TOMYUMSIM & Omnibus Theatre Present
A SUFFOCATING CHOKING FEELING
Tuesday 25th – Saturday 29th November 2025
A darkly funny, unsettling deep dive into truth, lies, and the performance of authenticity online. Inspired by the real-life scandal of influencer and cancer-con, Belle Gibson (BBC’s Bad Influencer).
Living day to day, not knowing if tomorrow will come, Simone Hamilton is overcoming the odds. Rising pop star, influencer, and fighting a serious illness, her followers have witnessed it all…
But what makes them believe it’s true?
A Suffocating Choking Feeling invites audiences into a dangerously seductive world where performance and deception blur, asking: in the age of the influencer, how do we know what’s real anymore?
Each night, Simone goes live on Instagram from the stage, transforming the theatre into a real-time livestream. As her followers (that’s you) comment, question, and troll, her story of survival starts to crack. The feed glitches. The truth warps. What began as confession turns into confrontation.
Part live gig, part digital fever dream, A Suffocating Choking Feeling is a subversive, satirical, and disturbingly funny look at how social media shapes our collective appetite for tragedy, beauty, and belief.
Following sold-out seasons at The Lowry, English Theatre Berlin, Colchester Arts, Chichester Showroom Theatre, Pleasance Theatre London, and La Mama Theatre Melbourne, and winner of Best Contemporary & Experimental Performance (Green Room Awards, Melbourne), this show pushes live performance to the edge of digital reality.
Notes to Editors:
Performance: A Suffocating Choking Feeling
Date: Tuesday 25th October – Saturday 29th October 2025
Times: 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm matinee on Saturday 29th October
Location: Omnibus Theatre, Clapham Common, London, SW4 0QW Tickets: £18/£16
Ticket Link: https://www.omnibus-clapham.org/suffocating-choking/
Creatives:
Creator & Performer: Simone French
Director & Technical Management: Tom Halls
Lighting Design: Caitlin Clarke & Amy Daniels
Outside Eye: Paula Varjack
Designer: Ruta Irbite
About the Company:
TomYumSim (Tom Halls & Simone French) are a UK/Australian duo creating sharp, playful and unpredictable theatre that collides technology, music and performance art. Their award-winning work has toured internationally, blending liveness, interactivity, and satire to explore how we connect, perform, and pretend.
Recent works include:
Trainwreck (Croydonites Festival) – immersive theatre gone wrong that uses AI to fix itself; Hotline (Word of Warning/MIF) – one-to-one live phone performance turning the mundane into magic; The Salon (Cambridge Junction/Bridgewater Hall) – a surreal, self-care hair ritual;
Be My Embrace Now (Manchester Pride); Rebels of Extinction (Manchester International Festival); String Lines (Royal Exchange Theatre); Rage Face (The Yard Theatre); Nothing Special (Melbourne Fringe/CPT).
Social Media:
Instagram: @tomyumsim
Twitter/X: @tomyumsim
Facebook: facebook.com/tomyumsim
All enquiries, high-res images and further information: Emma Ferrier, Act One PR
E: emma@actonepr.com T: 07966 012 429
