How to Use a Washing Machine will be debuting its first-ever tour in Oxford, ahead of further runs taking place at Theatre 503 in London, the Greater Manchester Fringe and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This is following smash-hit previews at the Burton Taylor Studio last year.

How to Use a Washing Machine is a fresh, frank and funny new two-hander. Boasting a live string quartet, it tells the story of siblings Cass and James, called back to their childhood home to pack up their things for one last time. As they box up their old lives, tensions rise and they must confront themselves and each other about who they’ve become, the decisions that led them there, and what it means to be grown up.

Despite its inherent comic imprint, this musical is not solely a satire about the mentally-testing functions of an ever-frustrating device - Writer/Director Georgie Botham and Composer/Musical Director Joe Davies took this as a starting point to explore wider and universally-felt issues among millennials, such as the dynamic of a modern family, adult identity, and the uncertainty of the future. How to Use a Washing Machine provides a space for these more serious themes (divorce, leaving one’s childhood behind and job insecurity) in a more light-hearted and striking format - a musical. The innovative use of music and its fresh, current dialogue shared between the two-person cast brings a unique energy and sense of intimacy to the show.

SLAM Theatre is an emerging company, established in 2017, dedicated to creating collaborative theatre through innovative movement and design. We are passionate about access within the arts, and the belief that your home or background shouldn't impede your chance to make theatre. In 2018 we launched Project SLAMbition, and within this we are continuing to work with foundations which aim to destabilise the vast limitations facing young theatre-makers who are disadvantaged by their means or personal situations to enter creative industries.

Oxford-based company SLAM Theatre has recently received rave reviews for its adaptation of Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera at the Oxford Playhouse (October 2018 - ‘I’m struck with the thought: this is how it’s supposed to be done’ - Oxford Opening Night). This is following other critically-acclaimed productions, such as Brave New World (Keble O’Reilly Theatre - May 2018), Shock Therapy (BT Studio - February 2018), A Girl in a Car with a Man (The Michael Pilch Studio - November 2017) and Aristeas (BT Studio - February 2017).