Category Archives: EdFestivals 2017

All our coverage from the 2017 festivals.

+3 Interview: The B*easts

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2017, Plus 3 2017 - Features by

“It is about time I came up to perform in the Fringe – and pretty shameful that I never have before!”

WHO: Monica Dolan, Tessa

WHAT: “Setting the modern obsession with putting your own child first against our responsibility as a society towards children as a whole, this dark tale, written by and starring BAFTA award-winning actress Monica Dolan (W1A, Appropriate Adult, The Witness For The Prosecution), explores how far one mum will go to give her child what she wants. A searing exploration of the pornification of our culture and the sexualisation of our children. Directed by John Hoggarth.”

WHERE: Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61) 

WHEN: 18:00 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

It’s my first time performing at the Edinburgh Fringe, but I have visited and performed in Edinburgh before at various theatres. I played Laura in The Glass Menagerie at the Edinburgh Lyceum in Polly Teale’s production nearly twenty years ago (one of my favourite jobs). It was over Christmas and New Year and a terrific time to be in the city. I also toured to the Traverse with a play called Sliding With Suzanne with Max Stafford-Clark and Out of Joint, and was in Edinburgh with Shared Experience’s Jane Eyre in 2006. So it is about time I came up to perform in the Fringe – and pretty shameful that I never have before!

Tell us about your show.

My solo show The B*easts is having its premiere at the Fringe. I wrote it and am also the sole performer but am lucky enough to have a supportive team around me. My producer is Suzanna Rosenthal for Something For The Weekend, and the show is directed by John Hoggarth and designed by James Button.

I had already written the show, and sent it to Suzanna who wanted to do it and around the same time I read it to John and James who I have known from other jobs for years, and who were keen to get on board with the piece too.

The show is about sexualisation of culture and specifically children, and is a storytelling piece. I haven’t thought beyond doing The B*easts at the Edinburgh Fringe, but am open to anything that comes from performing here, and the play has lately been published by Samuel French, so there will hopefully be a future for it with other performers too.

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

Showstoppers the Improvised Musical definitely – you will need it after my show! The Hero Who Overslept is a Gilded Balloon show about Climate Change that I think will be worth catching, also Education, Education, Education at the Pleasance Dome, and Richard Gadd: Monkey See, Monkey Do.

Comedy-wise: Sara Pascoe, Richard Herring, Reginald D Hunter, Focus On: Lola and Jo and Max and Ivan: The Reunion are some to aim to catch, I think.

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+3 Interview: What Would Cathy Do?

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2017, Plus 3 2017 - Features by

“What really pleases me about the play is that audience come to completely different conclusions about Cathy that are both valid.”

WHO: Chris Aronsten, Writer and Director

WHAT: “Cathy’s just been thrown out of the supermarket for stealing, but she’s not a junkie, and she’ll kill any c*nt who says she is. Because she’s an actress, OK? Rehearsing for a film role. Living the life of her character. Taking notes, making observations – and when the cameras start rolling, she’s going to give the performance of a lifetime. Just as long as she’s still around.”

WHERE: C venues – C primo (Venue 41) 

WHEN: 14:55 (30 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Yes, this is my first time at the Fringe as a participant or an audience member. We‘re touring the show quite bit this year, including two shows back at home in Sydney and two solo theatre festivals in the US. But the Edinburgh Fringe is definitely the highlight for us, with 26 performances scheduled.

Tell us about your show.

I created by theatre company 40 Watt Pearl as a way of producing my own work, because I got tired of waiting for “permission” from others to get certain plays up. I’m not really a career director, but I do enjoy directing my own work, and in the case of “What would Cathy do?”, I’m also the producer and composer… A combination of love and necessity! Next stop for the play is the United Solo festival on Broadway in November.

What would Cathy do? tells the story of Cathy, who bursts onto the stage in the first scene looking for all intents and purposes like a junkie in decline. But Cathy says she’s not a junkie at all, she’s an actor, deeply immersed in a character she is creating for an up-coming feature film. At first, this explanation has the ring of truth about it. But the more desperate she becomes to convince us, the more unsure we become about where the real truth lies. Is she a method actor irretrievably lost inside the character she says she will portray, or a real life drug addict at the end of a tragic decline? What really pleases me about the play is that audience come to completely different conclusions about Cathy that are both valid.

