AJIMA Dramaturgy: Marc Gabriel @ Buzzcut

The performance AJIMA stages a character that

oscillates between real and fake, private and public, quotidien and theatrical. Throughout the piece, the ambiguity of our wavering identities and roles, our assumptions on others in social interactions become a life exhibition, are cast a spotlight on, and are processed in a collective ritual. The self-referential character AJIMA is alternating and shifting between revealing and hiding, lying and telling the truth, looking and being looked at.


Can you tell me a little bit about the work that you are bringing to Buzzcut?

AJIMA is a solo for Maija Karhunen that I devolped with her three years ago. We studied choreography together in Berlin. I proposed her to stage a freakshow with her as the freak – and she said yes. 

I’m lucky she didn’t call the police to arrest me instead... Maija was born with glass-bone disease and usually moves around in a wheelchair. We realised very early that my projection of a freak-show on her wouldn’t lead to anything interesting to us. Instead, we started collecting social projections that people cast on each other all the time. And in the end – we did make a flamboyant freak-show! But one that empowers the performer rather than the director or the spectator.

What is it about Buzzcut that attracted you to perform as part of it?

The philosophy of sharing and exchange is really what makes this festival special and relevant to us. Often you perform in a place and there is no time and space to engage with the surroundings because schedules and budgets are tight or just because no one has thought of exchange to be crucial to art making. I think it is essential to sustainable art making. 

I’m not so much interested in selling my work as much as possible – I’m interested in engaging with the audience, with other art makers and in contributing to the discourse of future models of how to be together on (and with) planet Earth. I see it as a long term process. And I feel that Buzzcut has evolved from a similar spirit.


Buzzcut is concerned with the idea of 'community'. Does community have a special meaning for you, and what relationship do you feel your work has within wider communities?

Communities are vital parts of society. We are losing more and more the sense of and understanding for what it means to be part of a community and how to commit. Not so much because of the much scolded digitalisation of social interaction, but because of growing anxieties and fear that neo-liberal capitalism is fuelling. 

We are pushed to fear the unknown, the ominous other (I am speaking from a Western European perspective), although excluding those that are different has always proven to be a short sighted error of reason. Women, queers, “the disabled”, blacks, Muslims, the exotified, the environment, many more and any overlapping groups of these, they all had enough of being denied a voice, being dis-empowered, marginalised, alienated, suffocated. 

Communities have risen to cut through to the surface and strike back to lift the oppression. My work is concerned with offering unconventional angles on things, centring the other, while targeting all kinds of alienation of past and present day Western patriarchal society. AJIMA was the first of a series of works that playfully unfolds the mechanism of social alienation.

What are you hoping that the audience will experience?

I’m hoping for the audience to catch themselves thinking in patterns that they didn’t know they were pursuing. And not punishing themselves for it, but becoming aware for who they are and what they do. 

Realising if that is what they want to be. I want to instigate people to reflect on themselves and to be optimistic about what is to come.

Philosophical Dramaturgy: Charlie Dupré @ Edfringe 2015

The Fringe

What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
I like rapping and I like philosophy. A friend suggested that I put these things together and see what happened, so that's what I did, although it actually ended up involving various other performance skills, such as comedy, mime and shoe-stealing. 


Why bring your work to Edinburgh?It's a fantastic hub of creativity and awesomeness - the chance to observe the sheer variety of ways in which a room can be entertained, and to experiment over a longer run than usual. And they have great jacket potatoes. 


What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
They can expect to see a man morphing into 12 philosophers and a chicken, to try and work out who he really is. They can expect to feel existential angst, messianic despair, confused joy, joyful confusion, considerable aural titillation, and the need for more hats. 
They can expect to think too much about how to think less. 

God and Dawkins face off in heated rap battle
Nietzsche gets Russell Brand-esque makeover
Rap-actor Charlie Dupré plays 12 philosophers (and a chicken)

Legendary Scottish philosopher David Hume is hilariously brought to life in a fantastic new solo comedy theatre show at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.


In Charlie and the Philosorappers, writer and performer Charlie Dupré transforms himself into Hume, playing him as a dour Scotsman trying to ignore the affections of his Self. Hume, whose statue stands proudly on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, famously did not believe in a ‘self’, thinking humans were instead made up of a ‘bundle of sensations’.

In the high-octane Charlie and the Philosorappers show, God and Richard Dawkins go head to head in a rap battle – with the audience deciding who wins. Other philosophers who get the Dupré treatment are Nietzsche, who looks strikingly similar to egotistical Essex comedian Russell Brand, Descartes re-born as a rationalistic hip-hop artist and Jeremy Bentham as a Made In Chelsea reject.

