Four-time Fringe First and Olivier award-winning Fishamble returns to Traverse. Explored through a mother-daughter relationship, In Two Minds is deeply personal, inventive, funny and life-affirming. From writer Joanne Ryan (Lustrum Award winner) and director Sarah Jane Scaife (Beckett sa Chreig: Laethanta Sona) comes a tale of an adult child and parent sharing a home. Pom Boyd (The Dry) and Karen McCartney (A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings) perform a delicate piece grappling with mental health, love and humanity. In Two Minds finds insight in the darkness, humour in the pain, and tenderness in difficult family dynamics.
Would you mind giving us a brief insight into what your show is?
Pom Boyd: In Two Minds is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe from Dublin. It’s a mother-daughter story in which the mother (played by me), an interesting, original, funny woman, suffers from bipolar disorder. The daughter, a loving, generous ambitious young woman lives in a small studio apartment to which her mother comes to stay while her own home is being renovated. It’s a beautiful, funny and moving play. Very relatable for anyone with a Mother or who’s had experience of bi-polar disorder.
Karen McCartney: This is a life-affirming, heartbreaking, hilarious, moving and recognizable portrait of the complex relationship between a mother and a daughter. The mother in our story just happens to have bi-polar disorder.
Tell us about the creative team and the process involved?
Pom: The show is produced by the world-renowned Fishamble the New Play company which have had many successes in Edinburgh. Written by Joanne Ryan, and directed by the internationally celebrated Sarah Jane Scaiffe also Beckett aficionado. Rob Moloney is our brilliant sound designer and composer and we’ve got a beautiful set designed by Allyson Cummins. They’re a talented bunch of creatives at the top of their game. The daughter is played by the wonderful Karen McCartney. She was pregnant when we did the show before and now that little bump is here. He’s only four months old so Karen will be busy between shows…
Karen: When I think back to when we were initially rehearsing this show, the words that come to mind are open and supportive. This includes the environment created by our director Sarah Jane Scaife, the connection built between myself and my on-stage mother, Pom Boyd, the chats we had with our writer Joanne Ryan about her own experience, our sound design and composer Rob Moloney, our set designer Alyson Cummins…I could go on. Everyone came together to tell this story in the best possible way.
How does it feel coming to the Fringe?
Karen: Amazing! I have such wonderful memories from when I was at the Fringe for the first time two years ago. It’s truly incredible how the entire city transforms for the festival.
Pom: It feels like life is amazing and endlessly interesting. My last time here was in 1992. It was a character-forming epic experience. I brought a one-woman comedy show, under the Gilded Balloon. I used to start the show by wandering in as if I was a punter, Ms Dillon a school teacher, and I’d proceed to create mayhem. In the first show, a male audience member (one of the five there) got really irate and tried to get me to sit down and wouldn’t let me continue the show. I used to pretend I was accidentally breaking everything in the kitchen (it was in a restaurant) and then try to cover it up. I cut my finger in the second show, on the crockery I was using for the smashing noise. I was bleeding all over the stage but I didn’t realise. A nice man in the audience gave me his handkerchief. I had to do the rest of the show with a giant bloodstained handkerchief wrapped around my finger. I got nine stitches in the hospital from a student doctor who told me she’d never stitched a finger before.But that cut finger show was a great show and from then on I was packing out.
I was also doing sponsorships of Irish whiskey in the pubs. I had managed to persuade an Irish distiller to give me some money to go to the Fringe. The deal was I would go into the Edinburgh pubs and give away Irish whiskey dressed in one of my wild costumes. I had no idea that in a lot of Scottish pubs there would be a hostility to Irish whiskey – and me!
I had to deal with quite a few ‘situations’. I didn’t have a show for rowdy pubs full of dour men & off-duty soldiers. It was like a bad dream. I thought I had failed the sponsors miserably. Recently I met the guy who gave me the money and he asked me why I never came back looking for more money. They couldn’t believe they were getting Irish whiskey across the threshold of Scottish pubs. They have Irish whiskey in the pubs here now. That was the start because of me literally bringing it in. A whiskey pusher! Yes, as you can see a lot of feels coming back to Edinburgh…
There are over 3,000 shows at the Fringe. So, what sets your show apart?
Pom: My mother always said comparisons are odious. though I confess I actually never knew what it meant. It’s hard to compare shows because there are so many different styles and genres. But I’m selling the show I’m in so…I would say with this show (In Two Minds) you’re going to see a show with really high creative and production values, exquisitely funny performances and top-quality writing. If that’s your bag roll up…
Karen: At the heart of any good story is an engaging relationship. Without that, it’s empty. It’s as simple as that. That’s what we have. And yet, that can be a very difficult thing to achieve. Also, if you are familiar with the work Fishamble produces, then you know you’re in for some great theatre.
Is there anything specific you’re hoping the audience will take away?
Kare : I think the message is that love is tough at times. We can hurt the ones we adore the most and sometimes it’s hard to look at ourselves and learn the lessons and try to do better. But that’s surely the goal of a good life.
Pom: I just hope each person will have had an absorbing night at the theatre.
Your Ideal audience is in attendance, who’s watching? Or more importantly – who isn’t…?
Pom: I love theatre audiences. I don’t care who they are. We’ll all be together in the room sharing in the live, in the moment. It’s powerful. Anyone who’s had an experience of bi-polar – a relative, a friend or themselves, well I think they’ll connect with this show especially.
Karen: Everyone. It’s a universal story. The relationship is one we all recognize and perhaps in seeing a dynamic such as this on stage with all its ups and downs, frustrations, hurt, love and loyalty, it will give the audience more grace and appreciation for their own similar connections.
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?
Karen: Drinking coffee while sitting in the best seat in the house at Origin Coffee, a single red leather seat by the window – this year I’ll have a pram in tow! And with that in mind, I’m planning on booking a ticket to see every show suitable for a five-month-old.
Pom: It is intense and concentrated. I enjoy bursts of intense concentration. So I’ll be soaking it all up and seeing as many of the shows as I can. I’m working on a draft of a play so I’m going to be putting in time doing that too. Well, that’s the plan…
In your ideal world, how can we improve the Fringe, performance, and the industry?
Pom: Oh gosh I don’t know how to answer that right now. Come back to me when we’ve come to the end of the festival and I might have a few thoughts for you…
Karen: I think the Edinburgh Fringe is what every fringe would like to be. Maybe tell us how you do it?
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