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

I’m still exploring the festival myself, but I’m travelling with a very talented bunch of Aussies, who are also performing monologues. I can highly recommend Misterman, a brilliant 80 minute monologue by Enda Walsh, Good With Maps, by Australian writer Noelle Janaczewska, and my friend Tom Campbell’s hilarious stand up show One Hander (Tom only had one hand….)

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+3 Interview: Cold Fronts and Hot Flushes: The Short Stories of Kevin Spacey

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“Both of our cast members are completely new to Edinburgh as well, which will hopefully be a fantastic experience for them.”

WHO: Qasim Salam, Producer

WHAT: “A ghostwriter and his best friend work tirelessly to create the greatest book ever written. A book of short stories about love, religion, friendship and spiders. Except, they didn’t write a single word. Kevin Spacey wrote it. Kevin Spacey wrote everything.”

WHERE:  Greenside @ Infirmary Street (Venue 236)

WHEN: Varies (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is Buttered Toast’s Fringe debut which is ridiculously exciting (and totally unexpected) considering we didn’t even exist this time last year. Both of our cast members are completely new to Edinburgh as well, which will hopefully be a fantastic experience for them.

Our directors are members of the Durham Revue sketch troupe so have a couple Fringes under their belt, whilst I’ve been hooked on Fringe since I first went in 2013 and haven’t missed one since doing a bunch of different things! It is my first time producing a Fringe show though, so that’s been a completely different build up to the Festival. I’ll actually be relieved to get there!

Tell us about your show.

Cold Fronts and Hot Flushes is the brainchild of Durham Revue regular and resident comedic powerhouse Andrew Shires. The storytelling comedy premiered at the Durham Drama Festival, where it took home 4 awards after a sell-out run. The play follows a ghostwriter as he takes on his greatest challenge yet: to write a book of short stories commissioned by Kevin Spacey. However, once his flatmate finds out, they both get sidetracked by the fantastical tales, and the play goes from quirky to utterly bizarre as they embark on a journey through the creative mind of Mr. Spacey, featuring the second coming of Jesus, friendly spiders and a porn-obsessed rural women’s association.

Buttered Toast produce the show, and were formed last November to provide a practice platform for aspiring young writers in the North East. We hold regular showcases in a speakeasy bar and arts space in Durham, which feature short new plays and extracts from longer pieces, as well as a mixture of stand up, sketch, music and spoken word.

We like to work with writers over a longer period of time, giving them the time, space and facilities to hone and practice their work. We also have a very relaxed atmosphere, and keeping a touch of silliness and fun with everything we do is important to us – which is why Cold Fronts and Hot Flushes is such a great debut show for us!

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

Ooooh there are oh so many! As a clown, I would definitely head straight over to the big guns Sam Simmons and Trygve Wakenshaw if you haven’t seen them already. Zach and Viggo are a brilliant clown duo who also both have their own one man shows, Tom Walker is fab too, and I am particularly excited about Laid by Natalie Palamides which is directed by the legendary Doctor Brown.

Our pals the Pretend Men do some great silly stuff, and now they are set IN SPACE. For sketch I’d say look no further than Aunty Donna, the Australian madmen, or Gein’s Family Giftshop. Sorry that’s quite a few, I could keep going but I’ll stop there for everyone’s sanity!

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+3 Interview: Tense Vagina: an actual diagnosis

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“I’m bringing my two kids, husband, my mother, 25 dildos, a host of weird props and 150 t-shirts that say, Sara Juli’s: Tense Vagina: an actual diagnosis. Please buy one, no really, please.”

WHO: Sara Juli, Creator/Performer

WHAT: “Using humour, movement, song and the audience, Sara Juli reveals all that is awesome and all that sucks when it comes to being a mother. Tense Vagina is a show about the beauty, challenges, isolation and influence motherhood has on the human experience. Focusing on the taboo aspects of motherhood: loneliness, tears and dildos, the hilarious narrative is anchored in the physical therapy Juli received at the Pelvic Floor Rehab Center of New England for urinary incontinence.”

