“Edinburgh really is the best melting pot of creativity in the world! As a punter, Edinburgh is the live performance equivalent of Netflix: so much choice that it can feel impossible to know where to start!”
WHO: James Alston
WHAT: “Shakespeare hasn’t written anything new for an age, so we thought we would give him a hand… Using your audience suggestions and our overactive imaginations, we create a brand-new Shakespeare play live on stage, complete with live music, songs and plenty of laughs. Join ShakeItUp for bard-based bedlam! ‘Quick witted, inexhaustible and absolutely hysterical’ ***** (LondonTheatreReviews.co.uk). ‘Brilliantly bonkers… one of the best improvised shows at the Fringe’ ***** (WestEndBestFriend.co.uk).”
WHERE: Gilded Balloon Patter House – Dram (Venue 24)
WHEN: 13:00 (60 min)
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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
No! As ShakeItUp, we made our Fringe debut last year in 2023! As it was our first time last year we really didn’t know how it was going to go (we’d all heard tales of performances to nearly empty audiences and long rainy days flyering on the Mile) so went for just two weeks to test it out. While we did have quite a lot of rain (it is Scotland, after all), our show surpassed even my expectations! We gained five star reviews and sold out audiences, so this year we’re coming back for the full month! I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to reach more audiences and also as the show is improvised I am looking forward to seeing the huge variety of new Shakespeare stories we’ll tell on stage. Expect the unexpected!
Edinburgh really is the best melting pot of creativity in the world! As a punter, Edinburgh is the live performance equivalent of Netflix: so much choice that it can feel impossible to know where to start! Really, you just have to throw yourself into it and go from there – you never know where you’ll end up (most likely sat on the floor of the tiny back room of a pub at 1AM while a comedian leads you in a group chant, as happened to me last year!) but that’s all part of the fun.
As a performer, Edinburgh is totemic as a sort of rite of passage for a show – everyone has their Edinburgh experience: some become regulars, while for others one trip to Auld Reekie is enough. But it has an undeniable pull as a place to reach a huge audience and be part of a vast outpouring of creativity, which is hard to come by these days. But let’s be honest: it is daunting, can be exhausting, and comes with a huge financial cost that even performers with big budgets can struggle to bear. However, despite all that, it can be so much fun and there is nowhere else like Edinburgh in August! I have also found a really supportive network of fellow artists at the Fringe – we’re all in this together!
I can’t wait to go back.
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2023 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
When you’re part of a theatre company that’s growing and taking on more and more exciting opportunities, that can feel really thrilling – but it can also put a lot more pressure on us all – myself included! I think what I’ve learned is to try and relax into it a bit more, focus on what I really enjoy: going on stage and playing with my friends, in front of a wonderful and witty audience, and making up some brand new Shakespearean epics! I think everyone who is a performer gets into it because they enjoy it more than anything, and sometimes with all the stresses of the industry we can lose sight of that but it’s so important – if you’re not enjoying it then what’s the point? Focus on having fun, giving the audience a damn good show, and the rest will follow.
Tell us about your show.
Writer: William Shakespeare.
No, really! All of our shows are authentic plays dreamt up by the Bard himself…he just never bothered to write them down at the time, so it’s up to us (with a little help from you, the audience) to help him out!
We improvise our plays live on the spot, using the language and themes of Shakespeare. They can be Comedies, Histories, or Tragedies (chosen by you), but no characters or plot are decided beforehand, this is Shakespeare completely off the cuff (or should I say, “ruff”?) The audience can also write their very own Shakespearean “lines” which are given to us just as the show begins, and which we can pull out whenever we like. However, we’ll have no idea what the lines say before we read them and they can often send the plot in all manner of crazy directions! It’s fast, hilarious, and completely unpredictable – true Bard-based Bedlam, just as Bill would have intended!
ShakeItUp was founded by a group of us who all went to drama school in Guildford, where we learned all about performing Shakespeare. We loved doing Shakespeare, but we hated learning lines so decided to make up our own – and thus, ShakeItUp was born. We started out in a tiny room above a pub in Putney; we had to build our own stage every night using pallets, and then break it apart and store it in the beer cellar after we were done! We’ve come a long way since then, and we’ve performed the show across the UK and even abroad to Italy, Poland, and Germany! We’ve performed at some iconic venues, including The Other Palace in London and Cornwall’s world-famous Minack Theatre, as well as the Edinburgh Fringe.
We don’t get much time to rest after Edinburgh as we’re heading straight over to Wales to perform for two nights at Theatr Clwyd; we’ll also be making a return to The Brighton Open Air Theatre in September, and the Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond (Yorks) in October. We have plenty more in store for 2024 and beyond so watch this space…
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
Improv comes in many flavours, and there is a huge amount of choice at Edinburgh! I would really recommend our good friends PinchPunch and their show “Locomotive For Murder” which is an Agatha Christie-style improvised whodunnit! It’s a great show, and they happen to be performing in the same venue as us (Gilded Balloon Patter House) at 3PM! So you can come and see us at 1, maybe grab a bite to eat in between, and then go and see them at 3PM upstairs! There you go, I’ve just sorted out a few hours of your schedule for you! You can thank me later.
After some more improv? I would HIGHLY recommend seeing Showstopper! The Improvised Musical at the Pleasance. If you’re a musical theatre fan especially, then you will love this show! They’re so quick and funny, and their musical improv abilities are quite spectacular. A must-see in my opinion.
And if you’re a fan of alternative comedy, or just want to see something that’s a bit different, then you must see Absolute Monopoly by Benjamin Alborough at Assembly George Square. It’s ridiculous, hysterically funny, and much more fun than the actual board game of Monopoly!
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