Category Archives: EdFestivals

EdFringe Talk: Amusements by Ikechukwu Ufomadu

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2023 by

“I haven’t before or since been in an environment where so many different styles of live performance could all be found in the same city and at the same time.”

WHO: Ikechukwu Ufomadu

WHAT: “Winner: Vulture’s Comedians You Should Know (2022). Winner: Drama Desk Award (2018). The Emmy-nominated actor and ‘gentleman-scholar of alt-comedy’ (Vulture, New York Magazine) makes his Edinburgh debut with a waggishly absurd exploration of such vital topics as ‘The Alphabet’ and ‘Counting’. He can be seen in the Oscar-nominated film, Judas and the Black Messiah, Los Espookys (HBO), Three Busy Debras, Joe Pera Talks To You (Adult Swim) and has written for Ziwe (Showtime). ‘You don’t want to miss him before he becomes a household name’ (Time Out New York).”

WHERE: Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker Two (Venue 33) 

WHEN: 17:40 (60 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

In 2015, I was cast in this very trippy, work-in-progress, comedy-variety show that did a run in Edinburgh as part of its development. The city and the festival made such an impression on me that I’ve always wanted to return with a show of my own. Now, eight years later, I’m thrilled to be able to check that off my life’s to-do list. I haven’t before or since been in an environment where so many different styles of live performance could all be found in the same city and at the same time. While I’m very much looking forward to doing my show, I’m just as excited to see and be inspired by projects I wouldn’t normally come across in my corner of the comedy world in New York.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2022 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

The biggest thing I’ve learned is that my brain is like a sieve, unable to hold onto lessons I’ve learned for any significant amount of time. To work around this, I must constantly put myself in situations that force me to re-learn the lessons I swore I’d never forget. This is a lesson I learned in the course of answering this very question, as my first pass at it consisted of a list of lessons that were technically learned in 2022, but only because I had forgotten them at some point prior to 2022.

Tell us about your show.

“Amusements by Ikechukwu Ufomadu” is crafted from bits and material I’ve been working on at comedy shows over the past several years. This run in Edinburgh is being produced by Stamptown, helmed by Zach Zucker, and I couldn’t be more excited to be working with them. Since venues began opening up post-quarantine, Stamptown’s variety show has been one of the more consistent shows I’ve performed on, both in New York and LA, and it’s what’s colloquially referred to as “a blast”. I can always count on being completely surprised (in a good way) by some act or bit at some point during the show. Post-Fringe,

“Amusements” will have an off-Broadway run at Playwrights Horizons that kicks off in November.

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

I heartily recommend seeing Larry Owens in Larry Owens Live. His vocal chops combined with his comic sensibilities will leave you both in awe and in stitches, which is a rare combination of feelings to feel at one show. I can’t even fully pin down what makes Ruby McCollister so entertaining to watch, but I always find myself in a haze of delight after seeing her perform, so I’d advise the reader to see her show Tragedy. Martin Urbano’s Apology Comeback Show is another must-see. Such a razor sharp comic mind that’s able to make jokes in territory that would eat other comics alive. I always bust a gut when I see Patti Harrison work, so if you need a guaranteed gut-busting, make your way there. I’m also quite intrigued by Moses Storm’s Perfect Cult which promises to create, with the audience, a new cult nightly. I’m always a fan of projects that feel like a high-concept gambit.

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EdFringe Talk: June

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2023 by

“Seeing everyone on their A game promoting and performing their shows last year was a joy and we can’t wait to see what comes this year!”

WHO: Maddie Hurley

WHAT: “Billy is an ex-drag queen trying to reclaim past glory. He launches a desperate attempt to do one final performance and connect to his past, even as it tests his relationships and makes him question everything he believes in. This one-man show takes a deep dive into drag, platonic intimacy and disability. Nominated for Best Writing, Best Show, and Best Lead Actor at the Durham Drama Festival 2023.”

WHERE: Greenside @ Infirmary Street – Ivy Studio (Venue 236) 

WHEN: 12:30 (60 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

It’s the first Edinburgh Fringe for our brilliant writer Shehrzadae, along with half of our prod team. However, our director, Maddie Hurley, and lead actor, Stephen Ledger, brought a show to our same venue (Greenside, Infirmary Street) last year. The show was called Cottage. That was our first taste of the festival and taught us a lot about the process of putting on a play in such a supportive, but also saturated environment.

