Impact Dramaturgy: Jonathon Carr @ Edfringe 2018

Impact

How would define the political content of your work?

(Modern) Politics, to me, is all about who has power, who has a voce and who gets heard. Impact is all about that whose voices you pay attention to which you give credence to. At the heart of it lies this mystery of the nature of the crime that our guilty agent has committed and trying to understand the motivations and ideologies that have driven the guilty to their terrible crime. Key to the piece is this very human desire to 

whilst the audience is driven by the central mystery of the crime, the how and the why,

Impact has politics at its heart, the political machination of control is key to the piece. How an individual can take over and control others. The drive for control and political power is important to how and why the crime takes place.

are there ways in which your work can engage the audience beyond the immediate emotional rush of the content, and move forward towards further action?

I think that emotional rush is so important. We don’t make decisions purely based on logic and facts and dissonant biases show that even when our beliefs are shown to be false we cling to them. So I think it’s important to make sure that there is that emotional connection. That you make audiences feel and engage with the work. Impact offers more than just one story, both that of the guilty and the voices of the victim. As the audience follow this story of manipulation and control and how we finally ended up at this terrible crime from a place of innocence.



I’m hoping that the story will help the audience see how deceit and the hunger for control can infiltrate a good cause and turn it into something terrible. The topic of toxic masculinity is one that is finally starting to get the attention and consideration that it deserves, both in the press and online. This need to be dominant, these expressions of anger and the dangers when emotions are given no other outlet than this toxic expression of gender.

how do the material conditions of the Fringe impact on your work?

Scarcity is a central aspect of the Fringe, super-short get in times, limited storage space, tight budgets. With all these constraints on the physical production, the text and story are always placed centre stage. I think Fringe audiences recognise and are sympathise with those challenges.


We always create our work with an eye on its future life with an aim to tour it later. There’s always a discussion after Edinburgh about redesigning the show to add back in the elements of production that didn’t make the cut.


What we’re excited about with this show is that with only one actor, his suitcase and a bundle of letters we can take our show with multiple stories anywhere with ease.


And that there’s only one cast member has made for a very happy producer...