Lancashire Fringe Festival kicks off this week with a unique show that blends circus skills with authentic storytelling.

Gobbess is a true story of how writer and performer Naomi Wood ran away with the circus and, in doing so, learnt to embrace imperfection.

The show is described as funny, irreverent and deeply personal solo theatre. It is a story about creativity and identity, of queerness and self-expression – and a lesson in why we should sometimes just embrace being a bit messy.

Naomi, who is based in the South East, has been a circus and theatre performer for 10 years. Some of the show takes place while Naomi is suspended in the air in an aerial trapeze hoop.

With an MA in Creative and Critical Writing, Naomi also runs fun creative writing workshops that empower people to be playful and truthful in their writing.

“I was inspired to write Gobbess to bring my two worlds together – writing and poetry with circus skills and performance,” Naomi told Blog Preston.

“I wanted to explore the reality of being multifaceted and embody elements of the Gobbess story that say ‘you don’t need to be the best at any one thing, success is just being playful and being curious about the world’.”

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Gobbess has been touring the UK throughout 2024 with shows at Glastonbury Festival, a run at Edinburgh Fringe and a sell-out show in London.

A review of Gobbess from Discover Brighton said: “It is very rare that we are lost for words after seeing a performance, the show is pure magic.

“There is also much joy and laugh-out-loud humour as Naomi relays tales of living a hedonistic life in Brighton and causing havoc in sequinned hot pants. You will fall in love with her unabashed honesty and talent for expression through writing. She is delightful and the show is unmissable.”

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Talking about her visit up north to perform in Preston, Naomi added: “It’s such an honour to be opening the shows for Lancashire Fringe.

“I feel so lucky to get to be here seeing a different part of the country and meeting people. It would be wonderful to see some local people there – and it’s totally free!”

Naomi will perform Gobbess at UCLan Media Factory on Wednesday 25 September as part of Lancashire Fringe Festival. All shows in the festival are free with an optional Pay What You Decide donation bucket available.

For more information, visit the Enjoy the Show website.

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This story was made possible by you, our readers, and a host of organisations in the city, through our Crowdfund Lancashire appeal, which unlocked support from the Lancashire Culture and Sport Fund provided by Lancashire County Council. You can see all our coverage and, if you know of an arts project or event in the city we should be covering, you can submit it for our event listings and/or send details to contactus@blogpreston.co.uk for us to cover it as a story on the Blog.