Bingo Dramaturgy: Anita Vettesse & Johnny McKnight @ Stellar Quines

 Grid Iron and Stellar Quines present 

Bingo!

A new musical comedy. An unforgettable night at the bingo.

“Have you ever done a bad thing, like really bad?”

“Yeah. I started Breaking Bad when our Davey was on the night-shift.”

A new musical comedy focusing on lives of six characters and one fateful night at the bingo. 

Bingo! tours Scotland in March and April 2018.

Every week more than 2 million women pour into local bingo halls across the UK, each one hoping that all elusive HOUSE will change their fortunes forever. Daniella’s one of those women. Except she isn’t just hopeful. She’s desperate. She needs Lady Luck to smile down on her tonight. She’s done a bad thing. No, a really bad thing and if her card doesn’t have those winning numbers, she’s going to have to resort to desperate measures to take home that prize money.

Tour dates:
Assembly Hall, Edinburgh: 6-7 March 7.30pm (previews) and 8-17 March 7.30pm (not Sunday 11th), 10 & 17 March 2.30pm (matinees)

Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling: 22-23 March 7.30pm, 23 March 2.30pm (matinee)

Ayr Gaiety Theatre, Ayr: 27-28 March 7.30pm

The Brunton, Musselburgh: 31 March at 2pm and 7.30pm

Tron Theatre, Glasgow: 12-14 April at 7.45pm

Eden Court, Inverness: 19-21 April 7.30pm, 21 April 2.30pm (matinee)

What was the inspiration for this performance?

A: We were commissioned by Stella Quines and Grid Iron to write a play/ musical about Bingo.  So that was out starting point.  Then we just sat and talked and talked about what Bingo meant to us and our associations with it and then developed our story and characters from there.

Is performance still a good space for the

public discussion of ideas? 

 A: Totally. There’s nothing nicer hearing audiences leave a theatre and be in debate or arguments over what they’ve just seen. It starts conversations.

J:  Theatre transports you in a way I don't think TV or cinema does.  The sweat is there in front of you, the live experience has jeopardy, anything can (and sometimes does) go wrong.  I think that intensity of watching cant help but make you think and feel on a deeper level, with that comes discussion, debate, rage, empathy. 

How did you become interested in making performance?

 A: For me I wrote as I needed to be able to create work on my own (having been an actor for 20 years) and relying on other people to give me work. Also I was of an age that I felt I needed to try something new and terrifying.  Which it was and still is.

J:  It became a necessity for me.  I was cast in quite a few camp light parts when I graduated.  I decided I'd do my own camp instead.   It started

with devising in a group but, after a while, that started to feel like a compromise to what I wanted to say or investigate (or maybe I just got more anti-social as I got older!?!?) 

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

 A: We both know one another really well so approaching this show was lots of chatting and story sharing and we begun with characters and then put them in a scenario we thought they’d work well in. The story changed from first draft – but the characters remained the same…we just wanted in second draft to make life harder for them and see how they coped.

J: there was a lot of post-it notes.  A lot of coffee.  A lot of telling stories about people we knew and things that made us laugh.  I think this was a completely different thing for us both, we've never written as a team with anyone else before, we're so used to being the solo voice.  Surprisingly it took a lot of the angst and dread out of writing, that fear that can cripple you at times, it wasn't there for this one.  It felt like you'd let the other person down if you weren't firing on and trying to make them laugh, or move them. 

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

 A: This is a first musical for me. A first at co-writing as well. I’ve loved working with Johnny but I think that comes from years of being pals we have a shorthand. I think the themes and the humour is quite similar to things we’ve explored before…but the story / music is different.

J: I think yes and no.  Anita and me are good friends and we have a lot of similar tastes and view the world through similar lenses, so I think anyone familiar with either of our work will still

see us individually in the piece.  

However two minds can only be better than one so we've really looked at it from a hundred possible angles.  Personally, working with another person has pushed me harder – make it funnier, brighter, shorter, be economical, fight for your ideas.  Its like working with a dramaturg on your own material all the way through the process. 

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

A: A good night out firstly. A tear too and to leave the theatre feeling they want to organise a night with their pals and go to the bingo!

J:  I want them to fall in love with theatre, to forget its crap weather outside, to laugh with wild abandon, and to remember the power

With cracking original songs, a lot of banter and cheeky humour, Bingo! is co-written by Anita Vettesse & Johnny McKnight, with music by Alan Penman and directed by Stellar Quines’ Artistic Director Jemima Levick.

