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    Interview: Making A Show of our Politics

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    Emma Burnell on Triggered

    Earlier this year, Emma Burnell‘s Triggered sold out its run in the lovely Lion & Unicorn Theatre. It’s now about to start a second run in the equally delightful White Bear Theatre from 22 November. Although it might be too late to get tickets as this has now sold out too! (We recommend checking with the venue for returns.) But sold out or not, we still grabbed the chance to chat with Emma about the show, reviewing herself and selling out.

    Diving straight in, tell us what audiences can expect from Triggered?

    Triggered is about the fictional deselection of a Labour MP. So first and foremost, it’s a play about political processes and the people to whom they matter.

    But in truth, it’s about the real human beings that get involved in politics. I tried to look at the question of deselections from every angle – without taking a view. When we showed it the first time in the summer, we had the head of Momentum (the pro-Corbyn organisation) in and the head of Labour to Win (the pro-Starmer group) who both enjoyed it and both thought it made their case!

    We get a laugh out of the byzantine nature of the rulebook, but what I wanted to show is that people in politics at all levels are trying to do their best. There aren’t any bad guys in Triggered – just good people with different perspectives.

    Triggered played a short run earlier this year in Lion & Unicorn, how did you feel went? Have you changed or revisited anything in the play for this second run?

    It went really well. We had incredibly responsive audiences who seemed to really love it. It was so interesting talking to them afterward and hearing their responses to it. Everyone has a different theory about it! It is so funny when people tell me that I wrote it with one aim or another in mind – and they all contradict each other. But the joy is – they do want to talk about it afterwards. That makes me feel like we’ve really achieved something.

    I believe you had some Labour MPs attend, did they have any feedback on how the play reflected life in the Labour party?

    They said it was almost too real! One night we even had a Labour whip in at the same time as an MP who was in trouble with leadership and whips. Luckily none of them was Gavin Williamson and everything was fine. The Whip was laughing a lot at the scenes about the discipline so that was good.

    They were actually kind enough to make a video of their reactions.

    [embedded content]

    It must be a fantastic feeling to have sold out your second run but does it also bring any additional nerves or pressure with it?

    In some ways I think it makes it easier. Audiences are lovely and responsive and give the actors so much energy. So, when we play to a full house, I think it just helps us all bring just a little something extra. However, we do need to make sure that whatever size of audience we’re playing for, we give it everything. The cast are so brilliant, I know they could and would deliver to one man and a dog.

    However many people are there though, the thing is that they have paid us their money to be there. That’s not something I take lightly in these times. As someone who has (and still does) reviewed, I know that an audience’s time is precious and valuable. We owe them the best show we can give them.

    During a recent round of chaos in British politics, there was a tweet from James Graham which said Don’t any of you buggers call anything political I ever write again ‘implausible’. It made me wonder, how do you approach presenting a play that audiences can believe and respect in a time when we have such unprecedented political chaos?

    It’s interesting with this play. My first play – No Cure For Love – was set in a world I know nothing about. And yet both characters are me. They’re an extension of an argument I have in my head about love and sex all the time.

    Here this is totally my world. I have worked in politics for 20 years. But none of the characters are me at all. In fact, at times I disagree with all of them.

    But I knew that we would have a lot of people coming who would be really really bothered by us getting details wrong. So I learned the rulebook backwards. I got someone who does sit on an NEC panel to look over the script to make sure we wouldn’t be jarring people out of the action with something unrealistic.

    This is your second play, plus you’re also a journalist and theatre reviewer. How have you found this new role as playwright and director? Has it affected how you approach your own reviews now that you have had a full view behind the stage curtain?

    I learned so much about directing from reviewing. So many night watching plays that either entranced me or left me cold or were even just a bit middling, I wasn’t just responding in the moment, but thinking deeply about why that was. And making sure I understood that well enough for myself that I could articulate it in a way that others could find helpful.

    It is so much harder reviewing now. Because I know so much how it feels to be critiqued in that way. But I also know that I am not – eventually – doing anyone any favours if I am not honest. If I give a play a low score, then I always make sure that I say why in the review. What it was that didn’t work for me and why so that – if they want to – they can address it. I hate reviews that are just about the reviewer showing off and being catty and arch or even about them celebrating the theme of the piece rather than the theatre of it.

    For me reviews serve two purposes: firstly helping a hard pressed audience find something that they might want to go and watch; secondly, championing a piece that has really moved me (to laughter, tears or thoughtfulness) and that I think deserves shouting about.

    If something is not great, I feel a duty to that first audience to say so, but to the second to justify why I think so.

    Will we see more of Triggered, two sold out runs would suggest there might be a bright future for this particular play? Do you have anything else in the pipeline at the moment that you can tell us about?
    I mean obviously if a much larger theatre wanted to develop Triggered that would be great. I am extremely proud of it as a piece (*awaits reviews – GULP*). A lot of people on Twitter have also mentioned that they would love to see it in their town, and I think political theatre like Triggered is having a real moment so I think there’s an audience there. What I don’t have is a budget to tour a four actor show or a producer with the know how! I’m open to conversation though – as that would be the dream.
    I am also already working on my next piece of theatre – a one-woman cabaret show loosely based on the Medusa myth. And if I don’t chicken out, the one woman is going to be me. On stage for real, acting and even bloody singing!
    I am also – somewhat bizarrely – potentially working on a Hollywood film with a guy who used to be my music teacher and is now an Emmy nominated composer. As Ferris Bueller says – life comes at you pretty fast sometimes.