We loved how alive the whole city felt, with theatre going on on practically every street and corner. However, that density of opportunities to see great theatre also taught us the importance of standing out as a show. Seeing everyone on their A game promoting and performing their shows last year was a joy and we can’t wait to see what comes this year!

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2022 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

To make sure you and your team are being kind to each other and yourselves. Especially for young creatives with less experience it is easy to set impossibly high expectations for Fringe, and get upset when they aren’t lived up to.

Tell us about your show.

June premiered during the Durham Drama Festival in February 2023, with reviews praising the show for its evocative writing. We were strongly encouraged by industry professionals to take the show beyond Durham to realise its full potential. This led to the creation of our company, Gen Z Gender Collective, with the intention of spotlighting radical queer stories. After our run in Edinburgh, we will be taking the show to Theatre503 in London for two performances on the 8th and the 9th of September.

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

We love Das Weben, who’s our sister show in a way since we share some members of our team! They perform 4-19th (not 13th), at Greenside Infirmary St as well! We also love Potty the Plant and its brilliant and original puppetry. Joe Leather’s WASTEMAN is another on our to-watch list, as a fellow show about drag, but also because he’s performing in spite of a herniated disc. Love Prod’s Sing, River has caught our eye as a queer folk musical. Last but not least, we’re also really excited to see Cowboys and Lesbians!

For those looking for comedy, Sascha Lo is an amazing young comic and she’s doing a FREE show!

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EdFringe Talk: Let the Bodies Pile by Henry Naylor

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2023 by

“2022 was a bit of an aberration. It was a very strange fringe.”

WHO: Henry Naylor

WHAT: “What connects two seemingly unrelated killings, 27 years apart? In 1993, Steve’s mother dies suddenly; can he trust GP Harold Shipman’s ‘Natural Causes’ diagnosis? And in 2020, when dozens die in a Yorkshire Care Home; is Covid responsible, or something more sinister? Three-time Fringe First winner Naylor has won over 45 major international fringe theatre awards, and currently holds the IFES World’s Best Fringe Theatre title. Bobby Award-winning, and Outstanding Theatre Award-winning (Brighton Fringe) actress Emily Carding stars, and it’s directed by the SoHo Playhouse (New York)’s Artistic Director, Darren Lee Cole.”

WHERE: Gilded Balloon Teviot – Dining Room (Venue 14) 

WHEN: 16:00 (60 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Wow. I think this is my 20th Edinburgh fringe, but I’ve really lost count.

The first production I ever did, was a school play called Aphrodite, written by our English teacher, back in the late eighties. Genuinely, it was one of the most fun things I’ve done in my life. There were nine of us in the cast, and for many it was the first time we’d ever been away from home. I remember drinking alcohol for the first time, getting drunk for the first time and losing my virginity… Beat that for a first Edinburgh fringe experience.

The show was less successful however. We were in a venue miles out of town, and one night we literally played to one man and his dog.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2022 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

Not sure I learned too much from 2022. 2022 was a bit of an aberration. It was a very strange fringe. Very post-pandemic. I think last year many punters were still reluctant to sit inside crowded, sweaty rooms watching Fringe shows. Still concerned about catching Covid. Perhaps we got so used to sitting on the sofa watching box sets during the pandemic, that we had to relearn how to go out and watch live shows.

Tell us about your show.

This year’s show is called Let The Bodies Pile. I wrote it after meeting a care home nurse who told me horrific stories of conditions in the home during the Pandemic.

It was in between the two lockdowns, and she had PTSD. She’d been used to preparing one body-bag every couple of months, but suddenly, she found herself preparing five a day..
She was very honest about the mismanagement of the crisis on a governmental, institutional and personal level.

I’d never read accounts like hers in the press. Most of most of the press stories about the care homes during the pandemic were told from the perspective of the relatives of residents who’d died. I’d seen very little about the carers’ experience.

She explained that she felt that she couldn’t go to the press because if she did – and she was found out – she would lose her job. She asked me if I’d write this, but change the details so that she was unrecognisable.

