EDINBURGH 2019: Louisa Fitzhardinge Q&A

Polyglottal language nerd LOUISA FITZHARDINGE makes grammar sexy, in COMMA SUTRA: a musical comedy romp for everyone smitten by the written. She chats to BroadwayWorld ahead of performing the show at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about Comma Sutra.

Comma Sutra is a love letter to language. It's partly the story of me, an awkward, grammar-obsessed nerd, attempting to navigate a world in which signs spruiking "potato's" are rife, and partly a very silly exploration of the joys of learning languages. It began its life as a ten-minute musical comedy; that show won an award that enabled me to develop it into an hour-long grammatical spectacular. I've been lucky enough to have sold-out seasons across Australia and am finally taking the show on its first overseas tour!

Have you found a lot of kindred spirits and language enthusiasts through performing this show?

Absolutely! Every time I perform the show audience members approach me afterwards with their favourite word, whether English or otherwise, or trot out one of their favourite puns. Once, I even had someone propose to me... in Latin. Sadly, Latin has no words for 'yes' or 'no' so the poor fellow is probably still wondering whether or not matrimonium is on the cards for us.

Which languages do you speak during Comma Sutra?

I speak German, French, Auslan (Australian sign language) and, well, English. One of my favourite parts of the show is a quadrilingual version of What a Wonderful World, in which audience members decide when I have to switch languages while singing. It's a brain-melting moment. I also delve into sign language gone wrong (I once attempted to pay a deaf person for something by asking, 'Do you need any more shoes?') and the wonders of German compound nouns (why bother making up a word like 'mittens' when you can just say 'hand shoes'?).

Who would you recommend comes to see it?

Anyone who loves words, hates misplaced apostrophes or has ever felt the intense frustration of forgetting all the French they ever learned. In the spirit of QI and No Such Thing as a Fish, it's an hour of light-hearted, fact-oriented fun and you certainly don't need to have an opinion on the Oxford comma to enjoy it.

What do you think sets it apart from all the other shows at the festival?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say no other show at the festival has a grammatical anthem that, amongst other things, extols the virtues of the subjunctive mood. Not only that but you'll come away from it having learned at least a handful of signs from Australian and British sign languages. Did you know that the sign for Donald Trump is just flapping your hand on top of your head to imitate his toupee-esque coiffure?

Louisa Fitzhardinge performs in Comma Sutra at Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 31st July-26th August (not 13th August). Tickets and more information: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/louisa-fitzhardinge-comma-sutra

Photo credit: Lachlan Woods

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