Scottish Storytelling Centre
August 13-17, 21-24 (13:30)

Script:  Stagecraft:  Performance:

The omission of West African spirituality in either religious or New Age debates leaves such a huge gap in general European consciousness, that it’s a particular joy to partake in such deep mythical stories from long and influential African traditions. The Illusion of Truth is the first production made in Scotland that features stories inspired by the Orishas, the deities of Western Nigeria that have had such a deep impact wherever African people have gone in the ‘New World’.

In Mara Menzies, we have a hugely accomplished and experienced storyteller; I would imagine likely Scotland’s finest, to spin us a yarn about Ochosi, the hunter Orisha’s journey, throwing up some weighty questions along the way. Menzies has performed and led workshops around the world including Kenya, Singapore, Jamaica, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, the USA and across the UK. The Illusion of Truth is produced and directed by award-wining Brazilian Flava D’Avila and made possible by a Megaphone grant from the Workers Theatre. But the word ‘storytelling’ can’t quite portray the fullness of the experience that you have when witnessing her magical one-woman show.

Ochosi is the hunter Orisha, who traverses the forest so a pathway can be opened by Elegba, the divine trickster messenger of Oludumare. He helps us focus on our desired goals and reults and shows us the fastest way to our destiny. This is the story of his desperation to make his way to Oludumare the Creator, and become an Orisha himself. Mara made our heart race with the drama of the story, amazed us with her dancing, and made us smile as she played with a shy man and his wife in the audience. She teased them goodnaturedly as she shook her hips while channeling Oshun, the goddess of love, the sensual and lively African equivalent of Aphrodite, recently made more widely known by Beyonce. The audience laughed as she swiftly became the bossy, dramatic Nigerian mother that we can all easily recognise.

A simple drop of a hat or an extra skirt brings with it a change in everything; accent, tone, expression, feeling. Mara’s spellbinding presence reels in the audience a little closer as each fabulous character emerges. Braids fly and chants begin. Mara stops as she moves around the intimate circle and stares or perhaps asks us a question. She managed to hold us together as one in the experience, involving us all by handing us a prop, or guiding us in call and response, or throwing out a deep philosophical question.

‘The Illusion of Truth’, of course is keenly relevant to our current situation, as it explores our relationship with truth and ‘alternative facts’.This is a kind of story startlingly new to most of Scotland, yet contains universal warnings for all of us humans; warnings against stubbornly pursuing the things that we want so badly, yet will not bring us the fortune we want.

For the hour, we were transported and uplifted to another realm, as if the ancestors and the Orishas themselves have been called to witness the event along with us. Just don’t make the mistake of nibbling on the popcorn thinking it’s just a nice little touch to keep us sated for the next hour. It’s a traditional offering to Ochosi in the New World.

Reviewed by Lisa Williams

Assembly George Square Studios

Aug 3-28 (16.15)

Script:  Stagecraft:  Performance:

Welcome to the early stages of the 21st century. For the past decade or so, the internet has fuelled the rise of social media, which has in turn taken over most of our lives. Not in a weird way, but in a cool accessorizing kind of way.  The arts, then, are all-of-a-sudden beginning to draw inspirations from this new well of living matter, & thus I have just witnessed what would be, for me, my first Social Media Play. Its name is Shame, written by & starring, in the solo-fashion, Belle Jones. She is not quite alone however, for as we march through the story, her ‘daughter’ & the world she inhabits pops up with regularity on the screen behind her. While these video interludes (v-ludes?) are happening, Belle sits solemn & stony-faced, a half-light illuming her worried face, the classic-mother-with-errant-daughter, & a nice dramaturgical touch.

Belle Jones

‘Do you ever think about your life in facebook update & Twitter… its like I update my life all the time,’ pipes her daughter Keira in a v-log, & Shame is something of an exploration of the social media platforms of 2017 & how if it is used without foresight, young lives may be destroyed by the unholdbackable tsu-na-mi of viral posts & their subsequent scroll-reams of vile gossipmonging. An event such as this forms the backbone of Shame, which bounces between Keira’s onscreen tale & the live responses from her mother. In the latter, Belle plays her role confidently – perhaps a little dry at times, but this is more of a psychic side-effect evolving from leaping between loud multi-media images full of characters, to Belle’s smoother-toned monologues. The films really were excellent, portraits of speaking hyperealism drawn from the darker recesses of these our modern times. Behind all this has been Tidy Carnage, whose artistic director, Allie Butler, described to the Mumble how the multi-media platforms work in support of Shame.

