Award winning comedian clown Elf Lyons is going to be embarking on her tour of her award-winning Edinburgh Festival Fringe show Horses from 15th May 2025.
Elf Lyons is an award-winning comedian, theatre maker, director, comedy writer and voice artist. Since 2019 Elf’s TV and radio credits have included Comedians Giving Lectures (Dave), Comedians Against Living Miserably (Dave), The A to Z of Horror Movies (Sky Original) Unexpected Fluids (Radio 1), Evil Genius(BBC Sounds), and BBC World Service’s Stand Up Show – London (BBC World Service). She wrote and starred in her own BBC Three short Top Ten Things I Have Brought Whilst Drunk. She has been a series regular on The Stand Up Sketch Show (ITV2 – series 2 & 3), The Breakfast Show and Culture Hour (Times Radio), The Colin Murray Show (BBC Radio 5) and The Dog Ate My Homework (CBBC).
The show ‘Horses' is a show about play, the power of pretending, and why silliness is a feminist political issue (particularly relevant ahead of the election), told through clown and mime by an award-winning physical performer embodying a horse.
Elf brings attention to the tragedy of becoming an adult and losing our ability to play. How can we regain it—is that even possible? And it is this subject I would love for you to consider as a feature.
This show had an overwhelming number of 4 and 5 star reviews and won several awards at the Fringe last year – the ISH Comedy Award, The Comedians Choice Award and Mervyn Stutter’s Spirit of The Fringe. She was also featured in the best reviews list compiled by British Comedy Guide.
With the themes of play and pretending, Elf looks at our relationship to children and to animals in particular. It is a deeply emotional hour celebrating the child within, and is performed entirely by a horse named Treacle, as portrayed by Elf. She also uses audience interaction and connection to bring people into her playful world.
Recent studies have shown how play is vital for adults to keep our brains flexible and open, ensure spontaneity and interconnection, and can sometimes go as far as to alleviate depression. Yet many don’t make the time, for fear of judgment or sheer lack of ability - the average adult now logs more hours at work than a 14th -century peasant according to Newsweek.
And this issue, seemingly limited to entertainment, is in fact reflected in wider society. Being constantly judged for daring to be silly or unserious makes women even less willing to play as an adult.
As so much of our culture is focused on nostalgia for a childhood that feels far away and remote, with endless cycles of reboots based on toys and films from our childhood like Barbie and superheroes dominating the box office and pop culture, and commercial games and escape rooms aiming to dominate leisure time, true individual and creative play and connection to childhood is rarer and rarer.
Mick Perrin Management Presents - Elf Lyons: Horses
National Tour 2025: Tickets on sale 3rd October 2024
ISH Comedy Award 2024 – Winner
Comedians Choice Award 2024 – Winner
Mervyn Stutter’s Spirit of the Fringe Awards 2024 – Winner
Adelaide Fringe Best Comedy & Pick of the Fringe 2024 – Winner
Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Show 2017 - Nominee
ONE OF THE 50 FUNNIEST COMEDIANS OF THE 21ST CENTURY - THE TELEGRAPH, 2023 ★★★★★ The Telegraph ★★★★ The Guardian ★★★★ Chortle ★★★★ The Skinny
"Elf is funny and wise - and a hero of sanity" Dylan Moran
Award-Winning and Edinburgh Comedy Award Nominated Elf Lyons is bringing her new show Horses, the first ever comedy show performed entirely by a horse, on tour next summer, after a hugely successful run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year.
Bring your most enthusiastic childhood horse-loving energy to this new hour, all about play and the power of pretending. Treacle’s masterful performance has been directed by Elf Lyons, assisted creatively by Trygve Wakenshaw and Dylan Moran.
“A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who does not play has lost forever the child who lived in him.” Pablo Neruda
A celebration of the child within, this hour has everything in it! Expect mime, stand-up, clown pieces and shadow puppetry all performed by Treacle, the horse and Francis of Acissi has helped interpret the interviews with horses, Bob Fosse has helped with choreography and at points Alfred Hitchcock has helped with the dramaturgy…
Elf Lyons is an award-winning comedian, theatre maker, director, comedy writer and voice artist. She has gained a cult reputation as one of the most innovative performers on the UK comedy and theatre scene. Her work has included re-enactments of classical ballets, musicals about the economy, immersive horror shows and even lectures at venues such as the Barbican on the Surrealist movement.
Since 2017 Elf has been nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality, Fringe World Perth’s Best Comedy Show and in 2018 Elf won Pick of the Fringe at the Adelaide Fringe, Australia. 2020 her show Unlikely Darlings with Helen Duff was one of The Telegraphs ’50 Best Cultural Moments’ of the year. In 2023 Elf was listed in The Telegraph as one of the Top 50 Funniest Comedians of the 21st Century.
Since 2019 Elf’s TV and radio credits have included Comedians Giving Lectures (Dave), Comedians Against Living Miserably (Dave), The A to Z of Horror Movies (Sky Original) Unexpected Fluids (Radio 1), Evil Genius (BBC Sounds), and BBC World Service’s Stand Up Show – London (BBC World Service). She wrote and starred in her own BBC Three short Top Ten Things I Have Brought Whilst Drunk. She has been a series regular on The Stand Up Sketch Show (ITV2 – series 2 & 3), The Breakfast Show and Culture Hour (Times Radio), The Colin Murray Show (BBC Radio 5) and The Dog Ate My Homework (CBBC). She is a three-time cover star of The Sunday Times Culture.
Alongside performing on stage and teaching performers clowning, Elf is a well-respected writer. She has written articles for The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, Londonist, Cosmopolitan Magazine and Refinery29, amongst others. Elf was also featured on the cover of the Observer Magazine for her article ‘In Praise of Polyamory’.
Website: elflyons.com TikTok: @elflyons
What the press have said about Horses
“… I adored every silly-filly bit of it and I can’t think of many performers who combine such bravura comic invention with such livewire pluck.” ★★★★★ The Telegraph
“Elf Lyons' new show is powered by a beautiful intention: to re-connect with the spirit of play.” ★★★★ The Skinny
“Part-clown, part-mime and part overgrown child, Lyons leads us through mythic history to reconnect with a lost world of imagination” ★★★★ The Guardian
“Elf Lyon’s is one of the finest physical comedians in the world right now. They blend an incredible and athletic physical presence with a strange sense of fun and near-perfect clowning.” ★★★★★ Starburst Magazine
“Elf Lyons: Horses is a mesmerising blend of clowning, mime, comedy, and theatre.” ★★★★★ Quintissential ReviewClown queen Elf Lyons has been making some well-deserved waves with her new, extremely Elfy show, in which she examines her family history through the lens of equine history” ★★★★ Chortle
Listings information
For tickets visit: https://www.mickperrin.com/tours/elf-lyons-horses/
15 May 2025 Exeter Phoenix
17 May 2025 Bath Rondo Theatre
18 May 2025 Bristol Tobacco Factory
21 May 2025 Leicester Attenborough Arts Centre
22 May 2025 Leeds Hyde Park Book Club
23 May 2025 York Theatre@41
24 May 2025 Norwich Norwich Playhouse
29 May 2025 Brighton The Old Market
30 May 2025 Cambridge Junction
31 May 2025 Oxford Arts at the Old Fire Station
01 June 2025 London UCL Bloomsbury Theatre
05 June 2025 Hull Truck Theatre - Studio
06 June 2025 Edinburgh Monkey Barrel
07 June 2025 Glasgow The Stand
08 June 2025 Newcastle The Stand
For more information and press requests please contact Gaby@gabyjerrardpr.com or on 020 7690 0006
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