Monthly Archives: July 2016

+3 Interview: Loud Poets

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2016 by

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“Some poems have been written solo and some together, but they’re organised too to create a narrative of how we make poetry loud.”

WHO: Catherine Wilson, Organiser

WHAT: “This is slam style, make some noise, fist-thumping, pint-drinking, side-tickling, heart-wrenching poetry. This is poetry for the masses. This is the spoken word revolution. Featuring the best spoken word artists from Scotland and beyond. Performing with a live band which means an exciting, different show every night.”

WHERE: Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30)

WHEN: 21:00 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is our third year at Edinburgh Fringe, and we’re also based in Edinburgh: running monthly nights there and in Glasgow. It’s fantastic to be able to perform the Fringe show in our home, and already know how to navigate the city.

Tell us about your show.

Our show is a showcase of the best spoken word from Scotland and beyond, we wrote the show together to create a line-up of poetry with music and projections. Some poems have been written solo and some together, but they’re organised too to create a narrative of how we make poetry loud – how we transform spoken word into something more than just the writing and actually a performance.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

There’s a wealth of spoken word on across the city, if you hang around Banshee Labirynth you can catch incredible amounts of pay what you wish. We’re excited to see acts such as Sara Hirsch and Ben Fagan, Dan Simpson and Andrew Blair and Ross Mcleary. Outside of spoken word we’re also fans of the improvised comedy group Men with Coconuts!

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+3 Interview: Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre Do Shakespeare

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2016 by

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“Once upon a time there was a stand up comedian called Kev F… turns out the Socks were funnier”

WHO: Kev F Sutherland, Writer and producer

WHAT: “Earth’s funniest footwear return with a brand new show of songs, sketches, socks and violence, taking on The Bard of Avon himself. Howl at their Hamlet, roar at their Romeo and Juliet and peer into their Coriolanus. Plus all the usual satirical nonsense from the two gentlesocks of verrucca.”

WHERE: Gilded Balloon Teviot – Sportsmans

WHEN: 22:30 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre have been taking a new show up to Edinburgh almost every year since 2007. Recent shows include our sci fi themed show Socks In Space (’13), our socky horror show Boo Lingerie (12), and last year’s crime show Minging Detectives. This year we’re doing Shakespeare.

Tell us about your show.

Once upon a time there was a stand up comedian called Kev F who was doing a sketch show, and he wrote some two-handers that he didn’t want the actors to bugger up. So he turned up at the writers meeting with a pair of socks on his hands, ducked under the table and put on a silly voice. Turns out the Socks were funnier than anything he had ever done, and went on to steal all his gigs.

Socks Do Shakespeare started trying out sketches way back at the Leicester Comedy Festival in February, and has had a run of 10 full Previews in July from Bristol to Barnes, from Bedford to Blaenavon (plus 6 towns not beginning with a B)

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

A bartender.

Then the next day (our show finishes just before midnight) go see the art. The Socks and their creator went to art college, and like to remind everyone that Edinburgh in August is full of art, from the brilliant work at Summerhall, to the monumental stuff at the Gallery of Modern Art, the City Gallery, Collective up on Calton Hill, the National Portrait Gallery, the Museum on the Mound and 100 places in between.

If you’ve got to see comedy, obviously our venue (The Gilded Balloon) has the best, but please don’t stick to seeing the folks off the telly. Dip your toe in the water of the Free Fringe, take a gamble on an act who thrusts a flyer in your hand, and by god go and see theatre. There’s still more theatre than comedy in Edinburgh, so don’t let it pass you by.

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+3 Interview: My Leonard Cohen (incl. follow-up)

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2016 by

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“I fell in love with Edinburgh and with the Scots. You’re so friendly and so much fun!”