Working with extensive video content has been really interesting and allowed us to tell a story from multiple angles, despite it being a solo show. It has also pressed us to think about the narrative in various timelines and to give the effect of ‘pausing’ the live action while we delve into the digital. We’ve had lots of really interesting conversations about our online personas and how we present something that is truly representative of the presence of a young person online – a ‘digital native’. The other unique thing we’ve discovered is that #Unshamed was initially a fictional concept that Belle created as part of the show, but it’s now spread its wings and become a real life project. Find out more at www.unshamedproject.com and @Unshamed.

Shame expertly highlights the familar British attitude to sex; which still maintains its semi-demonized place alongside the dust under the carpet, when women are branded sluts for simply doing humanity’s most primal act. We British have always lived in a judgemental society, but Shame shows how social media allows such judgements to be spread far & wide with almost immediate alacrity. In the process, the script is full of honest lines, as when Belle explains the backstory to becoming a teenage mother as being, ‘I just liked having sex, there was nothing else to do.‘ On occasions Shame is too honest in its phraseology, best exemplified in the recrimations & trolling which shook the twittersphere after Keira, or rather @keirachisholmisaslut, goes missing in a moment of mortified madness. This, however, leads to the calmer waters of the play’s finale, & to the realisation that Shame is not just a piece of entertainment, but a warning to us all. ‘Just because you made a mistake,‘ says one of the ladies onscreen as if she was reciting an epithet from the Dhamma-Padda, ‘it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, it means you’re a person,’ a mantra we should all learn off by heart.

Reviewer : Damo

Hello Marc, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking?
Hiya! I hail from New York City. Currently I am in Edinburgh, Scotland in a flat that’s in a building with a blue door.

When did you first find yourself getting into the dramatic arts?
Well, I was obsessed with the film versions of Grease & Mary Poppins by the time I was 5. I went to my first Broadway Show at 10 (Les Miserables). I was convinced I wanted to be an MTV veejay by 12. I did my first play in High School at 16. By 18 I was selecting universities based on their proximity to NYC so I’d be able to audition for MTV if they required me in person. By 22 I was living in NYC and pursuing my veejaying career. Someone at MTV recommended me for commercials. Someone in the commercial world recommended me for a soap opera. By 24 I had my first lines on a soap opera and I realized I didn’t really know what the fuck I was doing. By 26 I was in a 2-year acting program in NYC. By 36 I was in Edinburgh with a wonderful play living in a flat in a building with a blue door. I suppose I was always attracted to the dramatic arts.

What for you makes a good piece of theatre?
For me, a good piece of theatre is anything that grabs you. Anything that makes you forget what is happening outside of the theatre for the time you are in the theatre, but that will stay with you once you have left the space. Anything that can make you think, make you laugh, make you cry, make you uncomfortable, visually stun you is a good piece of theatre. Theatre is so powerful. I can still be moved just thinking about work I’ve seen weeks, even years ago. I am particularly interested in theatre that can ONLY be done on a stage. A lighting shift that indicates a jump in space or time… a 25 year old actor playing a 70 year old man… a costume that is removed to reveal another costume… cast doubling… a projection that makes you feel like someone is flying… I love all of that. If your piece is just going to be be hyer-realism on stage, make a film. 🙂

What does Marc Sinoway like to do when he’s not being theatrical?
Ha. Am I ever not being theatrical? Well I’m not sure if I like it, but I spend a fair amount of time in the gym… you know, gotta watch my girlish figure since people seem to want me to take my clothes off on stage. :)I love exploring new cities. I love cocktail culture & food. Love seeing what people are doing around the world with their spirits & eats. I love sitting at a bar and talking to the bartender and the strangers on either side of me. I love t-shirts. One of my favorite activities is searching for t-shirts in thrift shops. I like design. I particularly like design of hotels. I like taking photos of mundane but beautiful things with my iPhone & posting them to Instagram. I love to tweet clever musings. I love the beach. I like to lounge in the sun. Get so tan that my teeth sparkle in comparison. I like the feeling of sand in my hair. I love massages & naps. 🙂

You’ve been washed up on a desert island with three good books. Which would they be?
1) Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth.” That book is like my bible. It always centers me and reminds me how small my “problems” are.
2) Bret Easton Ellis’ “Glamorama” I can read the the part that takes place on the cruise ship over and over. Also that hot 3-way scene might be useful on a desert island. 🙂
3) Did Shaw or Shakespeare write anything canonical that comes with photographs of chiseled men in Speedos?

