Author Archives: Dan Lentell

+3 Interview: Infinita

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“Since 2001 we have then performed in 32 different countries, some 150 performances a year…”

WHO: Gianni Bettucci, Director of Familie Flöz

WHAT: “After sell-out success of Hotel Paradiso and a five-star hit with Teatro Delusio, Germany’s mask theatre masters return to the Fringe with their next brilliant, visual comedy. In Infinita, a cast of irresistible, larger than life characters are seen both as warring children and as residents of an old people’s home. The wily games of nursery one-upmanship seem hardly to change with the passage of time. Survival of the craftiest is still the rule of the day. Infinita plays out in a succession of increasingly hilarious scenes, combining poignancy, astute observation and some superbly skilled slapstick.”

WHERE: Pleasance Courtyard – The Grand (Venue 33) 

WHEN: 13:30 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

It is our fifth time, we are old Fringers so to speak. We started in 2001, then 2004, 2015 and 2016. We started small, in a small venue in George Street and ended up in 2016 in the Grand selling over 16.000 tickets. Its being a long, tiring and rewarding journey.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

The international success. We arrived in Edinburgh in 2001 being and unknown German company. Right after we started receiving calls from all over the places. Since 2001 we have then performed in 32 different countries, some 150 performances a year…

Tell us about your show.

It is one of our best shows W have been performing INFINITA for 10 years now, but it is the first time that comes to Edinburgh. As all the other productions by Familie Floez is a collective creative process where all the actors participates and there is a director, an external eye so to speak, which coordinate all comes out from our improvisation. INFINITA is the third production of a company who came together in 1996 at the Folkwang Schule in Essen, at the time lead by Pina Bausch. We started in 4 people, we are now over 40, with 4 different companies touring at the same time 4 different productions.

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

We love to visit the circus hub, or any of the international or circus shows… so many talented friends in the program!!!! Portrait in Motion for instance is a pearl!!!!

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+3 Interview: Dummy

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“The show connects my personal narrative, as a kid growing up with a developmental disability, to a broader culture rife with neurological disorders and overmedication.”

WHO: Anders Lee, Performer/Writer

WHAT: “Diagnosed at a young age with an autistic spectrum disorder, Midwestern American comedian Anders Lee brings his signature, sincere and plainspoken manner to the stage as he recounts struggles with school, work and dating while being ‘on the spectrum’. Through funny, heartwarming and thought-provoking stories, Lee dives headfirst into questions of disability, education and what it means, in our hypercapitalist, technology-saturated age, to truly be ‘dumb’.”

WHERE: Bourbon Bar – Room 2 (Venue 333) 

WHEN: 13:00 (60 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

My first year was in 2017. It was a challenge to say the least. Every day my show began right as my venue opened in an area where punters were slim to none. Nevertheless, I pressed on, giving the best performance I could each time to crowds of ten, three and, sometimes, one. At the beginning of the Festival, my show was pure, straight stand-up. An hour of carefully crafted, impersonal jokes. But as the Fringe progressed, I found a positive response in stepping outside my comfort zone and delivering more vulnerable material.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

Since returning to the United States, I have focused on developing a solo show that combines elements of standup with storytelling and spoken word. I’ve been able to get feedback and direction from artists with varying performance backgrounds. Creating “Dummy” has been a great experience over the past few months, and I’m very excited to bring it to Edinburgh.

Tell us about your show.

“Dummy” is about the autistic spectrum and the notion that, perhaps, “autism” is more of a cultural phenomenon than a medical one. The show connects my personal narrative, as a kid growing up with a developmental disability, to a broader culture rife with neurological disorders and overmedication. After the Festival, I plan on touring “Dummy” in different cities across the United States.

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

Peter Michael Marino’s “Show Up” and “Show Up, Kids!”
Chris Davis’ “Drunk Lion”
Walter DeForest’s Van Gogh Find Yourself
Lee Minora’s White Feminist

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+3 Interview: The Cloak and Dagger Show

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“We are a tiny freakish History obsessed baby that has come out screaming into the world.”

