The Famous Lauren Barri Holstein is a dirty slut. We went to high school together, and I once saw her killing babies under the bleachers. She always thought I hated her because I was jealous of her perfect cunt and her fame. Now who’s jealous, bitch? I’m married, pregnant, and a real woman, and she’s still a filthy whore with a big Jewish nose and no boyfriend. Even though she’s shown her cunt at every major venue in the universe, she’s just a desperate whore. Keep crying about your loneliness, you big-titted disaster. I’m so bored of writing this. Here’s some information you can masturbate about. Bye.
Since 2010, The Famous has developed a substantial body of work (Notorious, Splat!, How to Become a Cupcake, How 2 Become 1, Lady Love, etc.) presented and supported by Live Art, Dance, and Theatre contexts in the UK, Europe and the US, including The Barbican, PACT Zollverein, The Kone Foundation, SPILL Festival, Kampnagel, In Between Time Festival, Reykjavik Dance Festival, Fierce Festival, Duckie, Fresh AiR, Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, FEM Fest, and Abrons Art Center.
In 2017, Holstein premiered and toured her largest work to-date, Notorious, supported by Arts Council England, The Barbican, Reykjavik Dance Festival/Lokal, PACT Zollverein, and Koneen Saatio, and commissioned by Fierce Festival and Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts. It recently toured to Kampnagel, Hamburg as part of their season opener.
In 2018, Holstein was featured in a BBC Radio 4 Interview alongside Marina Abramovic and Laurie Anderson, interrogating the relationship between popular culture and performance art.
In 2013 Holstein’s last large-scale work ‘Splat!’ reached wide audiences through its premiere at The Barbican, opening SPILL Festival of Performance to sold-out audiences and critical acclaim, including a feature on BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour.
Her work has been studied by international scholars and students, as it’s been featured in Kim Solga’s Theatre & Feminism (2016), and articles by Rebecca Schneider, Anna Watkins-Fisher, and Adam Alston (forthcoming) in various publications.
In 2016 Holstein completed her PhD at Queen Mary, University of London, researching contemporary feminism, popular culture, and ‘ugly feelings’. For the past 7 years, she has lectured at numerous UK and European universities, and she has also published several articles, in: The Only Way Home Is Through the Show: The Performance Work of Lois Weaver; On Repetition: Writing, Performance, Art; Performance Research; Feminist Times; and Dance Theatre Journal.