As an actor/actress, what are the secrets to a good performance?
I think the secret to a good performance is first working your ass off. Then trusting that the work is there. Being in the moment. Simplicity. Knowing that you are enough. Often you don’t need to DO anything extra. Just you being present and delivering the material is enough. By virtue of being human, the uniqueness that is you will be interesting. Take whatever you are feeling (nerves, anxiety, etc), and know that that is the perfect point from which to begin the creative process. Also. Breathe.

Marc & Nathan

How have you found working with director, Nathan Wright?
Ha! Working with Nathan Wright is amazing. Nathan is an artistic genius. He really understands theatre and is not scared to explore. He works very collaboratively with actors and always wants to see what we bring before ever telling us what to do. It is clear that Nathan understands not only the actors, but the playwright, the structure of the play, the relationship of the actor the the space, etc. It is very exciting to unlock a play with Nathan. I trust him implicitly when it comes to anything theatrical. Working with Nathan is also a challenge. Nathan is my partner of 7 years. Sometimes our relationship enters the room, and our boundaries need to be navigated. “Don’t fucking call me ‘babe’ when we are in the rehearsal room.’” 🙂 Nathan also knows all of my “tricks.” So I can’t bullshit him. It can be really exhausting to work with someone you can’t fool even for a moment. Also, when the director is your partner, sometimes performance notes come home with you. I can get a note at any moment. 🙂 But overall it’s wonderful. I find working with Nathan very artistically exciting and satisfying.

You will be bringing The Waiting Game to Edinburgh this August, can you tell us about the play?
The Waiting Game is a psychological drama. It’s a love triangle if we only consider the players who aren’t in comas. The Waiting Game is a love square if we consider all the players who’s hearts still beat. It is a love pentagon if we consider technology as a 5th character. 🙂 Basic setup: I play Paolo. Paolo is married to Sam for 10 years. In year 8 or 9, Sam is seriously involved with another man, Geoff. Sam is now in a coma. Paolo is passing the time with a younger boyfriend(ish) named Tyler. Geoff comes to Paolo and asks Paolo for conservatorship over Sam. While all this is happening Paolo is finding connection online via G-chat. Who is Paolo talking to?

What are we to expect from your character, Paulo?
Paolo is just trying his best. Paolo is struggling. He is confused and sad and has a lot of unresolved “stuff” with his partner of 10 years. It’s day to day for Paolo. He is pretty reckless… perhaps unconsciously reckless. I feel for the poor guy. 🙂

What emotive responses do you expect from your audience?
A recent viewer described the play as “emotion porn.” The play is really intense. You can feel the audience inch nearer as the drama increases. I am not sure that I expect anything from the audience, as every person has a different experience, but we are excited about how moved the audience is when the lights come up. There are tears and sniffles. The Waiting Game also inspires robust post-show conversation surrounding the mystery of who Paolo is chatting with online. Bring tissues. Just in case.

In one sentence can you describe the experience of performing in Edinburgh in August?
Only been here a week, but from what I have seen, I can’t imagine a better place, a better environment in which to share our work. 🙂

What does the rest of 2017 hold in store for Marc Sinoway?
Well if all goes as planned, this interview will get me a role on Game of Thrones. That’s what the kids are watching these days, right? 🙂

You can catch Marc in The Waiting Game right now…

Aug 4-26 : Greenside @ Infirmary (16.15)

Brodie’s Close

Aug 3-27 : C Cubed (13.45)

Script:  Stagecraft:  Performance:

Nathan Cassidy is an accomplished performer, an easy to laugh at comedian, with a slick demeanor & a stance like a matador. He began his journey to the stage writing plays with his grandfather twenty years ago, & after his great comedic odyssey, has drawn the circle to a close & returned to the art of drama. In this polite arena, no-one dare heckle, a state of play quite unlike the temple of Dionysis in Peisistratan Athens, where rotten fruit was flung at the actors for an equally as rotten line. No, this is British theatre, 2017, & when the sole actor has plugged into the intransigent flux of performance with such accomplished ability as Mr Cassidy does, then not a sound is to be heard – even when he prompts you to do so, so much had he woven us under his spell. Equally as hypnotizing was the way he tossed tarot cards onto the floor in a vague pattern as he proceeded through his tale – a subtle touch which shows you don’t have to go over the top with your stagecraft to create an excellent aesthetic & mood.

