The Camden Fringe is almost upon us, providing one of the best times in the capital to get into Fringe theatre, and the stories it can tell. To get prepared for the festival, 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 Roger Francis about their new show I’m A Philosopher Why The F*** Am I Here?
Can you tell me a little about your show and what audiences can expect?
Imagine that, instead of the motley cast of D-list celebrities that typically populates reality TV shows, some of the world’s greatest thinkers are dropped into a jungle camp to play ridiculous games and eating competitions, sing and dance, and generally act in very silly ways.
But the key thing about the show is that the live audience gets to choose who is evicted and who undertakes the challenges. As a result, there are 36 different possible renditions of the show depending upon how the audience votes on any particular night.
And audience members might also get a bit-part as one of the watching philosophers (if you’ve ever fancied playing Simone de Beauvoir, Sigmund Freud or Karl Marx – well, here’s your chance.)
It’s like a cross between Oh Mary!, Every Brilliant Thing and Travesties, with singing and dancing philosophers and even a bear. So, what’s not to like?
What drew you to this specific story, and why does it belong at the Camden Fringe?
Being a bit of a nerd, I was thinking about the famous philosophical thought experiment that imagines how people would behave if they lived outside of social conventions and constraints – in the ‘state of nature’.
And then I thought – we can do this …. in a jungle-based gameshow (other gameshows shows are available) and see what happens.
What has been the biggest challenge in bringing this production to life?
Trying to find ways of controlling the production given that the audience decides which characters are evicted and which do the eating challenges etc. The actors have to be ready for all the different possible renditions of the show depending upon how the audience votes that night.
If you add to that the fact that members of the audience join the games and deliver some of the lines – it could be chaos!
How does the design of your show (set, sound, or lighting) impact the presentation of your story?
We have to recreate the idea of a jungle camp – but within the context of a TV show. We are also doing it in ’thrust’ which adds a few extra challenges … but it will be great fun.
If you could sum up the show in one word or phrase, what would it be and why?
An interactive, lip sync, musical comedy pastiche of reality TV.
I’m A Philosopher Why The F*** Am I Here? runs at The Cockpit on 13 – 15 August. Tickets are available here: https://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/im_a_philosopher_why_the_f_am_i_here