WHERE: Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61)

WHEN: 16:10 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my first time at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and I honestly have no idea what to expect. I’m bringing my two kids, husband, my mother, 25 dildos, a host of weird props and 150 t-shirts that say, Sara Juli’s: Tense Vagina: an actual diagnosis. Please buy one, no really, please.

There has been a lot to navigate detail wise, but I’m thrilled to be bringing the show to the Fringe and to get the run going. 22 shows in 25 days is certainly a first for me. I’m curious to see how the show will shift and change over the course of a long-run. I also really enjoy making people laugh. This piece is hilarious, but not just funny hilarious, it’s the kind of hilarious where we’re getting at something underneath, and we’re experiencing it together. Plus, I give away free snacks, so audiences literally have nothing to lose…

Tell us about your show.

I created, “Tense Vagina: an actual diagnosis” a few years ago in my small NY City apartment, when I was attached to a hospital-grade breast pump and couldn’t move. The one- woman show, produced by Underbelly, uses a lot of humor, movement, song, and text to peel a layer back and reveal all that is awesome and all that sucks when it comes to being a mother.

It’s not a classical “ode-to-motherhood” show that pulls from traditional themes around the beauty of being a mother, but rather focuses on the parts of motherhood that are taboo such as: loss of bladder control, copious tears, extreme loneliness, monotony and dildos, to name a few.

The narrative is anchored in sharing the physical therapy I received at The Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation Center of New England. It sheds light on the embarrassment and humor from the treatment of my post-childbirth urinary incontinence. The show has a bit of something for everyone: song, stand-up comedy, free snacks, karaoke, dildos, and an uninterrupted hour to think about your own or someone else’s vagina. I have an 11 city US tour planned for the 2017-2018 season that I’m super excited about.

My dream after the Fringe is to continue to perform the work. I’m really proud of the piece.

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

Manuel Cinema (Lula Del Ray) and Fleabag. I’m also interested in taking my kids to Trash Test Dummies.

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+3 Interview: Replay

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“It’s been a great ride since the last time I was here last and I’m really excited to see what audiences make of my second play.”

WHO: Nicola Wren, Writer and Performer

WHAT: “Replay. When a fiercely independent, workaholic police officer finds herself on the street where her brother once lived, she is propelled back to her vibrant childhood and forced to confront a tremendous loss. Replay is an intimate, funny and moving new monologue, written by Nicola Wren (501 Things I Do in My Bedroom) and brought to you by Edinburgh Fringe favourites DugOut Theatre (Swansong, The Sunset Five and Inheritance Blues).”

WHERE: Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) ​

WHEN: 14:15 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my second year at the fringe, I was first up in 2015 with my first play, 501 Things I Do In My Bedroom in which I also performed. It was then that I met DugOut Theatre who I am now working with on Replay. It’s been a great ride since the last time I was here last and I’m really excited to see what audiences make of my second play.

Tell us about your show.

Replay is the story of an uptight police officer who, the day before her interview for sergeant, receives an old tape that her brother recorded for her made for her years ago. This tape causes her world to unravel as she revisits her childhood and confronts the tragic loss of her brother. It’s a moving, funny and uplifting story about loss and acceptance.

DugOut Theatre are producing and their Artistic Director, George Chilcott, is directing. George and I met two years ago in Edinburgh and decided to work together last November. We premiered the play at the Hen & Chickens Theatre in London for a week and, following the success of that, we decided to bring it to the fringe with a view to securing a longer run in London later this year or early next.

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

Goodbear – a hilarious sketch comedy duo with a theatrical twist. DIGS – a devised show about shared living by brilliant company Theatre With Legs, comedy trio Muriel Comedy with their first show, Bad Master and Trygve vs a Baby which is sure to be a brilliant and hysterical mime show from the best of the best. There are so, so many more. I can’t wait to discover all sorts of wonderful new shows.

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+3 Interview: No Miracles Here

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“You spend the whole month working really hard, and soaking it all up, and only realise you need to sleep the month of September by the time its too late.”

WHO: Stanley Hodgson, Performer/ Deviser

WHAT: “Tighten your laces, look to the band, don’t let your knees hit the ground. The music has started, and they can’t leave the floor. There’s no rule book, but as far as they know, the aim is just keep going; that’s what everyone else seems to be doing. A tale of resilience, strength and the need to just stay on your feet, The Letter Room present a sweat-soaked marathon with a northern soul. Packed with live music and wall-to-wall dancing, No Miracles Here is an anthem to feeling alive and keeping the faith. Supported by the RSC.”