The story he tells is one of love, a paean as moving as Petrarch’s sonnets to Laura & Abelard’s letters to Heloise, but of course modernistic & prettified by Cassidy’s natural stand-up sensibilities. There was also the occasional semi-evangelical sermon on the life we should all be living tossed into the mix, which was done with vigour & ducal authority, encouraging us to push back boundaries & be the people we ought to be. Cassidy’s storytelling is reminiscent of a condensed volcanic eruption; there are tremblings, there is smoke, there is tension. Aye, I was thoroughly enjoying myself, for Nathan performs with confidence & genuine feeling, until we came, quite abruptly, to his ending. There was no volcano. It must have been dormant after all.

At first I was disappointed, but as I was making my way down the Royal Mile from the C Cubed venue, surrounded by flyerers & all sorts of Fringey nonsense, I found myself still deep in thought about Mr Cassidy’s ending. Five minutes later it was still clinging to my psyche like a stubborn flea… then it struck me, the sensations I immediately experienced & then continued to experience were intended, I believe, by Mr Cassidy; a shamanic act of some sorts which transcends the vast majority of theatre this day. Mr Cassidy’s play had bulldozed into the bubble of suspension of disbelief, sat upon the sofa in my mind, kicked its shoes off & started smoking a cigar. So, for those in love with love, Cassidy’s classy exultation may not be matched this year in any form.

Reviewer : Damo

Surgeons Hall 
5th – 26th August

Script:  Stagecraft:  Performance: 

Heading into Surgeons Hall, with the Fringe just starting to open its doors to the world, a modest crowd had gathered to witness the new solo show from the well known Canadian performer, Christel Bartelse.  This year’s brainchild is a one-woman show wishing to seek out the truths of motherhood, child-birth, love, emotions, pain and the most important challenge of all, being a parent. Indeed, a baby-like figure appears soon from the underbelly of a table and the creation of life is upon us. What follows is a theatrical tour de force of her subject, with a splash of comedy thrown in for those who in particular find the funniness in child birth.

We swiftly discover that the trials and tribulations enshrouding a woman struggling with coming to terms with being a mother are manifold. Taking such a delicate subject as this and carving it up into pieces of life-strife is an extremely clever angle. In a recent interview with The Mumble, Christel described her creation as being;

A comically honest exploration of my fears and hesitations around being a 30-something year-old woman wanting to hit the snooze button on my biological clock as it starts to tick… This quintessential double bind faced by womankind sets the stage for an epic, hilarious “what if” battle of Parenthood v Career.

This show provokes you, intimidates you (if your are a non-parent), questions you, thrills you and at times endears you.  Throwing hope to the wind we are taken on the journey which many of our fellow humans go on, will I or will I not do it? Will I have a child, or even four?  With such a primeval topic, Christel Bartelse has written, created and preformed a little gem here in All Kidding Aside, performance art at its best, delivered and executed with an eagerness to please.  It is never easy doing a one-person show but this girl knows how.  I now bid a good luck to all you future mothers and to Christel with the rest of her shows. Edinburgh, Canada & the whole of womankind salute you !!!!

Reviewer : Raymondo

Hello Cathy, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking?
Cathy : Hi there! I’m originally born and raised in Omaha Ne. Moved to Chicago and then Los Angeles where I reside…kind of. (I’m a bit of a vagabond)

Can you tell us in brief about your career in the States, thus far?
Cathy : Always built my career in acting and singing. Musical theatre and commercials, but most success was in voice over on several national campaigns. Oh and I was the first female clown, “Pepper,” on the Bozo Show for anyone who knows the history of that!

When did you first find yourself getting into the dramatic arts?
Cathy : I got involved in the arts quite young. Coming from a family of ten kids, I learned early the art of entertainment. 5 years old go go dancer…haha silly family gatherings.

When did you first realise you could write for the stage?
Cathy : Well, that is the amazing thing! I’ve always been a story teller, able to mimic voices and create the picture through spoken word. My writings have always been tucked away. They became a more personal journal of what my heart was truly tortured with a bit. It wasn’t until Squeeze My Cans and my spoken word pieces created a union that I really realized an ability.

