EDINBURGH 2023: Until Death Q&A
Until Death comes to Edinburgh this August
By: Natalie O'Donoghue Jul. 13, 2023
BWW caught up with Nalini Sharma to chat about bringing Until Death to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Tell us a bit about Until Death.
UNTIL DEATH is a self portrait of a show I created that combines absurdist theater and clowning that is set in a hospital where time collapses and humans panic in moments of death and existence. It weaves through vignettes of people (and animals) who are either on the brink of death themselves or coping with a loved one's road to the end of life.
What inspired you to share this story?
The story was inspired by my childhood. I was in and out of the hospital a lot growing up because of motorcycle accidents and other whatnots, several close calls here and what have yous. When you grow up with such experiences, you aren't quite sure of how they have affected you. And I wanted to explore that. I remember meeting so many incredible people in those hospital stays and I wanted to share their experiences too because I knew that somehow, somewhere they affected mine.
This story is a road to discovery for myself as a human, a woman, a brown woman, an artist. It's tough to explore your childhood because you rely so much on memories and those memories can be fickle at times. Sometimes they're someone else's memory of you and sometimes, with time, they lose or change detail. But something I've found that remains the same are the feelings. Or the physical embodiment of those feelings. Like how often a wound was itchy. Or how much you screamed in pain. Not necessarily feeling the depth of that pain, but remembering how long you screamed. Such things. I remember a woman who was in the ICU once said to me, "I never should have given a kidney to my daughter". That line still haunts me today and is the foundation for one of my characters, Veena. Moments that come and go, but stick with you the rest of your life, they were a huge inspiration for weaving this piece together.
Why bring it to Edinburgh?
I heard it's the best place to bring the wild, weird and fantastical :)
How important is the format of the show to the storytelling?
It is quite crucial to this piece. I think clowning particularly serves this piece because of its mercurial nature which parallels the nature of childhood memories and imagination. That combined with the more traditional vignettes ground the piece in its autobiographical stories.
What would you like audiences to take away from it?
I want them to feel alive. We all hope, as creators and artists, to inspire, move and make people laugh... I would love all those things but I especially want audiences to reflect on their deaths and hope that makes them want to get out of their skin, heads and hearts and LIVE their LIFE.
Tickets are available here:
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