My Dramaturgy is Irrelevant: Matthew Hall @ Edfringe 2017

My Name is Irrelevant 

Assembly Rooms 

3pm, 5-13, 15-20, 22-28 August

Preview 3 & 4 August

Old slides are populated by every person one man has ever met, ‘He’ is caught in the obsessive minutiae of hair colours and how They drink their tea. Part confessional, part poetry; we slowly untangle threads of thought.

Assembly Roxy Theatre Development Award finalist and Fringe First winning cast-member Matthew Hall brings a brand new solo show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year: My Name is Irrelevant. Grown from a single poem written at his lowest point, and developed in spoken word nights across Edinburgh, Matthew explores how our mental health is affected by the pace of life today. 

 

My Name Is Irrelevant Assembly Hall, 3pm daily, 3-13, 15-20, 22-28 August
Previews: 3 & 4 August (£7.50)
Price: £9/£8 - £11/£10

Age info: 14+ 

What was the inspiration for this performance?

My Name Is Irrelevant started off as a single 3 minute spoken word piece that I performed at a slam in Edinburgh. After the performance I spoke with a friend about the themes in the piece, mental health and the feeling of isolation and loneliness. From this I was spurred on to write more on the subject using my own personal experiences. This materialised into a full length piece. As a subject I think it is important to be spoken about and discussed. 

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

Yes. Performances allow people to escape and see things from a different perspective. They might not agree with what they are watching but performance can spark debate. Performance still has the ability to make people think and question their own world, whilst being an entertaining piece of theatre. Theatres are also one of the few remaining spaces where people are taken away from their social media and hectic world, and allowed to spend focused time watching and thinking Unfortunately most shows during the fringe don't have the time/opportunity to have a post show discussion but these are great in opening up discussions.

How did you become interested in making performance?
I have been an actor for the past 20 years and it has been something that has always interested me. In the past few years I have become more interested in creating my own work as it allows you to speak about exactly what you want to. The key to any performance is making it entertaining and watchable, but by producing your own work it allows you to talk about the subjects that you believe are important.

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

The script was written and refined over the last few years, using open mic spoken word events to test material. Then there was a week of development with a musician which was exciting as it was also when the idea was tested to see if it worked. Then there was a 2 week rehearsal period. 

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

This is the first full length script that I have written and performed. Over the past few years I have been working more with physical theatre and puppetry but I have worked as a performer in a variety of different styles and techniques. This show is a bit of a voyage into the unknown. Finding out whether the concept for the show works and what audiences make of it will not be apparent until the audiences come in. And unlike a lot of the work I have done, a lot of this rides on my own shoulders, as I have written it, will be performing it and have done a lot of the producing as well.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I would like the audience to experience the way that someone's mind can work when they are in a state that is not perceived as normal. I want them to laugh and be carried by the words through the inner workings of an isolated individual. The audience should feel some of the frustration that the character goes through. Even though it is looking at a serious subject I think it is essential that the audience come out feeling entertained, but also that they come out with questions. Questions about the people that they interact and spend time with.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

Spoken word style of performance often relies solely on the voice and the words. But I wanted to make this a full theatrical experience and so by bringing in a musician, and visuals I want to enhance what is being said. The visuals come through low tec apparatus, a 35mm slide projector and an old clunky television, which create a certain aesthetic about the piece. The musician has composed an original score that will be played live, using loops and several instruments. The music has the ability to create atmosphere but also to enhance the text and emotions.

With a live original score performed by Jim Harborne and a low-fi tech aesthetic, this show was created to tell stories for the isolated and agoraphobic, who inhabit the invented inner worlds we create to buffer reality. 

Jim Harborne and Matthew Hall are cast members of Tortoise In A Nutshell’s 2013 Fringe First winning hit ‘Feral’. Jim is also appearing in – Velvet Evening Séance, also at Assembly Hall. 

