Simon Jones in Collaboration with Upstart: Marco

In 1998, while Marco Pantani was winning the Tour de France, Simon was grazing his knee in a race with his brother on second-hand bikes. Six years later, Marco died. Disgraced in a doping scandal, he locked himself in a hotel room and killed himself with a massive overdose of cocaine.

Tonight, armed only with an inflated sense of his own ability and his junior cycling proficiency badge, Simon sets out to do justice to the epic story of his hero. Marco was an ordinary kid who became an icon. Yes, OK, he was also a cheat. But if you’d been programmed since childhood to win at all costs, wouldn’t you have done the same?

There will be winning. And losing. There will be stories, and music, and dancing. There will be a lot of drugs. And, in the end, there will be death. Marco is an explosively physical solo show about what it means - and what it takes - to succeed.

Performed by Simon Jones
Directed by James Blakey
Design by Hannah Sibai