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)

Hello Allie, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking?
I’m from Fife originally, spent a decade in London, and now live in Glasgow.

When did you first find yourself getting into the dramatic arts?
When I was about six. My cousins and I used to put on wee plays for our parents, and if they didn’t listen enough or clap enough, I’d be devastated. My fate was clearly sealed.

What for you makes a good piece of theatre?
Anything that asks more questions than it tries to answer, and doesn’t try to do the job of the audience and all our thinking for us. I love work that is visually arresting and isn’t afraid to push boundaries and be difficult or challenging.

What does Allie Butler like to do when she’s not being theatrical?
I spend a lot of time dancing – I got into Swing dance with my husband nearly two years ago, and absolutely fell in love. I’ve always adored music from that era, and am now totally obsessed with the dances that go with it – Lindy Hop, Charleston, Blues, Collegiate Shag (yes that’s its real name).

You are quite a stalwart of the Scottish Theatre scene, which seems flourishing at the moment, why do you think this is?
Having lived and worked in London for years, I really noticed when I moved up here that there was a different artistic landscape and culture. I instantly felt more part of the dialogue than I had in London, and found that people were really welcoming and open. For a small country, there is such a huge amount going on and getting produced, it really is exceptional. Having said that, I do feel we still have a long way to go in terms of how the industry operates, and we need to work for more accountability and meritocracy across the board.

You are the artistic director of Tidy Carnage, can you tell us about the company?
I started Tidy Carnage because I was finding that venues kept asking for a company name and it seemed like it would be helpful to have a ‘brand’ to work under. That’s a really unromantic reason to start a theatre company, but it’s true. However, as I moved more towards making my own work, I really grew into the idea of having a company and what that meant for me as an artist. It give me a sense of freedom but also a really useful feeling of responsibility, for myself and for a collective of artists and for the work. We make contemporary theatre, usually working with a writer in the room but largely devised with a team of performers and other artists including musicians, film makers, set, lighting and video designers, and soon an illusionist. I’ve found that without really intending it, the work has started leaning towards immersive, site responsive pieces and that’s definitely what you’ll see more of from Tidy Carnage in future.

You will be bringing ‘Shame’ to the Fringe this August, can you tell us about the play?
Shame is a play written and performed by Belle Jones (Tidy Carnage associate) which explores the vilification of female sexuality online. It’s inspired by stories of slut shaming and revenge porn (although we both kind of hate those terms), and is a call to action against the horrific bullying and trolling that happens to (mostly) women on the internet. It’s a solo show on stage, but there is a 16 strong digital cast that also appear during the show’s projected media. We’ve also got original music composed for us by NovaSound that will feature in the show.

Can you give us dramaturgical details about the multi-media aspect of the performance?
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. That’s the brilliant thing about working with multi-media, you can move quite fluidly between the live and the digital which is really exciting. Find out more at www.unshamedproject.com and @Unshamed.

What emotive responses do you expect from your audience?
Shame is certainly a show that explores a very serious subject matter, and as such it can be a sad and disturbing production to watch. However, there is also an uplifting message and we absolutely don’t want audiences to leave feeling bleak about our digital world and the state of humanity.

You have your fingers in many theatrical pies : what does the rest of 2017 hold in store for Allie Butler?
I am currently developing Tidy Carnage’s next production – Underworlds – an immersive event that asks audiences to let us in to their deepest secrets and explores the dark side of most hidden selves. I’m also working on a new production called CULT with acclaimed illusionist Scott Silven, and developing the Tron’s Progressive Playwright Award winner.

You can catch Shame at this year’s Fringe

Aug 3-28 : Assembly George Square Studios (16.15)

Hello Kamaal, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking?
I was born in Baghdad, Iraq, moved to the East Midlands when I was 2 years old, grew up in Leicestershire and now live in London, via Sheffield and Munich!

When did you first find yourself getting into the dramatic arts?
At school. I had a pretty inspirational English teacher at secondary school, and she encouraged me into school plays, and then into youth theatre.

What for you makes a good piece of theatre?
Something that stays with me after the show. Something which makes me think and challenges my perceptions. Total theatre – the whole package, working in collaboration.

What does Kamaal Hussain like to do when he’s not being theatrical?
I’m an avid reader, I have a little ‘library’ at home. It’s really only a spare bedroom that I’ve taken up one wall of and it’s covered in books. I have a little armchair, and I curl up there and lose myself in a book.

Have you ever been to Edinburgh before whether visiting or performing?
I last performed in Edinburgh at the Playhouse as Habibi, in The New Statesman with Rik Mayall in 2007. My last time at the Fringe performing was at Greyfriars Kirkhouse in The Duchess of Malfi in about 1995! I try to come up every year as a visitor. I love to pack as much in as I can then.

You will be bringing ‘Becoming Scheherazade’ to Edinburgh this August, can you tell us about the play?
Becoming Scheherazade was 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!

What is it about The Arabian Nights which resonates so much with you?
They are unusual. They contain stories within stories. Also, the framing device of Scheherazade’s tales, her need to keep the King entertained, so that he would not kill her – the parallels between that and the need to represent Arabs here in a realistic light were too plain to miss.

