“Edinburgh Fringe audiences are unique in their breadth of culture, experience and engagement.”
WHO: Rhiannon Jenkins / Owen Scrivens
WHAT: “Living. Dying. Dead. is an exploration of death, dying and bereavement through the lens of improv. Taking real life experiences of bereavement, our actors weave stories that are both poignant and humorous. Playing Dead Theatre is a collective of artists and medical and death care professionals who are passionate about opening conversations around end of life. Our actors have over 80 years’ performance experience between them, and are all sensitive, compassionate people, with a vision to bring better understanding of death and dying to people all around the world.”
WHERE: Paradise in The Vault – The Annexe (Venue 29)
WHEN: 13:05 (60 min)
MORE: Click Here!
Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
This is our first time at EdFringe with this show, but not our first time at Edinburgh altogether. We’ve both spent a lot of time at Edinburgh, both as performers and punters. We’ve mostly taken this show to smaller improv festivals, so we’re very excited to bring the show to a much larger festival setting. It’s quite daunting, being such a small fish in such a huge pond, but we’re really excited to get inspired by seeing lots of other shows, and get the experience of performing the show multiple times in front of a new audience.
The show has been created to help people talk about death and we feel the Edinburgh Fringe audiences are unique in their breadth of culture, experience and engagement. We feel this is a perfect opportunity to create an honest conversation between cast and audience.
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2023 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
This last year has been a huge learning curve for us in terms of the production side of things. Until this summer, we’ve only taken the show to improv festivals, which are on a much smaller scale, with most of the marketing taken care of by the festivals themselves. Being part of EdFringe means we have to move things along much more of our own accord, and really work hard to get the word out to potential audience members.
Tell us about your show.
The show is very much a child of the lockdowns. We were both working in the end of life sphere; Rhiannon working for an end-of-life planning organisation working with Death Doulas, and Owen as an intensive care doctor. We had both been thinking about the possibility of an improvised show that examines death and grieving, and stumbled upon each other in an online improv forum. After lots of chatting during lockdowns, we had an idea of a show, but were waiting for the right time to be able to pull it all together. That time came in 2021 when Dublin Improv Festival reopened; they opened applications for brand new shows looking to premiere at the festival, and we thought that was the perfect opportunity to begin reaching out to actors and improvisers that we admired to bring the show to life. We had our first show there, and have since then brought that cast (and some new faces!) together for several more international improv festivals.
We hope long term to create a touring version of the show – we want to reach a larger audience to break down the taboo that comes with death, dying, and bereavement.
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
Owen would recommend Stuffed by Ugly Bucket theatre – They had great success at the fringe a few years back with Good Grief a clowning show about death and the new show uses their unique style to explore food banks and food poverty.
Rhiannon is also performing with Good Girl – a one-woman clown cabaret that delves into male fantasies and how women can take their agency back from the male gaze. If you like audience interaction, you’ll love Good Girl!
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