WHO: Cary Galia, Director 

WHAT: “Dive into the horrors of history in our immersive walking tour and show. Explore the darker side of history and end the night with a performance of a true story of murder and revenge bringing history to life!”

WHERE: Sweet Grassmarket – Grassmarket 3 (Venue 18) 

WHEN: 20:50 (120 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

As an event, absolutely!

We are a tiny freakish History obsessed baby that has come out screaming into the world.

However as visitors no. Such a beautiful city!

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

I would love to say, setting up the company. Winning a Certificate of Excellence Award from Tripadvisor. Falling in Love…

but I’d have to say punching a prince in the face…

Tell us about your show.

The entire experience (Tour and Show) evolved and revolve around a true story that just fell into my lap.
I have always been somewhat of an obsessive when it comes to history so when I came across this 18th century, true story of murder, revenge, in the backdrop of war, all focused in a heart to heart conversation between two people, I was shocked!

“How has this never been done before!”

I spoke with the family and they told me they never spoke much about it as they found it quite personal and it was then (surprisingly!) they asked me to make something out of it. They had seen some of my work in the past and asked if I could write a play based on it. I felt quite a big burden of responsibility.
Things changed as I wrote it though. I maintained historic accuracy, and language as much as possible (under the vicious scrutiny of two historians fact checking me) but so many times I came across something which angered me. I realised that the story unfolded the more people would miss the true in-depth significance of the history.

I thought about creating exposition within the text (like some sort of historic, native advertising) but it just diluted the visceral nature of the story.

That’s why I designed the tour to add as a precursor to the show and create an experience that could be all encompassing for the history that we were trying to tell.

We released our first one in London, more as a one off event, however it did so well that we decided to start again the following summer. We did well enough to get recognition from our Tripadvisor reviews and ended up winning the Certificate of Excellence Award.

Then the wonderful @the1Stefania actually came to see us and stayed behind a while after the show and convinced me to bring it up to the Edinburgh fringe. Which now we have done and have designed a tour specifically for Edinburgh, that will hopefully disgust, shock and delight many a person.

So overall I would say the company came together out of a passionate desire to tell the side of history that does not get told.

We will be in London where we have another Tour and we will be releasing another next year that takes a very different focus but still about unspoken history.

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

CROW – @bird_radio

Folk Horror, Ted Hughes poetry, inspired songwriting!

What more need I say.

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+3 Interview: CROW

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“This deserves to be global.”

WHO: Stefania Bochicchio, producer

WHAT: “CROW is the genre-defying new stage show and new album by vocalist Bird Radio – ‘folk-horror of the darkest hue’ (fRootsMag.com) – based on poetry from Ted Hughes’ 1970 masterpiece on grief, Crow: From The Life And Songs Of The Crow. It is a unique collaboration with a band featuring sonic duo Pig7 that works with live processing, found sound and synthesis to create powerful atmospheres, providing an immersive and otherworldly sonic terrain for Bird Radio to channel, through his voice, the spirit of the ultimate trickster, Crow. Poetry, songwriting and performance like you have never seen or heard.”

WHERE: Just Festival at St John’s – Church at St John’s (Venue 127) 

WHEN: 19:00 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This will be my tenth consecutive Fringe Festival….I have been (and continue to be) a PR, producer, director, strategy consultant, award initiator….I am bound to have forgotten something

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

I have been made one of the four UK co-director of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) the world’s largest performing arts organisation founded in 1948 by theatre and dance experts and UNESCO. I am terribly honoured and my candidature, befittingly, was mentioned to me during EdFringe 2017.

Tell us about your show.

As it so often happens at the Fringe (as in life, but even more so at the Fringe) you really have to seize the moment: during a chance meeting last year in Nicolson Street with Mikey Kirkpatrick, who was collaborating with one of the shows I was doing PR for (Losing It!) and performing a solo show under his stage name of Bird Radio, he told me that he had just received the go ahead from Ted Hughes’ widow and his Estate to put to music the poems of the CROW cycle.
This was unprecedented in the 20 years since Ted Hughes’ death (whose anniversary, coincidentally, is this year) and it perked up my attention immediately: a great shot of adrenaline to wipe away the third week mental fog.

