Here we are doing a show called Pseudo Synchro Swim. It was originally commissioned for a festival in Portmeirion, who wanted a performance around the fountain in the town piazza. We thought it would be funnier to do it in the fountain. It made me think of old Hollywood movies and Busby Berkeley, whose choreography was inspired by his time in the military. So I thought, ‘What if there was a synchronised swim team that was drilled with military precision…?’
Different shows are fun to perform for different reasons. Some have loads of audience interaction. With others the choreography is more challenging, so it’s good to get sweaty.
We really like doing one called The Teds, which is inspired by 1950s Teddy Boy gangs. It’s fun to play a more masculine persona. Calamity Dames is a joy to perform because we get to do whip-cracking and ride a rocking horse.
We love coming up with different concepts. Sometimes we’re inspired by the costumes that we find in charity shops, sometimes it’s the music, or maybe there’s an era we want to explore.
Performing outdoors is the best, because anyone can stumble across your performance. It’s nice being out on the streets, with people from all walks of life, all ages and backgrounds. You can tell if a show is going well if the audience stays and they’re laughing with us. In a theatre it doesn’t feel quite the same. You’ve got the lights in your eyes, so you can’t see everyone’s faces. Theatre can feel quite elitist.
Kitsch n Sync CollectivePerforming outdoors is the best, because anyone can stumble across your performance. It’s nice being out on the streets, with people from all walks of life, all ages and backgrounds. You can tell if a show is going well if the audience stays and they’re laughing with us."
Are we political? Yes and no. In recent years we’ve been making works that have more political gravitas. We make stuff that’s family-friendly to make it accessible to everyone, but people can enjoy it on different levels. For example, our Madame Deficit piece was inspired by Marie Antoinette, with plenty of comedy slapstick. But we also interviewed a lot of people on the streets to find out what they thought about the monarchy and austerity, and those interviews are what underpins the show.
We’ve got another Welsh-language show called Ceri-Ann Arian. It’s a kind of ‘supermarket sweep’, but it’s actually about the ‘pink tax’ [women are charged more than men for similar items, even when the production costs are the same]. We show the inequality within consumerism, but it’s done a very comedic way with interactive games for the audience.
Quantum Queens was a big show we did in the Green Man festival. The history books were written by the patriarchy, so we wanted to do a piece about time travel in which women’s stories are told. The final scene is set in the era of the witch trials. But in our story, Joan of Arc comes back from the ashes, brings her army, and stops all the witches being burned.
A lot of art has public funding, so art should be giving something back to the public. Yes, it’s important for artists to be able to experiment and work on their craft. But artists also need to think about who the work is for, why they’re doing it, and make it as accessible as possible.
Sometimes people underestimate how much work goes into making a piece. We need to get everything slick: the concept, the choreography, the costumes. We love it, but it’s a lot of work. And the company is just me and Kim. We do everything: the devising, directing, costumes, marketing, promoting - the list goes on.
We’re a female-led comedy troupe. When we started people thought we were going to be all coy and sweet and innocent. A kind of Andrews Sisters with little comedy numbers. And then we come out and be really anarchic. In the last few years women have had more opportunities in the comedy space. Especially working-class women, which is amazing.
We just performed at a funeral as the Weeping Widows. There’s a gentleman from Newport called Bob, who trained as a clown. For his 80th birthday he planned his own funeral. He called it a FUN-eral. He wanted to turn it into a performance. He said, ‘I don’t want to wait till I die. I want to hear all the nice things people are going to say about me.’ I found a coffin - on Facebook Marketplace, of all places. We had a priest do the whole eulogy thing, and then Bob burst out of the coffin and the party started. It was a really, really good night.
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