What’s On
BABEL BEAST
“this poetic performance delights and instructs her audience, bewildering us, inviting us to reconsider the fixity of our myths and our identities. Natoli in her many forms is a danger and a threat to those who can’t control her, evident in the discomfort she invokes in her audience while she herself maintains control throughout the entire show. As she cycles through a seemingly-endless cast of characters she presents and inhabits, Natoli’s primary accomplishment is clear: she makes the confusion of being multicultural monstrously sexy.
- THE COLD MAGAZINE
BABEL BEAST
A cabaret adaptation of Greek myth's monstresses
“A mix of strangeness, beauty, humor and seductiveness that you just can’t look away from”
“There are parts that are exhilarating, high-energy, explosive, and there are also moments that make me reflect and fall into a quiet place in my heart”
After a successful run as part of Voilà! Festival, Babel Beast, Mount Olympus’ hottest new solo show, is back for Talos V Festival!
Babel Beast is an experimental cabaret made by and for mythical creatures of Ancient Greece, through which Natoli explores her multiculuralism and lived experiences of (un)belonging in between cultural spaces - herself divided between Italy, France and the UK.
Whether repurposing pop culture, childhood nostalgia or mythic storytelling, this explosive one-woman spectacle is familiar yet fresh, energising yet intimate, and fundamentally “a love letter to speaking many languages”(audience response). Babel Beast hopes to leave the audience feeling precarious yet vitalized, leaving with more questions than when they arrived.
Cabaret lovers and Greek myth fanatics alike are invited for a night of frightening and seductive, strange and reflective encounters. From the mother monstress Lamia, to the Siren’s singing, and Medusa’s look of judgement - the Sphynx has a wild line-up waiting for you...
Dates
Friday 12th and Saturday 13th December - 7:30pm
Venue
The Bread & Roses Theatre, London, SW4 6DZ
Length
50 minutes, no interval
Ticket Price
£14 (£12 concession)
Recommended Age: +14
Content Warnings:
Potential contact with audience in first row, audience participation, loud noises, sexual references.
“Babel Beast tows the line between charming and menacing. A thought-provoking cabaret that catapults you into her mind”
“Sofia Natoli merges beauty and bold vulgarity in this striding debut. A poignant element in Natoli’s performance is that while she oozes sensuality she also isn’t afraid to look unattractive. Natoli is intuitive with her audience; during interactive parts she is tactful and quick-witted. Playful from all angles; multi-rolling with characters that challenge and endear. (…) Culture is presented as a humorous caricature, that Natoli invites us to explore ourselves, resulting in us not being alienated but included into her world.’”
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Meet the Team
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Sofia Natoli
Writer and Performer
After acquiring her Bachelor in Drama & Theatre Arts at Goldsmiths University in 2024, she graduated from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts with a Masters in Acting. She centers her work around the female body and its representations in performance spaces and in society, exploring the female gaze and the theatricality of gender performativity. Born in the South of France to an Italian family, she grew up navigating three different cultures and languages, which she mirrors through versatile interdisciplinary performance - writing, singing, dancing and acting. Sofia has recently developed her own work, taking her magical realist play Cracks to the Act II Festival in London (April 2024), and now bringing her multilingual solo show Babel Beast to Voilà!
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Luna Laurenti
Co-director and Co-producer
Luna Laurenti is an Italian facilitator, director, and creative producer with a degree in Performance and Politics from Goldsmiths University. Her recent work includes directing Trojans: Why Am I In Your Country? with The Trojan Women Project, a new adaptation of Euripides’ Trojan Women with a cast of asylum seekers, staged at Chelsea Theatre (May 2024) and Hounslow Arts Centre (April 2025). She is also currently assistant directing Diaspora Inferno with De Insomniis Theatre Company: an exploration of Dante’s Inferno reframed through the experiences of migrant women, set to premiere at the Drayton Arms Theatre in November 2025. Luna’s work is rooted in physical theatre, movement and devising processes that use the body as the central tool for storytelling with a particular focus on themes of identity, migration, and belonging.
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Al Hawkins
Co-director and Co-producer
Al Hawkins is a theatre-maker, facilitator and trainee food grower. They create experimental, devised work centering social issues, intimacy, queerness and sustainability. They especially enjoy making interdisciplinary performances which generate strange and provocative interactions between performers and objects. They’re also a writer, singer, and aspiring jack of all trades. They’re passionate about everything DIY, community-oriented and capitalism-resistant. In the future, they hope to run a rural learning space for arts and regenerative farming.
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Martina Bizzarri
Choreographer
Dancer, actress, and choreographer originally from Spain and Italy, Martina is now based in London and has recently graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London, with a degree in Drama and Theatre Arts. Her choreographic practice includes a range of different styles, from the jazz-inspired sequences of the original production of Chrysalis the Musical (2024) to more contemporary and experimental movement influenced by practitioners such as Pina Bausch. Martina’s work often develops through collaboration within devised theatre, as seen in productions like The Wake (2024), where she explored movement as a form of storytelling and ensemble connection. She is passionate about creating choreography that merges theatricality and dance, bringing physicality to the heart of performance.