“For the past two years, every time we’ve done this show at least one person has told us it belongs in the Edinburgh Fringe. It feels like it’s time.”
WHO: Sarah Norcross
WHAT: “Faustine: A Dissertation. A Confession. A Mental Breakdown. Faustine is excited to share her dissertation with you, but all is not what it seems. She’s sold her soul to the devil in exchange for her brilliant thesis. Faustine lied, cheated and murdered to get here, and she won’t go back. This solo musical critique of academia, ambition and class (coming to you from a sold-out NYC run) is equal parts Xiu Xiu and Sondheim, Heathers and Hedda Gabler, pedestrian and academic, and hilarious and horrifying.”
WHERE: Theatre 3 at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall (Venue 53)
WHEN: On Demand (50 min)
MORE: Click Here!
Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
Yes, this is both my and my collaborator, Lydia Brinkmann’s, first time to Edinburgh. We have lots of experience in smaller festivals in the U.S., including several cities’ fringe festivals, but Edinburgh has been a long-time dream for both of us. We met studying abroad together in Moscow, so we consider our friendship and collaboration to be an international one. The chance to travel across the Atlantic to make art together again is one that fills our hearts. Plus, for the past two years, every time we’ve done this show at least one person has told us it belongs in the Edinburgh Fringe. It feels like it’s time.
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2024 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
We’ve learned to ask for what we want – not just from other people but from ourselves. Faustine, at its core, is about a woman who has chosen to stop believing in herself. She thinks that she needs to hand over her personhood in order to succeed because she doesn’t know what she contains within herself. She’s been so burned and so jaded that she forgets that all her previous success came from within and from asking of the world. I like to think that both Lydia and I know to ask others, and we’ve learned how often they say yes. And we’ve learned how to ask more of ourselves than we previously thought was possible. Ask and you shall receive.
Tell us about your show.
Lydia Brinkmann and Sarah Norcross started writing Faustine in 2023 while Sarah was drowning in graduate school. From the small seed of, “What if a graduate student sold her soul to the Devil”, it’s grown into something that makes audiences squirm, laugh, and cry. It was a cathartic process, a love letter to the hardworking, burned-out, overlooked women they knew (and were), and a bundle of laughs. Faustine dives into questions of privilege, desperation, and guilt as they apply to women who long for greatness.
The music picks up from all of their favorite genres and has been described as “Fiona Apple meets Richard Wagner” and “Sondheim…Loyd Webber… and Tim Rice”. You have to hear it to understand.
They first produced a 30-minute version at The Tank NYC, followed by a sold-out, hour-long version at AdultFilm NYC. The show got tighter, funnier, scarier, and messier in all the right ways as it grew. They just finished a run in Cincinnati (Lydia’s hometown) with rave reviews, where, for the first time, both Lydia and Sarah split the role. There are tasty morsels of both Sarah and Lydia in the character that make her the favorite role either of them has ever played. They got called a “full-blown musical exorcism”. What they’re exorcising personally is yet to be disclosed.
Up next, they’re taking the show to Philadelphia, where Sarah got her BFA and started to understand everything that theater could be.
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
You should go see more musicals by and about angry women! We’re particularly excited for Mary, Queen of Rock, I Was a Teenage She-Devil, and Remember That Time? All three of those shows sound like they’ll tap into the catharsis that we want to experience.
We’re excited for queer shows such as The Pink List, because we’re pretty sure that the best theatre will always be made by our queer comrades.
Finally, we can’t wait for Setlzer Boy because its premise sounds truly unique and because we’re such fans of Connor McKenna.
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