The Gaea Theatre Festival at Lion and Unicorn Theatre

The Gaea Theatre Festival, takes place at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre, in Kentish Town, north London, from Aug to Nov 2011.

The Gaea Theatre Festival is a celebration of Women Playwrights, Performers, Directors and Designers both from the UK and Internationally. An exploration of women in conflict, love, science and incarceration.

Productions include...

Beauty Is Prison-Time, written & performed by Zoe Mavroudi, in repertoire from 2 to 31 Aug 2011. Directed by Terra Vandergaw, produced by Giant Olive Theatre Company. Inspired by a real Siberian prison that holds beauty pageants for its women inmates, Beauty is Prison-Time follows a recent arrival who participates in her prison's beauty pageant in hopes of winning the grand prize: freedom!

Nine, by Jane Shepard, starring Emily White in repertoire from 2 to 28 Aug 2011. Directed by Stephen Darcy, produced by Spartan Dogs in association with Giant Olive. Locked in a room, chained apart. Language is the only currency for these two women being held against their will and comes to mean everything when a single word becomes the hanging point between life and death. A powerful and tender account of the psychological cost of survival.

I'll Show You Mine, Raphaele Moussafir's 'Et Pendant Ce Temps-La', translated by David Nowell Smith, starring Caroline Horton, from 9 Aug to 4 Sep 2011. Directed by Delyth Jones, produced by Giant Olive Theatre Company.

As Fate Would have It, by Phoebe Hunt , starring Dinarte Gouveia, Phoebe Hunt, Jamie Hutchins, Jamila Jennings-Grant, Sundays & Mondays 7 to 15 Aug 2011. Directed by Cat Robey , produced by Little Berry Productions. Follows the alternative outcomes of a young couple's relationship, depending on the flip of a ten pence piece. But is it all really down to fate, or has the power and manipulation of the coin toss become a way of controlling each other's lives in a more sinister way?

Push, by Shane Callaghan and Hayley Goggin , from 6 to 11 Sep 2011. Directed by Kaitlin Argeaux, produced by A Laughing Matter. Sexual perversions threaten the 'perfect' relationship in this physical, comic new play.

Revue Z, written and performed by Zoe Martlew, from 29 Sep to 1 Oct 2011. "Unhinged, uncensored, underwired Uproarious, moving, sexy, hilarious and utterly original entertainment by virtuoso cellist and former judge on BBC2 TV's 'Maestro' Zoe Martlew, featuring her original music for cello, voice and digital playback combined with zany theatre and comedy."

An Experiment With An Air Pump, By Shelagh Stephenson, from 18 Oct to 12 Nov 2011. Directed by Liisa Smith, produced by Giant Olive Theatre Company. Concerns a mystery unravelled when characters in 1999 make a macabre discovery which has its origins in 1799.