Following their sold-out run at the Barbican in both 2022 and 2024, Perfect Show For Rachel will play at Birmingham Rep from Friday 10 – Sunday 12 April as part of a UK theatre tour.
Rachel is a theatre-loving, enigmatic, learning-disabled 35-year-old who loves Kylie, heckling her sister, and seeing people falling over. At the touch of a button she commands the action, each scene brought to life by a skilled cast ready for whatever she asks of them. From bar room brawls to a bourbon biscuit cabaret – get ready, this is Rachel’s Perfect Show.
Rachel’s sister, Zoo Co’s Artistic Director Flo O’Mahony, who is also a Lead Artist and performer in the show said: “After a decade of working on this show with my big sister, Rachel, I am so proud, both as an Artistic Director, and as a sister, that we are taking Perfect Show For Rachel on this tour.
“This show is ‘beautifully inconvenient’ – it is massive, unique and requires theatres to adapt their own practices to welcome our brilliant company through the doors. That’s its beauty- it changes the places and people it visits. I hope audiences leave wondering how the world might be more open for their Autistic colleague, their nan with dementia, or their kid with ADHD.
“Touring Perfect Show For Rachel now, at a time when welfare cuts are making disabled people feel isolated and excluded, feels not just artistically important, but politically vital. This show so clearly expresses what we have to lose if disabled people aren’t welcomed into leadership in the arts and in our lives. I can’t wait to invite more people to step into Rachel’s world – she has so much to teach us and all we have to do is listen.”
Perfect Show For Rachelwas developed with Rachel, to create a show on her own terms. It explores who defines artistic taste, and questions who that currently excludes and is created by Zoo Co, a multi award-winning company creating theatre that loudly champions access. Zoo Co won the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award in 2022, an Offie in 2023 and a Digital Culture Award in 2025. Perfect Show For Rachel is created in collaboration with Improbable, the pioneering company of improvisers and theatre-makers who have been making ground-breaking work for the past 25 years and were proud winners of Producer of the Year at The Stage Awards 2023.
Step into Rachel’s unique, often hilarious world in this critically acclaimed show, combining physical theatre, live music, family memories, massive fights and fart jokes in a chaotic, moving and triumphant tapestry.
Perfect Show For Rachel comes to The Rep from Friday 10 – Sunday 12 April. Tickets will be on sale September 2025 alongside Joe Murphy’s (The Rep’s Artistic Director) inaugural season announcement.
LISTINGS
Zoo Co and Improbable presents
PERFECT SHOW FOR RACHEL
Friday 10 – Sunday 12 April 2026
Duration: 1 hour and 10 minutes, no interval
Age Guidance: 14+ (strong language)
Please note: flashing lights may be used during this performance
Access Performances
All performances will be held in level access venues and are Relaxed Performances as standard, with a break-out space located elsewhere in the venue.
All performances include a mixture of creative captioning for scripted moments and integrated BSL. Improvised moments will be BSL interpreted.
Each venue run will include an Audio Described performance with touch tour. Audio described performances will be arranged in advance of on-sale. Details to be included in booking information and promotions.
The show includes creative projection, lighting changes and can feature moderately loud music and noises.
Creative Team
Rachel O’Mahony, Director
Flo O’Mahony is Lead Artist, performer and Zoo Co’s Artistic Director
Lee Simpson is Lead Artist, performer and Improbable’s Co-Artistic Director
Fleur Rooth, Creative Access Director
Set and Costumes are designed by Stella Backman
Rachel Sampley is the Lighting and Video Designer
Choreography is by Simeon Campbell
Supported by Arts Council England
The original production of Perfect Show For Rachel, winner of the 2022 Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award, was supported by the Trust and the Barbican.