    Finally, for a bit of fun as we touched on your journalism and reviewing background above. What question should we have asked you here but managed to miss out and if you’d kindly answer it for us too 😉

    These have been great questions. I suppose the question I am asking myself as I type these answers late on Sunday night is how I fit it all in. Which I don’t really know the answer to yet.

    I know that the question I get a lot from theatre friends is whether I want to be an MP. My political friends know from the state of my Twitter (I am exceptionally indiscreet about myself) that I never would.

    The truth is I would be a terrible MP. I know lots of people who do it brilliantly and they are so dedicated – I hope that respect shows in the piece. But I like to flit from theatre to politics to journalism. I like to write about sex and love and my past and potentially my future and all of those things would make me very unlikely to get through a selection process or to put up with doing the same job for years and years.

    Thanks so much to Emma for taking time to chat with us, you can follow her on Twitter and visit her website here.

    Triggered plays at White Bear Theatre 22 – 26 November and has sold out it’s run. Look for our Everything Theatre review to follow. More

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      Interview: Mum’s The Word

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      Psychonaut Theatre on bring Mums to Lion and Unicorn Theatre

      There’s a reason we love the Lion and Unicorn Theatre so much, and why it is the venue that perhaps comes up fairly regularly in our interviews. It certainly isn’t because of their comfy seats! No, it’s because they provide a place for emerging artists to hone their skill and their shows.

      Which is why when we heard about Psychonaut Theatre and their show Mums which will play at the venue in December, we didn’t hesitate to find some time to chat about the show and their company.

      So we sat down (on comfy chairs) with company founder and Artistic Director Arielle Zilkha, and Mums directors, Lavinia Grippa and Karola Kosecka, to hear more about the play and why venues such as this are so vital to young emerging artists.

      Let’s kick straight off with Mums and what’s it all about then?

      KK: Mums is a collective meditation on the process of grieving. During the performance we try to create a safe space for both audience and performers to draw on their internal landscapes of connotations with this state, through the story of one family who suffered a tragedy which pushed them into a permanent cycle of grief.

      An impulse that had led me to start thinking about the topic was a line that I found in one of my old diaries. It was saying: “I am grieving after my brother’s wellbeing” but the key point here is that my brother was never fully healthy, he has always suffered. How can I grieve over something that was never real? Something that had never happened? We try to unpack those questions but our performance is not at all an answer given to the audience. It’s rather an invitation to go through those questions individually but in connection with others.

      Mums is inspired by a 1994 play by Jean-Luc Lagarce – not a name that is probably known to that many of us, what brought you to this play?

      KK: At the beginning of our creative process, I proposed a few general topics to the other performers to see which one resonated with all of us. I wanted to observe if there was any subject that could be thrown into the room and wake up people’s imaginations, memories, dreams. I started the discussion with giving them four broad terms: longing, grieving, sex, exclusion. We started unpacking those words and each member of our group had a possibility to share. After a short time, it became clear that we were all strongly interested in exploring a state of grieving. I started to collect all the things that can bring a person to grieving. I believe that you can reach this state not only after going through somebody’s death but also after a break-up, losing mental stability, after a job that you no longer have, youth, friendship and many more.

      I started looking for texts that are very much rooted in this weird, ghosted sense of living with grief but I kept in mind to search for a piece that would still have elements of non-fiction storytelling. And that is when I first thought of Jean-Luc Lagarce – French director, actor and theatre maker from the second half of the twentieth century.

      And you say inspired by as opposed to based on, how much is the original text and how much is your original for this play?

      KK: Yes, I never say that we are basing our performance on Lagarce’s play. What I believe we did is that we took his text as a base to build on. After I translated the French script and cut out some bits from it, we ended up using less than one quarter of the original drama. Moreover, we added plenty of multiform content that we created in the process of workshopping. Our piece is immersed in music written by Arielle, which she based on a Polish folk song that I sang at one of our first sessions, during an exercise of creating a soundscape to situations that happened in our lives and that are somehow connected to grief. Later I also added the Parable of the Prodigal Son which became an ending to our story – a confession of the Mother to her kids, her subtle but unbearably honest way of telling her children what a mother is going through when she loses a son. There is also a monologue that Eva’s character gives– it was written by her and it came from her own process of building a relationship with the character she is playing.

      The common thread is one of grief and how we deal with it, have you or the performers brought personal experiences to the performance as a way of making it more personal?

      LG: The subject of grief was decided as the base of our play from the beginning of our process, mainly because we have all experienced grief in some way. It was very clear from the beginning that we didn’t want to restrict the concept of grief to death: we wanted to see it more as the loss of something or the longing that will never be fulfilled, something which is heavily explored in Mums.

      Our process for the play started by exploring this concept further, through workshops and exercises, finding what grief meant for each performer and what their bigger object of grief was. As a company when devising work, we begin our process from the ‘outside’, exploring themes broadly through diving into our personal experiences, and then moving ‘inside’- finding a frame to apply our findings to. The text of Jean-Luc Lagarce was a great fit for our work: a common subject of grief and yet five very clear, personal and different approaches towards it.

      This is Psychonaut Theatre’s first production, is this a sign of what you intend to do with future works? Will we be seeing more European inspired works?

