EDINBURGH FESTIVAL 2009: BWW Interviews THE GREAT BRITISH SOAP OPERA's Jake Brunger

First of all, tell me about the new show.

It's called The Great British Soap Opera and it's about life behind the scenes on a British soap opera called Victoria Square. You get to see their day-to-day life as actors - filming scenes, learning lines, going to soap awards and giving press conferences - but the story kicks off with the arrival of new actress Sophie who's brought in to boost the show's failing ratings as the soap undergoes a massive relaunch. In short, it's just a really fun little fly-on-the-wall show about the lives and loves of a group of actors and how their own lives begin to almost mirror their on-screen stories.

How did the idea develop?

Soon after we did Jet Set Go! at last year's Fringe and at Theatre 503, in about September, Pippa [Pippa Cleary] and I sat down with Luke Sheppard (director of Jet Set Go! and artistic director of Take Note Theatre) to start to get ideas rolling for this year's Fringe. We all agreed that one of the reasons Jet Set Go! had worked so well was because it dealt with an industry that was perceived as being very glamorous and almost exotic, but that behind the make-up it was just an ordinary job. That's the same kind of line we've tried to go down with The Great British Soap Opera - that however glam you might think actors' lives are, with their big salaries and social lives, at the end of the day they're just ordinary working people with fears and insecurities of their own.

How long's it been in production?

We took some time off after Edinburgh last year to work on other projects, and Pippa went back to finish her degree in music at Bristol University. We began storylining and drafting around the end of January/early February, and then it's gradually come together to a first draft in June, and then a very quick succession of cutting songs, major rewrites, and so on, happened throughout June and July ahead of rehearsals which started in mid-July!

So it's happened very quickly, and with Pippa and I in different cities, it's been a bit of a nightmare to write, mainly with us shut up inside for long weekends working 16-hour days. We also hit a bit of a hiatus in March and April, when we did the new production of Jet Set Go! [at the Jermyn Street Theatre], which was quite time consuming. Anyway, thankfully she's finished her degree now so our writing should hopefully be much less stressful!

Was the idea always to take it to Edinburgh?

Absolutely. Edinburgh is unique; you have to write a much shorter show than you would elsewhere (in our case, 75 minutes), that can be performed on a set that can be put up in 20 minutes, and most importantly, that people will enjoy and want to recommend - pretty much all the tickets up there are sold on word of mouth so it's got to be worth people's while going to see it. So much of Edinburgh's programme can be doom and gloom plays about incest, war and violence - we write knowing that the audience are coming for a good time; something entertaining and uplifting. Our slot is in the middle of the day, 3:45pm, so again, it has to be something that lifts you in the mid-afternoon lull - and fingers crossed, that's what they'll get this time round as well.

What's the cast?

We've got a really fantastic cast. We're actually doing two shows in rep - The Great British Soap Opera and another new musical called Chat by Lee Freeman and Phil Cross, which was first seen at Guildford School of Acting earlier this year and has since been revamped. So The cast of six have to be suitable for both shows. It took a lot of casting, recalls and workshops but thankfully the cast fit both of their roles like a glove - Relief all round. We have Phillipa Buxton, Leon Kay, Diana Chrisman and Sophia Behn, all graduates of fantastic places like Mountview, Arts Ed and RAM, and then two graduating students from GSA, Adam Barlow and Adam Pritchard. All of them are great to work with and have picked the shows up so fast in the short space of rehearsal time we've had.

Jet Set Go! got some fantastic reviews - is that a lot for you to live up to?

Of course - you do worry about that whole 'second show' syndrome, but there's quite a comfort in returning to George Square Theatre again in the same venue and time slot, and hopefully we'll be giving those who enjoyed Jet Set Go! something similarly uplifting but in a completely new show. I think people who saw last year's show will recognise this as being a similar sounding 'voice' - we'll have to wait and see if that's a good thing or not! We started off constantly assessing whether songs were either 'as good as', 'worse than' or 'too similar' to other songs in Jet Set Go! but after a while we just put it to the back of our minds and realised that we just wanted to have a lot of fun with this new piece; I think that comes across.

What would your tips be for anyone planning to put on an Edinburgh show?

You have to think carefully about whether it's an 'Edinburgh' show - does it fit into an hour-long format, for instance? The time of day is also crucial to a show's success, as is choice of venue - so many great things are lost in either weird time slots or inappropriate spaces for the show. But most importantly I guess anyone wanting to put on a show has to think about whether it can compete and sell against thousands of other shows! Good marketing and posters is really important - there are hundreds of posters in such a small area. Again, great shows sometimes don't get the audiences because their publicity gets lost on the Royal Mile. But anyone thinking about it should just enjoy what they're doing - it's such a unique experience.

What are your plans after the end of August?

Pippa and I begin work on a new commission for a West End producer, which is an incredibly exciting opportunity for us both. We're in the very Early Stages of research now before steaming ahead with writing from September. We're also both pursuing our own separate projects too; I have a show I'm working on with director Rania Jumaily at Manchester Royal Exchange Studio in November and Pippa is doing more of her own composition and MD work. Take Note Theatre also has lots of exciting projects in the pipeline, which I believe are soon to be unveiled - watch this space...

Any chance of a London transfer for Soap Opera, or a tour of Jet Set Go!?

On both counts, we really hope so! Jet Set Go! is the kind of show that can be got up on its feet very quickly and we're talking to a few venues about it at the moment. We've had enquiries from all over the world about it, so who knows where it might end up - maybe one day we'll do a site specific version on a plane!

The Great British Soap Opera plays at the George Square Theatre at 3.45pm from 6th to 31st August.

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