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Leech

the Space @ North Bridge

August 5 -7, 6.55pm

by Gareth K Vile

The story of three actors who are performing a show to impress the infamous theatre critic, Bob the Leech. Bob's reviews will either make or break any actor's career, and these three actors will do all they can to impress the critic – even go as far as to design a whole show centered around him! That means that their show will be ‘leech-themed’ with music, a crazy puppet and quite a bit of blood! This surreal and interactive comedy will be sure to leave you in hysterics, especially when you're sat next to a leech!

Gareth K Vile speaks to James Allen - writer and director

Can you tell me a little about the inspiration for your show?

This completely wacky idea to have a man-sized leech in the show actually came from the depths of my subconscious - I like to use a free-writing technique that Andre Breton used, which allows me to get on paper those ideas from my inner psyche and, as such, Bob the Leech was born from this.

It was actually through the help of my other founders of Kitsch Theatre, Margaret Saunderson and Ollie Painter, that Bob became a theatre critic. We felt he could act as a good satirical symbol of the shallow and harsh nature of the industry, although I should say now that we're not trying to say all theatre critics are blood-sucking leeches!

Myself and Ollie are massive fans of comedy, we share a very similar sense of humour, and we love the work of Mischief Theatre, so it was a necessity for us to make it comedic. Our use of puppetry came from multiple inspirations, I'm a big fan of the web series "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" and their use of puppetry, as well as seeing my brother, who is an actor, do some puppetry work too. I felt that this was something I had to incorporate into the piece.

What role your puppets play in the production, and why did you decide to use them?

This is Kitsch Theatre's first production and we knew pretty quickly that we wanted to create a striking experience for the audience, delving into Magic Realism. Bob the Leech was originally going to be a puppet, but through the development of the piece, we decided to make it a costume (which I wear!).

Despite this, I do think it's a remarkable costume, and when playing Bob, I find that my role mimics elements of a puppeteer. (The head of the leech sits differently to a human one for example, so I have to manipulate this in a way that reflects "leech-movement") 

We do have a puppet in the show and (spoiler alert!) it's a puppet of Mahatma Gandhi. There is a running joke throughout the piece that the lead actor didn't realise that Gandhi was dead, and this troubles him throughout the play. Later in the play, the lead actor is despairing over his romantic life and we thought who better to give him support than Gandhi himself.

However, it's not actually Gandhi, the lead actor is just imagining him, which gave us the opportunity to make one of the most peaceful men in history really, really mean. We want to make very clear that we aren't taking the mick out of Gandhi! We just thought that it's pretty funny and pretty crazy, and I truly don't think the effect of presenting the lead actor's subconscious vision of Gandhi would have been the same unless he was a puppet.

It makes for a fantastic ominous figure that can loom over him, and fly around the place. A massive amount of credit goes to our designer, Frida Cassani, who created both our puppet of Gandhi and Bob the Leech's costume.

Is this work typical of your productions, and do you have a particular dramaturgical approach  to making theatre?

As I said before, this is our first production. I'd say that we are keen to use this artform again, we like to create wacky and crazy pieces, and there is something about having a puppet that just gives the audience a little more room to imagine, and this is key to our work. We are new to the game, our dramaturgical approach is still definitely in the works, so I'm afraid I can't quite define our particular approach!

Certainly for this piece, we liked having a set script, but we make sure there is always an opportunity for flexibility when rehearsing. Some of the best moments in the show stemmed from improvisations in the rehearsal room.

And do you feel that the Fringe is a good place for your work? What are you hoping to experience?

What better place to make your mark than the Edinburgh Fringe? It's a place where complete beginners and seasoned pros all gather for one month to express themselves and we just couldn't miss it.