“My unedited CV is messy as hell and if it was completely uncensored, it would also include the times I needed to make room for illness, heartbreak or just to have a good old think.”
WHO: Amy Conway
WHAT: “Fern doesn’t get invited to dinner parties anymore. They used to love her tales of the macabre. But now? The mask is slipping. Written by Amy Conway and directed by Beth Morton, Catafalque is a one woman eulogy to death through the lens of a civil celebrant. How do we grieve the ungrievable? How do you speak of death when no-one wants to look? A show about love, loss and a lifetime of secrets. Join Fern as she navigates the complexities of a grieving family and learns to tell the truth when it repels the bravest of us.”
WHERE: Summerhall – TechCube 0 (Venue 26)
WHEN: 12:25 (60 min)
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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
This is actually my 13th time at the Fringe as a performer! Luckily I’m not superstitious! But it is only my second time bringing my own work so in that sense I still feel quite green and vulnerable. I adore the festival though, the atmosphere alone is exciting and being in a hotbed of creativity usually does a brilliant job of reminding me why I do this. I say usually but there is a dark side to punting a Fringe show and it’s only with experience and being surrounded by a truly excellent production team that means that I’m feeling more confident this year that I’m fully equipped to weather the storm of self-doubt that buffets every artist at some point during the festival.
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2023 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
Slow down! Where are you in such a big rush to get to? This is a lesson I’ve had to learn the hard way since the Pandemic hit. It’s rare that you can just keep going forwards in a straight line in life so while you’re waiting to find the path, look around you, take a seat, have a picnic, build a rockery. If you can’t go big and fast, go small and slow. My unedited CV is messy as hell and if it was completely uncensored, it would also include the times I needed to make room for illness, heartbreak or just to have a good old think. In lockdown when live theatre wasn’t possible, I taught drama online, I made a podcast, I bought some rollerskates and I became a civil celebrant which inspired me to write Catafalque a couple of years later. The lesson I’m still learning is it’s all allowed and it’s all important.
Tell us about your show.
Catafalque comes from my long-standing collaboration with Stephanie Katie Hunter, Artistic Director of Scissor Kick. Stephanie and I have been working together on a number of projects since 2019, and she’s continued to support my work through her incredible skill as a producer and creative. Not all theatre projects make it to an audience of course and Scissor Kick knows that artists need investment and the confidence from those that hold the purse strings to make any headway with all the ideas they’re incubating.
As a mark of their confidence in me as a writer, Scissor Kick made the decision as a burgeoning production company to commission Catafalque, which was their first commission and my first full commission as a playwright and a huge boost to my motivation to keep going in this industry. I was even given mentoring from the brilliant Jenna Watt as part of their package of support. So Catafalque was actual already a couple of drafts down the line before Scissor Kick got the additional funding to go to full production this year. At which point things got particularly exciting because we were able to recruit the rest of our creative team.
Beth Morton has such vast and varied experience as a director that I feel in incredibly safe hands both as a writer and the sole performer. And we’ve got some gorgeous home-grown Scottish talent in Olivia Millar Ross as Associate Director, Aisha Oyedepo on Lighting Design and Gary Cameron on Sound Design, not to mention Colin Bell as Production Manager and Susan McWhirter as Stage Manager. I feel so lucky to have such a highly skilled, experienced team behind the show, especially since it’s got some heavy themes and material that needs some holding and it takes a team to do that.
We’re taking the show around Scotland immediately after the Fringe and hope to tour it further in 2025.
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
I’m planning on spending a lot of time at Summerhall. Catafalque is showing there for starters but it’s also my favourite venue by a long shot. It’s the venue where I’m most surprised. I expect to be surprised (if that’s not too paradoxical!). If you’re looking for other shows about death or death adjacent (because why wouldn’t you be?) then OUTPATIENT and LITTLE DEATHS both at Summerhall are a good place to start.
The Show for Young Men, a dance piece about masculinity and friendship is technically a show for children but I know will be tender and beautiful and have me reaching for the tissues. There is some brilliant work for young people made in Scotland and I urge you to seek it out!
For something lighter but still packed with meaning and theatre magic, I’ll be heading to Gracie and the Start of the End of the World (Again) at Assembly Roxy and I am expecting to be delighted with weirdness.
And I already have my ticket to A History of Paper at the Traverse because I loved the radio play written by Oliver Emanuel and loved it so much and now it is a musical with songs by Gareth Williams and it is going to be very special.
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