What does Cathy Schenkelberg like to do when she’s not being theatrical?
Cathy : I’m in love with hiking and animals! It is the best way to quiet my mind, a sort of therapy for the soul.

What for you makes a good piece of theatre? 
Cathy : How you feel when the lights go out at the end of the piece, comes to mind first.  I’ve learned overtime to ask questions when seeing or performing in a show. Why are you telling the story? What is the purpose and for whom do you speak? My director Shirley Anderson taught me so much. Her ability to get me to ask these questions and more, not only in my own work but in that of others has been such a gift.You want to feel moved without feeling manipulated, feel delighted without being forced and most especially and hopefully in my piece walking away from a show to find yourself still reminiscing over its content.

You will be bringing ‘Squeeze My Cans’ to Edinburgh this August, can you tell us about the play?
Cathy : It’s an “Everyman” journey I believe. Yes, it is about my journey into and out of Scientology, but its more than the story of that. I don’t think anyone who has lived is remiss of a feeling of loss or regret. Wishing they could shift the choices they’ve made or rewrite a chapter or two. This is a story of search and purpose loss and redemption.

How much personal experience has made their way into the play?
It is all from personal experience and expressed in a theatrical setting. That’s not to say I haven’t thrown in some Aliens and Italian lovers in the mix!

This will be your debut at the Fringe… what have you heard about it from other performers?
Cathy : I have heard it is the best most exciting place to be, perform and celebrate art in all forms! By the way, the folks I’ve met locally and from abroad have been so lovely, warm and welcoming! My mom said to me before I left the states, “I know you’re going to do your show, I don’t exactly know what this fringe thing is, but you sure sound like a teenager!” I kid you not!

What does the rest of 2017 hold in store for Cathy Schenkelberg?
Cathy : I will continue to perform Squeeze My Cans across America. I’ve been booking it myself and traveling venue to venue in my car. I will also continue writing and finishing other pieces. I’m currently working on a musical comedy about a sociopath! Lastly, I plan on traveling after this month with my daughter. We need some mommy and me time. Well I need it more than she does…she’s 22!

You can catch Cathy doing her thing @ The Edinburgh Fringe

Aug 3-27 : Assembly Rooms (15.10)

Summerhall
Aug 2-6, 8-13, 15-20, 22-27 (15.00)

Script:  Stagecraft:  Performance: 

Taking seat as a reviewer at the Anatomy Theatre in the Summerhall, notebook in hand, is a throwback to the time it was once used to teach veterinary science to the students of this grand old institution. These days The Summerhall is Edinburgh’s leading artistic centre, I would say, & opens its doors to the world every Fringe; through which has just stepped Kamaal Hussain. Half-Iraqi & half-Canadian, this bubbly cherry-cheeked gentleman invited us into a whirlwind tour of his five decades upon this planet. Like a chryselephantine statue come to life, white robes streaming to his naked feet, Kamaal had complete command of his stances, & with his perfumed voice allured into his world.

Scheherazade was the vizier in 1001 nights, an obscure name in the west, where we are more happy to make the connection to Sinbad. So, to please us, Kamaal has loosely based his own life’s odyssey upon the voyages of Sinbad, serving up curious & brief interludes of that oriental tale between his own story like tree-lined boulevards between Parisian arrondissement. Yes, the main beef of this one-man play is a tour of Mr Hussain’s fascinating early life as a mixed race kid in the East Midlands. He was born in 1968, a time when true racial acceptance was an abnormality – it has taken the deaths of two generations to finally reach that place in these our modern times. Maybe that is why Kamaal is now ready to speak about his troubled youth, for today we the enlightened will only judge a piece of performance art for the pathos of the content, rather than the content itself. In an earlier interview with the Mumble, Kamaal described his creation as being…

…born out of need to tell the stories of Arabs in the West. In the light of the Gulf wars, the rise of Daesh and the seeming demonisation of the Middle East in the press, I had wanted to respond this theatrically. This production uses the Arabian Nights as its foundation, recognisable stories to a Western ear, but maybe over-adapted or bastardised in a Western context (think Aladdin). I decided to tell my life story, interwoven with the stories of Sinbad the Sailor, to examine my (and my family’s) particular relationship to migration from the Middle Eats to the West. And Becoming Sheherazade was born!

