EDINBURGH 2025: THE ALCHEMY OF SADNESS Q&A

BWW catches up with Alex Garcia to chat about bringing The Alchemy of Sadness to the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about The Alchemy of Sadness.

 The Alchemy of Sadness is a play that explores the often blurred lines between professional and personal matters in the workplace. It's about Thiago's, our main character, struggle to make sense of a very confusing conflict with one of his managers at his company, and his determination to steel himself in an emotionally draining situation. 

What was the inspiration for writing it?

 The inspiration of this story came from some very personal experiences I had working as a server in fine dining restaurants, specifically a time when I was engaged in a drawn-out conflict with one of my direct supervisors. This story came to me as a strong visual. It was in the early morning after a long night out, when I walked out of a diner after a heated argument with that supervisor. I'll spare the details, but as I walked home and thought about how tired I was of dealing with such a toxic situation, I imagined myself swallowing all of the negativity, rage, and sadness and insisting that I turn it into positive growth for myself. That's when I knew I had to take the time to process this whole period of my life and bring it to the Fringe.

What do you think makes the show relatable?

 Workplace conflict is pretty universal, and yet we don't talk about it a lot. Some people, especially young professionals, spend more time with their coworkers than anyone else in their lives. Through my personal experiences, I realized that sometimes we need to scrutinize the cultures in our workplace and question whether they're right for us? I think as a society there is a reckoning about what we tolerate in our workplaces. At least, I hope there is.

Why bring it to the Fringe?

Honestly, the audience. I attended the festival last year with my college best friends, and we were so inspired by the amount of people who showed up at one time wanting to see theatre. Maybe that's commonplace at the Fringe, but where we're from that isn't. In the end, we're just a bunch of artists who want to be inspired as much as we inspire others. We want to connect with an audience we trust and that trusts us. That's just so hard to capture, especially on such a wide scale. 

What would you like audiences to take away from it?

I would like the audience to ask questions about their workplace. About why we show up every day, how we represent ourselves, and ultimately, what that says about us. In many ways, I've found, through firsthand experience, your workplace can at one point feel like your second home and in an instant turn on you when you fall out of line or "make a fuss." It can be quite alienating.

Image by Malcolm Reid

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