Empathy is difficult, and feels like it’s declining. Supporting a loved one struggling with depression can be bloody hard. In My Name Is Irrelevant, explores how our mental health is affected very much by the pace of the world - and how especially when sheltering from reality, everything can begin to distort and our own narrative can take over. 

The Time Dramaturgy: Elton Townend Jones @ Edfringe 2017

The Time Machine

Dyad Productions

Written and directed by Elton Townend Jones   Performed by Stephen Cunningham

Produced by Rebecca Vaughan

Assembly Roxy Upstairs, Aug 3-28 (not 15) 11:10 (90 mins)

From the creators of Austen’s Women, Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, Dalloway, The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe, Female Gothic, I, Elizabeth, The Diaries of Adam and Eve, and Christmas Gothic.

In this age of uncertainty, where shadows of tyranny, intolerance, and war darken the narrative of human progress, how much time does humanity have left?  If civilisation fell today, what would become of us?  

Rebecca Vaughan presents Elton Townend Jones's topical and incisive re-invention of HG Wells’s classic, as a Victorian explorer travels across the ages into tomorrow, discovering the fate of our endeavours and uncovering our darkest fears…  From the fall of man to the end of the world, this is the story of us all. 

What was the inspiration for this performance?

The Brexit referendum result and the Trump election - all of which I knew, as the play's author, were going to happen; it was in the wind.  It was in the air as I walked out to the local shops.  As much as people said 'it won't happen', it just seemed obvious that it would.  Whether or not we should leave the EU, whether or not the Great Orange Morlock should be the figurehead of the free world, it's become clear that a great many people have stopped listening to experts, listening to the needs of others, listening to the potential consequences of climate change and so on, and so on.  

It seems that the great mass of people in the West have become more introverted, less caring, greedier and more selfish.  Where does this go?  Where does this take us?  We'd wanted to adapt The Time Machine for many years, but this seemed the best time to do so; to take HG Wells' original (then new/current) investigation into notions of social Darwinism and look at what we know now - what he didn't know - and say, what would this mean now?  

How does this fit?  Where are we going in 2017 that we weren't in 1895?  The answer's pretty much the same: decline and fall, but the reasons - beautifully vague in Wells' original - are both different and yet clearer.

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

We certainly believe so.  Our form is and

has mostly been the solo show (previous works: Austen's Women, Dalloway,Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe, Female Gothic, I, Elizabeth, Christmas Gothic and our two-hander The Diaries of Adam and Eve).  This form is the perfect platform for a kind of storytelling that is personal and intimate, exciting and exhilarating, emotional and intellectual, but also capable of investigating contemporarily relevant themes of politics and philosophy without getting too partisan or soapboxy.

How did you become interested in making performance?

We became interested as children and young people, reading and learning; through teachers and through our passion for literature in particular; we are both philosophy and literature graduates who apply our thirst for knowledge and our love of books and films and music to the work we create.

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

Sit down for several months and create an honest script that investigates all the themes and ideas we want to express, then spend several weeks building a show out of it - attempting to retain an honesty and sincerity throughout.  Keep it simple, clear and unfussy.  I often refer to what we create as 'every man's land', as our intention is to open the stage to the audience by sparking an almost impressionist idea of the fiction in their minds and asking them to bring their imaginations to the work. 

In the past, we've had our leading female performer in a beautifully designed frock playing men in dinner suits - and the audience have left utterly convinced that that's exactly what they saw.  We are theatre-makers, but I also believe that we are magicians.  Fabulists and magicians.  And the audience has the biggest part to play in that. 

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

It continues a long line of literary adaptations.  We would like to create more original work in the vein of The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe and I, Elizabeth, but we - Rebecca Vaughan and Elton Townend Jones - run the company ourselves: generating our own funding, utterly and freely independent; a genuinely successful business model, touring continually across the UK and the world.  

That success, however, means we like to generate a brand-new product every year (this is our ninth year and our ninth with Assembly).  This demand for new work has meant we create more adaptations than new work (which takes longer, due to being research intensive).  This is no easy feat, however.  Last year's Jane Eyre: An Autobiography saw us reduce a 300-page novel to 18 pages for performance by one person - that nearly killed me as a writer - but it was our biggest success so far.  

