Prettier Dramaturgy: Doug Will Do at Edfringe 2017

Prettier Things is a play about the sinister undertones of ‘boy meets girl’ narratives. Our protagonist has a sharp sense of

humour, questioning the validity of cheesecake flavours and office romances, yet the dialogue grows darker as it explores the complex manifestations of male entitlement issues in emotionally abusive relationships. We are proud to be collaborating with Women’s Aid on the piece.

Two strangers. The same bus route. The same city. Every day he’s there, just across the aisle. Smiling up at her as she falls, blushing, into a seat. Impossibly obvious with her messy hair and her ripped tights. Almost too dramatic a cliché. But there’s something sinister about the way he’s looking at her. Like he knows something. Like he knows how to hurt her.

Prettier Things begins as any romantic comedy might begin, with two strangers revelling in the ironic charm of the seemingly harmless clichés that have brought them together. However, as the sinister realities of the boy-meets-girl narrative are exposed, we begin to question why we’re often so quick to warm to these familiar romantic stereotypes. From the producer of Sleepless Theatre’s ‘mind-blowing’ (ThreeWeeks) The Master and Margarita comes a new play about the male gaze, entitlement issues, and the relatively minor inconveniences of public transport.

LISTING INFORMATION: PRETTIER THINGS

Venue: theSpace at Jury’s Inn, 43 Jeffrey Street, Edinburgh EH1 1DH (Venue 260)

Time: 12:10 14-19 August, 15:10 21-26 August

What was the inspiration for this performance?

We wanted to create something that challenged the conventions of ‘boy meets girl’: a narrative which often romanticises problematic male behaviour. It was important for us to have a female protagonist who both recognises the sinister undertones of ‘belonging’ to someone, yet also acknowledges that she has internalised certain ideas about the nature of romantic relationships. ‘Prettier Things’ is our reaction to rom-com. We are probably exactly as bitter as we sound.

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

Definitely! ‘Prettier Things’ handles some very sensitive themes and we truly hope that it inspires discussion amongst our audiences post-performance. We believe in the importance of the underlying message of the play and feel privileged to have the opportunity to share it with people. Plus, the process of creating the play has been pretty therapeutic, if we’re honest.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I’ve always loved theatre, but given my highly limited acting abilities (the less said about some very regrettable sixth form performances the better), it wasn’t until university that drama production became a really huge part of my life.

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

The script actually began as a short monologue for a scratch night, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that we hadn’t quite finished telling a story and I knew I wanted to develop it further. I feel very lucky that Chloe Weare, who performed the monologue originally, agreed to join us in Edinburgh, along with our new (and equally talented) cast member Jack Waterman. Our approach to rehearsals has been fairly relaxed so far- it’s pretty essential that we retain our senses of humour given the nature of the material we’re working with.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

This is actually our first production as a new company, so it feels very fresh, but it certainly suits the style of work we’ve done previously as individuals. We’re just a bunch of angry women, really.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope that they will feel that they have seen a piece of theatre which handles emotionally abusive relationships responsibly. I hope that they will question some of the values they might hold. I hope that they will track down a cheesecake as delicious as the one described in the play.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

We wanted to make ‘Prettier Things’ feel personal to every member of the audience. With this in mind, we’re using the entire space rather than just the stage, with the actors connecting very directly at points with members of the audience. This works particularly well in a venue as intimate as ours.

Blue Dramaturgy: Sallyann Fellowes @ Edfringe 2017

Ex-Nurse Ex-Cop Sallyann Fellowes presents her debut stand-up show.

Riotous tales from hospitals, police stations and life in general according to Sallyann. Unique, quirky, downright funny but above all true.

Out of the Blue written and performed by Sallyann Fellowes is an autobiographical stand-up comedy show based on her careers as a nurse, police officer and many other bizarre happenings in her life. Sallyann has always wondered how so many weird things could happen to one person - it’s not her fault honestly!