I’ve obviously changed it and fictionalised it. But because of her input, the play has an authenticity, I believe, and rings true.

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

I saw Jack Doherty’s show last night, and loved it. Fabulous storytelling. It’s called ‘Jack Docherty in David Bowie and Me.’

Michelle Brasier’s show ‘Reform’ was great, too, about her grapples with a conman. Has a great voice and band, and the story’s fun.

Liz Cotton’s ‘Last Stand on Honey Hill’ is charming, and potty-mouthed, and deals with global environmental concerns on a micro-level. Lovely.

And Tom Crosbie’s ‘Actions Speak Louder Than Nerds,’ is astonishing. Does excellent Rubik’s cube tricks.

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‘Dom – The Play’ (Venue 20, until AUG 27th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2023, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“Fresh from a sell-out run in London, this Fringe transfer had the Assembly Ballroom on George Street packed out with an audience laughing from start to finish.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

If there’s one thing us Brits do well it’s political satire and this already critically acclaimed hit did not disappoint. Fresh from a sell-out run in London, this Fringe transfer had the Assembly Ballroom on George Street packed out with an audience laughing from start to finish. This slick production from Bill Kenwright and Turbine Creatives lifts the lid on the whirlwind political career of Dominic Cummings, leaving no stone unturned in the process.

Just for the record, the citizens of Barnard Castle and the employees at their local branch of Specsavers can rest easy; very early on in the show, Dom grudgingly acknowledges his infamous trip to the Teesdale town to get his eyes tested. With that safely out of the way, Dom narrates his rise to, and abrupt fall from, the Westminster merry-go-round. Chris Porter plays the title role with an assured, cynical ferocity. Cummings was never a likeable figure, but Porter raises laugh after laugh from the audience in the opening ten minutes as he reveals the dark arts of data-scraping that drove his campaigns for Vote Leave and the 2019 General Election. The scene well and truly set, there was soon a roar of recognition from the audience as Boris Johnson strode on in the shape of Tim Hudson – every inch the blustering nincompoop, from his mop of unkempt blonde hair to his flapping shirt tails. All other incidental roles were entertainingly played by Thom Tuck and Sarah Lawrie. Tuck’s mimicry of a moon-faced Michael Gove drew chuckles of recognition, whilst the mobile eyebrows of his John Prescott were an amusing reminder of what already seems like a prehistoric age in British politics. Lawrie was no less versatile, with her lightning vignettes as the late Queen and Theresa May, but the greatest howls of laughter from the Edinburgh audience came with her vivid evocation of a diminutive Nicola Sturgeon.

Over the next hour, the turbulent years of recent British political history are brilliantly portrayed as the Westminster farce they so often seemed back in the day. With a quickfire pasquinade of merciless caricatures, our political masters are lampooned and ridiculed. Like an oversized, Woosterish ringmaster, the buffoonish Johnson flails desperately to keep his government on track at the centre of things; whilst to one side of the stage, lurks Cummings, the Machiavellian puppet-master and the PM’s Svengali. It’s an amazing tradition in British political satire how much we can afterwards laugh at events that once seemed so traumatic. But laugh we did, though I can only agree with one lady behind me who chuckled to her partner over the rapturous applause at the end; “It didn’t seem quite as funny as that the time, did it?”

This show is running for the rest of the month, but I wouldn’t hang about if you want to go; I’d say it’s one of the hot tickets for this year’s Fringe. So, whether you’re from Barnard Castle or not, get your coats on and go see it! Go for the political satire. Stay to hear Cummings explain the dark arts of psephological data mining. Leave in the hope that the great British voting public will never allow itself to be fooled again.

 

‘Yoga with Jillian – A New Comedy’ (Venue 33, until AUG 28th Aug)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals 2023, Pleasance, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“…a screwball comedy that feels more like sitting in as a visitor at the yoga class from hell rather than watching a play.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

Described by producers Project Y and Richard Jordan Productions as a screwball comedy, this drama feels more like sitting in as a visitor at the yoga class from hell rather than watching a play. As the title suggests, this is quite a physical drama, not only on the part of the eponymous protagonist, but also from the seven volunteer audience members who joined her on stage to do their stuff on mats.