The Time Machine, however, is a much slimmer novel, but this is perhaps the most re-imagined and fully re-interpreted of all our adaptations.  And this time our lead actor is a man, the brilliant Stephen Cunningham who was born to play this role; part Doctor Who, part Hamlet, part David Bowie.  We're aware we have a following that adores Rebecca Vaughan, our regular lead (and producer of this show), but Dyad needs to expand now and offer productions featuring new performers as well as Rebecca.  

We hope audiences will join us in this transition - just as they did with the immensely successful Marilyn play (published by Samuel French) - it's still the same great quality of performance, and the same director, writer, lighting and sound teams and so on.  

We're moving forward, expanding now.  We hope our audience will join us.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

We want the audience to be entertained by a story that's not merely a work of science-fiction.  The themes in the book and perhaps even more so in the play are incredibly relevant to our current situation in the West.  We hope that these themes will resonate with how they - and, indeed, we - engage with the world; what it is we put into the world to make it a better place for not only ourselves and those we love but those we don't know.  

We want to give affirmation to those who are doing their bit, and hopefully also open a few eyes to what ignorance, intolerance and indolence on our part might mean for those that come after us.  It strikes me that being here, on what is probably the only world that's managed to support life, should be about nothing more than building a co-operative and successful future that benefits all mankind and the creatures he shares the planet with.  

We hope the audience will feel the need to make some little effort towards avoiding a horrible dystopia that, to me, seems only a few wrong steps away.  Like all our work, this entertainment is but a mirror.

Dyad Productions creates, produces and tours classic theatre with an innovative and contemporary emphasis.  This stage adaptation of HG Wells’s classic novel is Dyad’s ninth original production in as many years, and premieres at Assembly Edinburgh in August 2017.  

Previous works, Austen’s Women and I, Elizabeth were five-star successes at Edinburgh and Adelaide in 2009/2010 and 2010/2011, with The Diaries of Adam and Eve, Female Gothic, The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe, Dalloway and Jane Eyre: An Autobiography garnering five-star reviews at Edinburgh between 2011-2016.  

All nine Dyad plays continue to tour across the UK and internationally, while Austen’s Women returned to Edinburgh in 2013 for another highly acclaimed five-star run, as did I, Elizabeth in 2015.  The Diaries of Adam and Eve was published in 2013 (by StageScripts) and The Unremarkable Death of Monroe in 2016 (by Samuel French).  Austen’s Women returns to Edinburgh once again this year – for 9 shows only – alongside The Time Machine.  Dyad Productions is Rebecca Vaughan and Elton Townend Jones. 

The Time Machine is written and directed by Elton Townend Jones (writer/director: Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, Dalloway, The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe, director: Christmas Gothic, writer/performer: The Diaries of Adam and Eve, creative producer: Austen’s Women, I, Elizabeth).  It is produced by Rebecca Vaughan (writer/performer: Austen’s Women, Female Gothic, Christmas Gothic, I, Elizabeth, performer: Jane Eyre:  An Autobiography, Dalloway, The Diaries of Adam and Eve, producer: The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe).  It is performed by Stephen Cunningham.  Costume by Kate Flanaghan (Dalloway, I, Elizabeth, Female Gothic, Christmas Gothic, Austen’s Women).  Lighting design by Martin Tucker (Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, Christmas Gothic, I, Elizabeth, Dalloway, The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe).  Sound design by Danny Bright (Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, Dalloway, Christmas Gothic).

Under My Dramaturgy: James Haddrell @ Edfringe 2017

As part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017, CultureClash Theatre and Greenwich Theatre present

UNDER MY THUMB

Directed by James Haddrell, Written by Cassiah Joski-Jethi

Under My Thumb makes its Edinburgh Fringe debut at 3-20 August at Assembly Roxy (the Snug), 4.10pm. Shortlisted for the 2016 RED Women's Theatre Awards, the production is a politically engaging and claustrophobic play about gender equality which sees five women imprisoned for crimes against society.