Cast of Bingo! includes stars of British stages and television such as Louise McCarthy (Daniella) of BBC’s Scot Squad and Two Doors Down, Wendy Seager (Mary) who played Susan inKilling me Softly and featured in Still Game, Barbara Rafferty (Joanna), star of River City, Brave New World, Rab C Nesbitt and The Last King of Scotland film, Jo Freer (Ruth) who starred in Dundee Rep’s Sunshine on Leith as well as River City, Darren Brownlie (Donny) known from Dundee Rep’s Witness for the Prosecution and BBC Scotland’s Scot Squad as well as Tron Theatre’s pantomime and Jane McCarry(Betty), Still Game’s Isa and Scottish pantomime star who also played Dolly in Tony Roper’s The Steamie and featured in Rab C Nesbitt.

Bingo! reflects the current state of affairs for many people living in the UK, for whom a visit to a bingo hall is both a night out and a financial plan. Brought to Scottish stages by two award-winning Edinburgh-based theatre companies: site-responsive specialists Grid Iron and Stellar Quines, who celebrate the diversity of women and girls, Bingo! promises to be a show that entertains and provokes.

Bingo! receives its world premiere at Assembly Hall in Edinburgh. The show then goes on tour to venues around Scotland, including Stirling, Ayr, Musselburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.

Jemima Levick, Artistic Director of Stellar Quines said: “As one of Scotland’s longest serving touring companies, Stellar Quines’ work is created to inspire women & girls, and the men that know them.  We realise that women and girls come in different shapes and sizes and with a variety of tastes and expectations, so our programme of work aims to respond with broad appeal.

Every time I read Bingo! or hear it read aloud, I am reminded of just how brilliant women are.  It’s a play about comradery, friendship, parenthood, and strength in numbers, but also about hope, and ‘that’ fantasy that we all have – of how our lives might change with that big win.  It’s a play that never fails to take me by surprise, it makes me laugh and cry. 

We are particularly delighted to be co-producing alongside our long-time colleagues, Grid Iron.  It’s a collaboration that’s based on many of the qualities of this play, so we’re thrilled to be on that journey with them.”

Judith Doherty, Co-Artistic Director of Grid Iron said: “Grid Iron have been talking to Jemima about Bingo! for quite some time so, when she took over the helm at Stellar Quines, it seemed the perfect opportunity to bring together two Edinburgh companies who share a mission to provide strong roles for women on and off stage.  Anita and Johnny have written a truly cracking script and I would bet on it that we’ll hear people humming Alan’s music as they head down the street after the show.

Although Grid Iron are best known for site-responsive work, this is far from the first time we’ve toured work for the stage and indeed, isn’t our first musical either. We’re really looking forward to taking Bingo! out on the road and are delighted to be travelling with Stellar Quines.”

Sharon Burgess, Assembly Managing Director said: “Assembly are thrilled to be working with two such prestigious Scottish Theatre Companies to present work at Assembly Hall out with the month of August. We very much look forward to hosting the world premiere of Bingo! in March next year.”

The Last Queen of Dramaturgy: Jemina Levick @ Edfringe 2017

From Uganda to Dundee – The Last Queen of Scotland confronts Idi Amin

This August festival audiences will be treated to the world premiere of The Last Queen of Scotland - a Stellar Quines production co-commissioned and supported by National Theatre of Scotland and Dundee Rep. 

The new play by Jaimini Jethwa traces her journey from Uganda to Dundee charting the personal fallout from events of August 1972 when the notorious dictator Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of all Asian Ugandans from the country. 

The Last Queen of Scotland 

Venue: Iron Belly, Underbelly Venue 61

Dates and Time: 3 – 26 August 6:50PM (60mins) no perf 9 & 16 Aug

Tickets: £6.50 previews (3, 4 August) £12(11) Off peak £14(£13) Peak

Age 12+ 

Box Office: Call 0844 545 8252 or buy online at underbelly.co.uk 


What was the inspiration for this performance? 

It’s inspired by Jaimini’s experience of the Ugandan Asian expulsion, and her move to Dundee as an immigrant in the early 70’s.  About how she chose to explore her past in order to be in control of her future – a story of where she came from and where she now belongs.

