Feature Category: Article

Introduce yourself please.

I am a puppeteer and director of the French Norwegian theatre company Plexus Polaire, and I create visual performances blending actors, life-sized puppets, music and video. I often use a literary work as starting point, and I use puppetry as a dramaturgical tool to capture the underlying feelings or themes of the story. The relationship and interaction between the actors and the puppets are central in my work, and especially how this can create several parallel levels of narration. I am not interested in replacing the actor with a puppet but instead let the actors do what the puppets cannot, and the puppets do what the actors cannot. I consider the puppets as a medium, something that can put us in contact with the invisible and help us make the unexplainable a bit more understandable.

How would you pitch Dracula – Lucy’s Dream to someone who grew up watching the Muppets?

Same, same, but different. Dracula – Lucy’s Dream is the Muppets’ nightmare coming to life.

And how would you pitch it to someone who really, really, likes to wear black?

Welcome to the club, wearing black is the one and only for a puppeteer. In Dracula – Lucy’s Dream you can meet an actual Living Dead.

How different is it from Moby Dick?

Even though the narration of Moby Dick is very visual, it is a more story-driven show than Dracula – Lucy’s Dream, which delves directly into the heart of the subject and circles around the different aspects of the theme.

How close to Dracula is the show?

I have chosen to focus on Lucy – one of Dracula´s first victims in Stoker’s novel, and the show delves into and circles around her story.

What is the hardest part of the show?

The hardest part of the show for the actor-puppeteers is that they constantly has to switch between being actors and puppeteers, being seen and invisible, working seamlessly all together to put lucy back to life.

Isn’t Lucy’s story ultimately one of tragedy? How does the show handle that?

Seeing the story from Lucy´s perspective, allows her to retake control of her own story and stop being an eternal victim.

Why the Edinburgh Fringe?

The Edinburgh Fringe is an amazing opportunity to meet new audiences and theatre professionals from all over the world.

What was your inspiration for the show?

Bram Stokers “Dracula” was the main inspiration for the show, but “Powers of Darkness”- the Icelandic translation of the book was also essential to the process because of how the translator took possession of the story and how freely he rewrites it. I was interested in how stories of vampires and living dead appears all over the world, how everyone has a relationship to Dracula and how a myth is created.

Where else can we see you?

We are currently touring three shows in addition to Dracula – Lucy’s Dream – A Doll’s House, Moby Dick, and Trust Me for a While, and you can find information and touring dates on www.plexuspolaire.com

Dracula or Nosferatu?

Dracula, of course.

Ghosts or Pixies?

Definitely ghosts.
Song or Dance?

Song AND dance.

 

Tickets for DRACULA – LUCY`S DREAM can be found via this link.

Dan Bishop is one half of the sketch-duo Mudfish (with Molly Windust) He wowed audiences last year with his show Brainsluts, and he has returned to the Edinburgh Fringe this August with his new show,  TARGET AUDIENCE. We caught up with him to find out more.

Introduce yourself please.

Hello. My name is Dan Bishop, I am the writer/director of Target Audience. Target Audience is a new comedy play about a TV production company which is owned by a tech company with links to a weapons manufacturer. Then, in an attempt to sanitise the image of the defence sector, the producers are then tasked with developing a ‘pro-weapons sitcom’.

How would you pitch Target Audience to someone who thinks AI is really useful?

Well, I agree that sometimes AI can be useful, but it’s mostly useful if you want to make literally everything so much worse!!!

And how would you pitch it to someone who has watched Terminator too many times?

I would say Target Audience is exactly like The Terminator (I’ve never seen The Terminator).

Does money ruin everything?

The Indus River Valley invented numbers to track beans, but now we use numbers to track money on the stock market, rather than beans in the river. Need I say more?

What was the oddest thing you learned when researching this show?

Meet The Fockers was script edited by the CIA.

What is your favourite part of the show?

Genuinely, my favourite parts of the show have all come out of improvisations from the actors. They’re all just so, so funny.

Why the Edinburgh Fringe?

I was going up there anyway for a tech conference, so thought I’d kill two birds with one stone.

What was your inspiration for the show?

The show was inspired by the current domination of big tech companies who have infiltrated all aspects of our lives, particularly our media and the military industrial complex. Take Amazon for example, they are simultaneously a huge movie studio whilst also owning a platform that hosts AI software used in drone warfare. I find all of this confusing and weird! So I thought I’d try to make it funny.

Where else can we see you?

I am also directing Amazing Global Solutions, the character comedy ordeal by Rob Preston – so you can see me in the audience for that show every SINGLE night (20:20, Pleasance Below).

Theatre or AI Datacentres?

Theatre!

Robots or Trees?

Trees!

Truth or Beauty?

Trees!

You can get tickets to see Target Audience here.