Mikey there and then asked me if I wanted to be involved in this project and I jumped at the chance.
The CD is now ready and it is wonderful: for a number of years I was a music journalist and this is marvellous music, full of nuances and layers of sonic, unexpected delights.

We had a very intimate secret gig in London and we did not expect how powerful and subterranean the music turned up to be live, it just acquired a life of its own.

The show will have had a world premiere at the renowned Port Eliot Festival at the end of July and a single, all out gig, Edinburgh Premiere live music event in St. John’s Church at the end of Princes Street the 25th August, part of Just Festival.

We have already offers for dates in Italy, London and Prague.

This deserves to be global.

This album and stage show is a unique collaboration between Mikey Kirkpatrick (Bird Radio) and duo Pig7 who work with live processing, found sound and synthesis to create powerful atmospheres, providing an immersive and otherworldly sonic terrain for Bird Radio to channel through his voice the spirit of the ultimate trickster, Crow.

We decided to go for just one, spectacular date at the Fringe to make it an event: maybe this goes against the grain of the accepted three weeks run, but I hope it will focus people’s attention: there is no “tomorrow’s performance”, one shot, one marvellous chance to catch this and say “I was there!”.

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

My heartfelt advice is go and see the best shows of many disparate genres: only then you will catch a real glimpse of the Edinburgh Fringe and why it is so important.

Go see an international company at the very top of their game, such as Familie Floez with their new show INFINITA (Peasance Grand), which will very likely be a sell out for the entire duration of the festival (so book in advance) but also go and see some intimate, personal and funny storytelling such as DUMMY (free Fringe- Bourbon Bar), by the American Anders Lee, who really managed to make lemonade out of his early age autistic diagnosis.

Delve into deliciously dark and firmly tongue-in-cheek musical cabaret with MAD WOMEN IN MY ATTIC and why not join a Jacobean tour of Edinburgh that turns into a play with THE CLOAK AND DAGGER SHOW (Sweet Venues)?

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+3 Interview: Woyzeck

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“Originally written in German, myself and Ollie Norton-Smith (the Director) are collating numerous translations and adaptations whilst also putting our own original spin on the narrative.”

WHO: Hamish Lloyd Barnes, Writer / Performer

WHAT: “A nation wakes up from war, the lake sits stagnant and eerie and all the while a record spins. Franz Woyzeck, a young soldier, grapples with his fragmented mind as he sinks deeper and deeper below the surface of reality. Attempting to provide for his illegitimate son and lover; rank and rule conspire to plunge Woyzeck into a kaleidoscopic dreamscape where nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted. Following a sell-out 2017 Fringe debut, the award-winning Spies Like Us breathe new life into Buchner’s classic tale with their trademark explosive physical style.”

WHERE: Pleasance Dome – 10Dome (Venue 23) 

WHEN: 15:00 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is our second year returning to Edinburgh as a company, though we have all been involved as part of Young Pleasance from as far back as 2012!

Our company is made up of seven Young Pleasance graduates and we performed our debut show ‘Our Man in Havana’ to a sell-out run last year at the Pleasance as part of the Pleasance’s XYP initiative. The show was an extremely fun and silly adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel in which we used a vacuum cleaner as the only prop!

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

In the last day of the festival last year we were included in Theatre Weekly’s ‘Best of the Fest’ as ‘Best Fringe Debut’ which we were extremely proud of. I know that’s technically still part of Edinburgh ’17 but I’ll stick to the rest of the questions I promise…

We also went on to perform ‘Our Man in Havana’ at the Pleasance in London over Christmas which was extremely exciting!

Tell us about your show.

Our new show is a fresh interpretation of Georg Büchner’s ‘Woyzeck’. Originally written in German, myself and Ollie Norton-Smith (the Director) are collating numerous translations and adaptations whilst also putting our own original spin on the narrative.

Edinburgh will be the first time we do the show but hopefully, it can have some form of life after the fringe, be it at Pleasance Islington or further afield…

It’s a show we’ve been thinking about doing for a while so we’re incredibly excited to premiere it and bring this amazing story to life with our own unique brand of physical storytelling.

