“The Fringe is a really important part of our calendar, partly as a place for our company to share work, but also as a source of inspiration – even after all these years, I still leave full of renewed excitement and enthusiasm, which is quite a gift!”
WHO: Noel Byrne
WHAT: “With ingenious puppetry, stirring shanties, and sharp, relevant satire, Box Tale Soup bring Gulliver’s breathtaking journey to life in this astonishing adaptation. Inventive, imaginative and sublimely skilful, let the current carry you through tiny realms and giant waves to a raft of bizarre civilisations… This is Swift’s classic tale of adventure and discovery as you’ve never seen it before. ‘Beautifully performed… simply wonderful’ ***** (TheWeeReview.com). ‘Time and space hold no bounds… remarkable’ ***** (ThreeWeeks). ‘Outstanding… extraordinarily talented’ ***** (ScotsGay). ‘Crafted to perfection… flawless’ ***** (ChrisOnTheatre.wordpress.com). Commissioned by Clark Library, UCLA. Creation supported by Arts Council England.”
WHERE: Pleasance Courtyard – Above (Venue 33)
WHEN: 13:00 (65 min)
MORE: Click Here!
Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
Our company, Box Tale Soup, has been coming to the Fringe since 2013, and I’ve been going a lot longer than that – my first visit was when I was sixteen, and I haven’t missed one since! So, we always really look forward to seeing all the friends we’ve made from all over the world. It’s also amazing to be immersed in all of the creativity, connect with new people, and see incredible shows all in one place. The Fringe is a really important part of our calendar, partly as a place for our company to share work, but also as a source of inspiration – even after all these years, I still leave full of renewed excitement and enthusiasm, which is quite a gift!
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2023 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
We’re always learning as we go, each show is a progression, and you try to build on everything you’ve done before. Although both of the shows we’re doing this year have been to the Festival before, I think they have developed, and we’ve made a few improvements here and there. We had a fantastic Fringe in 2023, with so many brilliant reviews and reactions, so I think the biggest takeaway is a sense of encouragement, that people like what we’re doing and we’re heading in the right direction – it gives you confidence to push further.
Sadly, there’s another bin strike threatened during the Fringe this year (there was one in 2022), but it makes us glad that we’ve continued to pursue our sustainability goals and do a ‘paperless’ Fringe – we don’t have any flyers for the shows, so there’s nothing to be thrown away or dropped. We tried it first in 2022, and again in 2023. The reactions from the public have been really positive, so we’ll continue to do more if we can. We make most of our sets and puppets from reclaimed, recycled or sustainable material and avoiding waste is important to us – ‘Don’t be wasteful, be creative’ is a kind of unofficial motto for the company.
Tell us about your show.
We have two shows this year! We’re performing them back to back, one after the other at the Pleasance Courtyard. This first show is ‘Casting the Runes’, a supernatural thriller based on the stories of M.R.James, the grandfather of British horror – we performed it at the Fringe last year and it went down incredibly well, it’s been touring the UK since then and has gathered an array of fantastic reviews. The second show is ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, based on the classic novel by Jonathan Swift, an amazing adventure featuring a huge range of puppetry and original sea shanties – we’ve performed it around the UK and taken it to the US and Malta, again receiving outstanding reactions and reviews!
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
The Fringe is such an amazing chance to see acts from all over, especially since we often don’t get a chance when we’re touring. Obviously, we love to see some puppetry, so we’ll try to catch Blind Summit’s ‘The Sex Lives of Puppets’, which is their exposé of puppet sexuality! Otherwise, we keep our ears to the ground for interesting theatre, Ugly Bucket are in the same space as us with ‘Stuffed’, a clowning show about food banks, so we’ll see that if we can, and we’d like to see George Rennie’s ‘Hamstrung’ too, with Yorick the jester exploring what really happened in Elsinore… Flat and the Curves are a great comedy girl band we saw unexpectedly last year – lots of glitter, great vocals and good gags – and they’re back with ‘Rosé-tinted’, so we’ll definitely try to catch them. We always try to see some circuses too – we saw ‘Sophie’s Surprise 29th’ last year, a brilliant selection of high-skilled circus acts arranged as a surprise birthday party, and I notice they’re back again. We really enjoyed ‘Yuck Circus’ a couple of years ago, a wild, all-female, Australian acrobatic troupe, they’re back too so we’ll go and check that out!
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