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. She will be appeatring at the Old Market on 29th May
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:
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 Review
“Clown 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
What the press have said about Elf:
“Praise her genius – and go” ★★★★★ The Telegraph
“This is comedy as enchantment, a show so beguiling that you don’t just love it, you somehow fall in love with it.” ★★★★The Scotsman
“Expert clowning that’s by turns charming, silly, touching and catastrophic” ★★★★ Sunday Times
“If you prefer your comedy going to the edge then toppling right off that edge try Lyons.” ★★★★ Evening Standard
“Elf Lyons can’t be accused of treading the conventional career path since none of her shows ever remotely resembles the next. She bites fiercely back… if lovable takes you so far, terrifying takes you further” ★★★★ The Guardian
“Hits the stage like a tornado” ★★★★★ The Skinny
“Let go and let Lyons be your vessel.” ★★★★ The List
“It does indeed take someone who’s a little bit unique to don a bottomless parrot costume and a pair of knickers” ★★★★ Fest Magazine
“Clever, spontaneous, outrageous and frenetic” ★★★★ The Advertiser, Australia
