Quickfire Fringe interviews

Franz Kafka – Apparatus

The Rialto, May 4, 13, 21, 22, 25 and 26

Can you give us a brief outline of your show?

The Traveller is only on the island for a few days, and he’s no fan of the brutal penal colony, but hopes to leave with plenty to write about. Today he’s scheduled to watch a man die, but nothing has prepared him for an hour in the company of The Officer, the keeper and guardian of the hellish Apparatus. Tragedy, comedy and the absurd entwine in a dramatic labyrinth of cruelty, obsession and madness.

What do you hope audiences will take away from it?

Ross Dinwiddy’s adaptation covers themes that are difficult and challenging. We hope that the audience will be engaged, laugh and be horrified by the events they see unfolding on stage and will leave reflecting on themselves and society today. Through the prism of the twisted justice process in the play, they will be able to see the hypocrisies of even the most enlightened of systems.

Whose Tweet Is It Anyway?

The Warren: The Blockhouse, May 9, 11, 13 and June 1

Can you give us a brief outline of your show?

Whose Tweet Was It Anyway is a comedy panel show. Teams of three, led by captains Phil Jerrod and Sean McLoughlin (fresh from supporting Romesh Ranganathan and Ricky Gervais on tour respectively) have to guess which member of the other team wrote a tweet.

What do you hope audiences will take away from your show?

Hopefully they’ll say, “Wow, that was a great show. I think I’ll come again in two days time, or at least recommend it to all my friends.”

The Woman Who Conceived The Pill

Exeter Street Hall, May 4, 5 18 and 19

Can you give us a brief outline of your show?

It’s a multi-character solo show [by Sarah Hickingbottom, right] which tells the remarkable true story of a woman who adores lots of men in an America where contraception is criminalised and – when you do use it – simply not good enough. She dreams of “a pill as easy to take as aspirin” and, for 50 years, battles both the establishment and science to make sexual freedom a reality. She succeeds.

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