EDINBURGH 2023: CONCERNED OTHERS Q&A

BWW catches up with Tortoise in a Nutshell to chat about bringing Concerned Others to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about Concerned Others.

Concerned Others captures people’s lived experience of substance dependency through a wide lens of voices. The piece creates a space to address the drug-related death crisis in Scotland and for audiences to consider their perspectives around substance use and challenge the social stigma around drug-use and recovery.

The work is a visual theatre production which utilises different artistic forms such as puppetry, audio-visual design, and micro cinema to allow the audience different ways in to access and experience the stories the show is telling.

What makes the presentation of the piece special?

The production is wholly constructed from the perspective of people with lived experience; those currently experiencing, or in recovery from, substance dependency, healthcare professionals, family members, support and care workers, and researchers. People have shared what they want to talk about and which parts of their stories they feel are important for others to hear.

This interview process lasted 5 months within the 2-year development process of the production which focused on the idea of creating a shared mutual learning experience for participants/ interviewees and the Tortoise team. We hope that the production reflects a unique way of telling stories that has emerged organically from the interviews and conversations we’ve had in the creation process. Turning these stories into the production has involved the hard and collaborative work of the creative team including a composer, AV designer, lighting and set designers, and puppetry and prop makers.

While this run of the show will happen at Summerhall, we are looking to design a community tour in the future where the production will be performed in less traditional performance spaces and reach wider audiences.

Where else might we know the company from?

Tortoise in a Nutshell has been making and touring work since 2010. In 2013, our production Feral won the Scotsman Fringe First Award (UK). The company has presented and created 12 productions and extensive community engagement projects in ten different countries, across eighty-five different towns, cities and villages, including in 25 of Scotland’s 32 regions. Tortoise have won 4 Kotorski Theatre Festival Awards (Montenegro) and have been selected for the New York Times Critics Pick.

More recently, people might have seen a work in progress sharing of Concerned Others at Manipulate Festival 2023, or have seen our recent productions for young audiences, Ginger and Hibernate, touring in Scotland in 2022.

Who would you like to come and see it?

People interested in imaginatively exploring a subject which affects thousands of people in Scotland and the communities we live in. Those without personal lived experience who would like to learn more about the topic and might be ready to have conscious or unconscious biases challenged.

What would you like audiences to take away from Concerned Others?

We’d like audiences to have time to stop, think, and reflect within a collective imaginative experience and for them to leave with questions and a desire to talk about the subject with others and find out more themselves. Hopefully they will feel able to do this through the awareness and resources the production has given them.

Tickets are available here: Concerned Others | Theatre | Edinburgh Festival Fringe (edfringe.com)

Photo credit: Hannah Draper

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