NEWSLETTER
What if your sex ed class turned into a drag-infused, clown-led ritual of self-reclamation? What if your body could finally say what it wanted?
New York, NY – The U.S. premiere of Shell, written, co-created and performed by Ana Evans, and co-created and directed by Linnea Scott, will run May 29 - June 7, 2026 in a limited engagement at SoHo Playhouse’s intimate Huron Room, located at 15 Vandam Street in New York City.
Fresh off a five-star run at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Shell is an awe-inspiring solo show that cracks open questions about gender, anatomy, and desire, with the help of a sexed-obsessed hockey player and a powerful, otherworldly Peanut. The Scotsman named it among “the most unforgettable shows of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.” Bold, strange and funny, Shell is equal parts interactive workshop, theatrical spectacle, and spiritual release. It’s drag. It’s clown. It’s queer sex education like you’ve never seen before.
We meet Andy: a lovable, cringe and camp “hockey bro” who is starting a sex education club on his college campus to B(reak) R(eproductive) O(ppression). He’s passionate, confused, and believes he can “CHANGE YOUR LIFE!” Peanut is full of power, pleasure and a slightly terrifying hunger for desire. Told through an interactive sex ed class, which involves audience members participating in activities and lessons, they dare you to name your desires, to feel your body, to awaken your spirit.
Written and performed by Ana Evans and co-created and directed by Linnea Scott, Shell is inspired by the lens of “parts work” therapy. Through surreal comedy and intimate audience participation, Andy expands our understanding of Reproductive Oppression, while Peanut deconstructs binaries and begs to know what you really want. By embodying these two aspects of identity, Evans explores an evolving relationship with the body, attempting to break open the constraints placed upon it in search of the spirit beneath.
Writer and performer Ana Evans comments, “This show is a ball of light that I hand off to an 8-year-old me, 18-year-old me, and then take back into the world with the 28-year-old me. It holds lessons I needed then and still need now about body, sexuality, and identity. Shell is unique in that the show literally cannot happen without the audience working through these lessons with me. Together we confront how limited traditional sex education is. Together we practice naming, feeling, and embodying our desires and discovering what such an unleashing reveals. I want each person to leave feeling like we collectively opened a floodgate, our spirits bursting through the goddamn door.”
In this unapologetic queer celebration, which is full of surprise and transformation, Shell invites us to examine our relationship to the physical body, our understanding of it in a literal way, and then dare to dream of who we are outside the confines of our physical form.
Produced by Lilach Orenstein, Acadia Barrengos and Sam Theobald.
The production team includes Lola Basiliere (Sound Design), Lee Lillis (Light Design), Xavier / Luckiii (Animator), and Luca Evans and Myer Rosenblum (Technical Directors).
Performances are Friday, May 29 at 7pm, Saturday, May 30 at 8pm, Sunday, May 31 at 5pm, Friday, June 5 at 7pm, Saturday, June 6 at 6pm and Sunday, June 7 at 5pm. Run time is 60 minutes. Tickets available from $24.50 - $34.50 (includes fees). To purchase tickets and for more info go to https://www.anachristineevans.com.
Acclaim from Edinburgh Fringe
*****
“Utterly, beautifully, stunning.”
“A masterclass in audience interaction.”
****
“Shell will likely figure among – if not top – the most unforgettable shows of this year’s
Edinburgh Fringe.”
Highly Recommended Show
“You will have the best experience.”
- Fringe Review
Social Media: @shell.theplay #shelltheplay
About the Creators:
Ana Evans (Creator, Writer, Performer) is an actor, writer, clown, drag artist and theatre maker based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work is full of surprise, transformation, and believes in magic. Ana chases the juicy experiences on stage that shake us up, stir us around, and pour us out changed. They have presented work at Lincoln Center Education, Theater Row, Edinburgh Fringe, Minnesota Fringe Festival, Denver Fringe, The Tank, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, MOtiVE Brooklyn, TheWhatCo. Performed at Guthrie Theatre Dowling, Arena Stage, Children’s Theatre. Training: UNCSA. anachristineevans.com
Linnea Scott (Creator and Director) (they/them) is a New York based actor, theatre maker, and drag performer who is originally from Denver, CO. They are in the practice of making art that heals. They are also in the practice of making art that is stupid, funny, and exists to help build our collective stamina for joy. Their work has been presented at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, La MaMa ETC, Lincoln Center: Education, Theater Row, EmergeNYC, The 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway, Theaterlab, The Tank, Center for Performance Research, The Denver Fringe Festival, BAX, Queerly Festival, Switch n' Play, Dyke Drag, and House of Yes. Also, they really like to hug trees. Training: UNCSA. linneascott.com @linneascott @feral.thing
Continuing in the spirit of the theater’s original tenant, Edward Albee and his Playwright Unit Workshop, SoHo Playhouse (Artistic Director Darren Lee Cole, Managing Director Britt Lafield) is committed to presenting the brightest and most talented artists from New York, with its Lighthouse Series, and around the world, with the International Fringe Encore Series, to give the theater-going audience of New York important stories told with unique style, and evolving what the concept of Off-Broadway Theater is in the 21st century. For info visit https://www.sohoplayhouse.com.
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Photo: Ana Evans in Shell (photographer: Morgan McDowell)