As Brighton Fringe gears up for 2016, Broadway Baby offers an insight into the shows, the people and the world that is Brighton Fringe. We’ve been speaking to participants from around the Fringe and asked them to give us an preview of their shows.
Amelie lost in the world of Peep Show
Hello! Who are you and what will you be doing this Fringe?
Hello! I am Lucy Grace and I’ll be performing my solo show Garden at Brighton Fringe. Alongside producer Chrissy Angus, I run a new theatre company How Small How Far.
What’s your show all about?
It's about an office worker in London who plants a Garden in her high rise flat.
The protagonist, Lucy (yes my name, it’s sort of me!) is disillusioned with her 9 to 5 lifestyle and has decided to disconnect. She's desperate to form a meaningful connection with someone or something that could jolt her out of the rut she's found herself in. When she steals the office pot plant she feels that jolt and runs with it! It's a show that deals with issues of isolation, mental illness and city living through a poetic but humorous lens.
Is this a new show or have you performed it elsewhere?
I performed Garden at last year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it received great reviews and was shortlisted for the Brighton Fringe Award for Theatrical Excellence.
Are you a seasoned Fringe performer or is this a first time outing for you?
Edinburgh Fringe 2015 was my first ever experience of performing at a festival. So Brighton Fringe is only my second festival experience and I can't wait!
What brings you to Brighton? Why did you decide to enter this year’s Fringe?
We built a relationship with Sweet Venues who ran the Brighton Fringe Award in Edinburgh and they suggested bringing the show to Brighton. It was already in my mind though, I feel like Brighton is Garden's spiritual home. Of course, I'm stereotyping Brighton's inhabitants but I feel like it's a place with a lot of people who have found alternatives to the rat race, who value nature and wildlife and like their art and theatre, are wonderfully offbeat and quirky! As a jealous Londoner that is how Brighton residents appear to me and this is very much the spirit in which Garden was written.
If you had to sum up your show in one line what would it be?
Amelie lost in the world of Peep Show
Garden is appearing at the Sweet Waterfront 9-15 May 18:30