WHERE: Northern Stage at Summerhall (Venue 26)

WHEN: 11:00 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This will be our 3rd Fringe. We’ve performed at Summerhall with Five Feet in Front in 2015 and Bonenkai at Underbelly in 2014. We can’t quite believe we’re back. It’s exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure. You spend the whole month working really hard, and soaking it all up, and only realise you need to sleep the month of September by the time its too late.

Tell us about your show.

No Miracles Here is an original musical story devised and written by The Letter Room. It’s about a young man suffering with depression who enters a strange, other-worldly dance marathon. WSe were inspired in part by the dance marathons of the 1930’s where people would dance non -stop sometimes for 19 days at a time. So we’ve made a show that is full of music and wall-to-wall dancing.

We came together through theatre-making scheme at Northern Stage back in 2013, and were selected after 3 days of auditions. So we were complete strangers before we formed. We didn’t even know that we all played instruments, we only discovered that halfway through our residency. 4 and a bit years on, and we’re still around.

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

Our show is 11am, so you’ll have the whole day to see things. We love You, Me and Everything Else by Camisado Club at Zoo. They’re a Newcastle based company, and it’s such a lovely show about Carl Sagan and Music and Love.

We’re also really excited to see Mental by Kane Power Theatre at Assembly. No Miracles Here is looking at similar themes to Mental, and there’s a buzz around it.

And, yes, we’re biased but Northern Stage’s Summerhall programme is brilliant this year, we’re very lucky to be a part of it. We can’t wait to see Selina Thompson, Javaad Alipoor, Dan Bye, everyone really. If you’re interested in what sort of theatre is being made in the North of England, then this should absolutely be your first port of call.

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+3 Interview: Me And My Bee

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“…we’re kind of not sure what else you do in August…”

WHO: Josie Dale-Jones, Producer and Performer

WHAT: “Climate change is massive. Bees aren’t. Our fuzzy little friends need our help and so we’re launching a political party disguised as a party party disguised as a show. Multi award-winning theatre company, ThisEgg, invites you to save the world – one bee at a time. A new comedy for children and adults alike. Plant the seed for change, join the Bee Party. Before it’s too late…”

WHERE: Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) ​

WHEN: 11:45 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is ThisEgg’s 6th year in a row at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe! We love it – the city, the shows, the people, the list goes on. And, we’re kind of not sure what else you do in August…

Tell us about your show.

A new family comedy, Me & My Bee, co-produced by Pleasance. This is a three hander – Joe, Greta & I. Greta and I went to uni together (UEA) and I met Joe in Edinburgh 6 years ago (we kept coming back separately, every year, with different show and we thought it was about time we made one we were both in together). The three of us have made Me & My Bee – and yes, it’s about bees. The dying bees.

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

As much as they possibly can!!
Returners you shouldn’t miss include:
EUROHOUSE, Two Man Show & Juan Vesuvius

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Meet Our +3 Team #EdFringe ’17 – Martin Veart

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“I would love to be blown away by the performance of somebody completely new to the Fringe.”

Martin is a blogger, social media and current affairs addict with a sideline in politics. He first discovered art on a trip to St. Petersburg, music at Aldeburgh and comedy with Dave Allen and The Young Ones.

Having travelled extensively, Martin has lived in Edinburgh since 2008 and is attending Heriot-Watt university after a long career in oil exploration.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received, and do you follow it?

“Two people come together in a relationship and bring different things.” But if they react the same way when faced with an external challenge, it is probably a good match. I did, for my part.

If space invaders came to burn down Edinburgh, but wanted to leave just one thing standing, what would you ask them to leave? (You can’t say the castle. Not even space invaders could capture Edinburgh castle.)

The New Town.  Just love the Georgian architecture.

What first brought you to Edinburgh? What keeps you here?

My wife got offered a job here. I made it happen. I stay here now because, literally for my money, it is the best place to live in the UK.

What’s the first live performance you can remember?