The seeds for this show were sown after Sallyann retired from the police due to injury and decided to move into performance art instead. According to Sallyann really most things are funny and she uses a gallows humour philosophy to reflect on everything in life. Now venturing into stand-up, this rich vein of material has gone into the writing of a show full of quirky and original observations on life in general and true tales of madness and mayhem that she feels compelled to share with you, after all, it would be rude not to.

Edinburgh Fringe Show Information

Out of the Blue  Edinburgh Festival 2017   
8th - 10th August 13:05  
Fringe Box Office: 0131 226 0000
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/out-of-the-blue-1

theSpace@Jurys - Studio,
Jurys Inn, Jeffrey St, EH1 1DF  
Box office: 0131 510 2381  

What was the inspiration for this performance?

My inspiration is my 2 previous careers nursing and the police. I called the show Out of the Blue for 2 reasons

Blue light sirens and the idea came to me out of the blue as it were!

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

I think so, especially stand up comedy. The public soon let you know if they  don't like it! Sometimes a subject can be something current that's going on nationally/internationally ie both my previous jobs are hugely affected nationally (now) by government cutbacks.

There maybe a subject matter that has a personal connection with someone I think its important to be open to that.

Humour can be quite therapeutic, getting something 'out there' using comedy can disarm difficult to discuss topics.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I wanted to be an actor even as a young child. It was something I had to 'park' for a while due to lack of finance. I became a nurse and then later a police officer. When I was retired after an injury on duty I turned to performance. Sometimes things happen for a reason.

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

Just honesty all the material comes from personal experience. I've loved writing it and performing it at my fringe preview in London.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

This is my first show. My other work has been part of other peoples shows/films

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope they will experience laughter and a sense of fun and leave happy. 

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I made sure I kept the structure of it lose to begin with; I wrote and rewrote it many many times.

I changed it a bit after the preview for instance.

I decided to use pictures to illustrate some of the show. I hope that gives it some extra humour and changes the tempo a bit

so it isn't all about my voice!

I think a show is a constant work in progress there's always something that can be improved upon.

It will change a little each time depending on the audience. There the most important ingredient after all.

Changeling Dramaturgy: Pucqui @ Edfringe 2017

Pucqui Collaborative presents CHANGELINGS by Robin Ian HallSmith and Nicole Marie

Featured at theSpace’s new North Bridge venue, the show will be presented at Monday through Saturday, August 4 through 26, as part of the 2017 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

CHANGELINGS, the third production by the international Pucqui Collaborative, is a mash-up of Rudyard Kipling and William Shakespeare, imagining a world in which The Jungle Book’s Mowgli is the boy over whom the fairies of A Midsummer Night’s Dream‘s have been fighting. An original piece written by and featuring Pucqui’s founding members, Nicole Marie Palomba and Robin Ian HallSmith, the play was created while the authors were completing their post-graduate study at the University of Essex’s East15 Acting School.

CHANGELINGS’ story takes place in a magical forest which exists in limbo between the two source stories. Mowgli finds himself cast out of his wolf pack, alone and left to fend for himself. Puck discovers him and entices him to leave the jungle for Oberon’s forest.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Both creators of the piece, Robin HallSmith and Nicole Palomba, are 2017 Acting MFA recipients from the East15 Acting School in London. For our degree, we were asked to write a dissertation, design a portfolio, and build a 7-minute one-person performance all around a pre-existing character in drama. 

Robin chose Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Nicole chose Mowgli from a stage adaptation of The Jungle Book. It occurred to us during the process that we might find a way to merge the two characters, and we found the common theme in both stories of the little Indian boy lost in the woods. The coincidence excited us because it allowed us to subtly examine themes that resonate with us personally - queer themes, gender roles, multiculturalism, the attraction of the natural world, and magical realism.

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

Performance - particularly live performance - is still an excellent venue for debate and examination. There is something visceral and enthralling about live theatre that no other art form except performance art comes near. 

There is reason why film audiences or live music audiences don't need intermissions and feel galvanized to go out for a handful of pints afterward, while theatre audiences engage in ways both physical and psychological that takes real energy and focus. 

