Culture Watch: Linus Karp was hit with an umbrella
A new play from Awkward Productions.
We've long been fans of Linus Karp and Joseph Martin - the duo behind Awkward Productions and the creators of camp classics such as "Gwyneth Goes Skiing" and "Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story".
Their latest show is Linus Karp was hit with an umbrella, which they'll be taking to Edinburgh Fringe.
In July 2024, shortly before taking their hit show Gwyneth Goes Skiing to the Edinburgh Fringe, Linus Karp and Joseph Martin - a couple of eleven years - were walking through London holding hands when a man approached them, struck Linus across the head with an umbrella, and shouted homophobic slurs. Joseph chased the attacker, tackled him to the ground, and restrained him until the police arrived. The man was arrested at the scene.
Taking that incident as its starting point, this show follows everything that came after - the shock of the attack, the slow legal process that followed, and the emotional aftermath of being targeted for being visibly queer - and in London’s Soho, a historically queer part of the capital.
Moving beyond memoir, the final section of the show transforms the stage into a fictionalised trial, where the structures of justice can be reimagined, and the questions left unanswered in real life can finally be confronted. In putting the attacker theatrically on trial, Linus creates space to examine the realities of hate crime, the limits of legal resolution, and what it means to seek closure when no verdict ever came.
Despite its more serious subject matter, Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella remains rooted in Awkward Prods’ signature style: witty, queer and distinctly theatrical, with audience-interaction and multimedia elements woven in. True to their work, the show blends dark humour with absurdity and playfulness throughout.
Gareth Johnson