F**king Legend
- tabithacatlin
- Nov 21, 2024
- 5 min read
Interview with Olly Hawes
Showing at Riverside Studios: November 19th 2024 - December 21st 2024
Olly Hawe's show 'F**king Legend' had successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer, it showed at 'The Pleasance Courtyard' in 'Bunker Two'. He's now brought his show to 'Riverside Studios' in Hammersmith to show for just over a month!
"F**king Legend is a show about socks and sex and loving someone even though they're quite annoying, and buying tat on holiday, and fear of death, and cognitive dissonance, and whether or not it's an issue that you're watching the world burn and all you can do is try to find meaning in the dancing of the flames, and also is it even possible to be a good man?"
Q: How did you come up with the show?
A: I guess when you're making something it comes from lots of different places. It came from two places: a line of artistic enquiry and the other is an economic place. If I'm going to make a show there's no money to do anything. I hadn't made a show for a number of years and so I was not in a position to leverage funding or support from any institutions. So I needed to make a 'one person show' and spend as little money as possible.
From this place of very restricted limitation: what's the theatrical invention that I can do, in order to make a show as compelling and interesting as possible? The form of the show; whilst it's something I'm interested in, the show makes a blur between who the performer is, the character and what is real and what isn't real. Basically, creating confusion in the audience. It all came from there.
The other place is a collection of ideas. What try to do is take the things that are most important to me, the things that are most important in the world and try to find a meeting point. Right now, I'm very aware of the perfidious influence of the current form of masculinity and we have just seen in some ways the success of the current form of masculinity with Trump being re-elected. That's problematic for me. The biggest issues, we are facing right now are the climate crisis and the transfer of wealth that has happened in the last 40 years. Late capitalisms great success is creating a billionaire class and impoverishing the middle class. Then, I thought: Well where is the story there?
Q: How has the show developed since the fringe?
A: I'm believer in what Peter Brook calls 'Immediate Theatre'. I want my theatre to be live, present and evolving. At a time when 4% of the UK population go to the theatre once a month or more and 1% goes once a week. In some ways theatre is struggling to stay relevant and in my mind, one of the ways to keep it relevant, in an age of screens and mediatisation everywhere; is to keep the real liveness to it. It's really important that the show evolves and it did considerably throughout the fringe.
The evolution that has happened since the Fringe, is going from the space that was in the 'Pleasance Courtyard', bunker 2 and the space was essentially a cupboard or a ditch in a building. The decision was, when choosing the space at 'Riverside', which we were looking at doing in one of the big theatre spaces and what I chose to do was try to recreate the conditions of the bunker from Edinburgh. It's just me doing everything, like the lights for instance. I wanted it to feel scrappy and I wanted a space that was not a conventional theatre setting. I tried to adapt the show to the conditions I had at the Fringe and to a new audience.
Q: What is your favourite moment of the show? Without spoiling anything for the audience!
A: It is a very exposing show to do. The moment I sit with the audience, and we imagine seven different versions of the same sex scene. I don't know what that says about me, but that is my favourite moment.
Q: If you could sum the show up in a sentence, what would it be?
A: The show is both an unthinking emotional splurge, and a painstakingly crafted response to the toxicity of our culture.
Q: What is your favourite audience reaction?
A: I love it when people approach me after the show and say they enjoyed it. I think I particularly like it when the way that person looks is surprising, given they love the show. This older couple came up to me once and said "We absolutely thought it was marvelous". I just love it when people have an understanding of the show, because there are so many layers to the show, irony and double meanings. Then, having people who understand these elements I've used, that makes my heart sing.
Q: What is the future you want for the show?
A: Just being able to do the show, in the way I have, is all I've ever wanted to do. To have a show, go to Edinburgh, do pretty well and to then transfer to a London venue that want to put on and back my show, that is pretty much the extent of my ambitions. I know the work I make is challenging, unusual and I am happily proud to say that. I feel it is an authentic representation of me, as an artist. I'm grateful and delighted of the journey the show has taken me on.
Though, I would like it to go on a tour of the UK, but let's see if that happens!
Q: What's the future for you as a theatre creator?
A: I want to go into politics.. just kidding. I would love to make another show and I'd like to have more financial freedom with that show. I'd love to collaborate with other artists, rather than being almost entirely on my own. I think that would help me take my work to the next level!
Q: What do you do alongside making theatre?
A: I run a community story telling company called 'Take Stock Exchange'. I run it with Nick Cassenbaum, who is a theatre maker and he wrote a show called 'After The Levoyah', which won a 'Fringe First' at this year's Fringe and is going to the Yard Theatre early next year.
We've been running Take Stock Exchange for 10 years, we are currently doing a project with Tash Hyman: it is called 'Machloket' and we work with the Royal Court Theatre. The project has been running for two years so far. We've been working with 30 different Jewish community groups to try and find an authentic way reflecting the diversity of the Jewish community in the UK. There are currently two podcasts out and there will be more in the new year, and we are also doing some live shows in London and other areas in the country!
Interestingly, the output of the work with 'Take Stock Exchange' is very different to my show 'F**king Legend' and Nick's show 'After The Levoyah'. Yet there is the blueprint, the sort of methodology, storytelling blueprint that exists in both our shows that has come from our 'Take Stock Exchange' work.
Get your tickets to 'F**king Legend' at Riverside Studios:
Link to 'Take Stock Exchange' projec - Machloket:
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