The Dramaturgy of Moistly Hollow: Marc Wall @ Edfringe 2017

THE GHOSTS OF

MOISTLY HOLLOW

A DAFT MUSICAL COMEDY ABOUT GHOSTS, MONSTERS, LOST LOVES, MEN IN LINGERIE AND GIN.

In 1851, Lord Beauford returns to his ancestral home on the border between England and Scotland. With him he brings his secretary, several crates of gin and a terrible family secret that would awaken dark and sinister forces within the old Mansion...

Tuesday 15th August, until Tuesday 22nd August 2017

  17:45 - 18:45

Maggie's Chamber @ The Three Sisters, 139 Cowgate, Edinburgh.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

A never-ending, childish obsession with Ghost Stories,  most importantly the British ones.  That, and wanting to sing songs in lingerie...

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

For 'telling stories' and the ideas and themes they contain, I think it is one of the finest and most entertaining ways of securely handing our culture and heritage to the next generation, reacquainting ourselves with 'who we are and where we've come from', as well as allowing other cultures to experience and enjoy it, too.  

How did you become interested in making performance?

As a child at my Grandmother's Sunday family meals, it was sadly missing the important element of cross-dressing, shouting and showing off; so my cousin and I would write and star in plays, using my 3 cousins and 2 siblings to strut and fret upon Grandma's faded shag. 

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

Beer, cigarettes and the Spectre of everything going tragically wrong. When that unholy trinity are in place; it's sweatily bashing out tunes on the piano, having a notepad and pen in every room (just in case you come up with an idea at 3am, whilst perched on porcelain). 

If I can make myself chuckle with an idea whilst damp-proofing the cellar, or make myself cry at a song I've created whilst tinkling the ivories, I'll know that the skeleton of the piece is forming. then its just lots lots more beer and cigarettes (naughty) in front of the PC, 'til its fleshed out.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

I've been incredibly lucky to have been part of the creative team behind LetLuce, who always do rather splendidly at The Fringe- their shows are so beautifully absurd, observed and so irreverent. The Ghosts of Moistly Hollow's narrative isn't surreal, but the elements that bring the story to life are. It's bloody strange and bloody good fun.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

A feeling that they have been thoroughly entertained by a bald chap in lingerie singing songs, playing with a puppet, and being spooky and scary. There's no profound message to the show, just harmless, funny hokum. 

Or, I wish to press upon the gathered crowd that the folklore, legends and myths of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales is part of our lifeblood as a storytelling, experiential, influencing  quadruple-countried nation, under our British flag. Maybe.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

Narcissistic as it is, I created it with the theatrical bits and bobs that I would have wanted to have seen in a show by me: singing, costumes, special effects, gayness and some good old nonsense. 

Get Egg Productions presents the world premiere of The Ghosts of Moistly Hollow, a mini-musical comedy written by and starring Marc Wall, who makes his Edinburgh Fringe debut.

 In 1851, the gin-swilling, cross dressing, bald and brash (yet quite tuneful) aristocrat, Lord Beauford, along with his loyal secretary (the highly-strung and thoroughly   nervous) Mrs Dandridge, make their way from London to his family estate on the border between Scotland and England; for the first time in in twenty years. Over the coming days it becomes frighteningly clear that the terrible legends Lord Beauford was told as a child are true: ghosts, monsters and a tragic family curse.

Throughout these sinister events, his Lordship must contend with his grief at the loss of his lover, Kenneth; disappearing bottles of gin, his secret love of lingerie and the ever-increasing paranoia of Mrs Dandridge, who is convinced that evil lurks around every corner...

Taking its inspiration from Victorian ghost stories by authors such as Edgar Allen Poe, M R James and modern horror writers such as Susan Hill, infused with the spirit of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the anarchy of television’s Green Wing and Bottom; The Ghosts of Moistly Hollow is a creepy, queer and hilariously chaotic mini-musical.

ABOUT THE SHOW’S CREATOR

 An alumnus of the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), whose prolific past students include David Suchet (Poirot), Jim Broadbent (Bridget Jones), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave) and Anthony Stewart Head (Buffy The Vampire Slayer); Marc Wall makes his Edinburgh debut with his original new mini-musical, The Ghosts of Moistly Hollow. His previous acting experience the titular character in the UK premiere of celebrated writer, Tony Kushner's Hydriotaphia-or the Death of Dr. Browne; as Gordon Brown in Stiffed (written by The Sun's Clodagh Hartley and The Metro's John Higginson) and most recently as the voice of Anthony Hopkins and God in LetLuce's Edinburgh shows Show Pony and Seamen: A Naval Tale.

As part of the creative team behind LetLuce, whose hilarious Edinburgh Shows have consistently received outstanding reviews and award nominations at the Fringe and all over the UK, his show The Ghosts of Moistly Hollow follows in their tradition of farce, absurdity and heart-breaking pathos.