Becoming Scheherazade is accompanied by a series of excellent visual stimuli, which come in the form of photographs from his past, bordered in the same angel-white as the robes of our precious storyteller. These began as black rectangles, but as Kamaal leads us through his life, they would be turned & revealed & laid to rest all about him like speech bubbles in a comic strip. As the photographs appeared one-by-one they seemed to waft anticipatory breezes into the room.. where was this life going… what would be the denoument? And then it came, a bombshell of near perfect dramatic development, & from that moment I was hooked, as the gentle family monologue had become a symphonic soliloquy. The wasps were out of the hive, stinging, & the tears were set to flow.

Tenaciously enchanting, Becoming Scheherazade is an exceptional & moving example of the Storyteller’s Art, performed with satin & indestructible regality. At the end we also had the complete jigsaw aesthetic of Kamaal’s back-story; a hall of mirrored memories & a galley of glowing moments. Excellent stuff!

Reviewer : Damo

Aug 2-28 : C Royale (14.40)

Script:  Stagecraft:  Performance: 

So let the games begin. It is a brave director who lets a reviewer in to their first fringe show, but then nothing much has ever really phased the creator of Swan Bake, Samson Hawkins. In a recent interview with the Mumble he described his personal battles with drug-addiction that form the frantic & fascinating bedrock of the play;

I used to take quite a lot drugs. And I wrote the play as I wanted to stop, but didn’t really know how. There is a point when you are trying to give up when you just realise how hard being high is sometimes. I saw one of my teachers in Tesco but I was hallucinating at the time and it was really hard not to just slap him in the face and run away.

With him are the young & vibrant London-based ‘Second Sons‘ company, whose origins Samson describes as being, ‘my third-year housemates formed the company in our 3rd year of Italia Conti to make ‘Theatre for people who don’t like theatre’. With Samson operating behind the scenes, its is up to Kate Dolan, who plays a drug-addled ballet dancer, Shannon Giles, the shabby chic Catholic nun, & Alex Stevens, a sexually excessive & rather shouty priest, to paint for us the vivid pictures Samson so clearly sees – or has seen in some moment of grand psychedelia. The play does contain the rudiments of a story, which are kind of enjoyable, but Swan Bake’s merits revolve around the subtle willy-wonka-wackiness of addiction to ‘Nonce’ a drug whose moments of initial ingested-wonder are represented by blowing bubbles from a child’s bubble-bottle.

As we are led – rather enthusiastically as it turns out – through the dreamscapes of Mr Hawkins, we find that the true jewel of this play is the poetical, philosophical, observational script. Somehow Samson managed to survive the wasted-lands with enough wits about him to record the darkest & wildest moments with some accuaracy; a modern-day Dante, only this Hell is the concentric cycles of getting fuc£ed up on drugs. There is an eloquent intelligence to everything the characters say, with some genuinely piss-funny one-liners that seemed to arrive in chunks & shows a potential future avenue for Hawkins’ undeniable talent, as in;

When was the last time you took me out?’ ‘ ‘We went to Big Tesco yesterday!

We can’t go on a walk without a dog, that’s what paedos do!

I became a lesbian to specifically avoid the penis – its so aggressive!

I’ve got rapey eyes, which is really unfair coz I’m not even a raper

When you add the script to the curious, carnival atmosphere of the acting, you get something of an instant classic, altho’ it is far too early to suggest such a thing, of course. Each of our players seldom let the vibe down, & showed chemistry in every scene that they must have forged during their time as ‘Second Sons.‘ Alex Stevens combustulated like a young Rik Mayall, while the two ladies acted like kaleidoscopic courtesans to Hawkins’ muse, delivering their comedy & parody & puppetry at a perfect pitch. We also have the set-piece scenes – no spoilers of course – but the nightmare vignette is especially pleasing; splurging along as it does in a psychotic pirouette of music, masks & madness.

Unashamedly sexy & off-its-face, Swan Bake is… well, it is what is, & that’s very good indeed; a jovial & delinquent spitfire which strafes the stage with magical bullets of sheer theatrical brilliance. Indeed, its final dramatic scenes are just as exciting as a fighter-plane crashing & exploding in the sea!

 Reviewer: Damian Beeson Bullen

Hello Karen, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking?
Karen : I’m from St Helens in Merseyside. I lived in Manchester for about 6 years and now live up in Blackpool.