What compelled you to create such a piece?
As I said earlier, I wanted to redress the balance of the representations of Arabs in the West. This is the first iteration of a broader project, which aims to collect 1,001 real stories of Arabs in the west, creating a contemporary parallels to the 1,001 Arabian Nights.

What emotive responses do you expect from your audience?
I never know what the reactions will be. And that’s what I love about it. I’m telling a very personal story in Becoming Scheherazade, it will be interesting to see what emotive response that elicits. I am hopeful though, that people will find it thought-provoking, and lead them to examine any assumptions they may have held about the Arab diaspora.

What does the rest of 2017 hold in store for Kamaal Hussain?
I’m aiming to tour Becoming Scheherazade later this year. Also, I am beginning to receive other stories, so there will be some time spent collating those, and producing a blog to offer those stories to the world, and work on adapting those stories for theatrical production, and weaving them with their own Arabian Nights tales.

You can catch Kamaal’s one-man show at the Edinburgh Fringe

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

Hello Georgia, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking?
Hello! I’m originally from North London but have now found myself south of the River in South West. It doesn’t sound like that big a move but it’s completely different! I’ve been here for quite a few years now though, so I’m slowly starting to get used to it!

When did you first find yourself getting into the dramatic arts?
I honestly can’t remember. I come from a family quite involved in the arts so I guess I always have been. Two of my aunts are actresses and my mum is the most incredible drama teacher in the world. She set up her own drama club and over about 7 years, she flat out refused to increase fees, just because she didn’t want any of the kids to miss out. She’s amazing.

When did you first realise you could write for the stage?
Whilst training for GSA, I used to write small scenes in order to get out of having to give presentations. For our Comedia del Arte project, I wrote our group a pantomime instead! I then wrote a few small scenes for fundraisers for other companies, but it wasn’t until we’d graduated that I actually attempted writing a full length play. I’ll always have Ali (one of JunkBox) to thank for writing Mine. She told me I had to write her a play because she wasn’t getting seen for the parts she wanted, so I did. Touch wood, I haven’t looked back since.

Which playwrights have inspired you?
I’m inspired by so many different playwrights, it’s hard to just name a few. Jack Thorne’s “Bunny”, was one of my first monologue choices for Drama School and since then I’ve loved everything he’s done. Karla Crome is someone I look up to pretty much everyday as a Playwright and actor. Shaun Kitchener, again is someone who I think is brilliant. And without sounding like a broken record, my mum. She’s stopped writing now, but when I was younger she would have papers all over the table and floor trying to piece together scenes, and I would watch and marvel in how she did it.

What does Georgia Taylforth like to do when she’s not being theatrical?
I currently work in a gym so attending classes there is pretty high up the list. I’ve got a Shih Tzu called Dolly, who I’m very much in love with so spending time with her (and my boyfriend) is a bonus. JunkBox does take up a lot of my time though, because when we’re not thinking about Edinburgh, we’re organizing our scratch nights, “Scratch and See”. I’m lucky to have the company with my two best friends, so it hardly ever feels like work.

You will be bringing two plays to Edinburgh this August, Mime & Stiff Dicky. You wrote & are performing in both. How much of you is in the plays & in the parts you perform?
I’m very lucky with the company that the actors have helped me workshop both plays and create pieces that we feel very proud of. Because of that, I think there’s a bit of me in both plays, but there’s a bit of everyone in both. If a scene or section of dialogue didn’t necessarily work, we’d go back and work together to make it fit. With Emma (Mine) and Alice (Stiff Dicky), I think they’re exaggerated versions of me and my friends at different points of our lives. Both plays aren’t necessarily everyday life, but I think he reason that they have worked with audiences is because, the characters are. I hope that as soon as each character starts talking, you can relate to them in one way or another. I love playing both characters, but Alice has a very special place in my heart.

Mine

Can you sum up your two shows with a single sentence each?
Mine – Modern day pregnancy under the microscope, with Nutella.
Stiff Dicky – 45 minutes of dirty jokes about a dead man with an erection.

What emotive responses do you expect from your audience?
I never expect anything and that’s what I love about it. Mine splits audiences, some are angry, some cry, some laugh and some just come and hug me which is nice. Stiff Dicky is so much fun. We had an audience of pretty much just old people, and when a certain incedent happened with the erection and someones mouth, one of the old girls said rather loudly, “I’ve done that”, which was one of my favourite moments so far.

What does the rest of 2017 hold in store for Georgia Taylforth?
So much of 2016 has been focused on taking these plays to Edinburgh, it’ll be so strange to focus on a new JunkBox project. That being said, there’s two plays in the pipeline and I’m off to Australia towards the end of the year, so we’ll see what happens there!

You can witness both of Georgina’s creations this August at the Fringe

MINE : Aug 5, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 : Space Triplex (21.15)

STIFF DICKY : Aug 4, 7, 9, 11, 15, 17, 19 : Space Triplex (21.15)