“It took a very long time to acknowledge how oversubscribed I already was as a mother to two young children, an immigrant and a self-reliant person.”
WHO: Anu Vaidyanathan
WHAT: “This is a show about Anu Vaidyanathan’s recent revelation – that shrouds have no pockets. Like Noah’s Ark taking the best pair of every species, this show unpicks the best of each season of life – work, marriage, having kids and then post-mortems them into a little menagerie. While pulling her own teeth out over frozen shoulders, diminishing bank accounts and sanity, Anu decants the things she carries with her when on the brink. If only to help her see life for what it is – a giant, unavoidable wedgie.”
WHERE: Gilded Balloon Patter House – The Penny (Venue 24)
WHEN: 17:00 (60 min)
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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
This is my third year and I am none the richer (I was going for the ‘sixpence none the richer’ situation). I am a comedian first and foremost but, I managed to take in a few theatre shows last year. I really enjoyed them and filed them away for later reference. What makes the Fringe special is that there is a variety of art forms one can witness – street theatre, clowning, spoken word. I think this festival is great because it brings to gather so many acts from so many countries so it is a month of great discovery, learning and assimilation. I have experienced this as a performer and producer and feel that if one can lean into the work, there is a lot to be gained. There are negative experiences too but, contextualising them becomes easier when you look at the distance you travel as an artist in those very small number of weeks/days/hours.
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2023 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
Menagerie is a play that I wrote due to a traumatic incident I went through in 2022. It took a very long time to acknowledge how oversubscribed I already was as a mother to two young children, an immigrant and a self-reliant person. Since 2023, the only learning I have really cemented is to acknowledge the present moment and meet it well so that we can build towards anything small or big, personal or professional. I think we live in a world obsessed with discount coupons and the future. The first lesson I had to re-learn since the time I was an athlete is that there are no short cuts. I also invested more in creating spaces and time for myself, which is a hard lesson but a necessary one. It has made me more productive and partially saner to have done that.
Tell us about your show.
This is a one-woman show, written and performed by me. I dont have a lot of bells and whistles. I took a lot of inspiration from Simon Stephen’s ‘Seawall’ in terms of minimalism of staging and focus on the words, the pauses and the emotion we are trying to convey. One-person shows are very limiting in the number of devices one can use outside clever sound design and lighting and with very few resources those two things are hard to achieve. So, I took the road of discovery and play. I have been dying to write a theatre piece and this subject matter just did not work as a standup comedy hour. I would have preferred to have more characters but as someone intelligent said, plot requires budget. Besides the Fringe is supposed to be a place to flop, discover and re-write so, I remain curious about the process.
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
I am eager to see the entire program at Traverse and Summerhall. I watched the brilliant Hannah Maxwell there last year and thought their programming is brilliant. I would love to watch ‘One in a Chameleon’ by Narie Foster, 16 postcodes by Jessica Raegan, and 300 paintings by Sam Kissajukian.
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