After the success of its first staging at RHUL, The Brave Anthology (TBA) was then funded by RHUL's Drama Society to have a weeks run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019. Based in Scotland, The Ed Fringe is one of the largest arts festivals in the world, boasting a wide varitey of shows and performances throughout August. To be a part of the festival is an amazing achievement for anyone as it's such a special feeling to know that you are sharing the festival with so many talented performers from across the world. With the financial help of RHUL's drama society, TBA was able to be amongst such talented performers with the newly formed Mezz Theatre Company. Being a part of such a festival offers new challenges and ways of working which provides many learning curves to be experienced, especially for a cast and crew who hadn't attended the festival before!

Adapting to fit the Fringe

The first production of TBA was in the Boilerhouse Theatre, a large venue owning a vast stage with a capacity of 120 people, this same luxury is rare to come by at the Fringe, but if you do - it's expensive! The Mezz Theatre Co. found a small venue under theSpaceUK: The Perth Theatre, The Space on Northbridge, with a 3x6 metre stage and a capacity of 60. A significant downsizing of size causing us to not only adapt the length of the text but also its form.

Epic and Expressionistic theatre inherently suits large venues due to the scale of theatrical conventions inferring narrative and emotion rather than relying solely on a naturalistic acting style. Arguably, performing this way in a smaller venue could be overwhelming and harmful to the text. To tackle this idea, we kept the original poetic monologues (with the addition of others), and used the same coloured lighting palette to evoke tone and atmosphere. However, this time we exploited the intimacy of the venue, the closeness of actor/audience, the scenes were no longer performed to the masses but offered a macro-panorama of love within the urban setting. The performance space infused the audience space as the production commanded the whole venue, this lack of separation enhanced the liveness and spontaneity of the piece. We interrogated the scenes more, forensically analysing the relationships played out within the text. Personally, this hugely benefited me as it offered a deeper understanding of my characters, a particular moment I remember is when dramaurg Adam Yeomans suggested 'the play isn't necessarily about [this], it's about [this].', this revelation shocked me and has stuck with me ever since, highlighting the importance of a dramaturg for a developing text. Thus, this new intimacy and deeper understanding enhanced the actors' performance, causing the audience to feel more emotionally invested in the narrative even more.

The production proved to be very successful, audiences commented on how the poetic nature of the text resonated with them and how the characters seemed so real and exciting despite retaining the authenticity of the actor's presence. Broadway Baby reviewed us ★★★★★ saying it was 'an uplifting and moving experience', stating that we did indeed 'deliver' elements of 'Epic theatre, naturalism and Expressionism.', the review can be found here. This was an unexpected gift at the end of our production week, but proof that we not only successfully adapted the original production, but also created a compelling piece of theatre appreciated by those who came to see - and a production which will hopefully be staged again in the near fututre!