The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
It contains a rather bizarre conglomerate of styles that came about as a by-product of needing to find innovative ways to present each philosopher. Rap is a regular feature, but there are episodes of sketch comedy, mime, song so I guess I'm trying to explore as many ways in which one can do things on a piece of floor in front of some sitting-down people as possible, and tie this together thematically with my search for identity, in which the narrative is rooted.

What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
Absolutely - Eminem is definitely in there. I love the letter form that he uses in Stan and often use it to tell tragic stories, in this case a young philosopher desperately pleading with Reality to come back to him. Tim Minchin has also been a big inspiration with his ponderous and very personal comic song-writing. And a few philosophers, I suppose. Yes I absolutely do. I am philosophy's face-lift.

Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
I wrote a first draft, performed it for some people, and asked for feedback. I then re-wrote it (whiskey and all-nighters were involved with this part), edited when soberer, and repeated the process about three or four times. I did work with a director for a day, and she was helpful, but other than that it's just been me and people's comments, which I think has worked quite well, although I'm keen to collaborate more on my next project.


What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
Philosophy is all about interpretation and what it means for you. I've tried to offer mine in the most entertaining way possible, to encourage the audience to develop theirs. The narrative follows a progression of ideas, but it is up to them to form the conclusions. There are a few group activities, including a freestyle rap using words that they provide, so it can be very unpredictable, with the audience invited to respond and challenge. That said, no-one really has to do anything more than just enjoy the spectacle of a one-man rap tirade.


Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?
When I worked with my director she suggested that I change the concept so it was me telling a real story as me, rather than playing characters throughout. While I do lurch across personas, I found it really helpful to keep the show anchored in truth in this way and relate it to them as if they were mates down the pub. This way they have a much better sense of why this story is being told, and I think this is important if you want their complicity throughout the journey.

Writer and performer Charlie Dupré says:
“Charlie and the Philosorappers is designed to make philosophy exciting and fun. Thinkers such as Edinburgh’s own David Hume genuinely changed the world – but their work is often seen as difficult and out-of-date. Using rap, theatre and comedy I’m hoping to show Fringe-goers the human side of these great thinkers, and how they can help us understand ourselves and the modern world.”


Rapper, actor and poet Charlie Dupré has supported the likes of Scroobius Pip and Kate Tempest, and was a BBC Slam finalist in 2014. His first full-length rap-theatre show, The Stories of Shakey P, gave Shakespeare stories a riveting contemporary slant. Commissioned in part by the RSC, it debuted to acclaim at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe. Since then it has toured festivals and schools, had London showings at the Arcola, the Roundhouse, the Tristan Bates Theatre, and at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Spying on Dramaturgy: Mata Hari @ Edfringe 2015

“We have all heard of wars. The Boer War, the Great War, but have you heard of the war of tights? No, I thought not”

Using her own words where possible, this is a biographical portrayal of a compelling woman. 

Feminist with a small ‘f’… shot by French firing squad in WW1 for being a spy… or, more insidiously, for having no shame? 

Notorious as the world’s first femme fatale - was she actually a scapegoat to boost French morale?

Her upbringing in Holland, life in Indonesia, her disastrous marriage to Scotsman Rudolf McLeod, infant death, re-invention in Paris, and rivalry with Isadora Duncan…

A spy? That would be like Madonna being a covert CIA agent. No anonymity! Ridiculous!
Acting, dance, in a physical theatre style with an original soundtrack/design from Composer Danny Bright, this is Katharine Hurst’s first return to the Fringe since 2009, in a previous critically acclaimed production The Other Side – also directed by Gavin Robertson.

The Fringe

What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
Gavin Robertson: This show came about for two reasons: Firstly, as a Producer, at the time I was looking ahead to 2014 as the Centenary of WWI and I knew there’d be a plethora of shows from Oh What A Lovely War to Journey’s End and I wanted to be able to offer venues something different. 

Coinciding with that was the fact that Katharine Hurst who plays Mata Hari in the show, was looking to take a break from producing and ‘just’ act. So we talked and I offered to make Mata Hari-Female Spy, in effect, specifically for her. I’d already decided I didn’t want to compete with all the other shows popping up featuring soldiers in trenches, so I wanted a woman’s story. Mata Hari was it, especially as the more I researched (as the writer) the more convinced I became that she was actually framed for something she never did. 


