Flava of the Month

Flava of the Month

Who gets to be desirable—and what happens when society decides your particular flavour has passed its sell-by date?

Ava da Costa Maia is a disabled, middle-aged single mother navigating a world apparently designed for the young, the bendy and people who can get out of a chair without making a noise. Armed with elbow crutches, dating apps and a deeply misplaced sense of optimism, she is still looking for love—or at least somebody reasonably hygienic who owns their own teeth.

In Flava of the Month, Ava turns modern dating, menopause, body image, motherhood and spectacular romantic misjudgements into an hour of warm, fearless and sharply observed comedy. Along the way, she encounters questionable men, inconvenient children, ex-partners who refuse to remain comfortably in the past, and Luna: a white Siberian husky with the emotional restraint of a drunk bridesmaid and an out-of-control love of ham.

Blending storytelling, self-deprecation and gleefully savage observation, Ava explores what it means to become increasingly visible as a disabled person just as middle-aged women are expected to disappear. Honest without becoming earnest and outrageous without losing its heart, Flava of the Month is about refusing to accept that age, disability or other people’s opinions should determine whether you are still allowed to take up space, have sex, cause trouble—or become the main event.

Ava da Costa Maia has opened for Bennett Arron, supported Markus Birdman and won two Ray Turner Awards. She has appeared on professional comedy line-ups and performed hour-long festival shows at the Ram Comedy Festival and Swindon Comedy Festival.

Come and sample the flavour nobody ordered—but everybody remembers.