Kissing A Fool

Kissing

a FOOL

a George Michael Fantasia

of Love & Loss

Phone

07376092386

Foolkissing@gmail.com

“A profound and moving articulation of grief, fame, love, and the debilitating potential of creative pressure.”

The Student

“Offers a deeper insight into the artist’s psyche...brings with it a deep level of cathartic relief that the man survived this darkest of periods"

The Reviews Hub

“Refreshing.... very powerful and respectful of George’s memory... a beautiful performance portraying very sensitive matters and a difficult time [in George’s] life.“

Theatre and Tonic

RISING

Trailer

In Kissing a Fool

we speculatively dive into George Michael’s psyche at the lowest point in his life. After the death of his lover, Anselmo Feleppa, and losing a high-profile legal battle with Sony Music, the beloved pop-icon feared he’d never write another song. In his despair, George awakens the Fool from deep within, a familiar clown companion whose only intelligence is play.

Join us on this musical journey into the tumultuous creative process of one of the greatest artists of a generation and witness the transformation of grief into transcendent creativity through song.

Documentation

Meet the

Kissing

Fool

Team

Creator & Performer / Dylan Aielo (@argo.lots)

Dylan Aiello is a London-based actor and theatre maker that has worked across a wide variety of disciplines and venues in Europe and North America throughout his decade-long career . He has recently concluded training on the MA Theatre Lab at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

His work is always highly charged with bold physical storytelling, ecstatic humour, and brimming with heart and humanity as it faces themes of capitalist disenfranchisement, overcoming grief, and queer isolation. Dylan has collaborated on performance projects with a wide variety of directors and artists including Theatre Re’s Guillaume Pigé, Lesley Ewen, Euripides Laskaridis, Ed Fornieles and Rosa Aiello.

Writer & Performer / Scarlett Stitt (@scarlett.stitt)

Scarlett Stitt is a London based actor and theatre maker. She has been acting since the age of 11, where she was cast as Moody Margaret in the Horrid Henry movie, also starring Anjelica Houston and Richard E. Grant.

After working professionally in TV and film throughout her childhood and teenage years with multiple screen credits, she trained at L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq over a summer, where she fell in love with physical theatre. Scarlett went towards theatre performance as a discipline, training with YATI, NYT and Young Pleasance, as well as playing starring roles in amateur productions, namely Yerma in Yerma, Sylv in East and Natasha in The Three Sisters. This culminated with formal acting study and training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Since graduating, she has been bridging professional acting with her love of the more experimental theatre and live art scenes in London and the UK.

Director / Lesley Ewen (@yesthatlesley)

Lesley is an award-winning playwright and director. Her fourth play, Camera Obscura (hungry ghosts), which she also directed and co-designed, premiered in Vancouver in 2018, winning Outstanding Production + Lighting and receiving five additional Jessie Award nominations; including two for Lesley as Outstanding Playwright and Director. In 2019 she was awarded the Lorena Gale Woman of Distinction Award as well as receiving an Offie nomination for her role as Amanda in the only European production of The Glass Menagerie (Arcola) to boast a cast of actors of colour. Lesley has played an integral part in developing the role of Creative Enabler/Support: a performance artist specialising in working with professional actors with Learning Difficulties (Autism, Downs, Traumatic Brain Injury, etc), in film, tv, and on stage. She’s worked with numerous artists with Learning Difficulties including Dayo Koleosho in the National’s Faith Hope and Charity and on the Royal Court’s Imposter 22. She’s currently been commissioned by Access All Areas to write a new multi-media play for 5 actors with Learning Disabilities and a chorus of thirty or so Learning Disabled community performers. It will premiere at The Lowry in Manchester in 2025.

Producer / Jake Walton

Jake Walton is a northern working-class theatre maker, producer and actor who has recently graduated from an MA in Theatre Lab at RADA. He has performed internationally across various locations ranging from an alleyway of a street festival to the Oliver stage at The National Theatre.

His main body of work has been with an award winning company he founded, Powder Keg (2013-2021). PK made original devised theatre that explores contemporary politics with a gut-punch response, to provoke anger and empathy with its audience. His role with this company involved devising, performing, collaborating, leading workshops, and self-producing. With producing, PK had a number of successful funding bids that enabled them to tour their works nationally, host events and workshops, and be self-sustaining for a number of years. He has also had close experience collaborating, performing and working with companies and organisations Good Cop Bad Cop, Señor Serrano, Gabrielle Moleta, Lancaster Arts and Art Council England amongst others.