WHO: Sandy Bruns, Co-Producer

WHAT: “Few bodies of musical work rouse, seduce and are of such solace as that of the great Leonard Cohen. Stewart D’Arrietta’s musical interpretations are gutsy and arresting, and the stories he tells add an intimate insight into Cohen’s life and motivations. The six-piece band perform 15 songs including the heartrending Suzanne, the iconic Tower of Song, the desperately seductive I’m Your Man, the rousing Hallelujah, plus more.”

WHERE: Assembly Hall (Venue 35)

WHEN: 18:15 (75 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

We came last year with Lennon Through A Glass Onion and I fell in love with Edinburgh and with the Scots. You’re so friendly and so much fun!

I spent the days out ‘flyering’ which enabled me to interact with loads of great people. I also got to see 29 shows, all of which were good in their own way, and many of which were absolutely FANTASTIC!

Tell us about your show.

Stewart D’Arrietta wrote the show and is the lead performer. This is a showcase of Stewart’s many talents.

His great love is playing with other talented musicians, and he’s been doing so for a long time with various shows and many bands. Other musos like working with him too. The great energy they have together on stage is palpable. His musician mates back home in Sydney love working with Stewie, so he was able to bring some of our best with him. We’ve picked up two local musicians too.

The high cost of bringing 5 people all the way from Australia and housing everyone means we will probably struggle to cover costs. Because of this, we decided to fund ourselves rather than have anyone else tproduce us. Hopefully it will pay off.

We played to a full house and standing ovation at the Canberra Festival, and our brief Australian tour was extremely well received too.

Provided you like us in Edinburgh, we plan to do a UK run next year…

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

We are looking forward to seeing Deeptime, the sound and light extravaganza projected onto the magnificent Edinburgh Castle. I think it will be an extraordinary moving, historically rich experience. We lack that sense of history back home.

On a lighter note and for side splitting laughs, I recommend seeing the Irish born Australain comedian, Jimeoin. He is hilarious!

POST-FRINGE ’16 UPDATE 

What’s the one thing you wish you’d done this year (that you didn’t do, or didn’t do earlier), and what’s the first thing you’re going to remember for next time?

We loved our flat, but next year we will ask for one on the ground floor, or one flight up at the most. We don’t mind stairs; but lugging our equipment up and down was challenging/ exhausting.

Best thing we did early in the piece was get a 4 week Lothian bus pass. So good to be able to hop on and off buses at whim.

Who outside your company did the most to make your Fringe? What did they do for you? Did you know them before the Edinburgh Festivals ’16?

Our mates at the Wash Bar next door to the Assembly Hall made us feel so welcome, like last year.

The Assembly staff, particularly those in the reception at the Press office were also very friendly and nice to us. And our stage managers were amazing, getting all our stuff on and off stage in record time. With a smile!

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+3 Interview: Criminology 303

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2016 by

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“Our actors, Jilly Bond and Julian Gartside, starred in Macbeth (another Scottish story of murder and ghosts) for Compass Theatre Co. exactly thirty years ago.”

WHO: Jilly Bond, Producer

WHAT: “Professor Norma Bates, retired detective, lectures on past cases, but hostile technology is out to get her, forcing her to confront the one that remains unsolved. A story of betrayal and lost love – and a murder which refuses to give up its secret. Until tonight. Join her as she relives her encounter with the pivotal witness and the truth erupts. Not your average ghost story by promising new writer, Rose Miller. Starring Jilly Bond (Island, National Theatre) and Julian Gartside (Casualty). Presented by Tangent Theatre Company.”

WHERE: Venue 13 (Venue 13) 

WHEN: 21:30 (35 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

It is Tangent Theatre’s first visit, but two of our actors, Jilly Bond and Julian Gartside, starred in Macbeth (another Scottish story of murder and ghosts) for Compass Theatre Co. exactly thirty years ago.

Tell us about your show.

It’s written by a 20 year old American student during a play-writing course for international students at Westminster Uni. Jilly was asked to participate in the reading of some extracts, was intrigued by the section she heard and decided to produce the whole play (re-located to Scotland rather than southern states America) in Edinburgh.

