JackinaBox

Jackinbox are a young company - last year was their first Fringe - but they are backing up their vision of energetic theatre with two shows for 2012 that are full of intensity and passion. 99.9 Degrees is presumably an allusion to the moment before the water hits boiling point, and Moliere's Don Juan suggests that there's life in the old fox's tales of seduction yet. John Askew took some time to explain how he hopes that Jackinabox can survive the Fringe, and bring those predictable promises to life.

In all honesty the Fringe doesn't present the greatest environment for performers. The late night social aspects, the 10 hours flyering, and the want to see as much as you can makes it difficult to perform to the highest standard every night. It takes much more stamina than a normal 30 night run, both vocally and physically. So in that its a challenge. But one which is achieved by thriving on the atmosphere, being more creative and experimental than ever with both the show and advertising, and ultimately the adrenaline of the festival is something which is very addictive.  Everyone who does the full run of the fringe will find that the first week in September is almost a right off - you crash hard. 

The approach taken to the shows have been very difficult. Don Juan is a text based approach used when creating work in the past, whereas 99.9 Degrees is something created from character driven Physical Theatre, Improvisation and Devising. Because the approaches have been very different, they two shows ultimately say different things about the company. 99.9 Degrees has been worked using an approach we have wanted to use for a long time. Essentially being playful with theatre, and with no constraints we have created something which is very free and often catches the audience off guard. Don Juan suggests the company's commitment to text. Commitment in a way that allows us to put our style on an old legend, presenting this hedonist in a way we don't think anyone else has done. 

The festival itself has had a big influence on our work this year, from some if the things we saw last year. You can afford to be very different in Edinburgh, and designing work for the Fringe audience is very different from designing work for touring. That's not to say we have undermined our work in anyway, but we have created two one hour long shows perfect for the fringe audience. Young contemporary theatre has played a big role in our development so far, in that we are aiming to create work that catches the audience off guard, entertains them, and ultimately gets them to think about how theatre should be presented. In that, we look to develop either told work in a very different way, or create completely new work from our own experiences. 99.9 Degrees for example is based around memories, memories which stem from the casts experiences.  

For us it isn't a case of physical theatre fitting in. We see physical theatre as synonymous with the text, in that it is just another given circumstance (directed or choreographed movement) that the character must feel completely natural doing. We often work with layers. So the first layer is the movement, the second layer is the relationship between these characters and how that contributes to the movement, and the third layer is how the character influences the movement. When choreographing, we often start with the gesture, enlarge it into more 'elaborate' movement, and then its stems from something natural in that character. Personally I think there is nothing more exciting that explosive physical theatre, because it allows you to look at emotion, relationship, and exploration of character in a very different way. One in which each audience member can take something different from it.  

The audience can expect theatre full of those cliche buzz words - engaging, exciting, unique even? In total honesty they can expect to be entertained, and see things that they will remember amidst the wealth of great theatre at the Fringe. They will be challenged as to how they think theatre should be, and won't for a moment be thinking about anything else than what is happening on the stage. Holly Kendrick (ISDF) told me last year that the most engaging theatre 'gets off the train'. Its logical but it isn't what the audience expected to happen. That is very much about what Don Juan and 99.9 Degrees are about.       

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2012 

1st - 27 August

C eca

'99.9 degrees' 17.30 (1h)

'Don Juan' 18.45 (1h)