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

God, such a huge question… As always there’s a ridiculous amount of amazing shows on offer.

‘Kenzuke’s Kingdom’ by Wild Child Productions looks beautiful, our fellow ex-XYP (blimey) show ‘Tobacco Road’ by Incognito Theatre is sure to be brilliant and I’ve heard great things about Poltergeist Theatre’s ‘Lights Over Tesco Car Park’…

We’re also returning with ‘Our Man in Havana’ for six shows only from 21st – 27th Aug (not 23rd) in Pleasance Two at 11:00 so be sure to catch that if you didn’t last year!

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+3 Interview: From One Heart to Another

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“It is a place where young people from every walk of life, background and ability come together to use the power of drama, music and dance to have fun, build confidence and develop their creativity.”

WHO: Sarah Lumby, Administrative Assistant

WHAT: “Inclusive theatre group The Theatre Shed will explore end of life and organ donation in a unique and inspiring way. A heart is a lot to hand over – and a lot to take. Kia is about to find out just how big hers is. She needs help. She’s fed up with the world. She’s growing up too fast, but who can help? From One Heart to Another looks at the exciting adventures a child goes on and the lessons we remember from our childhood when we’re really challenged to question how we see life.”

WHERE: theSpaceTriplex – Big (Venue 38) 

WHEN: 13:05 (75 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Yes this is The Theatre Shed’s first time at Ed Fringe, this is a huge achievement for the company who have been building in strength from year to year, through hard work from the young people and their excellent artistic team.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

I think the biggest thing for The Theatre Shed in the past year has been taking a production on tour, starting at Brighton Fringe, a home performance in Buckinghamshire and then taking on Edinburgh Fringe and also the huge decision to take on such a major topic as organ donation, which has stretched the young people and challenged audiences so far!

Tell us about your show.

The show is written by John Berry, directed by Brighton Fringe Children’s Choice award winner Viv Berry, and designed by CJ Reid.

The Theatre Shed is an exciting, inclusive theatre company based in the heart of Chesham. We were founded in 2005 and previously known as Shed at The Park. Neither ‘mainstream’ nor ‘disability’, our inclusivity offers an inspiring alternative theatre made up of an all-encompassing cross-section of the community. It is a place where young people from every walk of life, background and ability come together to use the power of drama, music and dance to have fun, build confidence and develop their creativity. We believe that theatre should be for everyone who’d like to participate, regardless of personal circumstances or background. There are no auditions, everyone has a part to play, just come along, have some serious fun and make friends at the same time.

From One Heart to Another has been to Brighton Fringe, a run of home performances and finishes the tour at Edinburgh Fringe.

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

Whilst we are at Edinburgh we will be taking our young people to see a couple of other shows and we were particularly interested in: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/360-allstars.

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+3 Interview: Owen Roberts: I Let a Six-Year-Old Write My Show

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“I keep telling her to get a job, but she says she’s too busy inventing a machine that enables her toy dog snowflake to levitate.”

WHO: Owen Roberts, Writer and Performer

WHAT: “After a severe case of writer’s block, Owen has thrown caution to the wind and decided to let a child write his show for him. Kids are funny, right? What could possibly go wrong? She can’t spell, she can’t sit still for more than 30 seconds, and her ideas are wildly unrealistic to say the least. This show is about the weird stuff children think and how bloody difficult it is to work with them. From one third of sketch legends BEASTS: ‘A tsunami of silliness’ **** (Telegraph).”

WHERE: Pleasance Courtyard – Pleasance This (Venue 33) 

WHEN: 16:45 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

No, I’ve done 5 fringes with my sketch group Beasts. However this is my first time doing it as a solo artist. Which is why a few months ago I caved in and asked for help writing the show, however the only person available was a six year old child, so she’s writing it now.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

I moved in with a six year old, she’s basically my housemate now, except she doesn’t pay any bills or rent, or do any house work. I keep telling her to get a job, but she says she’s too busy inventing a machine that enables her toy dog snowflake to levitate.

Tell us about your show.