But Jillian is no carrot juice-drinking guru; Michole Biancosino plays her as a feisty, neurotic ex-lawyer, who uses yoga to cope (not always successfully) with her chaotic urban life. Whilst celebrity yogis like Gwyneth Paltrow may exude glamorous woo-woo tranquillity, at one with the world around her, Jillian sometimes struggles to find enough inner peace to even get along with her rival yogis. As the show progresses, the ancient Hindu fitness philosophy is used as a framework and metaphor for the ups, downs, stretches, and fine balances of Jillian’s life story. Whilst a none too perfect practitioner herself, she is a less than fully sympathetic teacher, as her passive-aggressive relationship with her “class” often shows to hilarious effect.

The seven audience members (two men, five women) who joined the class onstage lend a weirdly voyeuristic vibe to watching the show that is quite different from a normal audience experience in a theatre. At several stages, we found ourselves facing a row of seven backsides presented to us as the class bent over to touch their toes. From my front row seat, at one point I had a man’s right foot only two feet from my face as, at Jillian’s bidding, they adopted the downward-facing three-legged dog position. At the other end of the stage, a middle-aged woman in a calf-length dress had perhaps wisely turned herself to face the audience into order to more modestly point her leg upstage. It must be said that these volunteers were able to do what was asked for them without too much stress or embarrassment. (Though, if you’re going along and plan to volunteer – maybe wear leggings and have a pedicure beforehand?)

Whilst yoga itself may not be a pursuit to everyone’s taste, this show is nonetheless a quirky, ironic take on its subject, rather as I’d hoped it would be. Lia Romeo’s writing comically explores the conflict between the outwardly calm philosophy of its subject and the angst-ridden lives of some of its devotees. So, get your coats on and go see it. Go whether or not you’ve been to a yoga class before. Stay for the mat-based philosophical humour. Leave thinking about how all of that stretching and balancing helps to soothe some screwed-up lives.

 

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‘…And This Is My Friend Mr Laurel’ (Venue 33, until AUG 28th)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals 2023, Pleasance, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“There are laughs aplenty in this show, but the problems the two men faced in their personal and professional lives provide a strong undercurrent of tragedy and pathos. “

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

To draw a full house for a late morning show on the first Sunday of the Fringe bodes well for any show up here. Is it the pulling power of a performer with a successful TV career behind him, or the familiarity of the eponymous subject? Either way, ex-sitcom star Jeffrey Holland (Hi-De-Hi, You Rang, M’Lord) drew a round of applause upon his entrance as well as at the end of this entertaining one-man show in the Pleasance Courtyard Upstairs.

Set in the bedroom of a very ill and silent Oliver Hardy in the 1950s, this tragi-comic drama shows us Stan Laurel’s last visit to see his dying former screen partner. Perhaps wisely, Holland avoids a constant tribute-act impersonation of Laurel, preferring to rely for most of the performance on a more relaxed off-screen version of the legendary comedian’s persona. However, there are regular short episodes where, donning a bowler hat, Holland enacts memorable exchanges from their most successful films; and here we get a fine impression of Laurel’s absurd comic gravitas, along with Ollie’s frustratedly blustering replies.

There are laughs aplenty in this show, but the problems the two men faced in their personal and professional lives provide a strong undercurrent of tragedy and pathos. With Ollie struck dumb by a crippling stroke, it’s left to Stan to look back on the triumphs and frustrations of their Hollywood career. As anyone familiar with their work knows, those short films from their heyday in the 1930s usually portray the couple as a pair of bums down on their luck and trying to make a dime in the Depression-era USA. It’s sad to note that the reality of Hollywood at the time meant that, despite their huge success, the two actors received only comfortable salaries, rather than the mind-boggling fees that stars expect today. Laurel in particular should have been a millionaire as the scriptwriter of their immortal routines. At several points Holland breaks down to portray what must have been very a real frustration felt by Laurel upon realising how he’d been ruthlessly exploited and fleeced by the studio system of the day. As this play suggests, the familiar trope of the melancholy behind the comic mask is very real – Tears of a Clown, indeed.

As is also quite well known, both men had chequered personal lives involving multiple and often disastrous marriages. This introduces more light and shade, with Holland movingly contrasting happy memories of love and romance, soon clouded over by the dark shadows of some messy divorces. Was there even a hint of mutual resentment between the two? Though a passive stooge on screen, Laurel was the leader behind the scenes, slaving at his typewriter and thrashing out deals with the studios whilst “Babe” (Ollie) spent his days on the golf course.