Her partner, Julian Gartside was perfect casting for the mysterious Scottish Laird; she’d recently worked with director, Tommo Fowler on an award-winning play at the Finborough and wanted to work with him again, and Antonis Sideras, third member of the cast, has just graduated from Drama Studio London, where Jilly teaches. This will be the premiere, but we are hoping for a London transfer.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

A Tale of Two Cities: Blood for Blood at the Pleasance Courtyard – not only because it contains a quote from Macbeth in the title as our play, purely coincidentally, does in our text, but because the last production from the Chung Ying Theatre Co, directed by Jonathan Holloway of Red Shift, was stunning. Both our lead actors have also worked with Red Shift in the past and been influenced by their style.

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+3 Interview: {title of show}

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2016 by

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“At its heart, it is a musical about friendship, risks and the importance of learning to be true to both yourself and your dreams – however scary that may seem.”

WHO: Leah Weerasinghe

WHAT: “Four chairs. Three weeks. Two bickering writers. One award-winning original musical. Follow the challenges and triumphs of four nobodies in New York on their hilarious quest for Broadway, acceptance and a spot on Ellen DeGeneres’ couch! An eccentric, witty and self-aware show (about the creation of a show!) filled with diva riff offs, talking notepads and a jealous onstage pianist… what could possibly go wrong?”

WHERE: C venues – C cubed (Venue 50)

WHEN: 21:20 (90 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Together as a company, this is our first time in Edinburgh. However, members of both our production team and cast have performed at the Fringe in previous years.

Tell us about your show.

{title of show} follows the challenges and triumphs of four nobodies in New York on their hilarious quest for Broadway, acceptance and a spot on Ellen DeGeneres’ couch! At its heart, it is a musical about friendship, risks and the importance of learning to be true to both yourself and your dreams – however scary that may seem. An eccentric, witty and self-aware show (about the creation of a show) filled with diva riff offs, talking notepads and a jealous onstage pianist… what could possibly go wrong?

On their quest to create an original musical, composer/lyricist Jeff Bowen and book-writer Hunter Bell found that their conversations about what to write were far more interesting than the ideas they were coming up with; [title of show] was born. The show chronicles the true(ly embellished) story of its own creation from page to the Broadway stage, via the New York Theatre Festival and featured its creators playing themselves in the original production, which both won an Obie Award and was nominated for a Tony.

Cobbles & Rhyme Productions was founded in early 2016 by Harry Haden-Brown and Jack Reitman, graduates of the University of Bristol, who have had extensive performing experience both on a regional and national scale. Harry is Bristol-based freelance musical director whilst Jack is an actor-singer turned director, soon to be studying at the renowned Royal Academy of Music; both have worked with the National Youth Musical Theatre. Cobbles & Rhyme Productions is an exciting, emerging new company that strives to showcase quality musical theatre productions, cabarets and performances, and to develop new writing. The company will be making its debut at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival from August 4th-29th, with the musical-comedy [title of show] and the daily themed-cabaret [title of songs].

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

Well, I have no doubt that Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs will be amazing and MTW’s Improv Musical has been really entertaining the past few years so I’m sure that will be brilliant. Jack was once a member of Young Pleasance and always sings their praises, so watch out for Alice Unhinged. It may be somewhat cheeky of me but Cobbles & Rhyme are taking up a pay what you think cabaret called [title of songs] so I would recommend that  🙂

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+3 Interview: 5 Out of 10 Men

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“Duncan’s the oldest in the group and he’s been bringing work with schools and youth groups since around the Middle Ages.”

WHO: Roland Reynolds

WHAT: “On average, 12 men take their own life every single day. Rooted in true experiences and deep exploration of mental health, 5 Out of 10 Men invites men to be open – to journey unabashedly into themselves. With a fun, interactive style and a penetrating dark humour, a mixed ensemble leads a wounded man as he weaves a confessional hymn to his dead brother, torn between the man he is and a man he strives to be.”

