“We cannot wait to immerse ourselves in the world of Fringe and experience all the new, devised and DIY theatre on offer – as well as share our own!”
WHO: Oliver Ellard
WHAT: “Tellus Theatre presents Night Train, an exciting physical-theatre production. This philosophical comedy revolves around Maia, who wakes at the rear of a mysterious train and befriends a chorus of merry morons. But journeying through countless carriages, curious characters, and confusing signage, Maia and her unruly troupe seek answers to questions like: Who’s driving? How do we get off this train? And most importantly… What is the true magic in a sandwich? Exploring this strange world through slapstick comedy, puppetry and occasional tumultuous chaos, this show is a must-see for anyone who adores or abhors trains!”
WHERE: theSpace @ Venue45 – theSpace @ Venue 45 (Venue 45)
WHEN: 12:45 (60 min)
MORE: Click Here!
Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
Night Train is Tellus’ first production and Edinburgh is our first fringe. So we are doubly excited to be here and share with you what we’ve been working on this past year. When we committed to working together and developing Night Train in the Autumn of 2023 we wanted to make our first step a big one, and no step, for us, could be bigger than Edinburgh. Throughout our training together we spent a lot of time devising original theatre from the ground up, facilitating every aspect of the show from script, to tech, music and choreo. We deepened our love for the process of creating and performing original theatre as well as watching other performances created by our peers. I believe this is why we are all so excited to experience Fringe for the first time, some of us have had the privilege to visit Edinburgh during Fringe time in previous years and others, such as myself, have never been able to make the trip up there. We cannot wait to immerse ourselves in the world of Fringe and experience all the new, devised and DIY theatre on offer – as well as share our own!
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2023 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
The process of creating and producing Night Train has been one huge learning experience for all of us at Tellus. When we embarked on this journey as a fledgling company I’m not sure a single one of us had any idea what it would take to get our show over the line. Looking back to September, when we started, I think we were overly ambitious, overly confident and unaware of what we were getting ourselves into. However, sitting here now, I think that the major lesson I have learned is aim high and be overly ambitious! If you shoot for the stars you might only make it to the moon, but if you only ever aim for the moon you can never make it higher than that.
Beyond growing as performers and creatives, we’ve had fundraising, planning, company administration and all the other elements required to run a theatre company. I know for a fact that the challenges we’ve encountered on the road to Edinburgh have really helped us bridge the gap from being students to professionals. Every setback is a learning opportunity and lord knows we will face countless ‘learning opportunities’ when we have boots on the ground in Scotland!
Tell us about your show.
Our show Night Train only began to see the light of day when Tellus formed as a company, before then it had been my personal writing passion project. Tellus really formed on a basis of mutual admiration and respect, very much a “I like your art, you like my art, we should make art together!” moment, giving birth to Tellus as it stands today. After an initial exploratory period where we investigated what kind of theatre we wanted to make and our values we began searching for our debut show. Some members of the company were already aware of Night Train and pushed me to pitch to the gang, the rest, so to speak, is history.
Night Train is truly a quarter life crisis show, exploring the rapidly changing world young people are being raised in and what it means to be successful in this age. The play also deals with other themes like death, acceptance and grief (I promise it really is a comedy, or at least I hope it is because we did try to make it funny). The writing process for me was extremely cathartic and I hope some of the perspectives shared in the show will bring comfort and joy to audience members as they have to me. We are so proud to be debuting at TheSpace in Edinburgh this year, and for anyone who can’t make it we also have a date on the 20th of August at the Camden Fringe!
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
As East15 graduates we would highly recommend anyone at the festival to see all of the other unbelievably talented performers and creators to come out of Southend! If you want to learn more about the queer dating scene in Edinburgh look no further than the hilarious Three Bed No Living Room produced by our friends Laldie Theatre! For any football fans out there check out Off The Bench, inspired by the Lioness’ World Cup campaign and made by PIAP Theatre. I also must recommend A Brief Case of Crazy, which I was lucky enough to see a scratch version of before they graduated, an awesome and imaginative physical comedy put on by Skedaddle Theatre! Other productions we have been lucky enough to encounter on the road to fringe are Good Boy by James Farley (also on at TheSpace!) and Galentines Day from Ruckus Theatre Company, both of which are telling interesting and important stories deserving of your support!
LIKE WHAT YOU JUST READ? FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! OR SIGN UP TO OUR MAILING LIST!
INTERESTED IN BEING INTERVIEWED TOO? CLICK HERE!
Get Your Coats On 