BWW catches up with Martin McCormick to chat about bringing South Bend to the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Tell us a bit about South Bend.
It's about me falling in love with America and in America, then falling out of love with them both.
I studied for a term in California whist at Uni and was seduced by the lifestyle and the life that I dreamed I might have had- that being said I was young, naïve and totally idealistic. Then when I returned months later to visit the person I was in a long-distance relationship with they, and America, had irrevocably changed. They lived in the conservative Mid-West not hippy California, this person I'd was unrecognisable, all whilst George W was waging war in the Middle East.
South Bend is a road movie on stage. I play myself, Jess Chanliau plays about 25 different characters (including my ex, her Mother and Joey Tribbiani!) and Dave Pollock provides live foley. It's presented in a kind of grudgey-TED talk, stand-up style. It's all stripped back and exposed. I suppose it's the best way to tell an autobiographical piece of drama. It's both a lot of fun and very surreal to be revisiting such a personal experience.
Why did you want to tell this story?
Every time I'd tell someone about the story around the events leading up to my trip to South Bend they'd comment that I should write it. It's only taken me twelve years! When I pitched it to Grid Iron about eighteen months ago the play and the themes of truth and trust combined with the ever changing Scottish relations with our American Cousins chime more lucidly than they ever have (I should say the play isn't actually about relations with actual cousins in America...there are revelations and twists, but that ain't one of them!).
Where might we have seen your work before?
I've only been writing plays for a few years now. But I've been lucky enough that several of them have been presented in Edinburgh because of my connections with the Traverse through the Trav 50- which I was selected for in 2013. They co-presented my debut Squash which went on to win the Best New Play at the CATS the following year. Then The Day the Pope Emptied Croy which was presented both as one of the Trav's Breakfast plays and went on to being commissioned the following year. More recently my play Ma, Pa and the Little Mouths was on at the Traverse earlier this year (it was co-produced by the NTS/Tron).
Who would you recommend comes to see South Bend?
I'd say it's a fairly universal show. It's about a clash of cultures and long-distance relationships, so anyone who identifies with those themes might be interested. The play also touches on my obsession with America as a youngster. I was obsessed with shows like Saved By the Bell, Fresh Prince and Blossom. So any fans of Blossom out there will love it (and I do accept that's an extremely niche audience I'm attempting to coax to see the show)
What are the plans for the show post Fringe?
My personal dream is to one day perform it in the States. The show comments on how different we are as two separate cultures. I do think people from Scotland or the UK are more aware of the differences than if you were to reverse that observation. Whilst I accept it is silly to generalise the whole of America as one homogenous culture I've first hand experienced how alien some US citizens find idiosyncrasies, accent and approach to life. I'd love to be give a chance to perform this show in front of an audience in the USA to hold a mirror up to them.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/south-bend
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