When there is a live audience, the ensemble engages in a real-time dialogue with that audience, which makes theatre the most exceptional world in which to examine and express truths, confusion, frustration, and hopefully joy.

How did you become interested in making performance?

We honestly believe that performance is a medium, and it has always been the medium that we feel most comfortable storytelling in. This story in particular, is best fit for performance because both characters were born on the page so long ago, and we can reintroduce them to people who already think they know who they are. Puck and Mowgli lived (unknowingly to most) side-by-side in Kipling's universe, and we want to invite people to actively participate in the conversation about how characters, and people, can coexist, perhaps without realizing they have been already with those different from them, after the show is over. 

We hope that by bringing these characters to life in an intimate, human setting, we can encourage audiences to look deeper into all relationships they think they already completely understand, be it with a person, a play, a character, or themselves. 

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

As we said above, the MFA program really lit the fuse for the creation of the concept. We used a number of methods in order to build the final piece, including free writing, improvisation, performance impulse work, animal study, and a number of other techniques. 

One might be hard-pressed to call the process "devised", however, as a working production script was created at the onset and adjusted throughout the rehearsal process. The piece was particularly built, as one would imagine, from the characters outward, allowing them to steer the story and tone.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

Very much so. Our company has addressed queer themes and gender roles in all of our pieces. Our premiere production created last summer for performance at the Lion & Unicorn in Camden was 1W1M, a half-improvised performance art piece in which the two main performers - one woman and one man - cycle through a number of Shakespeare duologues, while the corset changes place and the man is allowed to veer from the script while the woman is required to maintain the pentameter. 

We've aimed toward building a multicultural approach to our work, and we're excited to be able to playfully address the issues of both colonialism and culture in our new work.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

More than anything, we aimed to create a piece that - though teasingly political in brief moments - primarily just built an ambient tone of two childlike characters meeting in a wood. We wanted it to be a bit of a respite from the more brash and demanding theatre that one frequently encounters, which we love but also feel is not all that contemporary theatre can do. 

We feel that in the hyper-urban, technologically aggressive modern world in which we live, we can offer a differently paced and more nature-inspired experience that taps into the fire-pit storytelling of our collective unconscious.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

Particularly, we've kept these themes in mind in terms of performance pacing and technical design. Our set is designed to mimic not only a forest at dusk but also to tap into the audience's experiences of the nocturnal houses in modern zoos, and the sound design is particularly ambient and intends to beckon the audience into the world of the play as soon as they enter. 

We hope it helps create as much of a rest and an organic experience as is possible within the gorgeous chaos that is the Fringe Festival.

The production addresses themes of loneliness, family and tribe, childhood wonder, and the magical nature of storytelling. While not expressly written as a children’s show, it is family-friendly and appropriate for all audiences.

Quoting their mission statement, the Pucqui Collaborative “is a curious theatre collaborative rooted in the creation of vibrant, playful, and occasionally sinister performances that reconnect modern audiences with traditional storytelling”. Last summer at the Lion & Unicorn in Camden, the company premiered its first original production, 1W1M, in which famous scenes from Shakespeare were re- imagined through gender-bending, corseting, and copious blood and glitter. The founding pair, Palomba and HallSmith, state that their primary focus is always to approach the collaborative’s work “through a multicultural, queer, and/or gender- conscious lens.”

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats- on/changelings

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pucqui/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pucqui/ Twitter: PucquiTweets

Babel Dramaturgy: Colby Quinn @ Edfringe 2017

LOUD // IN BABEL

 by COLBY QUINN

dir. Anastasia Bruce-Jones

12:55pm 14th - 19th August

TheSpace@NiddrySt (Upper), Niddry Street, EH1 1TH

It is 2057 and the world’s population has reached 10 billion. To prevent unsanctioned births, British law states that no male and female can be alone together in a private place. In an abandoned house, on the edge of town, Thomas and Isla break away from the rest of the party...

An abandoned house on the outskirts of Bristol. A group of young, would-be revolutionaries break in to start fires and drink liquid steel. The party quickly becomes raucous.

