tour in Preston

Performer Avital Raz returns to Preston with a unique, hard-hitting theatre show exploring issues of infertility and faith.

Unnatural Cycles: A Ghost Story comes to The Continental, Preston, on Wednesday, January 25, 2023, as part of a national tour.

Avital Raz is an acclaimed musician in her own right but in recent years she has developed her work into theatrical performance.

In 2019, her astonishing show My Jerusalem toured the UK, including a hugely successful date at The Continental.

Jerusalem-born singer-songwriter Raz has continued her work in theatre with Unnatural Cycles: A Ghost Story which uses performance, music and video to explore hugely personal issues.

This unique show has already been hailed as a ground-breaking piece of contemporary theatre.

Raz, who spent several years living in Preston and was heavily involved in the city’s music scene, used old tape recordings of her grandmother talking about surviving the Jewish Holocaust as part of the inspiration for the show.

The story is told in song, live looped audio and film. It holds the weight of both present and generational trauma in the body of a woman reckoning with inherited pain and desire.

The show is directed by Gillian Lees of Lancaster-based Proto-type Theatre, with dramaturgy by Peader Kirk and Lees. Videography for the show was done by Preston-based Chris Davis.

Raz has made a name for herself singing politically engaging, strikingly original and fearless songs, to emerge as a distinctive and truly individual voice that speaks with a very real and potent self-expression.

Unnatural Cycles was developed during 2021 through commissions from Sheffield Theatres, Contact, Lancaster Arts and National Lottery funding.

Avital studied at The School of Visual Theatre in Jerusalem, before embarking on a 20-year career as a singer-songwriter and musician. After completing degrees in Western Classical singing and composition in Jerusalem, she relocated to Varanasi (India) where she stayed for six years to study the sacred art of Dhrupad under Professor Ritwik Sanyal.

She has released seven albums of her own music and performed with acclaimed world music band Rafiki Jazz for three years.

Unnatural Cycles: A Ghost Story takes place at The Continental on Wednesday, January 25, 2023 – doors 7.30pm, show starts 8pm. Tickets cost £10, concessions £5. Tickets link: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Preston/New-Continental/Avital-Raz—Unnatural-Cycles-A-Ghost-Story/36239504/

Will you be going to see Unnatural Cycles? Let us know in the comments.