Would you mind giving us an insight into what your show/event/performance is?
My play SLAYERS, produced through my new production company RUPTURE, is a dark and gripping contemporary drama about a single mother with a 10-year-old daughter. My protagonist Liane has what seems like a fairly innocuous encounter with a man on the Meadows, but this then ends up cracking open the dark world of online misogyny and the Manosphere for her. The more she delves into this world, the more she learns about how some men think of women and what they say about them, the more she learns about the whole universe of despicable acts that some men have committed, the more her rage grows, and her determination to exact revenge. At the same time her daughter is being bullied by boys at her school; and Liane’s rage, her trauma from her own past experiences, and her fierce urge to protect her daughter, all combine to drive her to violent action. The consequences of which then spiral far beyond her control. SLAYERS asks what happens when we simply cannot hold it in anymore; and where we should direct our rage, and how we can use our anger productively rather than it causing more escalation and more destruction. It probes the possibility of empathy; looks at the circumstances when parental love can fuel destruction; and asks how we model positive behaviour for our daughters while also doing our best to arm them against the world.
Tell us about the creative team and the process involved?
SLAYERS has brewed in my head for a long time, but was finally written earlier this year, and the first third of the play was shown at a Summerhall Surgeries scratch night in March. The feeling in the room that night convinced me that I had to take this play to the Fringe. The script is very fresh and very raw, and is informed by pretty recent developments including the Epstein revelations and the Dominique Pelicot trial. It’s a one-woman show, my performer is the brilliant Zoe Hunter. So far in rehearsals, Zoe and my awesome director Jo Rush have been making every line in the script land perfectly; and exploring movement possibilities, and what we’ll be able to achieve with sound design, mic effects, and the power of a body moving on a bare stage. Our sound designer Nicolette Macleod is creating a whole soundscape to represent Liane’s inner world, and the moments where words aren’t enough to express the strength of her anger. We’re doing a staggered rehearsal process so we reconvene towards the end of July, and again in August; leaving time in between for all our ideas to sink in and marinate further, and for Zoe to get the play into her body. And we’ll all be going to a ladies’ boxing club in a few weeks’ time, to get a sense of how the fight feels in our bodies!
How does it feel coming to (back to) the Fringe?
It’s exciting, it’s nerve-wracking, it’s all the things. I’ve produced shows at the Fringe a couple of times before – including last year with Company of Wolves – and I’ve been an extremely dedicated Fringe punter for many years. But this is the first time I’ve produced my own work, so I have to learn how to be my own producer and my own advocate, rather than plugging other people’s work which I’m much more comfortable doing! But it seems so clear that now is the moment for this play; I just felt there was no way I wasn’t doing it. My team are based across Edinburgh and Glasgow so we get to be the home crowd, and champion other Scottish work. I’m really excited to connect with people who don’t often get the chance to engage with the Scottish new writing scene, except through the Fringe. And I’m fully expecting to live off Piemaker pastries and those veggie dumplings in George Square Gardens for 3 weeks straight.
With shows from all over the world at the Fringe, what sets yours apart?
There are many shows doing the (very valuable) work of showing the experiences of young women at the sharp end of misogyny; talking about all the facets of discrimination, harassment, objectification, abuse…. But I haven’t seen much work that deals with the experiences of older women. That is specifically about mothers of pre-teen daughters, and the challenges they face as they try and prepare their daughters for the world / try to contain their fears about what might be in store for their daughters. When they let them have a smartphone, when they expose them to social media, etc… It’s such an urgent and live conversation. I also really wanted to shine a light on that specific and complicated feeling of being a fortysomething mum who no-one is objectifying anymore(!); and how it feels to sometimes want to be found sexy, perhaps even to want to be complimented on the street (in a non-creepy way), and then to be at war with yourself for still needing to be found attractive… All that fun stuff. Basically this is a play for a demographic that I don’t think is generally served that much, and it shines a light on experiences that aren’t talked about much. As well as dealing with themes that resonate across generations and with many other people.
On that, is there anything in the production or production team’s backgrounds which influences the way the show is performed or told?
Jo is an amazing dramaturg with a ton of experience developing new writing, so she’s been working with me to make sure the script is tight and razor-sharp. Zoe has loads of experience in devising and physical theatre, so this influences the movement sequences in the play and has led us to create moments where the words become inadequate and only movement will do. And Nicolette is working with us to create specific sound worlds, to delineate the play’s different physical locations, different emotional states, and the many different voices it contains. We’ll be doing a lot with microphones and sound effects. It’ll feel like quite an epic story in an intimate space over the course of an hour.
Is there anything specific you’re hoping the audience will take away?
This play doesn’t give any answers, but hopefully it gives people some of the right questions. I want people to leave the play and maybe wrestle with themselves about some of these questions – how best to engage in the fight, or whether to protect ourselves from the fight, or whether empathy is a weakness or a strength… I want people to understand, if they don’t already, how a thousand microaggressions, slights and humiliations, combined with what we learn about the actions of some men, can accumulate into a rage that women then carry around with us – that has no single cause, but can be incredibly strong and can have nowhere to go. I want people to be enraged and energised and maybe a little bit cracked open by this experience. Most of all, I want women who are raising children in the current world – the invisible force of fortysomething women who juggle so much and hold so much – to feel seen!
Your Ideal audience is in attendance, who’s watching? Or more importantly – who isn’t…?
As above, I’d love this play to be seen by mothers. And women and non-gender-conforming people generally, who understand what some of this stuff feels like. But I’m equally keen for it to be seen by people who maybe have no first-hand experience of what Liane goes through; whether men, or teenage girls / younger women, who might gain some (more) understanding of a different perspective. I’m very happy for this play to provoke debate, and for people to come out of it with differing feelings about the main character and the actions she takes. Really the only audience members I don’t want are those who need everything to be neat and with a clear moral, or who don’t want to hear from someone with different experiences/opinions than their own.
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?
I live in Edinburgh, so the “festival immersion” experience isn’t quite the same for me. My daughters are back at school on the 12th August so I’ll be juggling Fringe producing with school runs, sourcing uniforms that fit them, the usual parent admin. Not super relaxing! Cycling everywhere is my lifesaver, not just as it gets you around SO much quicker and with zero stress, but also because riding = mindfulness for me. And if I can get out to Porty or Granton, stare at the sea and use Soul Water Sauna at some point that’ll do me a lot of good.
I’m really interested in the various other shows about the Manosphere / female rage / female badassery / women battling the effects of misogyny in their daily lives. Particularly Production Lines’ Shinjuku which looks at the Manosphere and parent-child relationships from a different angle; and BearGirl by Hey Thanks!, which I saw a bit of as it shared the same Summerhall scratch night as Slayers. I’m excited for some of the big new play premieres: Jack MacGregor’s Prophets, the Art Award winner; Cathy, the long-awaiting next play from Eilidh Loan; Morna Young’s After Party, produced by the legends that are Paines Plough. And I’m thrilled to get a chance to see the incomparable Bryony Kimmings’ latest, Bog Witch.
SLAYERS will run at Venue 17, Studio Five at Assembly George Square Studios
Runs: August 18th – August 30th at 12:15pm
Photo credit: Brian Hartley
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’