Upstairs, Thomas finds an old bedroom, dusty but with shafts of

evening light filtering in, and prepares a surprise for his girlfriend, Isla; their first proper date, alone. A heart-warming love story begins; two young people held apart by a law which unjustly assumes the sexuality of heterosexual relationships finally live out the most intimate and fragile of human interactions – they discover what is like to be alone with the person you love.

As they talk – about the city, about university, about their families and, seemingly constantly, about the way their lives have been affected by the new law – they are able to begin revealing the depth of their feelings for each other.

But romantic excitement turns to recklessness for Thomas as they steel themselves with alcohol. The political becomes entangled with the private once again, as Thomas’s frustration and revolutionary fury build, fuelled by the discovery of a box of photographs which tell a story of a similarly persecuted couple. Thomas’s idea of rebellion, sexual intercourse, in a world where even a father and daughter can’t be alone together, isn’t Isla’s.

WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THIS PERFORMANCE?

I really like one night stands. There's something really exciting about being in such an intimate situation with someone you hardly know. But I don't like having sex on one night stands. It's just a line I draw. Some people have a real issue with that.

It seems to me that every time I've found myself in a situation where a guy - and I say 'guy' because it always has been guys, girls in my experience haven't been this way - has pushed the boundaries of consent, and I've told them to stop and explained to them that they were beginning to do something that was non-consensual, it's always ended up being me who comforts them. 

Me who comforts them? What the hell?

Because I guess it is upsetting, thinking that if the person you're on a one-night-stand with wasn't outspoken, or sober enough, or aware enough of exactly what it is she wants (or doesn't want), you could easily have ended up raping them. But I think we can agree that it's a hell of a lot more upsetting to have it the other way round.

I had that image in my head for a few weeks - the victim comforting the person who has pushed their boundaries - and LOUD // in Babel emerged out of that.

IS PERFORMANCE STILL A GOOD SPACE FOR THE PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF IDEAS?

Well, in this case, I'm not really sure that's the question we need to be asking.

I went through school with absolutely no discussion of consent at all - this is nothing against my school, it's a good place that really cares about it's students, but it's not in the curriculum and - worse - it's just not in people's minds. 

There's no culture of talking about consent. The only formal education I've ever had about consent was a half-hearted two hour

workshop at the start of my time at University, run by students who had barely more experience than I did. Sure, I had a few afternoons in school when I was taught how to put a condom on a cucumber. Frankly, these days, that's worse than not good enough.

The only place I ever see ideas of consent and - even more rarely - the difficult case of rape happening within a loving and consensual relationship being discussed is in performance and the very fringes of the media, in edgy, low-budget dramas and YouTube documentaries.

As a writer and director, performance is the way I express my ideas. It's the medium through which I naturally filter and express my experiences. I guess that makes me lucky, because performance is one of the few places which *allows*, and more importantly, validates discussion of consent. Performance is absolutely necessary as a space for the public discussion of ideas.

The question we need to be asking, though, is why is performance so necessary? Why is performance the only place I can be sure of being heard when I say that I have taught myself through experience how to prevent my own rape?

HOW DID YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN MAKING PERFORMANCE?

I think it was when I saw Trevor White play

Hotspur in Gregory Doran's 'Henry IV: Part I' and I realised that really great performances are about saying something totally new.

In White's portrayal, Hostpur was an autistic man, wholly dedicated to his ideals, on fire with passion, leaping across the stage (I swear, four feet high sometimes) and compelling the audience with every ancient word he spoke. He never said a single thing that hasn't been said a hundred times before but it was electric and modern and totally fresh.

IS THERE ANY PARTICULAR APPROACH TO THE MAKING OF THE SHOW?

Not exactly a particular 'approach' - we're not going to rehearse everything in complete darkness or with our hands tied behind our backs or eating only rice and beans - I don't believe in directing gimmicks. But as with rehearsing any show, there are going to be unique challenges that require unique solutions.