My show is called ‘I Let A Six Year Old Write My Show’ because that’s what I did. She writes the material, I have to perform it, and honestly the drivel she’s come up with. One minute I’m supposed to be playing a Chinese police woman disguised as a burglar fighting a dancing crab, the next I’m trying to eat a volcano with my foot, it’s chaos.

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

I’m also performing with my sketch group Beasts 16-19 Aug, also one of the other members of Beasts Ciaran Dowd is doing a solo show called ‘Don Rodolfo’, so check that out too.

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+3 Interview: Charmian Hughes – Bra Trek

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“I did my first in 1994, met my husband in the audience, had two children, and came back as soon as they were teenagers who could be shipped off to grandparents for the summer.”

WHO: Charmian Hughes, performer and writer

WHAT: “Bra as metaphwoar! Life can make us all outsiders through its conspiracy of myths and fairy tales. Bust out of stereotypes that squash us, in an uplifting quest to find our own fit in the world and a bra that fits. Big hit down under! Directed by Jessica Fostekew (Motherland). ‘Buxom!’ (TheatreView.org.nz). ‘Unique, insightful, funny’ (Dominion Post). ‘Funny and profound…a class above other stand-ups, great entertainer not to be missed’ (Stuff.co.nz). ‘Joyous fun. 4 stars’ (FunnyWomen.com). Charmian is a regular Glastonbury Festival MC, a thrice comedy award nominee, and a 34H.”

WHERE: Laughing Horse @ The Counting House – The Attic (Venue 170) 

WHEN: 15:35 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my ninth solo show at the fringe. I did my first in 1994, met my husband in the audience, had two children, and came back as soon as they were teenagers who could be shipped off to grandparents for the summer. I have been back to Edinburgh since 2011 and love every minute of it!

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

This year I made the finals of the Petfringe Comedian Of The Year Competition, the last nine out of over 800 entrees. I toured New Zealand in March and visited Melbourne Comedy for the first time in April.

Tell us about your show.

Bra Trek is a quest for identity and self esteem through the agonized terrain of adolescence…and the search for a bra that fits. It’s stand up storytelling, jokes and truths. It’s for anyone over 14, because though the themes are adult, the journey is one we must all make. I want every human to benefit from the wisdom and jokes of me! i wrote it and perform it, and it was directed by brilliant comedian Jessica Fostekew. It premiered at Leicester Comedy Festival, then went to Auckland New Zealand, visited Dunedin and Wellington, and has been performed at some small UK festivals. Next stop after Edinburgh- Clapham Fringe and Prague Comedy Festival!!

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

Before my show, go and see Caroline Cooke’s Proxy at the Gilded Balloon Turret. It’s early in the morning- 11am but well worth it, a compelling tale about a true and strange horrible psychological event in recent US history. I ALWAYS go and see what new thing Sarah Kendall has come up with. She is my favourite- combining engrossing tense storytelling with brilliant stand-up. Mandy Knight has a terrific show at the Voodoo Rooms with the PBH Free Fringe. Its going to be a monster.

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+3 Interview: Leo Kearse: Right-Wing Comedian

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“I present a robust defence of Donald Trump, celebrate consumerism, break down prejudice against the white working class and show the inherent immorality and impracticality of socialism.”

WHO: Leo Kearse, I’m the comedian

WHAT: “Scottish Comedian of the Year, Leo Kearse returns with the follow up to I Can Make You Tory. Poking fun at liberal sanctimony and hypocrisy, Leo takes on millennials, #metoo, environmentalists and Jeremy Corbyn, showing why socialists are selfish and Trump is great. ‘A giant of the art’ (Chortle.co.uk). ‘A solid hour of honest funny which will change your attitude’ (Scotsman). ‘He is warm, very funny, and deserves his title… a lotta laughs’ (TheClothesline.com.au). Warning: not for people who start online petitions.”

