Hit show Yukon Ho! set for Brighton finale

Having been a smash hit at the Edinburgh festival and touring the UK, Sussex resident Jennifer Irons’ riotous one-woman show Yukon Ho! is set for its final performanc at The Old Market, Brighton on 29 Feb as part of the venue’s Reigning Women season. The show details Jen’s upbringing, life and ultimate escape from Canada’s frozen north.

Yukon Territory, Northern Canada is where North America’s coldest temperature ever (-63 degrees Celsius) was recorded. It’s where there are more caribou than people, tossing chainsaws is entertainment, barbecued squirrel is food and watching bears forage for food at the garbage dump on a Saturday evening is a big night out.

But it’s not all sophisticated fun. Yukon is a genuinely challenging place to live, where escape is difficult and where many people die tragically young as a result of accidents and the harsh Arctic winters. It’s where Jennifer Irons was born and raised, dreaming of leaving.

Growing up in a tough, isolated mining town with little prospect of reaching ‘The Outside’, Jennifer found release through performance. Specifically, it came in the unlikely circumstances of dancing the Can-Can to an audience of drunken miners in a casino in Dawson City. Her passion for dance subsequently led to an extraordinary journey out of the Yukon, and around the world.

As ‘Intrepid Jen’, she tells her story of survival and escape from the territory, and an eventual reconciliation through reconnection with her homeland.

Jennifer said, ‘If it wasn’t for dance, I’d have probably ended up pregnant, an addict or dead. However tough it is growing up – whether it’s in the arctic or the city – the arts will always be a salvation. I mean, who would have ever thought doing high kicks for drunken miners would have got me to Britain? …Though drunken miners are still very welcome to buy tickets!’

Now after its success at the largest arts festival in the world, The Edinburgh Fringe and on tour through 2022 and 2023 it’s time for Jennifer to hang up her Can-Can skirt after performing the show one last time. ‘I’ll be sad to let it go but it’s time to concentrate on my new show Bad Immigrant, which will be coming soon’ she added. ‘I’m really pleased that the last performance will be in Brighton though. I’ve lived in the Sussex for 7 years now and it’s home. It’s great to be part of Reigning Women too, alongside some absolutely wonderful and inspirational female performers.’

Yukon Ho received Special Commendation from Olivia Colman's SCREENSHOT, co-judged by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lolly Adefope and Rosie Jones

Jen was also once charged with teaching Boris Johnson to dance… it wasn’t a notable success!

29 February 2024 7.30pm Yukon Ho! by Jennifer IronsBrighton The Old Market, Upper Market Street, BN3 1AS 01273 201 801 https://www.theoldmarket.com