Facing indefinite incarceration, their one remaining dignity is their strong belief in their own innocence. The arrival of yet another prisoner is no surprise, just another woman brought down by the world outside, but is she all that she seems?

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Cassiah Joski-Jethi wrote the first version of Under My Thumb, a twenty minute short film, in response to experiences of misogyny at university. The culture of cat-calling, of limitation of opportunity for women, even in some cases of a perceived male right to abuse women, is still very much alive and she wanted to address that. When the RED Women’s Theatre Awards put out a call for short theatre scripts with a political inspiration, Cassiah started to reimagine the show as a piece of theatre, and then when the play was shortlisted for the award we met up with her to talk about extending it to a full length play.

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

Yes, I think so. When we produced the first performances of Under My Thumb with CultureClash back in September 2016 we invited a range of groups to see the show and gathered feedback after every performance. 

We had groups of women who had experienced similar things to the characters in the play, teenagers at an early stage of their political engagement with the world who had their own take on the level of misogyny and abuse and the way in which gender based bullying is now moving online, older men who had their own view of the changing face of gender politics. 

All of them were affected by the show, but all had a different view of the way forward for our society. It certainly provoked some lively discussion.

How did you become interested in making performance?

For about a decade I have worked on supporting emerging theatre companies, both artistically and logistically, helping them learn the craft of theatre-making and the way the industry works. Being so involved in so many other company’s work made me think maybe I should turn my skill set to making theatre myself. 

My first show was Hannah and Hanna at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2015 so I’m delighted to be back.

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

Under My Thumb works best if the audience are somehow complicit in creating the atmosphere of claustrophobia experienced by the characters in prison. When we first presented the show it was in traverse, with the audience hemming the characters in on two sides. 

This time, as we help launch the new performance downstairs at Assembly Roxy, we will be presenting the show in the round. There really won’t be anywhere for these characters to hide. They are constantly being watched by their captors, and that sensation will be enhanced by the audience.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

I think I am drawn to scripts with a political or social edge. I am also directing Gazing At A Distant Star at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, about people who go missing and those who are left behind. Both shows identify failings in society, real or potential, and explore possible answers. 

People go missing for a host of reasons, some of which could be identified and avoided, and once missing it’s possible that more people could be reunited with loved ones. In the case of Under My Thumb, the show is described as dystopian, but many of the experiences described are real and can be found within our society. I like directing honest performances and stories that lead us to look again at the world around us.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Under My Thumb has moments of stillness and peace and moments of violence, strong relationships and powerful conflict. Prison environments often breed extremes of emotion and UMT has that. The audience will experience an all-female thriller set in a claustrophobic, almost immersive new Edinburgh fringe venue.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

The audience have to feel like voyeurs, given a privileged view of these imprisoned women. Seated on all sides they’ll feel like they’re sitting in the gallery at an execution, or at a dystopian human zoo watching the disempowered fight it out for supremacy. 

We’ve presented the show to an end-on audience and whilst the drama remained intact there was a division between viewer and character that reduced the impact of the show. It feels like a play written for an in-the-round venue, so we can’t wait to perform it like that for Edinburgh audiences.

Directed by Greenwich Theatre’s Artistic Director and produced in partnership with emerging company CultureClash Theatre, the development and premiere London run of Under My Thumb was supported by Arts Council England. 

Its revival for the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe sees the launch of a new Edinburgh venue, the subterranean Snug at Assembly Roxy. Cassiah Joski-Jethi is an award nominated writer and director represented by Olav Wyper at SMA Talent. She met Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha OBE on a train and worked with her for a year on her theatre and film projects. Since then, Cassiah has had 3 writing commissions; directed 4 music videos (one nominated for the 2017 A Cappella Video Awards); been involved in 2 feature films; and had her play Under My Thumb nominated for a national award and debuted at Greenwich Theatre, London in September 2016. Currently, Cassiah is in post-production on her debut short film Polly and her original drama series is in development with Gurinder's company Bend It TV.

