Art happens not only when we are at our desks churning out words, but in the park, in the shower, in the queue at the post office and at the zoo. Mostly at the zoo if i’m honest.
Fran Bushe
How did your piece start life? Was there an initial seed of an idea or a moment that made you think “I need to make HOT COLD”?
When I was recovering from a particularly foggy patch of Long Covid I spent a lot of time at London Zoo (they have a great access membership- thank you London Zoo). I thought I was just going for me and making sure I was getting some low pressure exercise and outside time. I was going through huge changes in my life at the time and was working out exactly who I was post pandemic – obviously seeing penguins really helped with this. Somehow, somewhere between listening to the Komodo Dragon talk and doing my admin in the giraffe house (it is an excellent co-working space, excellent colleagues, 10/10 recommend) I realised all through my zoo time, I had been building a play in my brain. It’s a really wonderful endorsement for the fact that art happens not only when we are at our desks churning out words, but in the park, in the shower, in the queue at the post office and at the zoo. Mostly at the zoo if i’m honest. If London Zoo would like to make me their official Writer in Residence I am available.
Can you tell us what it’s like to have your piece be part of The Acts?
It’s been an incredible process. I began by writing a one woman show for myself to perform. I had made a one woman show before (award winning Ad Libido), and have always loved the intimacy of one person shows. They also had become the smart economical choice, as staging larger scale work didn’t feel in any way accessible. I wanted to be easy and cheap to program and to avoid large financial risk.
The moment I started working with CRIPtic I felt a permission to take up more space and make my ideas bigger. I didn’t have to make myself small, neat and amenable in the hope that someone might choose me – I was able to say, ok, honestly what does this story need? I don’t have to fit into a box, I can build a better box.
Why did you apply to the CRIPtic Arts Launchpad programme?
When I became disabled, my theatre writing and performing career felt like it went completely on ice. Before this I felt like I was on a bit of a roll: I had written a comedy Blap for Channel 4 (The Diary of My Broken Vagina), had toured my one woman show Ad Libido and was regularly facilitating workshops in London theatres. Long Covid meant I had to slow down and on many days just stop. The theatre industry is not an easy industry to be unwell in and I thought I was going to have to find another career, because as they say ‘The Show Must Go On’ – but what happens when you can’t? The CRIPtic Arts Launchpad programme gave me a chance to come back to the profession I love, in a supported way. With this opportunity I wouldn’t have to just push through, but could begin to rebuild a healthy relationship with my work and making art.
What are you most excited about for the show at Tobacco Factory Theatres?
I am excited to get back on stage for the first time in a long while and perform amongst these other amazing artists. Kat Bond is effortlessly hilarious and will make you laugh and cry in the same moment. We’ve all been singing the chorus’s of Jordan Charles’s incredibly catchy-makes-you-want-to-get-up-and- dance musical numbers for weeks. And The Double Draw?….you just need to watch it, ok?
Who is Grace? Tell us a bit about her and her world.
HOT COLD is about Grace’s life altering experience of the perimenopause. It is about how it impacts her work, her relationships and her sense of self and identity. It is warm, sexy and funny, whilst not shying away from the wrenching experience of not recognising your own body and feeling entirely alien. It will encapsulate the emotional outbursts, the brain fog, the physical changes that most people are completely unprepared for. There is very little theatre about the perimenopause or the menopause. I managed to find maybe a handful of plays on the subject and yet it is something that can be completely debilitating and transformative for so many people, as well as those around them. The show is also about sex, sexuality, working out who you are, shedding old bits of you and breaking free.
Throughout HOT COLD, Grace thinks she’s turning into a lizard. Why a lizard?
Lizards are incredible. I could talk to you about lizards all day. Did you know that the Komodo Dragons at London Zoo can smell all the way to Tower Bridge? They only have one Komodo Dragon at London Zoo, Khaleesi, because if they had two, one immediately eats the other. When children go into the lizard area they are always disappointed that she is not a real dragon, but I’m telling you lizards are sensational and that’s why they are in this play.
The Acts comes to Tobacco Factory Theatres 3rd – 4th September.
You can book tickets here.