WHERE: theSpace on Niddry St (Venue 9)

WHEN: 16:55 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

As a band of theatre practitioners it’s our first time to Edinburgh, yes – it’s our first project together!

But among us there’s a fair amount of Fringe experience. Duncan’s the oldest in the group and he’s been bringing work with schools and youth groups since around the Middle Ages. He has a long relationship with theSpaceUK and has worked for and alongside them in a number of capacities over the past 10-15 years.

Roland wrote, produced and directed his first show at the Fringe when he was 16 back in 2008. It was a rain-soaked, empty-bellied, back-breaking experience and he knew he’d be doing this for the rest of his life. A glutton for punishment, he returned to Edinburgh with another show the year after and came on board an opera the year after that.

Tell us about your show.

The show is a new piece about men, masculinity and mental health. It’s been written by me, and is produced and directed by me and Duncan Alldridge.

Our company formed out of a year’s research & development process including some ensemble-based workshop auditions this spring. There are some statistics that were the spark for this work: 76% of suicides in the UK are men; suicide is the major cause of death for men aged under 45. We were inspired to come together to create an honest, intimate playing space where we explore these devastating facts and some of the roots beneath them.

5 Out of 10 Men will premier in Edinburgh; we’re already in discussions to bring the work to London in the months after the Fringe and we’re looking to have more conversations with venues and potential collaborators all over the UK to see where we can take this. It’s fun, visceral, inclusive, important, relevant work representing an often misunderstood voice.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

This year’s programme at the fringe is all about defying convention and we’re hunting out the shows to see that are breaking down boundaries on all levels of engagement.

At theSpaceUK there’s exciting work surrounding women’s issues being produced, with Killer Cells dealing with the agony of miscarriage, Broken Fanny, a comedy on adapting to life with a new baby, and more.

We’ve also been long-term followers of the work produced by Northern Stage, especially since the tenure of Lorne Campbell began; this year they’re based at Summerhall, a venue that immediately caught our interest when it opened a few years ago. This year’s highlight for us is Two Man Show by RashDash, a playful new show about gender and language.

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+3 Interview: If There’s Not Dancing at the Revolution, I’m Not Coming

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“I created this show while studying in New York City and the city is infused into every part of this work. “

WHO: Julia Croft

WHAT: “A rich contemporary performance collage of film scripts, pop songs, advertisements, elaborate costumes and dance all stretched, teased, shattered, and reassembled to challenge the treatment of women’s bodies as spectacle in popular culture. If there’s not dancing… uncovers the collective fantasies underneath these bodies, intervenes and explodes them into feminist confetti.”

WHERE: Summerhall – Anatomy Lecture Theatre

WHEN: 12:05 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Yes. First time. Anticipating a trial by fire. And some great whiskey [sic].

Tell us about your show.

If There’s Not Dancing At The Revolution, I’m Not Coming is a rich, contemporary performance collage of film scripts, pop songs, elaborate costumes, dance and live art, all stretched, teased shattered and reassembled in order to challenge the treatment of women’s bodies in popular culture. It is a wild, anarchic and poetic collision of popular culture texts combined to uncover the collective fantasies underneath female bodies. It unapologetically intervenes and explodes these fantasies into feminist confetti.

I created it because I am angry. It was created as a response to powerful men feel who so much ownership over a woman’s body that pulling a women’s ponytail is “just joking around” and the idea that this does not happen in a vacuum. These actions come out of a cultural context. How we look at women and violence towards women are not unrelated things; they are part of a spectrum. This is about how we look and how our looking is a political act.