She's also currently directing Sara Bodinar's play There Be Migrants to be performed in August and November at Theatre 503.  

James Haddrell – Director, is the Artistic & Executive Director of Greenwich Theatre, chair of Filament Theatre, a mentor for UK Theatre and a governor for Corelli College. In his role for Greenwich Theatre he has provided everything from direction and dramaturgy to company mentoring and strategic planning for over twenty of the UK’s most exciting young and emerging theatre companies. 

Most recent direction includes One Georgie Orwell for performances in London and New York, Hannah and Hanna (New Diorama Theatre, Assembly Edinburgh Fringe, Greenwich Theatre), and Joël Pommerat’s This Child (Greenwich Book Festival). As a producer his credits include ten Greenwich Theatre pantomimes, hailed by the media as ranking among the best in the country, and the world premieres of Keeping Up With The Joans by Philip Meeks, Momo adapted by Filament Theatre from the novel by Micheal Ende, and the site specific production of Utopia, awarded the London 2012 Inspire Mark by the International Olympic Committee. This autumn he will produce the national tour of Daniele Imara’s Get Therapy.

LISTINGS INFORMATION: 3-20 August at Assembly Roxy (the Snug), 4.10pm. Tickets £6-£10.

Website: cultureclashtheatre.com / 

Wondr Dramaturgy: Poppy Burton-Morgan @ Edfringe 2017

Metta Theatre

Presents

Wondr

Assembly Roxy 

Aug 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28

This August, as we look back on 70 years of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Metta Theatre is looking to the future with two new plays exploring digital identity and our often problematic relationship to screen technology. World premieres Pixel Dust and Wondr both star esteemed TV and stage actor Simone James at Assembly Roxy. 

What was the inspiration for this performance? 

As a mum who spends a bit too much time online (instead of with my children) I wanted to explore that through theatre - and unpick how we can play with constructed identities in the digital realm. 

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

It's the best space for it! Through (great) performance we're given permission to feel and what can seem, on paper, like dry philosophy becomes living breathing complex, multifaceted ideas - the stuff we grapple with in our daily lives. It's a great way in to those big ideas, the big questions. 

How did you become interested in making performance? 

Like many theatre artists I came to it as performer first, as a teenager, then moved into directing throughout my twenties, and then around the age of 30 (or more specifically when I had my first child) I suddenly felt the urge to write. The drive has always been to tell stories as a theatre maker - but suddenly I felt there were specific stories that weren't being told, which I was well placed to tell. And here we are - this is my debut play as a playwright!

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

The whole thing is written as one long epic poem - a 60 minute spoken word odyssey. But truthfully I didn't consciously choose that form - the words chose me and it wrote itself. The voice came fully formed. Later I pulled it apart and remade it to honour the structural and dramaturgical requirements of a classic one Act Drama. But at that point the process became almost more like sculpture. 

Does the show fit with your usual productions? 

Ha! I have four productions running simultaneously right now - a narrative street-dance Jungle Book, a production of Comedy of Errors set in a Victorian Circus and another solo show Pixel Dust which I'm directing to play in daily rep with Wondr. I'm a theatrical chameleon- always! 

Even though three of those are through my own company Metta Theatre each is very different - the drive is to tell stories but I'm constantly pushing the boundaries of how to tell a story through a fusion of art forms. 

What do you hope that the audience will experience? 

Something extraordinary. Poetry that becomes thriller that breaks and re makes your heart. Ending in hope. 

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience? 

The play is full of revelations and plot twists so the structural placement of those is crucial - you're always searching for the perfect balance of seeding the idea of things without overtly prefiguring what's to come and spoiling the reveal. In advance I also shared the script with a lot of friends - both industry and fellow mums - to discover how it resonates differently for people who share the lived experiences of the character, and for people who don't! Hopefully there's something in it for everyone... that's always the dream!