      AZ: Definitely! Because we’re such an international group, it’s really important to us that our work authentically represents the diversity of our ensemble. And through that, we love to discover less well-known international texts that we can translate and adapt as a springboard for our own material. Text has never been the driving force of our work as a group or as individuals, but that’s not to say that it hasn’t underpinned our devising process, like in Mums. Our work tends to be less narrative focussed, and perhaps less of what British theatre audiences are used to. Part of our mission as a company is to introduce these audiences to a more experimental style of theatre, and challenge them to take risks with the theatre they choose to watch- like we take risks with the theatre we make.

      Additionally, because we operate as a collective of artists, the style of our group work will change on a project-to-project basis, representative of the directing member’s practice: a piece led by me would have a different focus and style to one led by Karola. But, we are all part of Psychonaut, and therefore we are driven by the same core principles.

      What was the thought process behind that company name, it certainly stands out!

      AZ: Thank you! Well, a psychonaut is someone who uses hallucinogenic substances to explore their subconscious. And that’s basically the experience we want to give to audiences who come to our shows. As performance-makers in the 21st century, we place a lot of focus on theatre as a live art form, and how that liveness can create new and perhaps unexpected events for the audience. Our aim for Mums is for it to take the audience to a place of meditation around grieving, where they can totally immerse themselves in the thoughts, feelings and experiences that come with it.

      How did you get involved with The Lion and Unicorn Theatre?

      AZ: Mums is a piece we developed during our final term at university, in preparation for our graduate showcase. We’d built the company during our time on the course so everything would be ready for us to launch into the industry once we graduated. Mums received really positive feedback from all different age groups, so I didn’t hesitate to take the plunge and get it out there! The Lion and Unicorn Theatre really stood out for me as a venue for emerging artists and companies, where the work doesn’t have to tick a specific box, but rather artists are free to take risks and experiment however they wish to. I’m really thankful that they saw something in our company and invited us to be part of their curated programme!

      With the play called Mums, we have to ask, are you inviting your mums along to see it in December?

      LG: With our mums all from different countries, it will be tricky- but we’ll definitely film it for them! However, there are a few different reasons why we chose this title. The first one is because of the more common name for the flower Chrysanthemum that is usually put on the graves of loved ones.

      Grief, and the burden of pain sometimes distances us from all of the characteristics that usually represent motherhood, such as looking out for others, putting oneself as second and putting others as a priority. When grief comes along, especially grief for one’s child, all of this can fail. For our mother in the play this is exactly what happened: to nurture her pain and her grief she stopped nurturing her children, which led to them all trying to nurture themselves. We started to see them all as possible motherly figures, especially my character, the Oldest, who takes on the duty to do what her mother, destroyed by her own grief, is no longer able to do.

      What do you have planned for 2023 after this then?

      AZ: Our main goal for 2023 is to focus on taking Mums to more audiences and build more relationships with venues, perhaps also exploring non-theatrical spaces where it can be performed. We’d love to secure a longer run in London and maybe even take it out of the capital. In addition to that I’m also producing the UK premiere of a piece by collective member Juraj Benko, made in collaboration with Nordisk Teater Laboratorium-Odin Teatret in Denmark. And I’m going to start thinking about our next project which we’ll likely start working on in 2024. So, a lot to look forward to.

      Our thanks to the team at Psychonaut Theatre for chatting with us. Mums will play at Lion and Unicorn Theatre 6 – 10 December 2022. Further information and bookings can be found here.

      (Photo credits: Christina Sarkisian, Sanna Hofker and Alex Forey) More

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      Interview: Taking A Trip Through Time with Free School Lunch

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      Free School Lunch’s Aurelia Gage on her new play, All This Must Pass

      Free School Lunch impressed us last year with their Camden Fringe offering, Sisters Of Charity. They are back again at the Fringe this year with their brand new play All This Must Pass. The play looks an epic exploration through time as a woman tries to find how she came to be.

      It certainly sounds an ambitious and exciting endeavour, and you know we love ambitious and exciting new writing here at ET. So it felt a great time to get ourselves some Free School Lunch as we sat down to chat with Aurelia to ask her about the play.

      Book tickets here.

      The play promises to cover hundreds of years, how do you manage to squeeze so much into just an hour?

      Not even an hour: 55 minutes! I wish I was a talented enough writer to do that, but it has required a generous edit. All This Must Pass tells the story of one woman travelling through time and space to discover the people that made her – it is the ultimate family reunion and because of that, it’s very exclusive. We meet celebrated heroes, despised villains, and those who history doesn’t care to remember – but all of whom serve a purpose for our main character.

      What made you want to write a play spanning centuries?

      I wanted to write about people who would/could never be put together and have them all share the same stage. For me, it was the perfect way to explore all the faucets of one person and properly articulate how they could possibly experience such a life-changing event.

      And what is it that will bind all the moments in time together?

      Every person, every decision, every moment has led to the life of our main character. She is the thread that binds them together and they, through every decision (good and bad) have created her.

      The central theme of the play is the loss of a child during pregnancy, can you tell us a little more about this theme and why you wanted to explore it in this way?

      I’ve wanted to explore child loss in my writing for a long time. I couldn’t reconcile the fact that something was so common and yet endless testimonies create a picture of an ordeal people largely navigate alone. I recently lost my father; and the outpouring of love and support was incredible, but what do you do when you’re told “it’s just one of those things” and the world moves on without you? How do you share your grief with others? How do you grieve someone you never got to know? These questions crop up in a quarter of all pregnancies, and for our main character in All This Must Pass. She is left without a map to navigate her grief and so looks to her ancestors to share their strength, their pain, and to know them in a way she couldn’t know her child.   