Olivia Zerphy is a director, actor, and producer who specializes in devised physical and object theater. They are part of the Voloz Collective, who do amazing physical theatre likely to delight STARBURST readers. We caught up with them to find out more about their latest show, Redacted: The Cover-Up Of A Cover-Up Of A Cover-Up.

Introduce yourself please.

We’re Voloz Collective, an international ensemble making original physical theatre inspired by cinema. We all trained at École Jacques Lecoq in Paris, and we create our shows collaboratively from scratch, blending movement, live music, clowning and theatrical illusion. We love making ambitious stories with a healthy dose of chaos and a lot of heart.

How would you pitch REDACTED to a fan of The X-Files?

If you love The X-Files, you’ll recognise the world immediately: government cover-ups, mysterious disappearances, UFO sightings and people desperately trying to uncover the truth. But instead of investigating one conspiracy, we dig into the very nature of conspiracy and ask what would happen if every conspiracy were actually linked. It’s comedic, cinematic and a little unhinged- in the best possible way.

And how would you pitch it to someone who loves clowning but doesn’t know sci-fi?

At its heart, REDACTED isn’t really about aliens, it’s about people. It’s about obsession, hope, fear and our need to make sense of the unknown. The sci-fi is the setting, but the engine of the show is physical comedy, clowning, live music and an ensemble constantly getting themselves into impossible situations.

We loved The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much. How different is this show?

Thank you! The two shows definitely share the same theatrical language- they’re both highly physical, fast-paced, cinematic and created collaboratively, but they feel very different in content and tone.

The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much is rooted in Hitchcock and classic spy thrillers, whereas REDACTED draws on science fiction, conspiracy culture and contemporary anxieties about truth, misinformation and who gets to shape the stories we believe. It’s a darker piece in places, but it’s also packed with the same playfulness, visual invention and live music that audiences have come to expect from us.

Who is your favourite conspiracy theory / wacky modern myth?

The birds-aren’t-real conspiracy is hard to beat. It’s completely absurd, but the fact that it’s a conspiracy theory satirising conspiracy theories is what makes it so brilliant. It’s wonderfully meta and definitely feels like something that could wander into a Voloz show.

What is the hardest part of the show?

Keeping up with each other.

Our shows rely on incredibly precise ensemble timing, but they also need to feel spontaneous. Every cue is live, every transformation happens in front of the audience, and everyone is constantly switching between being characters, becoming spaces, doing live sound effects, and object manipulation.

Why are we so fascinated with Roswell to this day?

I also think Roswell taps into something much bigger than UFOs. It’s about wanting there to be more out there than we currently understand and wondering whether the people in charge are telling us the whole story. Whether or not Aliens are real, the human impulses behind this conspiracy (and most) are very real.

Why the Edinburgh Fringe?

There’s nowhere else quite like it. You get to perform every day, meet audiences from all over the world, discover extraordinary artists and completely immerse yourself in theatre for a month.

For us, it’s also where our shows really become themselves. A month of performances teaches you things no rehearsal process ever could.

What was your inspiration for the show?

It started with Roswell and the mythology surrounding UFOs, but the more we researched, the less interested we became in sticking with the actual facts (or alleged facts) of Roswell.

We became fascinated by why people tell these stories in the first place. Why do we create myths? Why do conspiracies flourish? Why do we keep searching for meaning in things we can’t explain?

The result is a show that’s as interested in human imagination as it is in extraterrestrials. Where else can we see you?

After Edinburgh we’ll be touring REDACTED around the UK in spring 2027, alongside other  touring of our previous show THE MAN WHO THOUGHT HE KNEW TOO MUCH (which will also be at the fringe this summer- 10:40am in Pleasance Forth!). The best place to keep up with us is through Voloz Collective’s website, social channels, and mailing list!

Aliens or Vampires?

Aliens without a doubt.

Dance or Song?

Dance! We love to move!

Truth or Beauty?

Beauty. We all have our own relationship with beauty – it can be personal, subjective and constantly changing. But truth is different. The moment we decide that truth is whatever we want it to be, things start to get really complicated. (if you want to see just how complicated, come see REDACTED).

Redacted is at the Pleasance Dome during the run of Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Click here to purchase tickets.

Drew Lausch is a queer comedian, writer, and actor from Fargo, North Dakota. His previous work includes Intermedium and Club Cumming Presents: A Queer Comedy Extravaganza. His debut solo show, FRIENDLIEST, is a darkly funny coming-of-age story about a closeted comic book nerd who creates the world’s first gay superhero while navigating addiction, identity, and the complicated people who shaped him. We caught up with him to find out more.

