“There’s probably a lesson in there somewhere but I have no idea what it is.”
WHO: Emily Steel
WHAT: “It’s 2001. A naive young Australian actor arrives in New York. One man plays twenty-eight characters in this heartbreakingly funny award-winning play about 9/11 and chasing your dreams. Twenty-five years after September 11 changed the world, performer James Smith transforms from a hopeful Aussie to a weary New York lawyer to a British compulsive liar (to name a few), in a fragmented story inspired by playwright Emily Steel’s real-life experiences. ‘Beautifully told, deeply resonant’ ***** (List). ‘Go see it and take all of your friends’ ***** (GlamAdelaide.com.au).”
WHERE: Former Gents Locker Room at Summerhall (Venue 26)
WHEN: 21:20 (60 min)
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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
It’s not my first time – my first time in Edinburgh was a long, long time ago when I was considering whether or not to apply to drama school. I came to Edinburgh as a performer in a show and had all the rite-of-passage experiences – audiences smaller than the cast, cringeworthy flyering, everyone falling out by the end of the season. I made a deal with myself that if I survived it and still wanted to be an actor I’d audition for drama school. I did survive it, did audition, went to drama school… then moved to New York three weeks before 9/11 with no plan and no work visa. Twenty years later I wrote a play about that experience and now I’m back in Edinburgh with that play, How Not to Make it in America. There’s probably a lesson in there somewhere but I have no idea what it is.
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2025 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
Everything is a roll of the dice. Everything. You just can’t know how things are going to play out – you can have the best plan in the world and then find yourself thrown into chaos by something completely unexpected. I think over the last twelve months I’ve got more comfortable with just doing things and seeing what happens.
Tell us about your show.
How Not to Make it in America is a funny, moving, one-man show about a naive, young Australian actor who moves to New York to try and make it there – but then 9/11 happens and he finds himself working illegally in a video store. I wrote it, it’s inspired by my own experiences back when I was a young, naive Welsh actor in New York, before I became a playwright and moved to Australia. It won the House of Oz Purse Prize at this year’s Adelaide Fringe and House of Oz is presenting it in Edinburgh with Theatre Republic, the independent South Australian company that commissioned it. Corey McMahon, who directed the show, commissioned it from me when he was Artistic Director of Theatre Republic, and we developed it with James Smith, the actor who plays the protagonist, Matt – and twenty-seven other characters. It premiered in Adelaide in 2001. Last year I took over as Artistic Director of Theatre Republic and brought How Not to Make it in America to this year’s Adelaide Fringe. It’s been nominated for the Fringe Encore Series at SoHo Playhouse in New York, and we’ll be over the moon if we can get it there next.
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
See everything brought over by House of Oz – including musical comedy Fuccbois, which won the Purse Prize at Adelaide Fringe along with How Not to Make it in America, and Ten Thousand Hours by Gravity and Other Myths, an astonishing circus company that’s come out of Adelaide. And see these shows by our fellow Adelaideans: Meteors by the CRAM Collective at Summerhall, and Dust by Charlaina Thompson at The Pleasance. They’re award-winning plays from the other side of the world, so go check them out!
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