I created this show while studying in New York City and the city is infused into every part of this work. I have performed in in 3 seasons in New Zealand, all of which have sold out. Post fringe I am travelling to Mexico to create a new work in collaboration with a Mexican artist. Dancing will tour to Australia early next year and hopefully return to the UK/Europe after that.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

There is a great contingent of shows coming all the way from New Zealand, and my lord I mean ALL the way. Torum Heng’s one woman show, Keep out of my box at the Gilded balloon. She is a brilliant boss lady comedian. Tim Carlson performing his solo One Day Moko about homelessness in New Zealand, also at the Gilded balloon. Arthur Meek performing his solo Hilary Clinton/Young Lover at Summerhall. Come see what theatre looks like at the bottom of the world.

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+3 Interview: Countermeasure: 14 Characters

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“When we’re not on stage, you are almost sure to run into one of us on Arthur’s Seat, or in one of Edinburgh’s fabulous pubs!”

WHO: Aaron Jensen

WHAT: “Award-winning a cappella that will bring you to your feet! Countermeasure has won worldwide acclaim and sold-out houses in the UK, Canada and US with their upbeat blend, sophisticated harmonies and infectious energy onstage. ***** (East Coast FM, Edinburgh). Featuring 14 of Canada’s top young vocalists, their genre-defying contemporary sound takes a cappella to the next level with inventive covers of jazz and pop tunes, powerful original music and dramatic staging. Come for an afternoon of good fun, great harmony and amazing music.”

WHERE: theSpace @ Surgeons Hall (Venue 53)

WHEN: 17:30 (55 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This will be Countermeasure’s second time to Edinburgh. We played The Boards at The Edinburgh Playhouse as part of our last UK tour in January 2015. Ben Dyson, of East Coast FM 107.6 (Edinburgh) had this to say about the performance: “FIVE STARS! Such a fantastic show from a group of super talented individuals from Toronto, Canada…This show was packed with fabulous and beautifully songs. So watch out world because here they come!”

Countermeasure instantly fell in love with Edinburgh, and we can’t wait to be back! When we’re not on stage, you are almost sure to run into one of us on Arthur’s Seat, or in one of Edinburgh’s fabulous pubs!

Tell us about your show.

Countermeasure has been performing, touring and recording together for the past five years. This particular production has been a work in progress for the past year and a half. Over that period of time, we’ve been arranging, recording, and mixing our new album Made to Measure. Most of the selections in our Edinburgh set are featured on this new record.

We’ve enlisted the help of a stage director, lighting, and sound designer to turn this songbook into a cohesive, engaging and interactive theatrical experience. Audiences who come out to see our show will be treated to a smorgasbord of inventive musical covers of jazz and pop tunes, powerful original numbers, and dramatic staging.

Florian Stadtler of Vocal Blog described Countermeasure’s performance at the London A Cappella Festival as “Pure joy, [an] incredibly entertaining show”. What becomes abundantly clear through our performance is how much we enjoy each other, our music, and this discreet moment that we have to share our music with our audiences. It’s hard not to get caught up in the infectious energy, good feelings, and love of music that drives Countermeasure.

Prior to our run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival we have a series of concerts in London and area. After Edinburgh, we head to Italy to take part in Vocalmente A Cappella Festival, then it’s back home to Canada, for more touring recording and merrymaking.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

This past May, Countermeasure shared the stage at SING! The Toronto Vocal Arts Festival with another Toronto group called Pressgang Mutiny. Members of this ensemble have created a 15-piece guerrilla-folk punk band, who will be performing an exciting revolutionary musical/folk/opera called Counting Sheep, which follows the course of Ukraine’s history. Based on what we’ve seen of these singers, I have every confidence that that will be an exciting production!

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+3 Interview: Jane Eyre: An Autobiography

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2016 by

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“We love the Edinburgh experience and enjoy being both part of the Fringe and the city, which we love and admire.”

