8th August 2018
Not Yet Suffragette meets Bombastic
Yesterday I travelled down past The Mile to the VooDoo Rooms to experience some work from the Free Fringe, or more specifically a piece of work – Bombastic by Comedian Anna Morris.
It.Was.Hilarious!!!
Anna Morris is known for her character comedy and this show does not disappoint as it is a collection of 4 of her greatest characters. I wont give away to much other than to say I think Bride Aid is genius and Im just gutted I didnt think of that myself!
I’ve always been a fan of improv and its what keeps Anna’s audience coming back for more, as they know it will be different each time they see her. She also got to tick an ‘improv action’ off her bucket list during the show I watched but I wont ruin that little golden nugget for you – you can discover it here on the full audio interview:
Theres no excuse not to see this show, its free and its genius. OR as Anna likes to put it,
“Its free to come in, you just need to pay get out”.
Bombastic is on at the VooDoo Rooms every day at 16:40pm (not the 15th or 22nd) until the 26th August. #FreeFringe
So so glad I saw this.
Bombastic hugs,
Not Yet Suffragette.
7th August 2018
Not Yet Suffragette meets Tits ‘n’ Teeth
So I stuck with my own kind today and checked out another Underbelly show #sorrynotsorry
Not sorry – because it did not disappoint. Wow! One of the first things that stood out to me was how calm Isla Van Tricht is on stage. The whole piece, however much drama it is filled with, feels effortlessly relaxing. I felt safe watching her, I knew she was going somewhere with what she was telling me and I was excited to find out where that was. My show in comparison is very energetic, filled with different characters and sketches and I loved that Tits ‘n’ Teeth was the total opposite of that. There was no need for projection or exaggerated movements because the space was so intimate and it complimented the story perfectly. You felt like Isla was just talking to you, like perhaps you were the therapist she’s talking about in her story.
Then we get to meet Karen. I freakin’ love Karen.
Karen is the voice inside Isla’s characters head. That voice we all have that we could really do without. That voice that crops up numerous times a day and adds a little self loathing, doubt or insecurity to our lives. Accept in Tits ‘n’ Teeth – Isla has named that voice. She is speartae from Eve (the character in the story) and it makes for some really lovely moments within the text.
Today was a double win as the show was directed by Rosa Crompton (who is also the Technician on my own show) . . . I knew I was in good hands! Great job Rosa! Also, these aren’t the only two shows Rosa is working on this Fringe (between you and me – I don’t think she sleeps). Ill have more from Rosa on the The Year Woman Blog coming soon but for now, I really enjoyed chatting to the Writer of Tits ‘n’ Teeth Isla Van Tricht. She absolutely smashed my quick fire round questions and has some really insightfull advice for future ‘Fringers’ as well as her 15 year old self.
Full Interview can be heard here:
Tits ‘n’ Teeth is on at Buttercup, Bristo Sq, Underbelly everyday at 12noon.
6th August 2018
Not Yet Suffragette meets #21stCenturyJaneAusten
Now that Ed Fringe opening weekend is officially out the way, its time to begin our first official week of being coerced into a selection of the thousands of shows that have decended on the Fringe this year.
Today I chose to venture outside of the big 4 and head along The Mile to the Pauline Quirke Academy Venue’s – It was actually also my first time witnessing ‘The Mile’ in action, cant believe Ive been missing out on that buzz for the last 5 days. Ill be there with my giant Not Yet Suffragette poster on Wednesday the 8th at 12:10 if anyone would like to stop by for a picture?
So there were two main things I took from the show I watched today;
One – I did not know Jane Austen died when she was 42!
Two- I did not know Clueless was based on Jane Austen’s book Emma.
Both of these facts I learned from Jaleelah Galbraith’s one woman show ‘It Is A Truth’ showing at PQA3 everyday at 5pm until the 27th August.
The ulitimate fan of Jane Austen and her works, Jaleelah takes us through the struggles of trying to find her own Mr Darcy in a world built on speed dating and Tinder.
Oh, and we also bonded over our joint love of the mile long queue for Nina Conti’s Monkey #femalecomicgoals
You can listen to the full interview here:
Stay safe and keep smashing the Patriarchy,
Love #NotYetSuffragette
x
5th August 2018
Not Yet Suffragette meets Hunger…
This afternoon I ventured out to the Vaults to see Hunger with Paradise Green. A student production from Cambridge University – Hunger is Feminist Theatre with a twist . . . Its Opera. Actually.
Using a live orchestra and operatic singers, Hunger tells the story of an Artist struggling to get back into her paintings after becoming a Mother and getting wrapped up in ‘playing house’ to her three small children.
Different definitely, an Opera isn’t normally something you see among the array of stand up comics, one person shows and musicals that you’re are normally overwhelmed with at the Fringe. Perhaps thats why they had a full house? It is, most certainly, something different.
I sat down with the Composer and Producer of the piece (Joanna Ward) after the show to find out more about opera’s place at the Fringe, her journey to this point and why she thinks audiences looking for something a little different this year should come check out Hunger . . .
You can listen to the full interview here:
Hunger is on at Paradise Green/the Vaults, 12:10pm until the 11th August.
2nd August 2018
Not Yet Suffragette meets Ill Have What She’s Having…
I’m super excited that my first interview gets to be with two ladies whose show I was eagerly looking forward to catching at this years Fringe anyway. You gotta love the universe sometimes.
Ill Have What She’s Having is an intelligent, witty and at times quite raw two hander devised by university friends Jess and Victoria. Who, for a few years after graduation went on to lead very different lives before fate, failure (and feminism) brought them back together again.