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

Absolutely.  It’s a live medium, so it’s currency is inherently in the present.  There’s a visceral experience that comes with a live performer sharing a story with an audience, and it’s that shared experience, the exchange, that encourages us to debate and discuss what we just saw.  There’s less separation (no screen!) between the stage and the public, so that discussion and the subject feels more available.  

How did you go about gathering the team for it? 

I was keen to work with Anna Orton (designer) and knew she had recently graduated from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.  She had worked as a scenic artist at Dundee Rep when I was AD there, and I wanted someone who understood the Dundee landscape.  She’s also very talented.  

Which helps. 

Ian Dow (Lighting Designer) I had worked with previously in Dundee also. 

And Patricia Panther (music and sound) was actually a recommendation from Cora Bissett.  

Originally I wanted to work with someone from a refugee background, but when talking to Cora she didn’t hesitate to mention Patricia’s name.  She has an incredible singing voice, so I was keen to find a place for her to perform live in the show. 

How did you become interested in making performance? 

My mum was an actress when I was small, and although I was always mortified at her performing, I was hooked from an early age.  It just felt so exciting being in the same room as people who were so invested in telling me a story. 

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

This is Jaimini’s first play, and we’ve been on a fairly unusual path in terms of its conception to production.  Her background is in film making but not in theatre, so we’ve spent about four years working together, alongside George Aza-Selinger (former Literary Manager at the National Theatre of Scotland), to get to this point.  It wasn’t a formal commission in the traditional sense, we didn’t say, “oh you’re an interesting playwright, go away and write us a play”.  

Jaimini had an idea about what she wanted to write about, we had to help her find the best way to do it; the structure, style and so on.  It was only after working together for three years that she was formally co-commissioned by Dundee Rep and the NTS. 

Once we get in the rehearsal room, I guess as with any new play, there will be a lot of time spent working out how the text works - what works, what doesn’t, what goes, what stays.  Also, because this is so specifically Jaimini’s story, we need to make sure it fits in Rehanna’s mouth (so to speak) so it begins to belong to her too.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

It’s an untold Scottish story, which is something I’m always keen to give an audience access to - much like our recent co-production of The 306: Day.  At Stellar Quines we want to make work that inspires women and girls, and I think that this does that.  It’s about knowing who you are, and belonging and defeating the powers that be from controlling you. 

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope they’ll feel energized, and more informed about an event in history that they didn’t know much about.  I also hope people will open their minds in terms of immigration, and what journey people undergo to get to their new ‘home’ and how, even after a lifetime of integration, it might not necessarily be clear to you where you truly belong. 

It’s a very human story, told in a Dundee voice with great music, more than anything, it should be enjoyable.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience? 

The integration of music is a key element for me, as music can transport you faster and more instinctively than any other medium.  And as with any production, the design will work to help the audience go on the journey with us, from Dundee to Uganda and back.  I also think that seeing two performers, both strong young women from Scottish/Nigerian and Scottish/Pakistani descent, is a real signaler of how diverse Scotland has become, and how central diversity is to making this nation a better and more interesting place.

Directed by Jemima Levick and performed by exciting young actress Rehanna MacDonald to a live soundtrack [Patricia Panther, Glasgow Girls] The Last Queen of Scotland is a powerful polemic rewriting Amin's relationship with Scotland.

Jaimini Jethwa

Jaimini is a playwright and independent film maker with specialist skills in working with vulnerable young people and adults. 

In March 2014 Jaimini travelled to Uganda to explore presenting The

Last Queen of Scotland at National Theatre Kampala as part of ‘Banta in Uganda’ – in a research and development project supported through Creative Scotland’s International fund. Jaimini is currently based at Abertay University, Dundee and has previously worked on drama production for BBC short Films, Scottish Screen, BBC Screen writing Migrations, Lemuria Music Events Film-Maker, Diversity Films, GMAC. Jaimini was born in Uganda but was expelled in August 1972 with her family by Idi Amin. The family headed to Britain and ended up living in Dundee. 





Jemima Levick

Jemima was appointed Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Stellar Quines in May 2016. Prior to that, she served as Artistic Director and as Associate Director at Dundee Rep Theatre for seven years. She trained at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh and also on a Scottish Arts Council Director Traineeship.



She has won and been nominated for a number of awards and directed more than 18 productions at the Rep, including Great Expectations, The Glass Menagerie, Time and the Conways, The Tempest, The Elephant Man and Beauty and the Beast.



