“The process of making this show is one giant learning curve and I think it’s only going to get steeper going into the festival.”
WHO: Jessica Regan
WHAT: “Twenty years, 16 postcodes, one city. In her debut storytelling show, Jessica Regan (BBC, Channel 4, Guilty Feminist) shares lessons lived and learned from a life in no particular order. Each show is drawn from true tales of love and landlords, of mice and men and more, told with help from the audience who will play their part in her odyssey as she moves North, South, East and West, finding out which is best. This is a journey through an impenetrable city with an all-too-open heart. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you rent cos you can’t afford to buy…”
WHERE: Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker One (Venue 117)
WHEN: 15:30 (60 min)
MORE: Click Here!
Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
I’ve been to the fringe many times as a student, improviser, punter, actor…my first time was in 2001 in a devised student production and I had the time of my life despite living on sliced pan and cereal and playing to audiences in single digits. Being able to access theatre and dance and cabaret and everything else day and night, it was like Christmas every day. I went back in 2008 with an improv show and that was tough… I think that was the Edinburgh people got actual Trench foot it rained so much. My third time was in 2012, in a terrific show, ‘Coalition’ written by Tom Salinsky and Rober Khan. Third time was a charm! It was a really special show and cast and a hard act to follow, I’ve only been back since as a punter. But the idea of this ’16 Postcodes’ wouldn’t leave me alone and so the only thing for it was to go as writer-performer. So 2024 is the big one for me!
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2023 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
With the Writers and Actors Strike coming so soon after the pandemic on top of the continual gutting of the Arts under the Tories I’ve learned that finding different ways to tell stories or give yourself any kind of autonomy in your creative process has gone from preferable to essential.
The process of making this show is one giant learning curve and I think it’s only going to get steeper going into the festival. I’ve learned there’s no such thing as a solo show. This is the most daunting thing I’ve ever undertaken creatively but it’s so much more fun than it has any right to be because of my amazing collaborators.
Tell us about your show.
16 Postcodes is a deeply personal storytelling show comprising of monologues drawn from my real-life city stories of love and landlords, of mice and men, and everything else besides…I had the idea for the show when I totted up all the places I’d lived hence the title. I was telling my good friend Tom Salinsky about it in a pub in Camden one Sunday as we often bounce ideas around-one of which led to our podcast ‘Best Pick’- and he offered to produce it much to my surprised delight and take it to Edinburgh and it all just went from there. I did a play last year (‘Strike!’ at the Southwark Playhouse) and worked with a fantastic movement director, Ira Mandela Siobhan so I asked him to work with us and was thrilled when he said yes. My genius sister Claire Regan is composing the music, a brilliant actor I lived with Ruth Everett is doing the artwork and I’ve enlisted associate artists such as writer and auteur Joy Wilkinson and comedian and sketch artist Sean Burke to consult on the text…bringing so many people I admire to work on one project has been the best part so far.
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
Please check out the utterly brilliant Sean Burke and his show ‘Burke in Progress’ for Just the Tonic at the Caves. I saw a preview of Joe Sellman-Leava’s latest show ‘It’s the Economy, Stupid!’ and it’s an excellent, salient show. The Guilty Feminist with the luminous Deborah Frances-White at the Gilded Balloon, 12-14th of August is your best bet for guaranteed laughs and riveting chat and performances. I see the legendary Jo Caulfield every time I’m in Edinburgh, she’s a masterclass in comedy. Her show ‘Pearls Before Swine’ at The Stand 3 this year.
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