EDINBURGH 2017: BWW Q&A- Bleach
By: Natalie O'Donoghue Jun. 28, 2017
Tell us a bit about Bleach.
Bleach is a one man show that follows a young rent-boy on a nights work in London. During this night he has an encounter that forces him to question both his own morals and the path that lead him to this night. It gets pretty dark in places but it's also a really funny and relatable show. You get to see a character, who seems really together, absolutely fall apart and then struggle to put everything back together. Bleach is fast, in-your-face and a bit sexy too. If sex and violence is offensive to you then you might want to think twice about this show.
What was the inspiration for writing the show?
Over the past few years I've watched lots of people move to London with ideas of how their life will be in the city. Some of them do really well but others just gets totally chewed up and spat out. I found that really interesting and I thought it said a lot about our generation and the things we put ourselves through to look as if we're achieving. I wanted to explore this a bit and it made sense that the play would follow just one character, as it's obviously a very isolating experience.
I've always found sex to be such an interesting catalyst for characters to become exposed. You get to communicate with the audience straight away that this is going to be a very raw and honest story with nothing to hide.
So I put these two aspects together, added a horrible event and Bleach was born.
You can take it at face value as a story of a misguided rent-boy or you can look a bit deeper. I'm fine with either.
Why is it important to tell this story?
Bleach is important because it reflects a very specific feeling that I think everyone experiences at some point or another. It's the feeling that if you're going to go down, maybe you should at least go down in style. It's that constant battle between what you know is right and what might make you important to the world in some way.
We live in an age where we are totally defined by social media updates and live feeds. Because of this the truth is not always the most important factor in our lives, often how we spin truth is more relevant. So this play is a sympathetic nod to everyone that's quietly failing... which I think is everyone really, just nobody says it.
What sets it apart from other shows at the Fringe?
Bleach is performing as part of the free festival so people can come and see it for nothing, though we hope you put something in the bucket at the end. This alone obviously isn't anything unusual, but we've been performing in the free festival for several years and we offer something quite unique. Most free shows are comedy or music based but we bring cutting-edge, contemporary theatre onto the free fringe. Not only that, but it's an LGBT show. We can guarantee you a totally different sort of show to anything else in the free festival. We're in a tiny venue, so it's going to be quite an up close and personal ride!
Who would you recommend comes to see you?
Obviously the gay community will love this show. We just got back from performing it at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival where is got great reviews and was nominated for best male performance. But you don't have to be gay to enjoy this show! We hope to attract people that wouldn't usually see this sort of thing. We want people to take a chance and be surprised. So come on down and check out Bleach. There's sex, violence and some laughs too!
Timings for Bleach are available on the edfringe website.
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