This already popular how runs until the end of the month, so get your coats on and go see it! Go to see a telly star play a film star. Stay to laugh at the jokes then cry along with Stan’s tears. Leave with the thought that screen laughter is often dearly bought by those whose lives are devoted to entertaining us.

‘Edgar Allan Poe: The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ (Venue 53, until AUG 26th)

Posted in 3*, EdFestivals 2023, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“…a slick performance in which his character exudes the gravitas required of a predecessor to Sherlock Holmes, often giving light relief with heavily-accented asides that veer towards the comic buffoonery of Inspector Clouseau.”

Editorial Rating: 3 Stars (Nae Bad)

Often described as the first modern detective story, Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 classic overlaps with the horror genre as the mystery at its heart unfolds. This is a welcome stage adaptation of the tale that introduced the world to the French sleuth Auguste Dupin.

Actors Darren Haywood and James Nicholas present us with a straightforward two-hander in a black box setup with minimal scenery. Haywood as Dupin delivers a slick performance in which his character exudes the gravitas required of a predecessor to Sherlock Holmes, often giving light relief with heavily-accented asides that veer towards the comic buffoonery of Inspector Clouseau. For such a dark tale, there were often moments when the audience chuckled at episodes of quickfire banter onstage. One such particularly engaging passage portrayed a police officer interviewing a succession of witnesses to the eponymous murders. In a cross-channel double act of gallic repartee, Nicholas played the investigating gendarme, while the elastic-faced Haywood adopted a lively comic sequence of caricatures of low-life Parisians.

Nonetheless, I’m afraid I struggle to give this production and its cast the four-star review that parts of it deserve. Overall the play depended rather too heavily on narration and exposition, such as the reading aloud of an explanatory newspaper article. Stage adaptations of literary works can be very engrossing, but to avoid the feel of a radio play this show needs a little more physicality, business with props and costumes, and more imaginative use of the set, however basic it may be. Leaving the denouement to narration backed by sound effects rather emphasises the audio character of this production.

The performance I saw was the first of a month-long run, which I hope will give the cast the opportunity to work up a little more visual action into what is a potentially gripping drama.
That said, both cast members are appearing in other shows at the Fringe this year, including an adaptation of a Conan Doyle story featuring Dupin’s immortal literary successor: Sherlock Holmes, in The Speckled Band. Coming down at well under an hour, this show is suited to those who like their entertainment traditional and on the literary side. So get your coats on and go see this. Come for the classic detective tale that fired the starting gun for a whole genre. Stay for the gallic repartee. Leave to investigate clues in the Fringe brochure that will lead you to discover The Speckled Band!

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‘Casting the Runes’ (Venue 33, until AUG 27th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2023, Pleasance, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“We quickly left the outside daylight behind for a haunting and foreboding vibe whose icy fingers crept into every corner of the auditorium from the outset..”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Fans of the classic ghost stories of M R James will be familiar with the TV adaptations that grace our screens each Christmas. Now, here in Edinburgh, on a deceptively sunny lunchtime, the chilling horror of one of his best tales is vividly brought to life in close-up.

The Box Tale Soup theatre company faithfully reflect the master storyteller’s art in lifting his chilling tale off the page and onto the stage. We quickly left the outside daylight behind for a haunting and foreboding vibe whose icy fingers crept into every corner of the auditorium from the outset. The story itself is classic James: the safe, scholarly world of academe gradually subverted by the creeping menace of some much older, darker force that belongs between the pages of dusty medieval tomes rather than modern textbooks.

A cast of two are aided by some skilful use of puppetry for minor characters, including the decidedly creepy Mr Karswell. Noel Byrne, who looks suitably like Peter Cushing’s worrisome young brother, plays Professor Dunning, an academic with an interest in the occult. With the help of a new acquaintance, he explores a number of mysterious messages and a weird picture that seems to have a life of its own. Antonia Christophers, who plays the acquaintance, does a nice line in quivering fear and wide-eyed terror, as well as operating and voicing the often unsettling mannequins. A simple set is put to effective use, evoking a suitably Edwardian gothic vibe, with door handles that seem to turn themselves, creaking hinges, and a swirling mist worthy of any Hammer horror. No spoilers here, but there was a sudden lighting reveal that made the two ladies behind me audibly squeak as they jumped in their seats. A coup de theatre, that – you seldom get those sitting in your armchair at home.

