This Is Not A Test on new show Degenerate
Degenerate is a show about what happens when a 40 year old mother of two finds herself in the last chance saloon of midlife. Which is worrying considering some of us here at ET are past our 40s – suddenly we feel like we’re about to be put out to pasture. Or worse…
But having got over our shock at discovering we’re clearly past our best, we still thought we should check in with This Is Not A Test to ask them more about the show that they describe as “a stand-up show that explores the bloody and surprising parallels between a Victorian vampire and a menopausal woman past her child bearing prime.”
Let’s deal with the elephant in the room straight away. Are you really telling us over that 40 means we’re past our prime? How very dare you.
Hahahaha! Controversy AND elephants straight out of the gate. Feels like a great start to us!
The best answer we can give is: age is just a number…right?
Can we assume you are not spring chickens yourself then? Is some of this written from personal experience?
Oh, how the tables have turned! You can definitely assume that at least half of us at Degenerate HQ are in that category. Write what you know they said…but make it a party.
Ok, we’ll overlook the slight on our ages for now, what can you tell us about your 40 something in Degenerate? Why is she feeling like she is in that last chance saloon? What is she searching for in it?
Oh man, we’ve really gotten ourselves into a bit of a pickle with this one, haven’t we. Who knew age could be so divisive?! I guess we did… but should we just kiss and make up? Or would that be too forward?
But seriously, good question – that’s exactly what the show is about. We’re exploring why midlife feels like a last chance saloon and why hitting 40, combined with looming perimenopause can make the eternal life of the vampire look pretty appealing. As for our heroine, she’s searching for immortality!
We often mistakenly think of fringe theatre as full of early career creatives, do you feel this can create a barrier to older participants?
We’d have to say you’re not wrong! Look around you. Early career creatives do tend to be young. Youth is where you are supposed to take risks, ask difficult questions, but we think middle age is just as exciting a moment to take those chances and start those conversations.
So, yes, we’re “older” early careerers. We’ve spent the last decade having babies, careers and making theatre and don’t think those things are mutually exclusive. But the truth is, it is hard to have a family life and a creative life in functioning parallel. How does she do it all?? She doesn’t. She has A LOT of help. The upside though is we have had to become amazing at balancing, multitasking and staging an epic party without having a hangover!
And there is talk of Dracula, is this literal, are things going to get a little scary or is Dracula a metaphor for the monster at the door?
Come and see…if you dare (insert maniacal laugh here). If we told you, we might have to shove a wooden stake through your heart. And we would NEVER want to do that. We like you too much already. So come for the party, stay for the surprises.
You promise shows with stand-up comedy, audience participation and improvisation, are we going to experience all this in Degenerate?
We do and you are! It’s gonna be a wild ride. As we like to say: we promise everything, and nothing, all at once.
The show is clearly labelled as a WIP – is this its very first outing, are you frantically writing it up to the last minute then?
This will be the very first outing with Degenerate. The seed of this show came from a previous show of ours and has developed from there. We should add that we would never consider any of our shows to be ‘finished’ products but that is what makes it so exciting. So, frantically writing? No. Ever evolving? Yeah, we’d say so.
So is it more stand up than play?
Good question. It’s hard to say. The best way to describe it is somewhere in the surreal venn diagram where standup, comedy and theatre meet.
Will there be a mic stand on the stage? And if so, will it only be used for the stand-up sections? Ask us in private why we hate mic stands on stage in plays!
We hear you.
Bad news though, there may be a mic stand…
But seriously, don’t leave a girl hanging. You must spill the tea about the mic stands!
Now we’re all dying to know!!
We’ll tell you when after the show, promise… Moving on, and to show we read all our press releases received, did one of you really overdub a European supermodel! Please, do tell us more.
Um you guys ARE good.
Yes, it is true, Maria did overdub a European supermodel for a bra company. This was when she was living the glamorous life in New York. She showed up for a voice job, was taken to a room with a massive movie screen and shown a scantily clad lady prancing around in her pants. They said to Maria – Can you make it seem like your voice is coming out of that body… Ouch. Know your strengths, right…?
And let’s wrap things up, tell us why we should all be heading on down to 2Northdown later in August to see Degenerate?
That’s easy – because we’ll show you a *bloody* good time! – see what we did there? In all seriousness though, who doesn’t want a little under an hour of escapist fun? Times are dark, but we like living in colour! Or Color. Depending on where you’re from.
Our thanks to the team at This Is Not A Test for a very fun chat. Come see us later and we’ll fill you in about the mic stands.
You can catch Degenerate at the following dates:
22/ 23 August @ 7pm. 2Northdown – Camden Fringe 2022.
2 October @ 9pm. The Bread and Roses Theatre – Clapham Fringe
17 NOvember @6pm. Etcetera Theatre – Black Box Festival
Further information and bookings here.
