EDINBURGH 2016: BWW Q&A - Counting Sheep

We speak to the creators of guerrilla folk opera Counting Sheep which is heading to the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

What can you tell us about Counting Sheep?

Mark: Counting Sheep is a guerrilla folk opera about the 2014 protests in Kiev, where Marichka and I met. What's a guerrilla folk opera? It's an interactive exploration of what it means to be a part of a revolution. Staged in traditional Ukrainian polyphony by people with more street closure and festival experience than traditional theatre expertise (i.e. the Lemon Bucket Orkestra). It's an opportunity for you to feel what it was like to be on Independence Square when the people of Ukraine decided they had had enough with their corrupt government and when the government decided they had had enough with the protests.

Marichka: Without setting out to do so, we created a unique play that's both historically significant and artistically unparalleled. It represents the Ukrainian revolution through the traditional voices of Ukrainian culture; it uses the events of the revolution as a launching pad into the cosmos of Ukrainian song. And most importantly, it's not just a topic that we were interested in and decided to explore artistically, it's a part of our personal lives - the show is an expression of what we ourselves lived through as protestors and folklorists.

Why did you decide to bring this story to Edinburgh?

Marichka: After our first run of the show, we had a bunch of invitations to stage Counting Sheep across Canada and Europe. We had a choice and we decided on Edinburgh because of the reputation of the festival and because it would give us the opportunity to show our work for a month straight in a very competitive and critical environment.

Mark: We heard the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the biggest theatre festival in the world, that people form all over the world go there to discover exciting work by upcoming and established artists alike. We want our work to be discovered. Flat out. We feel we've created/captured something much larger than ourselves (and in some ways something much larger than Ukraine) and that it needs to be out in the world. And we feel that in Edinburgh we will very quickly find out whether people agree with us.

How can the audience get involved?

Marichka: The performance is built for audience involvement.

Mark: Show up with an appetite and be ready to engage. Which doesn't mean you have to be physically involved in building barricades for fighting riot cops, but the audience should know that we've created the show to open the door into the experience of revolution...

Marichka: But much like the real revolution, if you want to stand and watch from the side, you may.

Mark: Basically, whatever you do, there was someone doing it during the protests. Taking selfies in front of the barricades, trolling soup kitchens for free food, screaming slogans you don't understand, arming yourself with whatever's around, dancing with strangers, watching with your back to the wall, leaving - all things people did.

Who would you recommend comes to see Counting Sheep?

Mark: I'd like politicians to see the show. I'd like theatre practitioners and artists to see the show. We made a show that is like the kinds of shows we want to see in the world. And we made it because we think that more people need to want to understand the extremes of human emotion and action. We made a show that we think makes our audience want to understand, or at least understand by default through the experience we've created.

Marichka: I would sooner say who I wouldn't recommend to come see this show. It's a psychologically and emotionally difficult production, so I wouldn't recommend it for kids under 13 and those with heart problems. People with mobility issues - be prepared to watch from above.

Mark: I'd second that. This is how it was in Kiev and though we can easily say that the show should be seen by everyone, it will be particularly difficult for some more than others.

Marichka: I would recommend this show to people who are interested in how people behave when there is a mutual feeling between government and citizens that the other is a threat to society. To those that want to understand more than what is shown in the mainstream media.

Mark: I'd also recommend Counting Sheep to anyone who just wants to find our more about Ukraine and what it means to be Ukrainian today.

What's next for the show after Edinburgh?

Marichka: This is our first production outside of Canada. We'd like it to not be our last, to have the opportunity to show it in countries that have gone through revolution as well as those that haven't.

Mark: The world.

Timings and ticket information for Counting Sheep are available on the edfringe website.

Photo credit: Jeremy Minaugh

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