      Last year’s Sisters of Charity was a very Irish based play, and All This Must Pass makes mention of the Potato Famine of Ireland – is there a strong Irish feel throughout?

      Irish identity crops up in a lot of my plays, Sisters of Charity in particular was a homage to the Irish women and children who were let down so badly by the Catholic Church. We get to spend some time in Ireland (and discover the best theme park on earth) in All This Must Pass but it’s one stop on a much more expansive journey through time and space.  

      Sisters Of Charity was a fantastic play, but very dark in its themes, is All This Must Pass going to follow a similar path? And how do you avoid things becoming too bleak?

      First of all, thank you! And yes, there’s no getting away from the darker themes in both my plays. My focus as a writer is to bring light to maligned or forgotten people, but the driving force behind that is the strength, joy and humour people can show in the darkest of times. All This Must Pass in a one-woman show performed by the phenomenal Aidan Morris. Aidan is an actor, dancer and stand-up comedian; the energy she brings to the stage is just incredible. It was important for me to have a living breathing character tell this story, not just a vessel for a trauma. And as much as this is a story of grief, it is also a story of love, laughter and a good old knees-up at a family reunion.  

      Reheasal images of Aidan Morris

      The play is on at Lion and Unicorn Theatre, how much has the venues support helped (or is helping) in getting this play ready?

      Honestly, Sisters of Charity and All This Must Pass wouldn’t have happened without The Lion and Unicorn or David Brady (Artistic Director of Proforca Theatre). In 2021 we were in the midst of a pandemic (and still are), the industry was on its knees, and I had never produced my own play. There wasn’t a question too stupid or a problem too big for the theatre and its team. For an early career theatre maker like me, David and his team really gave me a roadmap for a seemingly impossible task and the all-round support of some really good people.  

      All This Must Pass plays as part of Camden Fringe between 18 – 20 August at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre. Further information and bookings can be found here. More

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      Interview: Is It A Film? Is It A Play? No It’s the Adaptation Game

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      The Adaptation Game with Sam Briggs and Maddie Gray

      Those of you keeping up with what we are up to here at ET will have hopefully seen (and listened) to our recent podcast recording with the team at Chewboy Productions, where they told us all about the upcoming ChewFest. And you will have also seen the recent interview with Gutter Street, one of the companies putting on a night at the festival.

      But in our continuing attempt to become the unofficial publication of choice for ChewFest, we didn’t want to stop at just those two interviews. Which led us to The Adaptation Game. A joint venture between Visability Film Festival and Yellow Hat Productions, it is described as an evening of transmedia storytelling, an integrayion of film and theatre, breathing new life into some of their favourite films of the past two years by adapting them for the stage!

      No, we wasn’t too sure what transmedia storytelling was either, so what better way to find out more than by asking those behind it. It was our pleasure then to catch up with Sam Briggs, writer and co-director for Visability Film Festival, and Maddie Gray, DIrector and co-founder of Yellow Hat Productions.

      What exactly can we expect from an evening of “integrated film and theatre”?

      SB – The fantastic thing about an evening of integrated film and theatre is that you’ll be getting award winning short films and bold new theatre presented side by side. In the case of The Adaptation Game this means watching the short films Bulldog, Glaucon, and To The Dusty Sea, immediately followed by a new chapter in their stories presented as stage adaptations. A ‘remix’ of the stories, if you like, but told in a new medium, live in front of you.

      MG – A night at The Adaptation Game aka an evening of integrated film and theatre will bring you an exciting and eclectic mix of the mediums of film and live performance. Visability Film Festival have chosen three award winning short films and together with multidisciplinary arts company Yellow Hat Theatre have adapted them for the stage.

      So we’ll be watching the short film and then a theatre piece will follow on? Will it be taking just the theme or be almost as an extension of the short film?

      MG – Each theatre piece will take a different approach to the process of adaptation and the theatre performances will be an expansion and further exploration of the themes and ideas in the films. They exist within the world of the films and as standalone works. We didn’t want to take a literal and formulaic approach to the adaptations but instead found ways to bring out the situations, ideas and characters exploring events post-films.

      SB – For example, the play Caved In, will involve a character from the experimental film, Glaucon, watching his own death on screen and coming to terms with it. Buckle up.

      Is this something you’ve done before, or something you’ve wanted to try out for a while now?

      SB – We were really fortunate to be asked to be a part of Chewfest. Having had great success during the first two years of Visability Film Festival, the question instantly became ‘how can we do something different?’ for what would be our 3rd edition. I’ve been fascinated by Adaptation Theory since studying Adaptation and Transmedia Storytelling as a creative writing module at UEA some years ago. I instantly thought of Yellow Hat Productions and their theatre expertise to help me get this fresh new idea off the ground.

      MG – We were very excited when Visability film festival came to us with this idea as it sounded right up our street. We’re buzzing to host a night alongside them as part of Chewfest. This is our first venture as a company, but as freelance creatives, working in the theatre industry adapting and devising work inspired by original material is very much something we’ve done before and something we love doing.  Working across medias was an exciting prospect for us as our background lies mostly in theatre and we were intrigued to find out how we could explore the essence of these wonderful short films and transport them into a live theatrical space 

      And how have you selected the three short films that we’ll be seeing?