The plays are part of Assembly's ‘FuturePlay’ a curated season within the Festival exploring all things digital.

Of Wondr Poppy Burton-Morgan says: ‘Don’t we all spend too much time on our phones creating and curating a digital life that feels far more interesting, and sometimes more real, than our actual life? But what happens when the line between digital life and reality blurs…’

No stranger to the stage, the versatile Simone James is thrilled to be tackling two such challenging roles - in Wondr she inhabits the character of Faith, a 29 year old single mum and social media sensation @WondrWomanUK whose world is about to be turned upside down. ‘I feel blessed to have the honour of bringing these thought provoking and culturally relevant plays to life. It’s such a welcome challenge to simultaneously tackle two such different and complex characters.’

Metta Theatre have developed both plays in collaboration with Oxford University’s Dr Andrew Przybylski award-winning Science Writer and Guardian Correspondent Professor Pete Etchells - both Psychologists whose work explores the impact of screen time and gaming. The project is supported by a Small Arts Award from the Wellcome Trust. 

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health. They provide more than £700 million a year to support bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine. www.wellcome.ac.uk

Pixel Dramaturgy: Clare Bayley @ Edfringe 2017

Metta Theatre

Presents

Pixel Dust

Assembly Roxy 

Aug 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27

This August, as we look back on 70 years of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Metta Theatre is looking to the future with two new plays exploring digital identity and our often problematic relationship to screen technology.

World premieres Pixel Dust and Wondr both star esteemed TV and stage actor Simone James at Assembly Roxy. The plays are part of Assembly's ‘FuturePlay’ a curated season within the Festival exploring all things digital.

LISTING INFORMATION

Venue:  Assembly Roxy, Upstairs / Central / Downstairs, Snug Bar, 2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU 

What was the inspiration for this performance?

When you are young, part of growing up is about trying out different identities to see if they fit. But now with the online world, you can literally invent different personas and reach out to people you wouldn’t otherwise meet. So I was interested to explore what this means when you’re trying to figure out who you are, and whether it can help or hinder the process. 

The whole question of young people and the internet is a very live one at the moment - there’s a lot of moral panic around teenagers being addicted to screens and all the dangers of the virtual world. As a parent myself I’m often anxious about these questions. So it was great to be able to talk to some very authoritative scientists to find out more about the actual research findings. Which are very different from what the Daily Mail would have us believe!

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

It’s a brilliant space, firsty because it is an empathic art form, and so you can take the debate into much deeper and more meaningful territory than you can in any other discussion space. It has an ability to externalise internal impulses, and confront people with their feelings and prejudices. And secondly because it is a public space - the audience has to physically be there, and sit in the dark with their thoughts and emotions next to other people having similar or different responses. Then they can go off into a bar and talk about it over a drink.

How did you become interested in making performance?

Predictably, at school and at uni I wanted to act. But I’ve always been a writer, really and wasn’t any good at acting. Then I realised that what I wanted from the acting was the collaborative nature of theatre, and I could get that as a playwright. I pity poor novelists and poets who have to spend all their time alone and never get to work in a company of actors, or with directors, designers & stage managers.

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

It’s been a lovely process, starting with a lot of research on my part, talking to young people, scientists, parents and - inevitably - researching online. We were then lucky enough to have a week’s workshop to try out ideas, both in terms of the dramaturgy, and the technical aspects such as projections and the use of screens within the show. Throughout, we wanted to challenge people’s preconceived ideas, especially about the ‘evils’ of the internet. This included confronting my own prejudices quite a bit! There are dangers, certainly, for all of us - but there are also huge benefits.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

My work is usually informed by research - I used to be a journalist so I’m interested in responding to the world. But for this play in particular I then tried to forget the research, and write in a way which was true to my character, Ella, rather than trying to push any particular message. I’ve never written a  solo show before - to be honest I’d always been a bit scared to. But I recently co-wrote a book about playwriting, Playwriting, A Writers’ and Artists’ Companion, with the playwright Fraser Grace. He wrote a brilliant chapter on writing a one person play so I felt I was ready for the formal challenges!

