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  • Sarah Deller presents

    Optimistic

    Tue 9th July at 7:15pm
    Tickets £8 - £12
    ARCHIVE
    Elizabeth Holmes claims her biotechnology will revolutionize medicine – and people believe her. Investors give millions, patients test blood.... but the technology doesn't work.

    Elizabeth Holmes claims her biotechnology will revolutionize medicine – and people believe her. A single drop of blood, she claims, can be used for up to 800 blood tests. She rockets to fame and fortune, becoming the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire and inviting comparisons with geniuses from Steve Jobs to Beethoven. The problem: her technology doesn’t work. As she defrauds investors of hundreds of millions of dollars and uses her disastrous technology to test real patients, does she think she's doing anything wrong? 


    Optimistic is a devised, solo play, based on verbatim interviews, trial exhibits, text messages, and Holmes' personal notes. It asks questions about the gap between appearance and reality as it delves into the mind of the fraudster once considered guaranteed to change the world. Adopting Holmes’ distinctive mannerisms and famously affected voice, Deller brings to life verbatim material previously unavailable to creators of existing works on Holmes. This allows true insight in answering the crucial question: what was Holmes thinking? 

    Content Notice
    Running Time 55 mins
    Wheelchair Accessible
    Wheelchair Accessible
    Assistance dogs welcome
    Assistance dogs welcome
    Content Notice
    Content NoticeEating disorders
    "Outstanding"
    Plays International
    "Sheer vulnerability"
    Theatre Weekly
    "The consummate character actor"
    Theatre Travels
    "A performance crackling with energy"
    The Lancet

    "The seed commission has made me feel supported, not just as an artist but also a woman of colour whose story needs to be heard."

    CPT Commissioned Artist