The Edinburgh Fringe is almost upon us and to get prepared for another Scottish summer Read About Stuff is running a ‘Five From The Fringe’ interview series, where creative teams answer five questions about their upcoming Festival shows.
In this interview, I chat to Ariel Slack about their new show How To Believe in Anything.
Can you tell me a little about your show and what audiences can expect?
How to Believe in Anything is about aliens, arson, and how our brains protect us in order to survive horrific events– if you want your mother to hold you, if you want your current life to go up in flames, or if you want the kind of revenge that puts people in jail, this is the show for you. More seriously, it’s about being in love with your best friend for the very first time and her getting freaked out, feeling alienated from everyone you love, experiencing the people closest to you hurting you over and over again because they have been hurt, and a million other things all at once. Audiences can expect to see bits and pieces of their own life as Sam tells the story of hers, and (hopefully) find some comfort in the fact that they’re not actually floating through the universe alone… Other people have survived it, and you will. You just have to believe.
What drew you to this specific story, and why does it belong at the Edinburgh Fringe?
Fringe is by the people and for the people– Artists, audiences, writers, creators, makers of all sorts make the Fringe magic we fell in love with during our first festival (no matter where in the world you’re from). This is doubly true for the Free Edinburgh Fringe festival, which How to Believe in Anything is really proud to be a part of. Fringe is collaborative, experimental, and always finds a way to hit you in the heart. This show holds those ethos within it, built with that Fringe Spirit in mind. Chris Lam, the director, really focused on making it a person-to-person storytelling experience as we started working on this round of the show, which keeps it in the “by the people, for the people” camp. How to Believe in Anything has been in me forever, and after the Vancouver Fringe run it’s been itching to get back out in the world. Very exciting that it gets to grow here as a part of the biggest creative garden in the world.
What has been the biggest challenge in bringing this production to life?
At first the challenge was “how do you fit a burning armchair in a suitcase and ship it across the world”, but we realized you probably have armchairs in Scotland and we didn’t really need to pack one. Then the challenge became figuring out if we actually need one, and how to adapt the show to a more minimal version while maintaining the shock and horror that we had built up in our first run at Vancouver Fringe.
How does the design of your show (set, sound, or lighting) impact the presentation of your story?
In my “normal” life I’m a set designer and props buyer, which means the design has always been at the forefront of my mind, even when writing. The physical design of this show is fun and 90s, while still being isolating and desolate. We’ve streamlined the set elements in this production so sound is carrying a lot of the weight and is easily the most impactful part of our design, and the most deeply integrated. The core of this script was originally written when I was walking home from work alone at night and looking at the stars. That soundscape informed a lot of the writing choices, and when we went to production for the first time I really wanted to find a way to retain the sense of unease you get when you’re alone in the dark. Our composer/sound designer, Matthias Falvai, has done a phenomenal job of that. He’s found a way to set us in both the future and the past, in tension and possibility, in aliens and reality, all at once. The trickiest part is how we maintain this crucial design element when Chris Lam (director) and I realized I’d be controlling all the tech myself. This is where my props brain kicked in, and we came up with a creative solution that not only fits the 90s theme well, but has become a very important part of the storytelling action!
If you could sum up the show in one word or phrase, what would it be and why?
“Alienation”. Obviously the “alien” Sam gets into contact with is a huge part of the story and the main reason everything ends up the way it does. But alienation also speaks to her emotional world as well, which is full of feelings she doesn’t really know how to put language to, and experiences she doesn’t know how to process.
How to Believe in Anything runs at Cellar at Laughing Horse @ The Raging Bull (Venue 332) from August 6th – 18th. Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/how-to-believe-in-anything