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope it will be a beautiful and moving piece of theatre which will make people think again about their relationships with screens.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

There’s nothing more boring than watching somebody engrossed in a screen. But there’s nothing more engrossing than the internet. So I had to find ways to dramatise the allure of cyberspace, while not letting the audience completely off the hook about getting sucked into that world and forgetting about the real, live, present world we are in.

Clare Bayley

Playwriting, An Artists’ and Writers’ Companion, co-written with Fraser Grace, published by Bloomsbury.

https://bayleyclare.wordpress.com/

Of Pixel Dust, Clare Bayley says: ‘Like everyone I enjoy, resent and depend on the screens in my life in equal measure. As a parent I rail against but collude with the hold they have over our teenagers. So it was very salutary to be able to interrogate the question with the benefit of dispassionate science - the results were surprising.’

No stranger to the stage, the versatile Simone James is thrilled to be tackling two such challenging roles - In Pixel Dust she plays Daniella - a 15 year old schoolgirl escaping online to avoid her real-world problems. ‘I feel blessed to have the honour of bringing these thought provoking and culturally relevant plays to life. It’s such a welcome challenge to simultaneously tackle two such different and complex characters.’ 

Metta Theatre have developed both plays in collaboration with Oxford University’s Dr Andrew Przybylski award-winning Science Writer and Guardian Correspondent Professor Pete Etchells - both Psychologists whose work explores the impact of screen time and gaming. The project is supported by a Small Arts Award from the Wellcome Trust. The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health. They provide more than £700 million a year to support bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine. www.wellcome.ac.uk

Superbolt Dramaturgy: Frode Gjerlow @ Edfringe 2017

PRODUCING TEAM BEHIND HIT SHOW JURASSIC PARK BRINGS THREE SHOWS TO THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE THIS SUMMER

SUPERBOLT THEATRE RETURNS TO EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL IN 2017 FOR THE FOURTH TIME, FOLLOWING SELL-OUT RUN IN 2015, WITH AWARD-WINNING PRODUCTIONS THE JURASSIC PARKS AND MARS ACTUALLY

THEY WILL BE JOINED BY KANE POWER THEATRE, MAKING AN EDINBURGH FESTIVAL DEBUT. MENTAL WILL ALSO PLAY AT ASSEMBLY ROXY FROM 2 - 27 AUGUST

Following the success of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015, Superbolt Theatre returns this summer with two shows:

The Jurassic Parks is an updated version of the sell-out, multi award-winning, laugh-out-loud spin on Spielberg’s classic. Welcome to the unlikely setting of Lyme Regis Community Centre, where the Park Family – Terry, Jade and Noah – embark on a journey to a misty past. Where, when things go wrong, family feuds are faced with the rapturous roar of DIY dinosaurs. A theatrical celebration of cinematic nostalgia and a moving reminder of the ones we love.

Mars Actually is Superbolt’s brand new show, fresh from sell-out previews and winning the Origins Award for Outstanding New Show at VAULT Festival 2017. By the light of the Sun, By the gaze of the moons, We stand together. As red planet dwellers, Wiser for the errors, Of our Earthly ancestors. With truth, love and care, We breathe without air. Chuck, Gracey and Conway are here on Earth to tell you about life on Mars, Actually.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

After touring Jurassic Park intensely for two years, the time had come to create a show that was more politically charged. Looking at particular people’s insatiable desire to conquer and colonialize, Mars was a natural theme. 

Elon Musk and The Mars Project have been big influences in that respect.  

Drawing on personal experiences of otherness (hailing from Ecuador, Norway and Switzerland), we wanted to tell a story of (legal) aliens, to comment on the various responses to the needs of migrants and refugees, globalisation versus xenophobia and Brexit. All in good Superbolt style – with our trademark cringe comedy, heart-warming stories and immersive characters.