WHO: Elton Townend Jones – writer & director

WHAT: “Struggling to think, live and love beyond the stifling expectations of duty, class and convention, governess Jane Eyre and Master Edward Rochester take a dark journey towards sensual and intellectual liberation. Told through Jane’s eyes, this autobiographical novel shocked the Victorians, and Charlotte Brontë’s gothic subversion of fairy tale romance is now distilled for the stage (under its full title) by writer/director Elton Townend-Jones. Fringe favourite Rebecca Vaughan embodies Everywoman Jane and several other characters in this exploration of love’s realities.”

WHERE: Assembly Roxy – Upstairs

WHEN: 11:15 (90min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is our eighth consecutive year at Edinburgh and with Assembly. Since 2009, Rebecca Vaughan and I have created seven shows that have premiered at the Fringe (and one that hasn’t!) and brought two of them back for second runs.

We’ve collaborated with other directors, performers and designers, but the germination of each project has been down to the two of us. We are perhaps best known for our productions of Austen’s Women, I, Elizabeth, Female Gothic, Dalloway and The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe which was published by Samuel French earlier this year.

We love the Edinburgh experience and enjoy being both part of the Fringe and the city, which we love and admire.

Tell us about your show.

Dyad Productions is, effectively, the duo of myself and Rebecca Vaughan, and the buck stops with us! The new show is an adaptation of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, but presented under the book’s original full title.

It is a one-person show, which, as with all previous shows (bar the Marilyn play) is performed by Fringe favourite Rebecca. It is adapted and directed by me (having written three of the previous Dyad shows and directed four). We formed the company in 2009 after spending years as actors and/or writers/directors and finally decided that we just wanted to get out and create our own work.

Since then, we’ve toured non-stop, nationally and internationally and seen our work published and interpreted by others in Europe and the US. After Edinburgh, Jane Eyre: An Autobiography is touring the UK and appearing in Australia in 2017. By which time we will already have started producing our next work…

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

I’d recommend they go and see anything created by Gavin Robertson and, for Dyad, no trip to the Fringe is complete without a night having your mind not so much blown as gently inflated then casually popped by the brilliant Australian comedian Sam Simmons.

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+3 Interview: And The Rope Still Tugging Her Feet

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2016 by

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“I wrote and perform the show, we took it to the Brighton Fringe where we were lucky enough to be awarded an Argus Angel award for outstanding theatre.”

WHO: Caroline Burns Cooke – writer & performer

WHAT: “And the Rope Still Tugging Her Feet was inspired by 1984’s Kerry Babies scandal. A dark, comic take on a time in Ireland when ‘the most dangerous place to be was in a woman’s womb’ (Bishop Joseph Cassidy).

Written and performed by award-winning writer and actress Caroline Burns Cooke (Best Actress ECU European Independent Film Festival for MYRA; Best Feature screenplay for She Moved Through the Fair from Scottish Screenwriters), and directed by Colin Watkeys of Face to Face Festival, director/dramaturg of legendary performers Ken Campbell, Claire Dowie and Jack Klaff.”

WHERE: Gilded Balloon Teviot – The Turret

WHEN: 12:15 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

I’m a fringe veteran! As an actress I’ve been in a dozen plays including The Lad Himself at the Gilded Balloon, The Trial of Jane Fonda at the Assembly Rooms and tons more. This is my second self-written piece but the first solo one.

Tell us about your show.

My director, Colin Watkeys, has been directing solo shows and producing the Face to face Festival for years, working most notably with Claire Dowie, Ken Campbell and Jack Klaff. I wrote and perform the show, we took it to the Brighton Fringe where we were lucky enough to be awarded an Argus Angel award for outstanding theatre and three 5 star reviews. We hope to build on this at Edinburgh and tour it, hopefully doing a London run as well.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

I’m a big fan of the International Festival for unique experiences. I love the programming at Summerhall and there’s often great stuff at the Traverse, but don’t miss Charmian Hughes in Soixante Mirth at Cowgatehead, Nick Revell in Gluten free Jesus, and Shoot the Women First at The Stand.

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