Introduce yourself please.
I’m Drew Lausch! Pleasure! I’m a queer comedian, writer, actor, and the only person I know who looked at Batman and thought, “This franchise desperately needs more poppers.” I grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, where coming out felt less like joining the X-Men and more like volunteering to be the first guy they test the Sentinels on. So naturally, I coped by reading comic books and developing a personality disorder disguised as a sense of humor.

How would you pitch Friendliest to a fan of super hero comics?

Imagine if Fleabag got bitten by a radioactive spider. It’s a dark comedy about a chaotic comic book artist who creates the world’s first gay superhero while his actual life completely falls apart. There are comic book references, superhero fantasies, villains, origin stories, impossible expectations, and a grown man desperately trying to save himself with the emotional maturity of Peter Parker and the coping skills of Tony Stark.

And how would you pitch it to someone who doesn’t really know what Pride is for?

It’s about trying to become the person you wish had existed when you were growing up. You don’t have to know anything about Pride to understand wanting to belong, screwing up spectacularly, or desperately hoping someone still loves you afterwards. The gay stuff just means I trim my body hair.

How different is this from Intermedium, and your other work?

Intermedium let me play a closeted Mormon. In Friendliest, I basically play every bad decision I’ve ever made. It’s definitely the most personal thing I’ve written. My stand-up has always come from my life, but this lets me blend comedy, theatre, and comic book fantasy into something that’s somehow both sillier and more emotionally devastating. It’s the closest I’ve come to putting my actual brain onstage.

Who is your favourite comic book creator and why?

Grant Morrison. Nobody writes like they’re simultaneously a genius, completely unhinged, and maybe communicating with beings from another dimension quite like Grant Morrison. Their work convinced me comics could be philosophical, deeply human, and absolutely batshit at the same time. That’s pretty much the energy I aspire to.

Who’s your favourite super hero?

Northstar. He was Marvel’s first openly gay superhero, and as a closeted kid in North Dakota, just knowing someone like him existed meant everything. Representation sounds like a buzzword until you’re sixteen and convinced you’re the only gay person within a hundred miles.

Personality-wise, though? I’m probably closer to John Constantine. Self-destructive, drinks too much, makes terrible decisions, somehow survives anyway. Friendliest basically asks what happens when Northstar’s hopeful legacy gets filtered through Constantine’s coping mechanisms.

What is the hardest part of the show?

Remembering that the audience can’t actually see inside my head. The show bounces between stand-up, storytelling, and comic book fantasy, so my job is making those worlds feel seamless. Emotionally? There are moments where I have to revisit parts of my life I’d much rather leave buried. Then five seconds later I have to make a room laugh.

Why do we love super heroes so?

Because they’re everything we’re not. They’re brave when we’re scared, selfless when we’re selfish, and are gut wrenchingly hot. They remind us that people can change and also give us a safe space to escape to when reality can be a bit…crunchy.

Why the Edinburgh Fringe?

I’ve wanted to bring work to the Fringe since I was eighteen, when I visited Edinburgh while I was still closeted. Coming back with this show feels incredibly full-circle. Also, where else can you see a Shakespeare adaptation, a clown having a mental breakdown, and a man pretending to be a gay superhero within fifty feet of each other?

What was your inspiration for the show?

When I was growing up, the closest thing I had to a gay superhero was whichever X-Man Tumblr had decided was queer that week. I wanted the kind of hero I desperately needed as a kid but then I realized the real story wasn’t about creating a superhero. It was about figuring out why I thought someone else had to save me in the first place.

Where else can we see you?

After Edinburgh I’ll be back in New York & LA performing stand-up and developing Friendliest as a television series. If things go badly, I’ll be somewhere with a tequila soda. Also, watch my Webseries Sugar Baby! It’s on Youtube and my completely unbiased opinion is that it’s awesome.

The Avengers or Alpha Flight?

The Avengers. But Alpha Flight deserves more respect. Canada looked at Wolverine and said, “What if we made the rest of them aggressively Canadian?” That feels really right.

Power or Responsibility?

Power. Responsibility comes with emails & planning birthday dinners.

Truth or Beauty?

The truth of MY beauty.

Friendliest runs at Gilded Balloon Teviot (The Nook) from 5–31 August (excluding 18 August) at 6:00pm. Follow Drew on Instagram @realdrewlausch and TikTok @drewlausch.

Joe Sellman-Leava is a writer, performer. They also run Worklight Theatre: a company that makes new, interdisciplinary shows that examine our rapidly changing world, through personal stories. We adored Joe’s previous 2022 show FANBOY. We caught up with him to find out about his new show,  COPYCAT.