Their biopic double act tells the story of the grass not always being so greener. Focussing on the filters women place on their lives and the realisation that if they are doing it – then how many other women are portraying the false apprehension of “I am living my best life all of the time”?
The notion that we hide and mask our true selves for other peoples consumption via social media and other outlets is a heavy theme within the show and the message that ‘Ill Have What She’s Having” wants you to cling on to loud and clear, is that its not just social media we use as a tool to do this. Women have been forced into this way of life since the beginning of time, in many different guises, due to the patriarchal set up we all live by. Our Society has been constructed in such a way that makes women feel they have no other option than to play the part of at least looking like we can indeed ‘have it all’.
Whether its to change your accent to fit in at university, or masking your own sexual desires. Jess and Victoria’s own personal journeys with these struggles help to lift the lid on this behaviour and allow a space to be created where we can begin to talk openly about our own fears and insecurities, instead of constantly only ever wanting . . . what ‘she’s’ got.
– You know its working when audience members come up to you after the show just to ask “Are you sure you’re ok?”
Ill have what she’s having is on at the Assembly, Studio 4, 12:15pm each day and you can listen to the full audio interview here:
Feminist hugs,
#NotYetSuffragette
31st July 2018
As I sit down to write this, thousands of artists across Edinburgh (including myself) are completing their first day of previews for this years 2018 fringe festival. And whilst the show doesn’t officially‘ get on the road’ until the 4th August, one thing is still very very clear – ‘The Year Of The Woman’has landed in Edinburgh.This is my first experience of Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so naturally I had absolutely no idea what to expect, which is why I decided ahead of time to do something completely out of character formyself and just accept whatever happens to me on this journey.
Enjoy every moment, laugh at the things that go wrong and just sign myself over to the fact that no matter how hard I try, there willalways be something that is out of my control.
Being at Edinburgh is a dream come true for me, Its safe to say I’ve been trying to get here for a while and its good to bring a version of my one woman show thats completely new and different from what I have previously been touring the UK with. 2018 has been dubbed ‘The Year Of The Woman’. Beginning with the VOTES100 anniversary in February, the prolonged effects of the #metoo and #timesup movements, to the Women’s Rightsmarches world over, or the #repealthe8th amendment in Ireland, it really does feel like we have hit a ‘new wave’ of feminism.
You cant walk 100 meters down a street in Edinburgh without seeing posters attached to every spare railing, lamp post or shop window you can find. But whats even greater about this year, isyou cant walk 100 meters down the street without seeing a poster for a one woman show, a double act, a cabaret or a play Written, Directed, Produced or Performed by a Woman. Female fever has hit the Fringe and I have a few favourite choices I cant wait to check out.
People often ask why I decided to do a one woman show and if I’m really honest with myself – it’s probably because I’m not that great at making life choices. Haha!
Or at least thats how I feel 10 seconds before my shows about to start and I can hear the audiences taking their seats while Iwait nervously in the wings – thats normally about the time I begin to question my own sanity.
It’s strange how lonely a one person show can feel and its even more isolating if its your own work -because if THAT goes wrong, well, you cant blame it on the fact that some people just don’t understand Shakespeare.
Who’s with me?My show Not Yet Suffragette covers the journey of women rights issues through the decades fromthe front lines of World War 1 and the Suffragette movement, to some of our current issues like the Gender Pay Gap and Tampon Tax.
Performing my show within ‘The Year Of The Woman’ issomething I am grateful to be a part of. To be sharing this festival with some of my favourite femaleartists that have helped inspire me and shape my own work is pretty awesome!
The Guilty Feminist Podcast even had me packing my bags and camping in Calais, volunteerin gwith HelpRefugeesUK. Thanks Deb! Id tell you to ‘defo’ get a ticket to the Guilty Feminist when it lands here with Underbelly at the end of August but its sold out. Well if you cant sell out in the yearof the woman when can you?Im looking forward to catching Helen Lederer’s “I might as well say it” over the next few weeks. Weboth presented at The Writers Guild Awards back in January and I absolutely love her humour -plus familiar faces when your outside your comfort zone are always a must! Im also going to be checking out “Ill Have What She’s Having” over at Assembly (Stop the press!I’m venturing over into enemy lines for this one). But its a new piece by a talented female duoand . . .
Did I mention it’s the year of the woman?Solo work can be overwhelming. Its terrifying to put your soul on the line. To say this is what I think,this is how I feel, here it is, please don’t hate me. And if you’re an artist here doing that this thisyear, I applaud you (and I’m also free for wine if you feel like its getting a bit much). When I first began creating Not Yet Suffragette I had no idea the journey it was about to take meon, the lessons and the learning curves it would provide me . . . and just how invincible it would make me feel knowing that, if I can get up and say all of that on my own for a whole hour without any support and still be alive at the end of it – I can literally survive anything. There are things I genuinely used to be afraid of that no longer scare me purely because a one person show beatsevery last ounce of fear out of you. This is my wish for everyone else here this year.
Take this experience, use it to build your coat of armour and go back out into the real world completely un-defeatable.
In homage to ‘The Year Of The Woman’ and all the great shows coming to this years Fringe I will leave you with an infamous “Im a Feminist – but” quote – trademarked by The Guilty Feministpodcast. . .“Im a feminist – but . . . when creating my poster for Not Yet Suffragette, I decided to use KimKardashians infamous Paper magazine cover because sex sells . . . and the Fringe is freakin’expensive! . . . Shake what ya mamma gave ya!”
I hope everyone has a fab fringe 2018, thats it from me, #timesup, see you out there.
