EdFringe Talk: Dazzling

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2023 by

“I had my name plastered all around the city on a poster that said ‘Ugly Chicken Fisters’ in huge writing.”

WHO: Holly Sewell

WHAT: “Alix is in their mid-twenties and, at first sight, full of the joys of life with flatmate Jan. But the cracks quickly start to show, and they get wider, and darker. A relationship with a beautiful stranger frames six months of their life, triggering drastic career changes and relapses into depression and substance abuse. ‘Undoubtedly tragic… but so joyous in its raw depiction of emotion’ (TheTab.com), it’s a portrait of a modern, queer woman’s descent into despair. Dazzling premiered in March to a sold-out run in Cambridge. ‘A stunning production that I could not recommend enough’ ***** (TheTab.com).”

WHERE: theSpace @ Niddry St – Studio (Venue 9) 

WHEN: 13:10 (50 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Yes! A few of the company members have been before, but it’s our first time taking a show up together. For me, it’s the first time I’ve even gone. I’ve been doing a Maths degree for the last three years, and didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do until I tried writing a play, completely impulsively, last summer. It was the best impulse I’ve ever had (and I have a LOT of them), and I entered it for a competition, which I didn’t expect anything to come of really. Since I thought it would never see the light of day, I called it ‘Ugly Chicken Fisters’. Funny, right? No – it ended up winning a week’s run at a student theatre, and I had my name plastered all around the city on a poster that said ‘Ugly Chicken Fisters’ in huge writing. Ridiculous.

The play we’re taking to the Fringe is a little less crassly named; Dazzling. It’s more personal, more intense, and much darker than the last one, and I’ve been lucky enough to have a team of some of the most genius people I’ve ever met working on it. It’s been so brilliant to have people who are more Fringe veterans than I am on the team. Without them, I think the make-or-break environment of Fringe, even just online, would feel terrifying and impossible to navigate.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2022 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

In a classic move from someone who likes to write, I think I’ve tried to sum up the lessons I’ve learnt in the last year in the show! I’m sure everyone feels like this, but when I look at myself from the start of 2022, I see a pretty young and vulnerable person. Something I’m trying to work on is taking accountability in my relationships when things go wrong – definitely not totally sunk in yet, but it’s slowly getting better. The protagonist of our show, Alix, is the embodiment of someone who hasn’t learnt this yet. They’re utterly selfish, (again, something I’m trying to work on!), eventually to the detriment of themself and everyone around them. I always have to remind myself that being self-absorbed in an insecure/critical way is still being self-absorbed! There’s no point sitting around telling yourself you should be better. Try putting more energy into other people than yourself.

That being said, I’m very much a work-in-progress in all these ways – super clichéd to say, but it’s true. I’d love to think I’ll get to the point of totally absorbing all sorts of life mantras, but rewiring your brain is such a slow and painstaking process. Always good to give it a go, though!

Tell us about your show.

Dazzling is a solo show about love, art and addiction. I wrote it after a tumultuous year of relationships, and needed somewhere to put all the feelings I was having. It’s extremely intimate and emotionally intense – we’ve had quite a few people leave the show in tears. There’s a smattering of Fleabagesque humour (and a nod to Fleabag in the show), but it’s more dark than it is funny. Having got my friend to produce the last show I did, I decided it wasn’t worth the stress of finding a producer and produced the first run we had, which was just three nights in Cambridge. For Fringe, I’m really lucky to have found a fellow theatre-lover to help me with all the extra challenges producing for the Fringe brings. We’d love to go on tour to more places with it after Fringe, but for now we’re just working on one thing at a time.

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

Go and see something that’ll make you feel good – something different from ours, you’ll want the relief! Two shows I’m really excited about are Character Flaw, which is a show all about having ADHD (odds are you’ll relate if you’re spending a month at Fringe), and Meat Cute, which is all about a woman on a mission to turn her Tinder dates vegan, and which has already had a big shiny array of five-star reviews. If you’re on the look-out for something in the same vein as us, check out Lovesong Prods’ ‘Sing, River’ – it’s a queer folk musical, and looks visually absolutely stunning. Or if you’re at Fringe before us, check out Peach Productions’ Wishbone, all about a queer ex-couple in isolation together! Show lots of love for queer folk, POC folk, women, trans-led companies, disabled-led companies and any kind of marginalised voice you can come across in the deafening racket of Fringe. It’ll be wonderful and joyful and creative and you’ll have a better time the more different voices you get to hear.

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