When did you first find yourself getting into the dramatic arts?
Karen : I first got into the arts at a young age through going to dance classes from about age 4. I joined a local youth theatre when I was about 12 and loved being a part of plays and musicals. I studied A level drama and performing arts and went onto study Drama at Loughborough University. As well as studying here, I was part of the Student Stage Society where I got my first opportunity to direct theatre and I realised that this was what I wanted to do – much more than performing.

You are the Artistic Director at Burnley Youth Theatre how did you get the job & how are you finding the responsibility?
Karen : I began working at Burnley Youth Theatre in 2009 as the Youth Arts Worker – this was a predominantly outreach post working with local communities but the fantastic Artistic Director at the time Mandy Precious gave me lots of opportunities to explore roles outside of my job which gave me a vast amount of experience. After a few years I was promoted to Artistic Producer – looking after the artistic programme and then when Mandy left in 2014, I was promoted to the Artistic Director – with overall responsibility for the artistic vision and direction of the organisation. I love the job and every day is different and a new learning experience. As well as the creative work, I have responsibility from bringing in funding from Arts Council, local authority and trusts and foundations and so there is a lot of responsibility to keep the organisation financially stable as well as ensuring that we are doing high quality engagement work with children, young people and families.

BYT

Burnley has a tradition of being an extremely talented town… does this spill over into its young actors & actresses?
Karen : Absolutely – at Burnley Youth Theatre we work with about 400 children and young people every week just through our regular youth theatre workshops and productions and the talent is amazing – right from the very young children to the older young people who are part of our Rep Company AKA Byteback Theatre.

Who, are what, is Byteback Theatre?
Karen : Byteback Theatre is the professional level arm of Burnley Youth Theatre. We create work with young people aged 15 – 25. We take a show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival every year and in the past we have toured productions to local schools and community settings. In this iteration, Byteback Theatre is made up of our Rep Company (for young people aged 15-18) – they audition in the September and work for nearly a year together to create a piece for the Edinburgh Fringe. They devise and write the show with an adult creative team and fundraising all the money themselves to get us to the Fringe (this year the target was £6000).

What does Karen Metcalfe like to do when she’s not being theatrical?
Karen : I love to travel and have an obsession with going on holiday – in the last 12 months I’ve been to Italy, New York, New Orleans, Hong Kong, Japan and Magaluf! I’m even jetting straight off to Istanbul for a wedding straight from our last show at the Fringe.

Byteback will be bringing Dead People Don’t Have Secrets to the Fringe this August, can you tell us about the play?
Karen : Dead People Don’t Have Secrets follows the lives of four young people as they go into adulthood carrying a dark secret. Rumours, dares, and lies get out of hand and friendships turn sour. The lives of people around them are affected, and they must work through their guilt and shame to find justice, peace, or truth once their secrets come to a head. The show explores death, consequences, and lies through physical theatre, spoken word and new writing. The show was originally inspired by the title of a Death, Sex and Money podcast of the same name and we were fascinated about the secrets that people carry with them through their lives that may only come to light once they are dead.

This is quite a step away from you traditional quirky & playful style… what inspired the transition?
Karen : We have a really mature group this time (all aged 17) and they wanted to get their teeth into something a bit more gritty than their usual quirky styles of storytelling. I also haven’t directed a Byteback piece for a few years and so I have brought my love for the darker and grittier side of theatre into the mix and have pushed them to try something different.

This is not the first time you have directed at the Fringe? How would you describe the experience of directing in Edinburgh in August?
Karen : I absolutely love directing at the Fringe. This is my second time as a director but I have produced our shows up there for the last 6 years and there’s no other week of the year like it for me. I also go up to the Fringe as a programmer so I spend half my time watching shows that we might programme our at venue which is a 158 studio theatre. I would describe being in Edinburgh in August as amazing, inspiring and exhausting!

What does the rest of 2017 hold in store for Karen Metcalfe?
Karen : Well to echo what I said about my love for holidays – I’ve got 3 holidays in the next 2 months – Istanbul, Italy and Marrakesh but in between that, I’ll be settling down to my desk to tackle some big funding bids and start preparing Business Plans for our next round of Arts Council National Portfolio Funding for 2018 – 2022. I’m going to have a short rest from directing but hoping to get back to it next year with a piece about Child Sexual Exploitation and a piece about Extremism.

You can catch Dead People Don’t Have Secrets at this year’s Fringe

Aug 7-10 @ Greenside, Nicholson Sq (12.45)