The smash hit Perfect Show For Rachel comes to Oxford

News Story

Oxford Playhouse is delighted to welcome the critically acclaimed Perfect Show For Rachel. Created by Zoo Co and co-produced with Improbable, the two award-winning companies bring this vibrant show to the stage from Wednesday 13 to Saturday 16 May.

Behind Perfect Show For Rachel are the O’Mahony sisters – Flo is an award-winning theatre director and a Lead Artist in the show, and Rachel is an enigmatic, learning-disabled 35-year-old who loves Kylie and seeing people fall over. Together, they decided to create Rachel’s perfect show: fast paced, funny and different every night.

At the touch of a button, Rachel creates the show on her own terms. The cast have to be ready for anything as the show takes shape – including fart jokes, becoming singing biscuits, bar room brawls and being fired on the spot. This is a chaotic, moving and triumphant tapestry – step into Rachel’s unique, and often hilarious, world.

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Actors in cowboy hats wielding pretend pistols with serious and funny expressions. — Perfect Show For Rachel | Wed 13 – Sat 16 May

Rachel in a pink jacket sat at her desk with buttons and a captions screen. — Perfect Show For Rachel | Wed 13 – Sat 16 May

A goofy scene of actors throwing confetti at a central figure who is dressed up and riding a miniature bicycle around stage.b — Perfect Show For Rachel | Wed 13 – Sat 16 May

A group of actors cheering on stage in a group with silly expressions on their face. — Perfect Show For Rachel | Wed 13 – Sat 16 May

Flo O’Mahony, who is also Artistic Director of Zoo Co, said:

“After a decade of working on this show with my big sister, Rachel, I am so proud, both as an Artistic Director, and as a sister, that we are taking Perfect Show For Rachel on this tour. This show is ‘beautifully inconvenient’ - it is massive, unique and requires theatres to adapt their own practices to welcome our brilliant company through the doors. That’s its beauty- it changes the places and people it visits. I hope audiences leave wondering how the world might be more open for their Autistic colleague, their nan with dementia, or their kid with ADHD.

Touring Perfect Show For Rachel now, at a time when welfare cuts are making disabled people feel isolated and excluded, feels not just artistically important, but politically vital. This show so clearly expresses what we have to lose if disabled people aren’t welcomed into leadership in the arts and in our lives. I can’t wait to invite more people to step into Rachel’s world - she has so much to teach us and all we have to do is listen.”

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An actor being lifted up recreating the Dirty Dancing scene with the projection of 'I've had the time of my life' in the background. — Perfect Show For Rachel | Wed 13 – Sat 16 May

A group of actors singing passionately on stage all together. — Perfect Show For Rachel | Wed 13 – Sat 16 May

A wide shot of the stage with an actor out in front singing as other actors are on the ground laughing around her. Large projections of people laughing cover the three walls of the set. — Perfect Show For Rachel | Wed 13 – Sat 16 May

A group of actors on stage all with their hands raised as they sing at the top of their lungs with the projection 'This is Perfect Show for Rachel' behind them. — Perfect Show For Rachel | Wed 13 – Sat 16 May

Perfect Show For Rachel explores who defines artistic taste, and questions who that currently excludes, winning Zoo Co the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award in 2022.

All performances are Relaxed Performances, though due to the nature of the show, loud noises and flashing lights may feature. Audience members are welcome to come and go from the auditorium during the show as needed.