EDINBURGH 2016: BWW Q&A - Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

BWW speaks to Ianthe Demos from One Year Lease Theatre about 2016 Edinburgh Fringe show Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.

Tell us a bit about Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

At its heart it's a coming-of-age story: it tells the tale of an illicit affair between a teenage high school student and his maths teacher. The story is told from the perspective of the student's cell phone, so is a pretty unique approach. The play is presented by a kind of 'shifting chorus' with each member of the ensemble embodying and shifting into and out of a character in the story, but primarily being a part of the singularity of the mobile phone/narrator. The title is a way US school students remember the acronym PEMDAS - the order of operations for solving large equations (P = parenthesis, E = Exponents, M = multiplication, D = division, A = addition, S = subtraction), which is mirrored in the mobile phones binary functions as it attempts to qualify and quantify the complexity of human emotions within the narrative.

Why tell the story through the viewpoint of a mobile phone?

From the first day we discussed this collaboration with Kevin Armento, the playwright, we were in deep discussions about 'the container' the play would sit within. We kept impressing on Kevin through the development process that the way the story was told, or its container, was as if not more important to us than the narrative itself. As we're a physical company, we look for scripts that are very challenging on the page in order to push ourselves as far as possible in finding creative solutions. Kevin has told us that he had written several versions of the play from more traditional perspectives and then three days before the first draft deadline threw everything out and skewed the storytelling to initiate from the student's mobile phone. Needless to say as soon as we read it we were thrilled. And terrified.

What inspired the play?

One Year Lease has been commissioning playwrights to create new work for the company since 2008. We explore very specific aesthetic ideas as a company, and at the moment are looking deeply at notions of 'collective consciousness' and examining how we can modernise the Greek chorus in Contemporary Theatre, and the impact that has on engagement. As such, we began with a very broad idea: "infidelity", which was the only starting point. We asked Kevin not to write anything for the first series of workshops, but just sit with us as we explored physical and character exercises exploring this broad topic. This allowed him to connect with us as an ensemble company and write to our strengths, and into the aesthetic we were looking to deliver on. So in a way, the company aesthetic and then the development process itself became its inspiration.

How have audiences responses been so far?

The 2015 world premiere in New York at 59E59 Theaters was wonderful and sold out. The critical response was great and audiences were fascinated with and deeply engaged by the production. It was exciting and nerve-wracking for us to premiere this particular play because our work can be challenging to more conservative audiences, and we did take a lot of risks in its staging, yet looking back, it was the only way we could produce a play this challenging on the page! We're looking forward to seeing how UK audiences will respond.

What's next for the play after Edinburgh?

At this stage we're in discussions about regional tours in the US, and would love to put it in front of audiences in London if we can find the right venue and producer. This play is such a complete picture of where we are at as a company and what we are trying to do artistically - we're intending to take it wherever they will have us.

Timings and ticket information for Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally are available on the edfringe website.