      SB – Visability Film Festival has been blessed to have some truly outstanding films submitted over the past two years. Between them, the three films we’ve chosen have played at huge BAFTA-qualifying festivals, including Norwich Film Festival and Manchester International Film Festival, as well as winning several awards at our own festival. At Visability, we like to focus on films that have the potential to bring about meaningful social change. Through its re-evaluation of the stereotypes surrounding UK rough sleepers, the short film Bulldog was instantly high on our list of films to adapt. 

      MG – We’ve been fans of Visability Film Festival since its inception and when Sam brought us a selection of the award winning shorts it was a difficult choice.

      We also share a passion for creating work for social change so choosing our first short Bulldog, an exploration around the stereotypes of rough sleepers seemed a no brainer. The style and the rhythm of the piece plays such an instrumental role in the overall effect and really makes an audience question their held beliefs and prejudices. We were excited to see where that would take us as we moulded these ideas for the stage.

      To The Dusty Sea, an animated short exploring the relationships of a family in turmoil was also a very easy choice as it is both incredibly beautiful and moving and offers such rich material to work from. 

      Finally Glaucon, an experimental mask work piece inspired by Plato’s Republic and allegory of the cave was a clear choice as the style was so different to most of what we had seen before. It really creates an otherworldly atmosphere and brings an audience right down into the cave with it.

      We wanted all the films to come from different genres and explore varying ideas and themes whilst also complimenting each other as a whole collection.

      SB – Really we’re just grateful that each filmmaker agreed to hand over their babies to us so that we could tell the next chapter in the amazing stories they started.

      Is the plan to enhance the original short films, or to make us view them in alternative ways?

      SB – Both! It’s important for us as creatives that these new plays hold up on their own. But at the same time, by being performed alongside screenings of their original films, we actively want to encourage audiences to feel as though the pieces are in constant conversation and open for reinterpretation.

      MG -Absolutely, both. We’ve taken the short films as starting blocks for our theatrical work so as to keep the essence of the short but freedom for us to play and explore with character, situation and idea. We hope that seeing these works side by side adds a whole extra dimension to each.

      What made you want to take part in ChewFest? Is this type of event good for experimenting and putting your work in front of new audiences?

      SB – Exactly that. We’ve been massively grateful for the success of Visability in its first two years but are constantly on the lookout for something new that we can do with it. Chewfest has given us that opportunity. 

      MG – This kind of platform is perfect for emerging creatives to test out new work and new ways of collaborating and experimenting. We are very grateful to Chewboy Productions and Visability Film Festival for providing the opportunity to do that. We’ve been fans of Chewboy for a while and having the opportunity to be a part of their next project is super exciting. We can’t wait to see what the other companies taking part bring to the table! 

      And do you see the short plays themselves ever taking on their own life away from the film, or do you imagine they would always need to play together?

      SB – The hope is that by playing them together with the films we’re offering audiences something new and original. Each play definitely has the potential to stand alone and be developed further, but for me, the uniqueness of our interdisciplinary approach is what makes them so exciting.

      MG – Each theatre piece, despite being able to stand alone is intrinsically tied to the short films they were inspired by. I think there is certainly potential for these pieces to develop further independently but I think watching them alongside the films will be so much more impactful and interesting. 

      What else do you have planned after your participation in ChewFest?

      SB – This year it seems like Visability have been moving into unchartered waters at every turn. Recently we’ve been accepting applications for the VFF Short Film Fund. This is our way of giving back to filmmakers and supporting the emergence of new and exciting work that seeks to utilise film as a tool for positive societal change, by offering funding to filmmakers whose work we love. MG – Here at Yellow Hat Productions we are getting into the swing of things as we navigate the waters of company life. Our debut play Still Alive Mate by Theo Toksvig Stewart was due to premier at the Vault festival in January 2022, which was sadly postponed due to Covid 19. So we are busy working behind the scenes to bring back this much anticipated show. In the summer we are filming our first short film and are currently developing a podcast. 

      Our thanks to Sam and Maddie for the time to chat to us.

      The Adaptation Game plays as part of ChewFest on Tuesday 24 May. The festival runs from 23 – 29 May at Lion and Unicorn Theatre.

      Tickets and details of all the evenings can be found here. More

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      Interview: Taking a Stroll Down Gutter Street

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      Gutter Street on bringing their Street Night to ChewFest

      We had our first walk down Gutter Street last year with Feathers. At the time we weren’t aware of the company, but the play certainly had us interested in future work. We also had no idea about their Gutter Street Nights. But Chewboy Productions were singing their praises during a recording of our podcast, and informed us that they would be taking over the Friday night of the upcoming ChewFest at Lion and Unicorn. So it seemed the perfect opportunity to delve into their world and find out just what it is that they have planned.

      It was our pleasure then to chat with co-founders, Leo Flanagan, Isobel Warner and Josh Barrow and ask, just where is Gutter Street?

      What do you have planned for ChewFest?

      We’re going to be bringing Gutter Street Nights to ChewFest. Our monthly new writing night for musicians, poets, actors, comedians and all manner of artists. We ask five featured performers to create or curate a piece of work centred around one central theme, this month’s theme is ‘Homeward’. We then do a little pub quiz and open the stage for the audience to jump up and share whatever they like on our open mic. We usually host these nights at our spiritual home of Green Note in Camden but we’re excited to travel up the northern line one stop to Kentish Town and bring Gutter Street Nights to the Lion and Unicorn Theatre!