For example, Isla and Thomas (the characters in LOUD // in Babel) get drunk through the course of the show. Given that their particular level of drunkenness leads to both of them losing a degree of control and doing things that they probably wouldn't do if they were sober, it's important for Toby and Beth (our actors) to feel that particular level of drunkenness and how it affects their decisions as characters. 

So we're going to do a rehearsal where we run the show and they actually drink the amount of alcohol the characters are drinking - in real time. And I'll record that and then we'll watch it through the next day. But the recording is sort of secondary, it'll help with slight physical things, but no-one wants to watch actors pretending to be absolutely smashed, so it's not really about that. It's more to feel how that lack of control works on the characters; makes them quieter or bolder or gives them that little voice at the back of the head that whispers 'this is bad, this is really bad'.

Instead of a particular approach, it'll be exercises like this. What I focus on is getting the actors' heads fully inside the psyche of their character, thinking and feeling as they do. After that, things come naturally.

DOES THE SHOW FIT WITH YOUR USUAL PRODUCTIONS?

Not exactly, but then it's been a pretty crazy range so far. I've directed 'Love's Labour's Lost' (a quirky Shakespeare comedy) set in modern-day Cambridge, 'The Duchess of Malfi' (a revenge tragedy) using physical theatre and 'set' (if you can call it setting) inside the subconscious dreaming mind of society itself, 'Birdsong' (Faulks' WW1 romance) in a pretty faithful way and I'm currently writing a short-film about two student film-makers who think they're Arthur Rimbaud. There's no real pattern here.

What I think is important to me is that audiences feel a connection - some significance to what is happening on stage, whether that's because they've been through similar things themselves or conversely because they are being made to feel something totally new. It's that sense of connection that will keep people coming to the theatre, keep young people interested, and prevent the 'dying out' of theatre that the arts world at the moment is so afraid of.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE THAT THE AUDIENCE WILL EXPERIENCE?

Emotion. It's as simple as that.

What I find interesting is that when you go to the theatre or the cinema, you know that what you're seeing is not real. And yet, you feel it more strongly than reality. I've had people tell me they love me for the first time and felt far less emotion than when Jack and Rose kiss on the prow of the Titanic. It's a sort of condensation of reality.

People go because they want to feel something, and that's exactly what I plan to deliver.

WHAT STRATEGIES DID YOU CONSIDER TOWARDS SHAPING THIS AUDIENCE
EXPERIENCE?

We've got a lot of cool ideas about this; we're planning to give some audience members t-shirts which, without revealing anything about the twists of the play, have quite an important role in a big reveal.

We're also using people's voices within the play itself, so we need some volunteers to read some sections of writing for us. So, if you want to actually be in an Edinburgh show, come to us!

LOUD // in Babel, an original piece of dystopia from Colby Quinn, is a powerful insight into the dangers of a voice going unheard. Through the funny, touching and fast-paced dialogue of the two would-be lovers, the play challenges our perceptions of freedom of speech, consent and the implications of silencing a voice.

LOUD // in Babel is structured around a new and very different concept, which poses multiple problems for both the characters and the audience to grapple with. The unique concept of the play frames the issues of the present, focusing on a hypothetical future which amplifies the fears of today without parodying them or using already well-worn Orwellian tropes overtly. 

The play challenges the audience by placing them inside a space which is controlled by laws which have a fundamental impact on the way the characters have lived their lives and understand communication. 

Through the play, the audience realise their own comparative freedom, the delicate balance of the private and the political and the terrifying consequences of this balance being upset. The play itself strikes an unsettling and deeply affecting balance between romantic comedy and political drama, which drives the pace and creates a Nick Payne-esque emotional struggle. 

This rejection of standardised genre expectations holds the audience to account for their own problematic expectations of romantic relationships in theatre and western culture more broadly and reflects the darkly ambiguous position created by voicelessness within the play. The theme of voicelessness itself creates an intriguing crux in a form which is built around dialogue, asking questions about the existence and position of free speech, which are reminiscent of Sam Steiner. 

