As Rebecca said in our first post, this is the year things start, and we are chuffed to bits to be able finally share more with you about exactly what is starting. In particular, I can now tell you about a BIG EXCITING THING that’s happening this summer: we are taking a show to the Prague Fringe Festival!
From the 1st to the 4th of June 2016, we will be staging a production of Hell Has No Fury, a new play written by our very own Rebecca Sweeney. This one-woman play is a powerful reinterpretation of Medea, told from the point of view of Euripedes’ infamous anti-heroine herself. I can’t tell you how excited we are about this opportunity; as our first major project, it’s a pretty big deal!
Rebecca has worked as a volunteer at Prague Fringe Festival for the past few years, so she has first-hand knowledge of what it’s like, but for Claire and I this is all brand new. So for our sake – and for the sake of anyone who didn’t even know Prague had a Fringe Festival – here’s a bit, lovingly paraphrased from their own website, to tell you all about it:
The Prague Fringe Festival was started in 2002, and since then has become the largest and longest-running English-language theatre festival in Europe. Taking place over nine days from the end of May, Prague has been dubbed “Edinburgh’s naughty grandchild”, and features performances from hundreds of artists from all around the world. Much like Edinburgh, venues are found all over the city, in bars and restaurants, in museums and, in our case, in the basement of a boutique hotel.
So, we’ve got our play and we’ve got our venue – now the real work begins. At the beginning of this week we held a workshop for Hell Has No Fury. Reading the play with everyone who came along was incredibly helpful, with lots of thoughts-provoking responses being tossed around. As a result, we’ve had a play around with the structure of the piece and now have a final version we’re all happy with, as well as lots of fresh ideas to take into rehearsal.
The next stage is creating a design that is both effective and works with the limited technical resources we will have in Prague – by which I mean two lights and an on-off switch. I know Claire will create something beautiful nonetheless; we managed to put together some great promotional images with nothing more than some greaseproof paper, a lamp and an Instagram filter, so I know she’ll make it look amazing.
As for me, I’ve started my own research into the Medea myth and how she has been portrayed throughout history, as well as beginning to put together a rehearsal schedule. Before our run in Prague, we’ll be having preview performances of Hell Has No Fury, the first of which will be at Assembly Roxy in Edinburgh on 16th April. That means that if you can’t make it out to Prague in June, you’ll still have the chance to catch our first production as TwentySomething!
In the meantime, you know where to find us on Twitter and FB, and be sure to keep an eye out for the official launch of the Prague Fringe Festival 2016 programme! We’ll keep you updated with all things Prague, including how rehearsals are going once everything kicks off - this is one big step into the unknown for us, and we’re mega excited to be able to tell you all about how things are going.
Here’s to getting started!
RLx
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