As a freelance director and producer she has worked with a number of companies, including the Royal Lyceum Theatre, The National Theatre of Scotland, Perissology Theatre Productions, Borderline, Grid Iron Theatre Company, The Traverse and Paines Plough.





Stellar Quines

Stellar Quines is an award winning Scottish theatre company that celebrates the value and diversity of women and girls by making brilliant theatre, provoking change, nurturing artists and empowering participation. 



The company achieves this through a year-round programme designed to excite and inspire the audiences and artists we work with that includes producing and touring world class performance, commissioning research, championing campaigns and delivering activities to support artist development and community engagement. www.stellarquines.com  



Made in Scotland

Made in Scotland is a curated showcase of high quality performance from Scotland at the world’s biggest arts festival, made possible by support from the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund. It is a partnership between the Festival Fringe Society, the Federation of Scottish Theatre (FST) Scottish Music Centre and Creative Scotland. www.madeinscotlandshowcase.com  





The National Theatre of Scotland

The National Theatre of Scotland is dedicated to playing the great stages, arts centres, village halls, schools and site-specific locations of Scotland, the UK and internationally. As well as creating ground-breaking productions and working with the most talented theatre-makers, the National Theatre of Scotland produces significant community engagement projects, innovates digitally and works constantly to develop new talent. Central to this is finding pioneering ways to reach current and new audiences and to encourage people’s full participation in the Company’s work. With no performance building of its own, the Company works with existing and new venues and companies to create and tour theatre of the highest quality. Founded in 2006, the Company, in its short life, has become a globally significant theatrical player, with an extensive repertoire of award-winning work. The National Theatre of Scotland is supported by the Scottish Government. www.nationaltheatrescotland.com

Told through the street sounds of Dundonian dialect The Last Queen of Scotland is a homage to Jaimini’s city “the D”. From 'messy' parties in Dundee's housing schemes to the baking heat of Kampala, Jaimini Jethwa's personal journey of self discovery sheds light on a unique period of untold history. Sharing the story of a community in exile, The Last Queen of Scotland sees Jaimini retrace her parents steps following their expulsion from Uganda and the decisions that have made Dundee her home. On her return to her homeland she finds more questions than answers as she confronts the past and imagines the life she should have had. 



The Last Queen of Scotland sees award winning company Stellar Quines return to the Fringe following the success of The Jennifer Tremblay Trilogy (2015).  The company also received rave reviews for The View from Castle Rock (2016) an Edinburgh Festivals Expo Funded Co-production with Edinburgh International Book Festival. The Last Queen of Scotland is Artistic Director Jemina Levick's first festival production for Stellar Quines and is part of the 2017 Made in Scotland Showcase.

Get REDy or LEDDY for the Fringe

Dare to Care (Stella Quines on tour)

Stellar Quines And Fife Cultural Trust present the world premiere of a new work by Christine Lindsay, directed by Muriel Romanes, Artistic Director of Stellar Quines – an award-winning company who have been championing the work of women in theatre for 21 years.
Dare to Care

Stellar Quines’ mission is to be bold, relevant and brave. With this in mind we are pleased to announce the world premiere and tour of Dare to Care, an unflinching, unbiased, authentic insight into life at Cornton Vale – Scotland’s primary prison for female offenders

Arriving for a spell behind bars, where there are no secrets or boundaries, and carrying their life’s baggage, a group of women tell their stories in a sometimes crazy, often poignant insight into their lives and the price they’ll pay. Linked by common threads of hope, fear, love and survival, Christine Lindsay does not offer blame or reason but in each story highlights the difficulties faced by these women in the society of their time. Told in a chorus of words, rhyme and stand-up comedy, the collective voice of the women is heard.


Dare to Care has been created by playwright and former prison warden Christine Lindsay. She shines a light on inmates and wardens alike showing neither as angels or devils, but all doing the best they can in a system that expects the worst.

Stellar Quines first presented Dare to Care at a Rehearsal Room performance at the Traverse Theatre. The tremendous response to the performed reading encouraged Muriel Romanes to commission the play for a full production. We are delighted to be working with our co-producers Fife Cultural Trust on this production.


The opening of this production will coincide with International Women’s Day 2014, an annual celebration of women and their achievements.


