Estelle models for the Artist.
And despite a wealth of experience, Estelle has never participated in a session quite like this. And that’s all audiences need to know before embarking on this journey.
From our dear friend Maria MacDonell (Miss Lindsay’s Secret), featuring Leo MacNeil, comes their exciting new work LIFE – a piece which is an active (with welcomed participation) life drawing class. With pencil and paper provided, and on-stage tickets available seated at easels, this is a fascinating way for audiences to watch the story emerge from an entirely new perspective.
Would you mind giving us a brief insight into what your show is?
‘I model for the Edinburgh Drawing School. As I sit, very still, with people looking at me so intently, all kinds of things run through my head, not least the ideas for this play.
So, I wonder what would happen if I was naughty.
I also wonder who, really, is The Artist? Who are the students? Why have we all come together today? If we all concentrate on this together is something momentous going to happen? It feels very much like theatre’.
LIFE is funny, fascinating, fantastical and unique. LIFE is about all of us, sharing one certainty. It deals with this through humour, memory, storytelling and art. LIFE is about abuse and how we hide it; female ageing, the male gaze; women as objects; humanity’s need to frame the experience as a folk tale; art, our faces and the stories they tell; our personal truth and whether we hide or show it; LIFE is about love and respect. It is about the act of making theatre.
Tell us about the creative team and the process involved?
Actor and writer Maria MacDonell is joined on stage by the terrific Leo MacNeil as ‘The Artist,’ an emerging Scottish actor and writer with a wealth of stag experience, most recently in Citadel Arts’ Tales from the Towpath.
LIFE comes partly from Maria’s experience as an artist’s model and reveals the kind of stuff that goes on in her head when she is paid to sit still, and features sound design from Georgina MacDonell Finlayson, a violinist, fiddle player, and composer who has appeared before on the Netherbow stage providing live music with Miss Lindsay’s Secret, and the sound design for The Not So Ugly Duckling (starring Maria and Jo Clifford).
How does it feel coming to the Fringe?
It’s Brilliant to be back at the Fringe in the welcoming bosom of the Scottish Storytelling Centre with the supportive professionalism of its wonderful staff and where the Haggis Box is the best place to rest and revive.
There are over 3,000 shows at the Fringe. So, what sets your show apart?
Is there another world premiere set in a drawing class in which the audience is given pencil and paper and invited to draw ( but not show their pictures unless they want and indeed not draw unless they want ) and at which four onstage tickets are available at easels? And tell me how many other shows have two performers with an age gap of forty years?
Is there anything specific you’re hoping the audience will take away?
Their drawing, to keep, bin or share online or even leave with us for our post-show online gallery- all entirely optional. What else? We want audiences to take away a life experience at a life event.
Your ideal audience is in attendance, who’s watching? Or more importantly – who isn’t there…
Anyone who is interested in art and theatre, in life story and fantasy who is keen to step off the crammed pavement into another world. Children under 12 are not watching and no one unaccompanied who is under 14. Hmmm, what is the Scottish Storytelling Centre guideline? No one has yet seen this play, not even us. We look forward to meeting our audiences and discovering LIFE with them.
It’s an intense month, so where you’re able, how do you plan to relax, and are there any other shows you intend to see or want to recommend?
Relaxing – ah well I do eat a lot of chocolate. It has to be 85% hardcore. Luckily chocolate features in Miss Lindsay’s Secret ( Fringe 2021/2022 and still touring) but I haven’t found a way to smuggle any into LIFE. I will hang out at The Haggis Box and also stroll along the water of Leith to learn from the heron how to be very very very very still.
The Scottish Storytelling Centre always has a wonderful Fringe programme. I will definitely aim to see everything there and then strike out into the city to experience so many other wonders.
Interested in being featured on our Have a Gander page? With many previews and Q&As lined up, we’re always happy to chat about including your show in future articles. Please do get in touch through the contact page to feature in an upcoming ‘Have A Gander’