EDINBURGH 2017: BWW Q&A- Follow Suit

By: Jul. 06, 2017
Edinburgh Festival
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Tell us a bit about Follow Suit.
Follow Suit is a dark physical comedy about the questionable morals of large corporations. Four office workers find themselves (sort-of) singing and (kind-of) dancing in order to combat their own guilty consciences, but as the stakes get higher they find it harder to shrug off the 'elephant in the room'.
Slick choreography and high-energy games keep the workers busy, as they rearrange their furniture, attempt some bizarre lightbulb DIY and respond over-emphatically to profit announcements until they can avoid the skeletons in their stationary cupboard no longer.

With the political element to the show- have you had to keep updating?
It's sad to admit that rather than constant show updates, the content of Follow Suit is now more relevant than it was when first created in 2015. There is an ongoing battle between money-hungry corporations and basic morality, and sadly basic morality rarely wins. From Nestle attempting to monopolise drinking water, to building firms cutting massive safety corners for the sake of a few thousand spare pounds, the news nowadays appears to be story after story of corporate neglect. It seems that the world we live in is becoming more and more comfortable with valuing profit over people.
This is why we felt that the politics in Follow Suit would still resonate with audiences, two years after its creation.
This is your Fringe debut, do you think you know what to expect?

We have each individually attended the Fringe before, either with other shows or simply to enjoy the myriad of theatre that the festival has to offer, so we know what to expect from the city and the atmosphere, but we couldn't be more excited to experience the festival with our shared work.
Having never done such a long run of the show before we are really interested to see how the performance develops over the month, how it changes with different audiences and what the crowds take from it as a piece and us as a company. We are also aware that, as an integrated company, we are going to have to look after ourselves! That's not to say that we won't be enjoying all the fun that Edinburgh has to offer, but our stage manager will be making sure that we all get a healthy amount of rest between shows!
Tell us about your theatre company.
Silent Faces is a company of clowns that make theatre about the world around us. We take the things we care about and turn them into entertaining, challenging, and utterly ridiculous pieces of theatre. After forming in 2015 at Goldsmiths we were awarded the title of Associate Artists of Goldsmiths 2015/16, and went on to receive the Integrated Fringe bursary for Brighton Fringe 2016 and a nomination for Brighton Fringe Best Young Production.
We are also an integrated company, meaning that we work with disabled and non-disabled artists. We are proud to make work that explores the unique possibilities that arise from this collaboration and challenge the assumption that such work is limited in its potential. We are keen to be outspoken about so-called "invisible" disabilities, both mental and physical, and hope to be an example of a company that make outstanding work despite facing the challenges that unseen disabilities present.
Why should people come and see Follow Suit?
Whilst being set in a place of familiarity, the office, and including music we all recognise, Tchaicovsky's 'Sugar Plum Fairy' and Offenbach's 'Can-can', the world we enter in Follow Suit is one of absolute ridiculousness. Audiences will laugh and cry at this baffling collaboration between riotous comedy and dark politics, and above all else, thoroughly enjoy themselves.
Timings and ticket information for Follow Suit can be found on the edfringe website.


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