Design by Keith McIntyre
Additional imagery by Jade Currie

Lighting design by Jeanine Davies
Musical Director and Arrangement by Hilary Brook
Sound design by Philip Pinsky
Additional Music Composition by Patricia Panther


CAST: Rebecca Elise, Meg Fraser, Molly Innes, Anne Kidd, Scarlett Mack and Alexandra Mathie.

Dare to Care will open at The Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy and will then undertake a tour to The Lemon Tree, Woodend Barn, Birnam Arts, Eden Court, the Tolbooth, Traverse Theatre, Cumbernauld Theatre, Beacon Arts, The Brunton and Lochgelly Centre.


PRESS NIGHT: Sat 8 March, 7.30pm – Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy.
For more information and to book press tickets contact:
For Stellar Quines: Shirley Monteith sjmonteith59@gmail.com / 07737 168680
For ON at Fife Theatres: Lyn McNicol lyn@lynmcnicolpr.co.uk and t. 0797 1231238




Dates & Venues
ON at Adam Smith Theatre
Bennochy Road, Kirkcaldy, KY1 1ET
7/8 March 7.30pm
Box Office: 01592 583302
www.onfife.com


The Lemon Tree
5 West North Street, Aberdeen, AB24 5AT
11 March, 7pm
Box Office: 01224 641122
www.aberdeenperformingarts.com




Woodend Barn
Burn O Bennie, Banchory, Kincardineshire, AB31 5QA
13 March, 7.30pm
Box Office: 01330 825 431
www.woodendbarn.co.uk


Birnam Arts
Station Road, Birnam, Dunkeld, PH8 0DS
14 March 8pm
Box Office: 01350 727674
www.birnamarts.com


Eden Court
Bishop’s Road, Inverness, IV3 5SA
15 March, 8pm
Box Office: 01463 234 234
www.eden-court.co.uk


Tolbooth
Jail Wynd, Stirling, FK8 1DE
18 March 7.30pm
Box Office: 01786 274000
www.stirling.gov.uk/tolbooth


Traverse Theatre
10 Cambridge St, Edinburgh, EH1 2ED
19 - 21 March 7.30pm
Box Office: 0131 228 1404
www.traverse.co.uk

She Plays

The Fringe has barely finished - well, I am still licking my wounds from it and hoping that I don't get ill after a month of sleeping on floors and eating on the run - and the Autumn seasons are starting up. There's even a few themes emerging, to give me a chance to create another idiosyncratic top five...

The strength of women is an oft-recorded part of recent Scottish history, at least as far as the theatre remembers it. The Steamie emphasised the importance of women's work in Glasgow in the 1950s, and two plays in Dundee celebrate the role of women in difficult times.

She-Town pretty much lays it all out in the title. An ambitious project from Dundee Rep, adding a cast of community performers alongside their core actors, it goes back to the depressed 1930s and highlights how women kept the city running. Starring Barbara Rafferty - best known for her TV work in Rab C Nesbit but has been a sparkling Scottish stage presence over the past decade - and a very large cast of women, Sharman MacDonald's new play is supported by a new Creative Scotland fund.

First in a Lifetime is designed to make work that opens up creativity to new people: this time, it has enabled community performers to appear in a professional production. Given that She-Town is all about  community, it's appropriate that this fund is supporting it.

12 - 29 September @ Dundee Rep


It's a bit cheeky to include Stellar Quines in my rundown of "theatre about women" - their remit has always been supportive to female artists. However, they have teamed up with Greyscale to run a tour by one of the world's oldest "new writers": Sylvia Dow is 73, and this is her first play.

A rehearsed reading last year revealed Dow's sensibility echoes the absurdism of Beckett, but with an added compassion and strong sense of contemporary anguish: while the early absurdist theatre entertained through a combination of lurking fear and the pointlessness of life, Dow pitches the horror of a relationship going nowhere, caught in the cycles of repressed hopes and polite reconciliations. It fits into both the Traverse's New Writing remit and the programming of Andy Arnold at the Tron (he loves a nice bit of absurdism), and Dow becomes an interesting take on the entire idea of "the young writer".

5- 8 September @ The Tron
18- 19 September at the Traverse

It's rare that I get out to the Brunton Theatre - although when I do, I get to go for a paddle in the sea and have an ice-cream from the lovely shop just across the road. The Brunton does have a programme that operates independently from the theatres in Edinburgh, featuring plenty of touring companies up from England.

