Ugly Chief

Key Theatre, April 20 and 21

Ugly Chief by Victoria Melody is a new father and daughter show, by nationally acclaimed theatre-maker, Vic Melody, featuring her dad (celebrity antique dealer, Mike Melody) and a live jazz band, explores love, death and family with humour and honesty.

In 2013, Mike was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and given five years to live. Victoria was put in charge of planning the funeral (complete with eulogies, a New Orleans jazz procession and a congregation dressed in Blackpool FC tangerine). But a year later the doctors realised they had misdiagnosed Mike. Victoria and Mike decided to go ahead with the funeral anyway and Victoria went to Port Talbot to train as a funeral director. Ugly Chief plays out two funerals – the one Victoria planned and the one her dad really wanted. And Mike is guest of honour at both. As the show unfolds, it unpicks the complicated relationship with a parent whose opinion you don’t always agree with. Mike will be running his own version of the Antiques Roadshow during the show. The audience are invited to bring along their heirlooms, curiosities and collectables for him to value during the show. No promises but if he likes it, he might even buy it!

Ugly Chief is part of Platform8 - twice-yearly theatre-festivals created by Peterborough’s Jumped Up Theatre Company in partnership with London’s awardwinning Battersea Arts Centre. The shows come from internationally acclaimed theatremakers and pop up all across the city, in pubs, community centres, churches, community gardens, sports clubs, shopping centres, as well as theatres.