      How have you gone about selecting the five creatives for the night?

      For this particular event we have asked five artists who have all performed with us at some point over the last few years. We usually programme creatives from those who have reached out to us or chatted to us on one of our nights. Our aim with the whole company is to build a community and develop real relationships with creatives. It’s great when someone has come down to one of our nights to support a friend and on a whim jumps up on the open mic, and then the next month they’re sharing their first bit of writing as a featured performer with us.

      Do you help with input and advice along the way?

      We don’t really involve ourselves with the writers pieces. We do strive to get at least one first time writer at every one of our nights, people who have flirted with the idea of writing something of their own but never got round to it. We’re always there for those creatives and if they would like a bit of support or guidance we’re more than happy to help and provide a bit of feedback but really the first time we’re seeing their pieces are when they’re on stage!

      Your own work is all based along your fictional “Gutter Street”, does this mean they are all based on the same dystopian world that existed in Feathers?

      All of our plays and stories do take place in our fictional ‘Gutter Street’ world, but we’ve given this world a very wide timeline of 10,000 years to fill! Feathers takes place somewhere along this timeline and we do have other plays and tales that take place around the same time, but our next story could be 1000 years before the events of Feathers. We didn’t want the plays to be direct continuations or sequels/prequals but anthologies. Individual fables that if you were to watch one on their own you’d enjoy the story presented to you, but if you had seen a few and connected with some of the moral questions, myths and background set up, you may walk away with a different experience to someone who hasn’t.  

      Is ChewFest a great opportunity to get your work seen by a new audience?

      Absolutely! We are all massive fans of the work that ChewBoy put on and when they asked us to produce one of our ‘Gutter Street Nights’ for the festival we had to jump at the chance. It’s also a great challenge to adapt from our regular venue (Green Note) which is so ingrained into the DNA of our nights to the beautiful black box space of The Lion and Unicorn. We hope that our regulars feel the vibe and personality of Green Note bleeding through at the Lion and Unicorn this month and that newcomers get a real flavour of our regular nights.

      And you promise an open mic slot at the end of your evening at ChewFest, is that something you normally do, do you get many takers then?

      We do an open mic at the end of every ‘Gutter Street Nights’ and it’s always such an energetic and exciting part of the evening, because it’s full of creatives who didn’t really expect to perform or share that little poem they’ve had written on their notes app for months, or that song they’ve had in the back of their minds. We’re never short of people who want to get up and perform, especially after watching the first five featured performers. They’ve seen the warm, enthusiastic and vocal response from the ‘Gutter Street Nights’ audience and think ‘I fancy a bit of that!’. We also film everyone’s performances so they can take it away and use it for whatever they like, which as performers ourselves, we know is really useful.  

      Gutter Street Night Audiences

      Our thanks to Leo, Isobel and Josh for their time to chat with us. Gutter Street will be taking over the Friday Night of ChewFest. Further information and bookings can be found here. More

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      Interview: Face Off with Fight or Flight

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      Jess Barton & Ross Kernahan on Don’t Forget My Face

      Don’t Forget My Face was such a success last year when it played at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre that they have been invited back for a second run (17 – 21 May, tickets here)

      The show sees twins Rhea and Jack share everything together, hardly ever apart. But what happens when one of them gets the opportunity to move on, and break that special bond they have always had?

      And as here at ET we aren’t afraid to jump on a bandwagon if we feel it’s going our way, we thought this would be the perfect time then to catch up Fight or Flight‘s Jess Barton and Ross Kernahan, the people behind (and in front) of the show, to find out why we should get along to see the show now we’ve been given a second chance.

      How good does it feel to get invited back to the Lion and Unicorn then?

      It feels great! As associate artists of the theatre it’s amazing for there to be a home for our work, and to have the space to experiment and play with new ideas. David [Bardy], and the rest of the L&U team, have always been incredibly supportive of us and other companies in creating the work that we want to make first! We’re so delighted to be invited back after our last run was jinxed by the Omnicron wave, and for audiences to have another opportunity to join us! 

      The show is about twins – is that something either of you have experience of? Or if not, what brought you to writing a play about them?

      We’re not twins, but we both have siblings, and there are definitely parts of our own sibling relationships written into Jack and Rhea. However we were mostly interested in the idea of two people with near identical upbringings who react to life events unfolding around them in a very different way – there’s also something fascinating in the way we can remember a shared memory so differently! We wanted their sense of shared identity to be put into flux, to challenge their similarities and begin to embrace being different people. Many of us, ourselves included, rely on family a great deal to get through modern life – we think we cannot know anyone any better – and yet these people will still surprise you about who they really are and what they share with you.

      As well as writing the play together, Ross acts (alongside Aimee Kember) and Jess directs; how easy is it to be subjective when you are so heavily involved to be able to see when maybe things aren’t quite right and need a little tinkering?

      We’ve been working together for nearly a decade now – which makes the play’s theme of turning 30 feel all too familiar! – and have learnt to trust each other’s instincts, as they’re usually very similar to what the other is thinking. We also made sure to invite an outside pair of eyes into the room –  our dramaturg, Farah Najib, came in and asked all the big questions to keep us honest.

      What has been particularly enjoyable about making this show ourselves, is the freedom to play and develop the piece as we go. We learnt a few years ago that we really enjoy challenging and interrogating a show and its characters – so we’re constantly learning and finding new things within the script. It’s always a joy when something catches us by surprise!