The production uses simple technical effects to create powerful images, building to an exciting technical reveal at the end. The play builds around difficult ambiguities, which come to their climax in the question of sexual consent in a loving, consensual relationship. It is a play which will spark conversations and debate among audience-members, something that lies at the heart of Fringe theatre.

Penthouse Dramaturgy: Ed Brody @ Edfringe 2017

PENTHOUSE

A Poignant New Production Challenging Perceptions Of The Banking Underworld Premieres At The Edinburgh Fringe Festival At The Space On 4^th August 2017 

AUTHOR Ed Brody

DIRECTOR Kate Williams & Chris White 

AT The Space, Niddry Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TH

WHEN: 4th - 26th August (excluding 13^th)

TIME: 16:45 – 17:40

Ewan: I was a banker. 

Eloise: Trouble in paradise? 

Ewan: You could say that. I'm making some changes. 

Eloise: For the better I hope? 

Ewan: I think so. 

What was the inspiration for this performance?

I read an article about a banker years ago who had desperately tried to hide the losses he had accumulated from the bank. He was eventually found out. After reading it I learnt about the stresses and struggles these young bankers vying to get ahead in the industry face. And the awful consequences that can arise.

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

Absolutely. To be that close to a group of actors telling a story that could potentially move you, there’s no better way to stage ideas that we can talk about.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I’d watched people I knew do it successfully and

always had the desire to write so sat myself down and started doing it. I also wanted to test myself and there is no better way to do this.

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

Being new-writing we workshopped it a lot. My cast were invaluable in testing what worked and what didn’t and they helped devise the piece. We wanted it to be dark and powerful and I think we have achieved that.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

Well this is our first production so I guess so!

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope they see what leads people to the edge. What puts them in the mind frame of making awful decisions. I would also hope they come out asking questions about the industry and without being too broad, what can be done to protect people within and out of it.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

We did a lot of research into the industry. It shocked us just what has gone on and thought that we should create a story that shocked people as much as it did us.

Ewan is one of the country's most intelligent young bankers but he's just lost close to £1.4 billion of investors' money in illegal trades. His plan? Hire the penthouse of a hotel and indulge in a blowout before ending it all. 

But everything is turned upside down when he meets an escort called Eloise and sex, drugs and depression begin to blur Ewan's perception of reality.

Penthouse offers an insight into the world of bankers and the pressures they face that can lead them to take their own lives.

Inspired by a true story, Ed Brody wrote and directed his debut play PENTHOUSE as part of his drama school dissertation. But as his interest in the profound and timely themes of the play grew, so did his passion to put Penthouse onto a bigger stage. 

PENTHOUSE stars a wealth of talent including Cat Lamb Hughes - critically acclaimed for her recent lead in  Jack Thorne's 'Bunny' at The White Bear Theatre; Dario Coates - Off West End Award nominated for his role in 'Sid' at The Arts Theatre in London's West End; recently graduated Ryan Hutton and the play's writer Ed Brody seen in 'Father Brown' (BBC) 'The White Queen' (BBC) and 'The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas' (Chichester/Tour dir. Joe Murphy).

PENTHOUSE will premiere at The Space on Niddry Street, on the 4th August, and will run until the 26th August 2017 (excluding 13^th August).

CAST:

Ewan       Ed Brody                   

Father Brown (BBC), The White Queen (BBC), The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas (Chichester/Tour)

Eloise       Cat Lamb Hughes Bunny by Jack Thorne (White Bear Theatre), The Crown (Netflix), Cucumber (Channel 4)

Danny     Dario Coates           Offie nominated for Sid (The Arts Theatre). Coronation Street (ITV) Endeavour (ITV)

Drew        Ryan Hutton            Staunch- Map Productions (53two Manchester)

CREATIVES:

Directors Kate Williams and Chris White

Producer Sophia Nicholson

The Space on Niddry Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TH

4th - 26th (excluding 13th) 16:45 – 17:40

Booking: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/penthouse

SOCIAL MEDIA INFORMATION:

@penthouse_play

@theSpaceUK / thespaceuk.com