Miriam Margoyles whetted my appetite for Dickens' Women at the Fringe, and the Brunton has followed up with Miss Havisham's Expectations. A one-woman show starring Linda Marlow (she once did Berkoff's Women, so will be familiar with the bloody end of female fictional characters), it takes up the story of Great Expectations and confronts the venerable Victorian author with the truth about the woman he trapped inside a moment.

Using biographical details from Dickens' life alongside the famous novel, Di Sherlock's script takes the writer to task for playing God with characters that he does not understand: and while adaptations can be a lazy way to make theatre, Miss Havisham's Great Expectations ignores the conventional period drama cliches and recontextualises one of fiction's great, lost tragic heroines.

Saturday 15 September @ Brunton Theatre

Next up, The Guid Sisters: I have talked about this already, but it is a bold start to the new season at the Lyceum. The NTS are involved, too, and it is one of the rare times that a piece starts at the Lyceum and doesn't force me to travel to Edinburgh to see it: it is coming to the King's, Glasgow, in October.

21 September - 13 October @ The Lyceum
23 - 27 October @ The King's, Glasgow 


Towards the end of next month, another project led by Cora Bissett (after Whatever Gets You Through the Night and Roadkill, she is becoming a force in Scottish production, even before looking at her acting) reveals a hidden history. The Glasgow Girls were seven young women who stood up for the rights of asylum seekers - a tough, political story that is perfect for a musical adaptation.

A script from David Greig and original songs from Bissett, MC Soom T and John Kielty (who has been perfecting the punk musical during the Fringe), the musical is no schmaltzy song-fest, but a celebration of the Glasgow that longs to find the true meaning of inclusion and multiculturalism. The NTS are involved again - the energy and imagination of the nation's big company is looking undiminished as it heads towards its eighth year - and both Bissett and Greig have reputations as hard-hitters.

31 October - 17 November @ The Citizens 

Arousing Conversation

Muriel Romanes is one of the coolest directors in Scotland. With Stellar Quines, she has had an uncompromising commitment to work that is unashamedly feminist, yet has a lively humour and accessibility. She has been nominated for best director by Theatre Awards UK - who are jumping on the band wagon, given she won the CATS prize earlier in the year. In this interview, she talks about the process behind the play that has got her on the shortlist.


Age of Arousal looks like a challenging- and excellent – choice for the Lyceum: dealing with both political matters that are still under consideration, and the implied eroticism of both title and promotional image. What made you decide to collaborate with the Lyceum for this production?

I’ve worked with the Lyceum many times over the years and was an Associate Director here directing shows such as Anna Karenina and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, so I have always had a very good relationship with the theatre, its audiences and its staff. Because of this I was keen for Stellar Quines to do a co-production with the Lyceum and when I came upon Age of Arousal I thought that this play would be perfect.

Age of Arousal is written on a grand scale – it has an almost Shakespearian force and energy and the capacity to play well in touring venues – which is part of Stellar Quines mandate – but also to engage a larger, subscription based audience such as that at the Lyceum. The Lyceum stage is a perfect setting for a play that both embraces the Victorian Age and challenges our assumptions of that age. While the play has a historical context that is well suited to the Lyceum building, it also tells a story that reaches far beyond its late 19th century trappings and the accompanying confusion over women’s rights, to tap into current slippery notions of love, marriage and sex. The play is packed with delicious female characters and I felt that their stories meant it could offer something for everyone. It is endlessly witty and brilliantly inventive.

This production would never have been able to be realised without the generosity and support of the Lyceum as co-producers. Mark Thomson has been a great supporter of the project and the Lyceum team has met Stellar Quines with energy and commitment. Their support makes it possible for many more people to see the piece than would otherwise have been possible through a more usual Stellar Quines tour. It also gives the Lyceum a chance to get their name out to venues beyond Edinburgh.

In addition, the Lyceum has made it possible for us to support a number of collaborative projects around Age of Arousal including work with the students in stage 3 of the B.A honours Performance Costume course at Edinburgh College of Art who used Age of Arousal as a project from which to develop their own costume ideas. I met and worked with the students, then David Butterworth the Lyceum’s production manager and Jeanine Davies the lighting designer came in to share their expertise as well. Once the show started rehearsals in January the students were invited to sit in on the read-through and the rehearsal process. The students work will be displayed in the Lyceum foyer for the duration of the run of Age of Arousal.

