Amy chats to the Bowjangles Team: Ezme Gaze, Bertie Anderson Haggart, Oliver Izod, and Mitch McGugan, about their show Bowjangles: Dracula in Space.
Hey – here’s your chance to give an elevator pitch, can you give us a brief synopsis?
Dracula in Space is an epic comedy musical about a string quartet who accidentally meets a famous vampire when they’re on an interstellar search for extremely well-paid corporate work. It follows the journey of Stoker’s original book, except it’s in Space, and it’s about our creative direction, and there are some feminist pop songs. Bram Stoker was rubbish at writing feminist pop songs.
What attracted you to this production/role?
This is our first full-scale narrative piece – our previous show Excalibow marked the transition from musical sketch group to discovering a storyline, but this is a completely brand new musical. Excalibow was firmly in fantasy/magic territory, so we wanted to explore our sci-fi/horror side because we’re massive Star Wars and Buffy fans.
Have you performed at the fringe before? What are the best and worst parts of performing at the fringe? Or if it’s your first time, what are you most excited about?
This will be our fourth fringe and our biggest! The best bit is the fact that you’re surrounded by brilliant, inspiring artists who nourish your creative side, and the worst bit is that creeping existential dread that lingers in the back of the mind, questioning your life choices, wondering whether you should have packed in all the wacky fringe stuff and just been a shiny corporate entertainer.
What are the main themes within the production, and what can audiences expect?
We’ve used this show to explore all the tricky feelings we have within our quartet – misogyny and class disparity in the music industry, the commercial viability of being a musician in today’s world, and how viola players are the absolute worst.
Finally, with so many shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, why should people book a ticket to this one?
You haven’t seen another show like this: we’re a string quartet but there are no chairs – we can sing, we can act, we can dance as long as it doesn’t involve using our arms because they’re busy making the instruments work. Oh, and if you’re affected by peer pressure: other people think we’re good too, the last show got 5-star reviews, won Spirit of the Fringe and had a run in New York.
Bowjangles: Dracula in Space is on at Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose from the 2nd – 27th August at 4.30pm – find out more here!
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