Who to Call When the World Starts to Implode (and You’re Crying at Tesco at 11am) opens Thursday 20th August at Barons Court Theatre, exploring the relationship between Isabel and Sophie. Learn more about what you can expect:
1: What first inspired the idea for the show?
The show originally started out as being about an international student figuring out she’s queer, without being specific about where she came from, taking lots of inspiration from my own experience of coming to London and navigating life, visas and all the challenges that come from packing up your life to try and fulfil your dreams somewhere else. After our first performance of this show at the Women Writers Festival in March, Ciara (composer & music director who co-produces the show with me for Camden Fringe) and I quickly realised we needed to make the story a lot more specific. Together with Nil Uzer (who plays Isabel), we redeveloped the story, taking inspiration from her own background being from Istanbul, specifying the story by adding poetry, Turkish music, dance and much more. We also worked together with Chloe Payne (who plays Sophie) to make their character much more multi-layered than in the previous production.
2: At its core, what do you hope audiences take away from the story?
To know that you don’t have to live by someone else’s timeline. It’s okay to take the time to discover who you are. You are good enough, even if the world sometimes makes you feel like you’re not.
3: How do you balance emotional scenes with comedy?
Every scene feeds into each other, making the comedy flow naturally within the writing of the story. The comedy isn’t meant to be jokes with punchlines and belly laughs; it’s funny in how it’s relatable, awkward and feels real.
4: The play asks what it means to be ‘at home.’ What does this question mean to you?
This is a very difficult question to answer. Sometimes this is London. Sometimes this is back in the Netherlands, where I was born and grew up. Sometimes it’s neither. Even growing up, it was difficult to feel at home, not being fully Dutch in a place where almost everyone else was, deep in the closet, and growing up in an abusive home situation. I think home for me is more like a feeling that I might have once in a while, rather than a definite place.
5: What has been the biggest challenge in creating this production?
The whole team is made up of creative people who try to balance their passion for theatre with being able to survive. Some people have full-time jobs, others have tours or irregular schedules, so the hardest challenge was initially being able to have enough rehearsal without burning people out. Currently, our biggest challenge is getting our show seen. We have done everything with an extremely small budget and are trying our best with our own marketing, but this does make getting your show seen and selling tickets a lot harder.
6: What has been the most enjoyable part about creating Who to Call When the World Starts to Implode (and You’re Crying at Tesco at 11 am)?
The rehearsal room is absolutely lovely. Everyone is open-hearted and supportive. The space feels safe and warm, and has enough room for constant exploration. We truly feel that we made friends as well as work connections, and we’ve all grown a lot through the process in both our confidence and skill.
Who to Call When the World Starts to Implode (and You’re Crying at Tesco at 11am) opens Thursday 20th August at Barons Court Theatre. Many thanks to Gabrielle Hofmann for answering our questions. Book your tickets here!
Max
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