WHERE: Laughing Horse @ Espionage – Pravda (Venue 185) 

WHEN: 19:30 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my 7th time at the Edinburgh Fringe. That sounds like a lot, but I wasn’t really trying to be good at comedy until a couple of years ago.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

Some videogame producers who loved last year’s show “I Can Make You Tory” cast me in their videogame “Super Seducer 2” and flew me out to Belarus to film my scenes. It’s a hugely popular but controversial game – the guy behind it is pickup artist Richard La Ruina and the game basically teaches men how to chat up women. Obviously, showing men how to behave respectfully around women is now seen as sexual harassment so the Guardian campaigned to have “Super Seducer” banned.

In “Super Seducer 2” I have a scene where I chat up a feminist in a bar. I spent a lot of time getting punched in the head by a 6’1 Russian woman called Anastasia. In another scene, I’m performing comedy and the player gets to choose which material I do next. It was a tough scene to film because the audience were all Russian extras who didn’t speak English so were guessing where they should laugh. Still an easier gig than Portsmouth Jongleurs though.

Tell us about your show.

I write and produce my show. I used to consider myself a lefty liberal, but I feel that the left has disappeared up its own arse, taken on the worst aspects of the right (discriminating against people based on their demographics; censoring speech; making crimes out of miss-speaking). I believe everyone should be treated as an individual and identity politics are reductive and divisive.

I take a scalpel to male feminists, Labour antisemites, fat activists, environmentalists, white male privilege and #MeToo. I present a robust defence of Donald Trump, celebrate consumerism, break down prejudice against the white working class and show the inherent immorality and impracticality of socialism. If you want to escape the liberal bubble of the Edinburgh Fringe and see a raw, hilariously antagonistic show from a man who can’t help speaking his mind, this is the show for you.

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

They should come to see Hate ‘n’ Live – it’s a late night improvised show. The audience write down what they hate, then the suggestions are pulled out of a bucket and the comedians have to say why they hate them – no matter what the suggestion is. It’s a lot more fun and less hateful than it sounds – the atmosphere is electric as the audience waits to see how the comedian will walk the line.

Darius Davies is returning with a new show, “The Art Of The Troll”. His last show was about his time as a wrestler – he spoke candidly about steroids, fights and a broken back – and got 5 star reviews. He’s an incredible troll and has been interviewed on BBC news where he trolled them mercilessly. The show also includes that clip of Katie Price’s son Harvey saying “Hello you cunt” which is funnier than anything else at the Fringe.

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+3 Interview: Angry Alan by Penelope Skinner

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“ALAN is about a guy who feels misunderstood and left behind in America.“

WHO: Donald Sage Mackay, Actor

WHAT:“‘Looking out over the country, this country, where I was born and raised, I wonder what’s going to become of us. Because this can’t be the future, can it? Everyone just… changing the rules?’ Roger thinks the world’s gone mad. He hates his job, his ex-wife torments him and to top it all, his girlfriend just discovered feminism. Roger’s about to lose his shit. Until he discovers Angry Alan: online activist and “voice of reason”… A darkly comic new play about masculinity in crisis from award-winning Penelope Skinner performed by Donald Sage Mackay.”

WHERE: Underbelly, Cowgate – Big Belly (Venue 61) 

WHEN: 15:20 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

YES, thrilled to experience my first Festival!

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

Professionally… probably a major recurring role as a “baddie” in DEEP STATE for Fox TV opposite Mark Strong that just aired in the U.K. and is currently running in the U.S.

Tell us about your show.

ANGRY ALAN is about a guy who feels misunderstood and left behind in America, doesn’t get feminism and #metoo and is struggling to keep up with the changing world around him. Written by renowned feminist U.K. playwright, Penelope Skinner, and developed with an American actor (me) this play gives a uniquely funny and inside-out cross-cultural peek at why some men just don’t seem to be able to evolve and hints at reasons for the recent steps backward here and in the U.S.

ANGRY ALAN was originally developed at the Aspen Fringe Festival and in Delhi ahead of this world premiere production at Edinburgh. We are hoping to bring this production back to London for a run and then to New York and beyond. Also a TV pilot is in development.

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

Go check out Penelope Skinner’s other play, MEEK, and UNDERGROUND RAILROAD GAME both at Traverse. And check out SQUARE GO at Roundabout @ Summerhall.

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