Belles was the ‘it’ girl, hip girl, oh-so-very-fit girl. When she was 17. Now, she’s 24 and spends her days bossed about by her Mum and girls she 100% used to bully. So, when a life-changing opportunity slides into her DMs, she carpes the diem, makes her millions and proves the worth of women worldwide one post at a time. Except she doesn’t. Because…come on. A finalist for The Stage Innovation Award, this is a hair-pulling, fake-nail scratching, cat-fight against get-rich-quick schemes and what it means to be a Girl Boss™.
Would you mind giving us a brief insight into what your show is?
I Really Do Think This Will Change Your Life is a wild rollercoaster of a fight against Girl Boss Feminism, and those Get Rich Quick Schemes that promise to change your life. It’s also about what capitalism means for feminism, and about social media pressures, burnout and identity.
Tell us about the creative team and the process involved?
I Really Do Think This Will Change Your Life is award-winning writer Emma-Louise Howell’s debut play directed by Hetty Hodgson. But the creation of a show has been a hugely collaborative process brought to life by a dream team of designers Lulu Tam (Set & Costume), Matt Powell (Video & Captions), Holly Khan (Sound & Music) & Jack Hathaway (Lighting). Because it sits so much in the digital realm of Multi-Level Marketing and Girl Bosses, we’ve really tried to replicate the social media world with video design that features GIFs and emojis, immersive sound design and a whirlwind of vibrant lights and movement – so our design team are at the helm of bringing this world to life.
How does it feel coming to the Fringe?
Between us, we’ve been to every Edinburgh Fringe since 2015 in some capacity or another, as a punter, working on bars, street teams, in press offices, or as part of student shows when we were at uni. But this is our first time taking a professional show as a team, which feels hugely special! Hetty worked at Pleasance every summer whilst we were at uni, so to be bringing a show up there as part of their National Partnerships Scheme (supported by Mercury Theatre) feels like a dream come true, and a real full-circle moment. We also are very lucky that ThickSkin are producing the show as part of their supported artist’s programme. They’ve been taking shows to Edinburgh since 2010, so we are hugely grateful to them for all their support, for showing us the ropes and saving the show 100 times over already.
There are over 3,000 shows at the Fringe. So, what sets your show apart?
Our show uses hugely ambitious digital technology & formal innovation to tell our story and we were so lucky to have been shortlisted for The Stage Innovation Award for our work last year. With integrated video, captions, and electronic sound design we hope to immerse our audience in the sensation of being part of the digital world. We are a neurodiverse team, and integrated access has been crucial to both process and performance, all shows are creatively captioned and take place in a relaxed environment.
Is there anything specific you’re hoping the audience will take away?
Do not, and I repeat DO NOT reply to those DMs of people asking you to Join Their Business that land in your insta inbox at 5am in the morning…
Your ideal audience is in attendance, who’s watching? Or more importantly – who isn’t there…
If you are going to recruit our audience to your multi-level marketing scheme, please don’t come.
We’d love an audience full of lots of women & loud laughers.
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?
There are SO many amazing shows to see, so knowing us we won’t be doing too much relaxing, but here are a few of our top tips…
My Mother’s Funeral at Roundabout is another amazing show by the Mercury, who were the initial home for Change Your Life.
The rest of the National Partnerships lineup is totally unreal & we’ll be first in the queue for The Daughters of Roisin, Oran, The Lady Garden, Scaffolding, This Town, Polly & Esther.
Hetty is currently working alongside the insanely talented National Youth Theatre REP company, as the Bryan Forbes Trainee Director. A couple of them have shows up too which both sound incredible – A Show About Tomorrow at Paradise in Augustines and Is This Thing On at the Underbelly.
And SO many more from brilliant friends… The North Wall’s Rosie and Hugh’s Great Adventure, Is the Wifi Good in Hell?, Rosalie Minnitt’s Clementine, Pip Dawson’s Character Flaw, Worklight Theatre’s It’s the Economy, Stupid, Ugly Bucket’s Stuffed, the list goes on…
In your ideal world, how can we improve the Fringe, of performance, and the industry?
Now you’ve got us going…
We’re really lucky to be supported by amazing companies & an award that makes the Fringe more financially viable, but the sheer level of upfront cost required to take a show to Edinburgh makes the Fringe totally inaccessible for artists – we’d love to see a wavering of these costs, and cheaper accommodation and more transparent routes for funding. And more funding for the arts in general while we’re at it!
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’