 

How would you pitch Copycat to someone who spends too much time on ChatGPT?
How do you feel when you use a Large Language Model, like ChatGPT? Do you find it helpful – even enjoyable? Do you see it as a means to an end, or maybe have a quiet fear that, if you don’t use it, you might get left behind? Whatever the answer, it’s likely you have an opinion about AI, and its impact on your work, life and the world you live in. COPYCAT is a new show that wrestles with some of these questions, with a story of a teacher and a student (set in a school in the 2000s, when we were still asking Jeeves!), and a whirlwind of impressions. It might make you rethink your relationship with chatbots, and it might not. Either way, it’s a fun way to spend an hour, and we’re confident you’ll have a good time!

And how would you pitch it to someone who has seen Terminator too many times?
Do you agree with James Cameron that he “tried to warn us” with this movie, back in the 80s? Are you so worried about AI that you feel like Kyle Reese in police custody – “you still don’t get it do you?! YOU CAN’T STOP IT!” – like the only sane person in an insane world?  Well, this show might just be for you! COPYCAT asks what AI is doing to us and the world we live in, testing the claims made by tech barons, with plenty of impressions (including Arnie!), anchored in a joyful, live experience that celebrates what it means to be human.

How different is it from FANBOY?
They’re both auto-fictitious in nature –drawing on real experiences and turning them into a story. Both are a result of very collaborative processes. COPYCAT leans even more into the impressions, which are a significant gesture in the show, used to examine the role of imitation in life, learning and creativity. While both shows have ambitious technical designs, COPYCAT has longer sections with little-to-no tech, with plenty of tangible, hand-made art. We really wanted to celebrate what theatre and storytelling can do best: connect people in a live, shared experience.

Is technophobia ever justified?
I think asking questions is vital – especially of new technologies and how they’re used, funded and regulated. I love Cory Doctorow’s questions on this: who is the technology doing something to (i.e. citizens and workers)? And who is it doing it for (i.e. owners and tyrants)?

In the long run, many technologies have benefited humanity. But before the printing press enabled the scientific revolution, it gave political power to a fringe conspiracy theory that witches lived among us and were agents of Satan – leading the death and torture of tens of thousands of innocent people. Before the industrial revolution enabled public transport, healthcare, homes and education, and the civic of trade unions (which led to workers’ rights, the eight hour day, paid holidays and pensions), it was used by empires (for colonisation, slavery, genocide and war), and by robber barons to create and control monopolies.

I think of myself as somewhat technophobic: partly because I prefer working with people and without screens, but mostly because I think history tells us that the benefits of technology often happen despite the people who own them, not because of them.

What is your favourite part of the show?
Currently it’s the opening salvo of impressions: it’s just a fun way to introduce people to the story, characters and the world of COPYCAT. 

Name one thing that everyone has in your ideal future?
Agency. I think if you look at the overlapping crises of climate, conflict, housing, inequality and cost-of living, and how these are and will likely continue to be compounded by the current financial and governance structures around AI, a common thread is how they rob people of agency: a safe and healthy planet; affordable homes; fair pay, opportunity and a decent quality of life. 

Why the Edinburgh Fringe?
If you’re able to go, it can be such a great way to get a new show ready and find its audience. I also just love how much art and culture is packed into one place: an already stunning city, teeming with thousands of shows, artists and audiences, for an entire month – there’s nothing quite like it!

What was your inspiration for the show?
I work as a screenwriter in children’s TV, and was at a conference the year ChatGPT launched. I got the last seat in a workshop titled: ‘can AI create a new children’s TV show?’ COPYCAT started as an examination of why I – and writers like me – don’t have enough work on right now. But the more I’ve learned, the more I think that the questions AI poses for humanity are much deeper and more existential. The show is an attempt to make sense of that, and to ask what it means to be human.

Where else can we see you?
COPYCAT will be touring throughout autumn 2026 and spring 2027. I’m also co-producer and dramaturg on my friend and collaborator Dylan Howells’s show, FORGET ABOUT ME, which weaves magic, horror and storytelling into a unique little ghost story (also at Pleasance, this Fringe).

Phantom Menace or Force Awakens?
I think it’s funny that films both opened to such commercial success and fanfare, then were given an increasingly hard time by some fans and critics as time passed. I think the prequel trilogy came to be appreciated as its own thing, by its own audience and wonder if the same will be true of the sequels, in time. But I’m stalling… I think I’d say The Phanom Menace: for the set pieces, the cast and Duel of the Fates. And my affection for Jar Jar Binks!

Spaced or Community?
Spaced. I love its ability to weave film, geek and pop-cultural references into memorable characters and moving storylines, with so many great gags. Actually I haven’t seen it in years…I want to rewatch it now…

Wall-E or The Matrix?
I’m a huge Pixar fan and Wall-E is great, but I’d have to say The Matrix! My brother and I pretty much wore out our VHS copy when we were kids, and it’s one of the dystopian sci-fi films we’ve looked at while researching and creating COPYCAT (trying to find out just how deep the rabbit hole goes…)