Why bring your work to Edinburgh?
The Edinburgh Fringe is as we all know, the biggest Arts festival in the world. Edinburgh is a trade fair for us to display our wares and hope someone sees value in the work. Yes, I want to emotionally touch audiences and even more so in places I might not usually get to. With this particular show I also really want as many people as possible to see a strong female role, and a strong actress in the spotlight. 


What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
It’s biographical, which is a first for me as a writer. That entailed research of facts and chronology and a degree of accuracy, even though I take some liberties by putting words in her mouth, although wherever possible I use her actual own words from letters or interviews. So, it’s not a history lesson, though I chart her upbringing right up to her execution. But she speaks to us from beyond the grave and of course that allows some brevity with hindsight, and some wit about certain events.

I think what an audience gets overall is the story of a woman who was a survivor by and large in difficult times; she was inventive about her own origins, but determined. In one scene she states that she ‘was shot for having no shame’ but she says it with defiance. It’s an absorbing portrayal by Katharine, of an intriguing woman in history, a scapegoat for the French, and a feminist with a small ‘f’.
There’s also a movement precision, a grace and an economy of presentation in Katharine’s fluidity and acting style. I think that is a subtle element but really gives an authority to the show.


The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
Specifically with this particular show, I didn’t apply my otherwise oft-employed technique of playing with the timeline. It was tempting, but I wanted to make a linear story, so as to make more clear the events around her and their effect on decisions she made. The only concession to that was to have her in three ‘prison scenes’ which aren’t linear and remind the audience where she ended up, as we move through her life story. As I also use sound and music as underscore, like a movie, it also adds a certain style to the impact of the story overall.

It also means we can set our protagonist sympathetically within her own narrative, which in part is about the fact that she was framed, so- having her shot at the end actually BE at the end, is the greatest cathartic moment we could have earned. It’s all about the effect.



What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work -  have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition? 
I think now I definitely have my own way of working, processes within that, and a certain style in the way I present the information to the audience. The biggest single influence has been film, and the language of film; underscores of sounds and music, edits, long shots, close ups, dissolves, jump cuts, flashbacks. Without doubt that’s where I’d say most of my way of thinking stems from. I always talk ‘film language’ in the rehearsal room and through the devising process.

I’m definitely from a tradition of ‘physical theatre’ though so

economy of movement, even if it’s not ‘mime’ per se, a certain grace and precision features I hope, as Katharine moves the set around to create different environments. I like to think I deliberately give an audience say, 30% of an image, and with her acting, music underscore, the audiences’ imagination provides the remaining 70% - and I use that deliberately in the creating process. It’s like taking an audience member’s brain and knowing I can manipulate it to ‘see’ onstage what I want it to see. It’s not a happy accident!

I don’t know about ‘tradition’ as such. I’d be on the ‘veteran’ list probably by now, and younger creators have now got digital tools as well as the traditional ones so they’re re-defining some rules anyway.


Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
It usually starts with an idea OR a theme; they’re interchangeable to me, and then gets refined to a framework wherein I can implant characters and situations that affect them. With Mata Hari being a real person it was a different challenge. I had to define to myself as the writer what I wanted the audience to come away with, otherwise it’s just a history lecture. 

That’s the same question I asked Nicholas Collett when he asked me to direct his show, Nelson. It was a gift to discover the flimsiness of the evidence and events that led to her being executed and that gave me my angle; she was framed. I’m actually intrigued as in 2017 all the documents should be released and we may discover more…

There’s always collaboration. I’m probably a benign Fascist in the ‘process’.

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work? 
Hmm … I suppose I’ve decided my angle in the writing of the piece so I’m not asking them for a verdict, but I AM asking them to sympathetically view someone who was painted as the world’s first Femme Fatale, even a stripper, and re-evaluate that opinion, at least in terms of her guilt as a spy. 

So I guess I’m asking them to understand her humanity in the context of her changing circumstances. I actually think she was rather brave. 


Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?
Perhaps to ask whether every show has the same approach – to which the answer is ‘no’. Sometimes there’s a clear storyline that just requires scene breakdown and ‘the text’ the character(s) speak; at other times it can be written as we literally go from one scene to the next; sometimes – like ‘BOND’ or 2010 A SPACE ODDITY we’re parodying a film genre so that might be more about typical plot-lines or references and getting our own references right on the nail in relation to the source material. Or it can be about making movement sections or interacting with the set that moves the narrative along with zero text whatsoever.


“Robertson is an eloquent writer” KANSAS CITY STAR
Zoo (The Sanctuary) Venue 124 VENUE B/O 0131 662 6892

AUGUST 7, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25 2.20PM (3.40PM)Tickets: £12/£10