      For those who didn’t see the show the first time at Lion and Unicorn, what can we expect if we come this time?

      We hope you’ll laugh, and cry, and ultimately be entertained – but also come away with a different appreciation of the people who support us through life! This is a play that celebrates the small moments that exist within the really big ones, whilst also confronting how overwhelming life can be. It was important to us to acknowledge how global events – and the habit of constant media consumption, and seemingly endless doomscrolling – can destabilise a person’s mental health, and how that is a very valid experience. When combined with our own, often non vocalised personal crises such as loss, family tragedy etc it can lead to explosive and mentally damaging behaviour – which you may witness when you see the show!

      Ultimately, this is a play about questioning the version of yourself that you present to the world, learning to live with grief, and figuring out how to challenge the pressures of societal expectation!

      Have you made any major changes from the original version you put on stage the first night?

      Since our last run we’ve been able to step back and look at what worked and didn’t work as well. We never had an R&D session when creating this show, it was put together rather quickly! So our first run was extremely useful in gauging audiences’ responses, and also in revealing things to us that perhaps we didn’t see at first! Since then we have been able to look at the script and address some imbalances, refocus some themes that didn’t get the limelight they deserved, and hone the story down to be what we really wanted it to be. 

      A second run at Lion and Unicorn, so obviously some mutual appreciation between you and the venue. What is it that makes this theatre such a fantastic place to put on a show?

      The London fringe theatre scene is always evolving, and despite the incredible hardships these venues have faced over the last few years the ones that survive seem to be shifting for the better: lower/zero hire costs, more production support, more interest in new work etc – it’s great to see – but these are things the Lion & Unicorn has been doing for years thanks to its AD David Brady. Their motto ‘be who you want to be’ feels very apt – in our experience, we have always felt in complete control of the show when we are in their venue. It’s a wonderfully open place to work, and allows us and other companies to be bold and take risks, which is exactly what theatre should be doing in our opinion. We just feel incredibly lucky that the theatre likes our work and continues to support us in doing what we do. 

      Is this the last hooray for Don’t Forget My Face then, or do you have further plans for it?

      We shall see!

      And if not this show, what do you have in the pipeline next then?

      We have hopes of creating something new later in the year – although what that might be is anyone’s guess right now! We will have to see if the rest of 2022 has something that will inspire us – for better or worse! 

      Our thanks to Jess and Ross for taking time out of their busy day to chat with us. Don’t Forget My Face will play at Lion and Unicorn Theatre between 17 and 21 May. Further information and bookings can be found here. More

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      Interview: Giggles and Sex, What More Is There?

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      Hannah Baker on Banter Jar

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      Here at ET we have all ages covered. And we admit, some of us older members are, occasionally, jealous of those youngsters in our midst who are just embarking on their journey into adulthood. So when we get invites to shows that tell us the show is “a one-woman play about growing up. About sex and giggles” our first thought is “damn these kids”. Then we read on and find “self-harm and busking… For falling in love. And for working out how to love that person when their demons keep telling you to f*** off. Why is it always the kindest people that’re the saddest?” and suddenly we remember being in your 20s isn’t always a bed of roses, it’s full of its own unique difficulties.

      So, having got over the fact Hannh Baker, is clearly one of those youngsters, it is also her show Banter Jar, promising all those things. It seemed like a good time to sit down with Hannah and find out about the play and remind ourselves that life can be tough whatever age you are. But that along the way, sex and giggles is what it is prehaps all about really.

      Your show is about growing up and all it entails; how much comes from personal experience then?

      When I began writing, it was all personal experience. But as the script developed names changed, characters merged, story lines developed and it morphed into the show I have now – a jumble of both experience and new writing.

      Clearly as well as containing plenty of the promised giggles, you tackle some serious topics as well in the play, what can you tell us about them?

      For me, Banter Jar is about a whole range of things mixed together. So there’s not one particular issue that it’s ‘about’. Having said that, I do touch on happiness and love, and finding a way through mental health issues. So if people are looking for a theme there’s certainly something they can latch on to! The mental health issues do bring a seriousness to the story, but they’re also normal, and that’s how they’re treated within the play. But the characters hopefully are not defined by their mental health.

      Are these themes ones you feel are common amongst 20-somethings? Or are you exploring the more serious elements of mental health?

      Again, it’s a mixture. Self-harm and depression are very common in my generation, and so it doesn’t feel such a big deal to talk about it. I also talk about psychosis (a rarer condition) and the responsibility and control (or lack thereof) of another person’s life  – not to say that’s totally uncommon amongst 20-somethings.

      The show includes music and you play the guitar, was music your entry into the theatre then? Have you done some busking as the show suggests?

      I have! Music has always been a huge part of my life. I grew up busking in Coventry town centre, outside Poundland, as I am doing in the play. I went to drama school to study an Actor Musicianship course, so yes music was in part my way into theatre.

      You’re playing at the Lion and Unicorn, what has the venue offer you in terms of support and guidance?

      David Brady, Artistic Director (and also from Coventry), has been a huge help! He expressed interest in my script when I was early days writing it, and has been incredibly encouraging and kind whilst bringing the show to the Lion and Unicorn.

      And after this run, is that the end of the road for Banter Jar, or is this just the beginning of its journey?

      These five days are the longest run I’ll have done of it. So I’m waiting to hear what people think! I certainly hope that this is just the beginning.