In addition, the Lyceum Creative Learning Department (along with Perth and Kinross Council) are helping us to stage a rehearsed reading and discussion of Cat and Mouse by Ajay Close, a play about the force feeding of suffragette’s in Perth Prison during a similar time period to that dealt with in Age of Arousal. We are doing this in celebration of the centenary of International Women’s Day on 8 March this year. The Lyceum are promoting the event to their own audience and hosting the reading in the Lyceum auditorium. They have also asked University of Edinburgh Sociology student Meg O’Brien to undertake research for us on the people, places and stories of the Suffragette movement in Scotland in each of the cities to which Age of Arousal will be touring.


 Stellar Quines has always supported women's work in theatre, both in terms of content and casting. while this can be a lonely position to take - feminism seems to be often marginalised, despite its obvious relevance - it is a necessary and brave one. how has the political landscape changed in the years since the company's foundation, and has this impacted on the nature of the work that you create?

There have been changes in the political landscape since we were founded, so much so that perhaps some people think that focusing on creative work by women and putting women at the forefront of everything we do is now a little out of date. But we are still here after 17 years and the very fact of this proves in some way the necessity of our existence. Women themselves continue to tell me that they often feel that their voices are not heard to the extent that they would like.

Whatever the political landscape, then and now, I have always wanted to produce work that is bold, relevant and brave. I have never seen Stellar Quines as a feminist theatre company, rather a company that is driven by women in collaboration with the men who share its vision. One of the delights of Age of Arousal is that it takes on feminism in the present, by setting it in the past, which I think is important. Sexuality is always relevant.

Going back in time is often a way to avoid confronting issues too directly, or can play into the heritage industry's reading of the past. AoA appears to avoid this, but are there any particular reasons that this period of history appealed to you?


Turn of the century Britain was exploding with arousals – political, sexual, social. It was a period of radical change – the assumptions that were being confronted are still being confronted. Reading the dialogue of suffragette thinkers is to be shocked by the reality that this struggle continues – Mary Wollstonecraft seems eerily similar to Germaine Greer. I was attracted to the theme of women learning to enter the business world – Griffiths does this by wittily centering on the Remington typewriter. While women now make up 51% of the corporate world, the percentage of women in the executive boardrooms is under ten percent. In Age of Arousal, the assumption is that working women will progress much more quickly to share leadership in society. By setting the play in the past, this irony is brilliantly brought to the fore.

 On a more formal note, how far can you use physical theatre or other strategies when you are working on a script from a very talented writer? SQ have always been adventurous in their staging, and I wonder how this piece will reflect that?

The play is so very modern although set in 1880’s and we have subverted the Victorian and the modern in our approach to the production using Victorian, mechanical and circus style conventions. It is a piece that can burst out of itself and then as quickly get back in it’s box to demonstrate the real and the unconventional and a piece full of contradictions leaving the door open to opportunities both visually and physically which we have exploited. The text has a convention attached to it called “thought speak” which are the uncensored outpourings of the characters and add another layer to the piece to enable the audiences to engage with private and secret thoughts and enabling the sub textural elements of the piece to be exposed. The set is placed at the centre of the Lyceum stage with the mechanics of the actual stage exposed so that we never forget that we are in a theatre and the process of performance is not hidden away completely.

What particular details of this play made you pick it up after seeing it in Canada?

Stellar Quines has been building relationships with Canada for some years now both in the English and French sectors. We have a history of producing Canadian work both English and French e.g. The Reel of the Hanged Man by Jean Mance-Delisle (translated into Scots by Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay) which we did in 1999. In 2007 I was invited to see a production of Age of Arousal in Toronto by Nightwood Theatre in collaboration with Factory Theatre. Nightwood have a very similar ethos to that of Stellar Quines and I was thrilled by this play, especially as it is now a century since the suffragette movement came into being. The play is a very clever piece of writing that explores the female world from the cradle to the grave and is as relevant today as it was in 1885. It is about women who challenge convention and women who dare to say the "unsayable" and is in the spirit of the work we do at Stellar Quines. The subject matter of the play fits exactly with our ethos and shows a world view of what women and men could each offer society if only a balance between the sexes were allowed - they fought for equality but also to allow our differences to have dignity and prestige. Also, the emergence of the Typewriter then and technology today have many parallels that I felt would resonate for modern audiences and especially for women of my own advancing years.