Dark Noon at Aviva Studios

Created by Danish theatre company fix+foxy, Dark Noon is an award-winning theatre production exposing the brutality of the American Dream. We’re thrilled that it comes to Factory International’s Aviva Studios this spring – its first staging since its breakthrough UK premiere at Edinburgh Fringe 2023, where it was described as offering “an extraordinary outsider view of American history” in a five-star review by The Guardian.

Brought to stage by the award-winning Danish director Tue Biering and co-director Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Dark Noon is an acclaimed African western about European migration. Told through the eyes of Native Americans, Chinese immigrants and African slaves, this production explores one of the great American myths – the Wild West.

Rejecting the US’s self-mythologisation of the Wild West and tearing apart any romanticisation, this production scrutinises the American frontier and challenges our understanding of history. As brutal as it is gripping, Dark Noon offers a recreation of the Wild West – an alternative look at the birth of modern America – when 35 million Europeans travelled across the Atlantic in search of a new life.

In this production, you’ll join seven South African actors on an epic journey through the United States’ bloody history. Turning the Hollywood myth of the 1950s on its head, the show poses the question: what if history wasn’t written by the victors, but by the vanquished?

Produced by Glynis Henderson Productions and Pleasance, Dark Noon was a huge success at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. And now, a year on, with a crucial US election looming, Dark Noon’s subject matter feels even more relevant. Don’t miss this explosive piece of theatre when it fires into Aviva Studios this March.