It may have been the school end-of-term shows organised the headmaster. The first shows I remember going to were the summer variety shows in Gt. Yarmouth and at Sparrow’s Nest in Lowestoft. I cannot say they inspired me to consider a life on the stage.

What’s the best live performance you’ve ever attended?

Swan Lake at the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg.

What are you most excited about seeing at #Edfringe17?

I don’t come to this year’s Fringe with preconceptions.  I would love to be blown away by the performance of somebody completely new to the Fringe.  I want to be surprised and genuinely excited after the performance, not before.

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+3 Interview: Meeting at 33

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2017, Plus 3 2017 - Features by

“Inspired by my mum’s battle with alcoholism – she is now 9 and a half years sober!”

WHO: Hannah Samuels, Writer/Director/Performer

WHAT: “Alcoholics’ recovery meetings are happening all around us, all the time. While the people in those rooms never chose to be there, they are privy to some remarkable personal storytelling. Created through extensive anonymous interviews with addicts and retold verbatim, Meeting at 33 offers a unique opportunity to experience a recovery meeting. Unveiling a subject that is too frequently taboo through hope and humour, light and shade, we invite you to consider the universal addictive tendencies which live within all of us.”

WHERE: Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)

WHEN: Varies (45 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

As a company, this is our first time to Edinburgh! But many of the company have been involved in Edinburgh shows in the past – couple of first-timers though, they don’t know what they’re getting themselves in for…

Tell us about your show.

Second Circle Theatre are bringing: 16 true stories, 8 company members and 2 alcoholics’ recovery meetings to Edinburgh – which one will you attend?

Meeting at 33 consists of two verbatim plays which have been developed through extensive anonymous interviews with addicts. They were inspired by my mum’s battle with alcoholism – she is now 9 and a half years sober!

I wrote the plays to challenge the “popular image” of the alcoholic on the park bench, and instead to portray the truth of what is it to live with alcoholism.

We have developed an innovative, flexible structure allowing different combinations of stories to be told at each ‘meeting’. This has enabled us to communicate the many different experiences of what it is to be an alcoholic. With tea, biscuits and life-affirming verbatim storytelling, we invite you to consider the universal addictive tendencies which live within us all.

Meeting at 33 is premiering in Edinburgh, but we are hoping to tour afterwards as we strive to promote awareness of alcoholism!

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

Check out Unpolished Theatre’s Flesh and Bone, 14.00, Pleasance Dome (winners the Charlie Hartill Special Reserve this year!)

Also go and see our dear friend Nicholas Masters-Waage in Siren, 17.40, Pleasance Dome.

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+3 Interview: Kat Bond: Loo Roll

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“It’s been incredibly fun to write, make and perform.”

WHO: Kat Bond, Writer

WHAT: “Award-winning character comic and critically acclaimed actress (BBC’s Call the Midwife, Sky’s The Greatest, Channel 4 Blaps, BBC Radio 4) Kat Bond has lost her family. They left her in a bin, outside Papa Johns in Luton. She has made a comedy show to find out who, what and where they are. Armed with only a loo roll as a prop, she combines stand-up, characters and clowning to bring her imagined family to life. A debut solo hour from one half of sublime duo That Pair.”

WHERE: Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)

WHEN: 17:45 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Not first time at the fringe but first solo show. I have been at the fringe in many guises. Flyerer, puppeteer, actor one half of duo and now just me ( and a massive bin and a twelve pack of Loo Rolls).

Tell us about your show.

My show in Edinburgh is a character comedy show about a woman called Pat who was left in a bin by her family. She spends the whole show pretending she’s various members of her long lost family whilst also telling the audience about the various benefits of Loo roll.

It’s been incredibly fun to write, make and perform. I have a brilliant director Matthew Crosby and Technical support from Jonathan Monkhouse. I started making the show when I had a cold and was using lots of Loo roll and thought about how funny it would be to base a show around the stuff.

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

Anything from Free Association they do lots of great improv. I’m in one of their teams and they are super.

Jon Pointing : Act Natural is brilliant he plays an acting coach Cayden Hunter who is ridiculous.

Lorna Shaw: Ava Rage has made a brilliant show that is about being average. Music , stand up and stories from her.

James Rowland : 100 Words for Love is the 2nd part of his trilogy of one man shows it’s super.

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