EDINBURGH 2023: NAN, ME AND BARBARA PRAVI Guest Blog

Nan & Me Making Autobiographical Theatre by Hannah Maxwell

“Well, I think it’s all very exciting.” Spoiler alert, but that’s the last line you hear my nan speak in the show. It encapsulates her attitude towards my work as an autobiographical theatremaker, an occupation she only vaguely understands but is nonetheless very proud about.

Nan, Me & Barbara Pravi is my second storytelling show, and much like my first, (I, AmDram, which premiered with the Pleasance at Edinburgh Fringe in 2019), is centred around experiences I’ve shared with my family. Whilst AmDram centred on our four generations of passion for amateur musical theatre, NMABP focuses in on 6 months in 2021 I spent caring for my grandmother in the wake of my grandad’s terminal illness. Oddly enough, the latter is perhaps the funnier of the two.

Making work which involves family members can be a joyful, yet risky thing. My nan, Angela – historically something of a firebrand, though much more of a wallflower in her dotage – spent a delightful afternoon in her airing cupboard with a duvet on her head, crouching over my Yeti microphone whilst I fed her lines through the door. I was worried she would find it hard – the “acting” as much as the personal subject matter of some of the lines – but she did brilliantly, even agreeing to a last-minute pick-up session when I decided to rewrite whole scenes in July!

There were, however, some concerns when I first started working on the show. My parents in particular needed reassurance that this deeply personal time in all our lives would be presented onstage sensitively. When they saw a work-in-progress, they were relieved to see that my grandad’s illness largely prefigures the narrative, which centres much more on my mental journey. They were less relieved to learn that mental journey careens through isolation, obsession (with French Eurovision songstresses named Barbara) and drug addiction.

Oh yeah, that’s a thing I hadn’t counted on when I started making autobiographical work which closely involves my family. If you’re going to perform frenetic monologues about cocaine overdoses, they are more than likely going to be in the front row when you do. Hi nan, thanks for coming.