EDINBURGH 2018: BWW Q&A - Great British Mysteries

BWW catches up with Rose Robinson about bringing Great British Mysteries to the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about Great British Mysteries 1599.

Our new show retains our characters from last year (Olive & Teddy), but moves them back in time 400 years. In this incarnation, they are Tudor mystery hunters who get recruited for a witch hunt. Unfortunately, they find the witch a little closer to home than they were expecting.

The old show was set in the 1990s and we thought that it would be fun to see the effects of transplanting those characters to the 1590s. It removes the mockumentary format and makes it more of a storytelling adventure novel brought to life.

How did you enjoy your Fringe debut last year?

It was brilliant. I think it went better than we could have hoped for really; the Pleasance were great with us and we felt very fortunate to sell as well as we did. Inevitably, you have all the highs and lows of morale that the Fringe puts you through but that's nothing a trip to the Mosque Kitchen can't fix. And in terms of the show, we enjoyed doing it every single day.

What have you been up to since last August?

I started writing stuff for the new show in October time. Of course at that point they were very sketchy ideas; many of which have now been scrapped but it got the ball rolling. And there was a feature called 'Packing For A Mystery' which gave would-be mystery hunters advice on what to take with them on a case. That's pretty much survived the whole year and is going into the new show near enough as writ. So sometimes ideas can survive! Then we took the old show to the Soho in the spring which was lovely.

We also all do other stuff alongside GBM, whether that be VOs or other acting jobs, and Joe is always directing stuff or leading workshops for various people. So it feels like it's been a quick year.

Who would you recommend comes to see the show?

If you like your comedy irreverent, high-energy and thoroughly silly then I think you will get something out of our stuff. The tone is a bit 'niche' in the sense that it really appeals to some people, but I'm sure some others would think we're morons (which confusingly we are). The Guardian said last year's show was reminiscent of Garth Marenghi's Dark Place which was a great compliment in our eyes so I think if you like comedy in that ilk you will enjoy it. Wordy stupidity.

Are there any other shows you're hoping to catch at the festival?

So many! We started drawing up our list of shows to catch last month when the brochures came out. Lazy Susan, Christopher Bliss, Limmy and ZaZu will all be on our list. And we'll be living with Rosie Jones, so we'll have to drag ourselves to see it...She's annoyingly good and is going to explode at Fringe this year so we're going to make sure she always buys the first round.

Great British Mysteries: 1599? is at the Pleasance Courtyard - Pleasance Below from August 1st- 27th

For further information

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/great-british-mysteries-1599

Photo credit: Michael Shelford

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