The sense of fear so skilfully manipulated by James and the cast of this play echoes similar feelings evoked by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, some telling lines from which are quoted at one point:

“Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And, having once turned round walks on
And never turns his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread…”

I know I was not the only one in today’s audience who felt the tingling anticipation of a disembodied tap on the shoulder at certain points during the show.

Situated in a venue that’s part of the popular and lively Pleasance Courtyard complex, the haunting quality of this show is emphasised all the more as you emerge at the end into the contrasting, unfamiliar daylight. Though, this being Edinburgh, the leaden skies were throwing down a moribund shower of rain in ironic tribute. So get your coats on and go see this! Come to see a tale by a master storyteller. Stay for the creepy puppets and creaky hinges. Leave safe in the knowledge that no ghosts will follow you home in the daylight as you head off for lunch.

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EdFringe Talk: Lipote: An Interconnected Journey

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2023 by

“You should be prepared to constantly change and edit any production to make it ready for a performing somewhere such as Fringe.”

WHO: Oliver Farrow

WHAT: “A new UV opera-musical told from the roots of trees about the impact of intensive agriculture on forest systems. Inspired by the ongoing problems surrounding deforestation and palm oil monoculture in Borneo, it tells the story of a rainforest as it struggles to find help in the soils around its home, after the root system suffers the effects of a devastating storm. Based on the research of anthropologists, scientists and naturalists into forests and plantations and written in collaboration with UK ecologists this show explores issues that are important and relevant to us all.”

WHERE: C ARTS | C venues | C aurora – main house (Venue 117) 

WHEN: 13:20 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is our first time performing at the Fringe and every member of our team is feeling excited, nervous and thrilled to be part of this global arts festival and to see other people’s work. The diversity on offer, makes more experimental shows such as ours fit well into the whole programme. We recently performed this work at Nozstock Festival 2023, which is predominantly a live and dance music festival. The audience there were great but certainly did not expect to be experiencing opera and we hope with our blend of subject matter, design and musical influences that me might also be able to capture the attention of some non opera goers in Edinburgh. We are also aware we will learn so much from being able to participate in this Festival and it will help to build and bond us as a company at such an early stage in our development.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2022 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

In the last year we have worked hard on the piece and learnt that you should be prepared to constantly change and edit any production to make it ready for a performing somewhere such as Fringe. We have showcased the work to a couple of audiences to gather feedback and understand where we needed to make changes. We have also included the music of the talented Leon Trimble, an expert in all things modular synthesiser, who will be performing with a plant alongside the opera. We have learnt that this topic is ceaselessly relevant to all our lives, even though it seems disconnected from us, and we hope that we are doing it some justice in our show.

Tell us about your show.

This show was written by myself (composer Oliver Farrow) and librettist Roxanne Korda. We began working on it during lockdown in 2020 and have been slowly but steadily developing it since then, bringing Wanshu Li (designer) and Jingya Peng (choreographer) on board. Our company Shaky Crown Collective is a result of this collaboration, the name being taken from the first line of the script.

The show itself is an exploration of different types of forest systems. We have focused primarily on the impact of deforestation due to palm plantation in Borneo and other areas. The story is told by the roots of trees as they traverse different soils to find help outside of their home. The music is unique and eclectic with influences ranging from opera, to musical theatre, to pop, to world music. The set and costumes are all designed to work under black light (UV).

This show is really a one off and not like any “opera” you will have seen before.

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

A local company to us – RoguePlay – will also be performing a work about deforestation (although not from the perspective of the soil). They are a physical theatre circus who will be performing at C Venues as well.

I would also recommend Amy Webber’s stand up show No Previous Experience that is partly about having an opera degree which hasn’t yet been useful for her… I met her when she performed at The Glee Club in Birmingham last month.

We enjoyed seeing Lachlan Werner – Voices Of Evil at Nozstock Festival last month, and recommend their high energy and absurd.

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