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

Absolutely - possibly more so now than ever! As we bow our heads into our hands, to gaze at devices that tell us what’s going on in the world, live performance has an impact on audiences that should not be underestimated or taken for granted.

How did you become interested in making performance?

We all found an interest in theatre making at an early age, inspired by inventive theatre companies, innovative artists, but also a personal desire to challenge ourselves as human beings, and we find telling stories on stage is an ever-challenging, ever-changing experience.

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

We always strive to let our form emerge from the content. Our shows come from research and investigation into different themes – we don’t create theatre “out of thin air” as is common in devised theatre. 

Then we bring our knowledge and reflections into the rehearsal room, and a translation process takes place, where we interpret the words and thoughts from our research into a theatrical language – both physically, musically and in writing.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

 Yes, in many ways it does. We have found “our style” and have learnt to play on our strengths, yet we always seek to push boundaries and experiment where we feel the story needs it. 

Jurassic Park is a story of a family that deals with the loss of their mother by going on a journey into her favourite film. Mars Actually is about Martians who deal with their background by putting themselves out there, telling their story to the audience. Our shows are performed by our characters, who make themselves vulnerable to the audience, which hits a nerve in both tragic and comical ways.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

In Mars Actually there is room to consider how women in our society are left without a choice in so many walks of life. We hope that the story of our Martian civilization, modeled on aspects of Earth, will reflect structural oppressions that happen here. We’re simultaneously aiming to give people relatable stories and endearing characters that ensure that the audience are having a joyful time.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

We considered many strategies as we want to make sure we choose the right structure and language to best tell our stories. Finding a balance between the known and the unknown seems to be a way that works for us.

Some anchors in what we know we do well allow us to take risks in other parts of the show. It’s nerve wracking, but all the more rewarding when something new and unexpected works a treat.

It is also important to us to listen carefully to the wisdom of the audience – the applause, the deafening silence and all the laughter speak volumes about what we’re doing right, and what we can improve.

Superbolt Theatre’s Artistic Directors and Performers are Maria Askew, Frode Gjerløw and Simon Maeder. Their work tours internationally, with Dinosaur Park recently playing at Adelaide and Melbourne Festivals, followed by an extensive UK tour. Past productions include Centralia, Piatto Finale and The Uncanny Valley.

THE JURASSIC PARKS

Venue:  Assembly Roxy, Upstairs, 2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU (Venue 139)

Time:  19:00 
Running Time: 65mins

Age Guidance: PG

Dates: 2 – 27 August, playing in rep with Mars Actually. Preview 2 August.

Tickets: Preview £8; 4, 6, 10, 15, 17 & 23 August £10 (£9); 8, 12, 19, 25 & 27 August £12 (£11).

MARS ACTUALLY

Venue:  Assembly Roxy, Upstairs, 2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU (Venue 139)

Time:  19:00 
Running Time: 65mins

Age Guidance: PG

Dates: 3 – 26 August, playing in rep with The Jurassic Parks. Preview 3 August.

Tickets: Preview £8; 5, 9, 16, 22 & 24 August £10 (£9); 7, 11, 13, 18, 20 & 26 August £12 (£11).

Bookings: www.assemblyfestival.com

The Jurassic Parks is created and performed by Maria Askew, Frode Gjerløw and Simon Maeder. Associate Director and Dramaturg - Tid, Lighting Design and Stage Management - Ina Berggren. It is produced in Edinburgh by Hannah Osborne.

Mars Actually is created and performed by Maria Askew, Frode Gjerløw and Simon Maeder. Associate Director and Dramaturg - Tid, Lighting Design and Stage Management - Ina Berggren. It is produced in Edinburgh by Hannah Osborne.

Superbolt is an award winning international theatre ensemble founded at the Jacques Lecoq Theatre School in Paris, with its members hailing from Norway, Switzerland, Britain and Ecuador. Their work tours internationally, playing to people of all ages and backgrounds. They devise all of their work collaboratively using diverse theatrical styles to create popular stories with humour and heart.