      Our thanks to Hannah for her time to chat to us. Banter Jar plays at Lion and Unicorn between 10 and 14 May. Further information and bookings can be found here. More

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      Interview: Down In The Tube Station At Midnight

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      Actor and writer Will Charlton on two plays, Jumper and The Boys

      Our guest on our Runn Radio show this week was Will Charlton. Will is both an actor and writer, so there was plenty to chat about. He is currently preparing to play in Joshua King‘s Jumper at Lion and Unicorn Theatre, and straight after that, he is then gearing up for his own play, The Boys, to make its debut at New Wimbledon Theatre’s Studio space.

      Jumper is set across two time frames five years apart, both on the night’s of elections. And in the first, he is stuck on the underground with a host of other passengers. Whilst The Boys is about struggling to pay the rent and considering the option of becoming a male escort. Both gave us plenty to talk about.

      Jumper plays at Lion and Unicorn between 5 and 9 April. More information and bookings here. More

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      Interview: Lucinda Spragg Telling It Like It Is

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      Grace Millie of Moon Loaf introduces us to professional feather ruffler, Lucinda Spragg.

      Lucinda Spragg: some would call her a creation of Moonloaf and Grace Millie, although Lucinda would no doubt tell us she is her own woman. And she is most certainly a woman on a mission. Right now she is preparing to bring her one woman show, Lucinda Spragg : An Evening With, to Lion and Unicorn Theatre between 29 March and 2 April, where she will be promoting her latest book: Jabbie Dodgers, as well as sharing her wisdom with us.

      So when she asked/ demanded we interview her, we really couldn’t say no, because, quite frankly, we are a little scared of her!

      It’s lovely to meet you Lucinda, why don’t you introduce yourself?

      Good afternoon, Everything Theatre. Lucinda here. I’m sure most of your readers will have heard of me already…

      Sorry, we have to admit, we haven’t personally heard of you before now.

      Well I’ll spell it out for you if I must. I’m Leader of the Regain Party. A freedom fighter, professional feather ruffler, and renegade. I’m a spanner in the works of the London Coffee House Elite. I’m also the host of my podcast, TripadPfizer.

      Of course, I’m sure the Corybnistas would have another answer for you. They’d probably describe me as a ‘controversial political activist’. Clods. 

      Why are you coming back now then?

      I’ve had something of a brief…hiatus. I’ve been back on the scene since October, resisting the democratisation of truth by the neohippies. Now there’s an album/band name combo for some bleeding-heart indie lefties.

      And why don’t you have her own Twitter account like most normal people, just so we can read more of your thoughts?

      Twitter? I’m banned. All reasonable people are. 

      So who would you consider as those reasonable people who Twitter has banned; are you saying people like Trump and Katie Hopkins? Are these your heroes and the people you most hope to emulate then?

      I believe it was Eric Clapton who sang ‘I had to find myself (find myself), I had to find myself (find myself), no use looking for no one else’. I presume that answers your question.

      I’m based on no one but me, baby. Eric Clapton did also recently sing, ‘is this a sovereign nation or just a police state?’, though, so I do like him. I am also a BIG Laurence Fox fan. 

      If we could speak to Grace for a moment and ask, as a writer and actor, do you find this extreme persona of Lucinda taking you over when you are preparing to walk out on stage?

      I’ve got literally no idea what you mean here?

      There seems a whole collection of extreme right-wingers such as yourself who claim to speak for the unheard, but very few that are left-leaning. Do you feel it would be possible to parody those on the left in the same way?

      There’s a very successful parody of, ‘activist, healer, and radical intersectionalist poet’, Titania McGrath. She’s a character written by the genius that is Andrew Doyle. Titania in no way does “exactly what the show accuses online activists of, reducing complex topics to nuance-free quips” (★ – The Guardian). 

      With so much going on in real life and our government at times looking like a parody of themselves, do you feel you have to become even more extreme to remain relevant?

      Again, not sure why I’m being asked this, but, as a general rule, I would say that parodying extremists involves amping up the levels of ridicule rather than creating genuinely extreme content yourself. Or something like that. 

      Moon Loaf’s last production, TIFO, was a very different show in content. How easy is it to produce two such unique shows? Are both connected though through being based around one strong central character?

      Moon Loaf have emailed me this response to give to you: 

      “Hello! Yes, that’s definitely a connection we’ve found helpful. But you’re right, they are very different characters and different worlds. That’s also what’s quite exciting about it, keeps us on our toes. It’s also been nice swapping round and having Kieran (Dee) directing Grace this time! We promise we’ll stop doing one-person shows soon, honestly…”

      Utterly perplexing. Haven’t a clue what they’re on about. 

      Could we see you make any appearances in future shows, there is surely space on the after-dinner speaker circuit for such an inspirational woman as yourself?

      Oh, certainly! I’m promoting my new book ‘Jabbie Dodgers’ at the moment, so that would be perfect. I’d rather speak before dinner, though, if possible. I like my audience hungry (for uncomfortable truths). 

      Finally, what is the best advice you can give us right now with so much focus on the cost of living crisis we are going through?

      Ditch the Pret subscription, buy a house instead. You can’t invest in a café au lait. You’re welcome, internet.

      Our thanks to Grace/ Lucinda for the time to chat to us. You can catch Lucinda Spragg : An Evening With at Lion and Unicorn Theatre 29 March – 2 April. Bookings here. More