Q&A: EDINBURGH 2024: Kirby Thompson and Orla Graham on FLOAT

BWW caught up with Kirby Thompson & Orla Graham about bringing Float to the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

How did you each get involved in the world of theatre?

Orla has been involved in the theatre world for a lot longer than Kirby, following her cousin to drama classes, becoming heavily involved in different societies and clubs growing up. Orla eventually decided to take the leap and apply to drama school in 2017. She then attended the LIR in Dublin from 2017-2018, and that’s been her in this world ever since! On the other hand, Kirby has always been involved in the English and Film side of life, completing her degree in both subjects at Queen’s University Belfast. She has always had an interest in screen, but it was Orla who brought her into the world of theatre when she told Kirby about an idea she had for a play set in a toilet cubicle, and that they should write it together, with Kirby directing and Orla acting. So our first show, OCCUPIED, was born, a twenty-minute piece that went to Dublin’s Scene and Heard Festival and London’s FRESH Festival, and they have continued working together ever since - Float is their first full-length production!

Can you tell us about your show, Float?

Absolutely, this is one of our favourite things to do! Float is a new, energetic, Northern Irish piece of women-led writing all about the hilarious chaos of student life and the heart-breaking complexities of healing. Float follows four housemates living in a mouldy, messy student house together navigating their early 20s, especially as women, trying to survive in a confusing world that is telling you to be everything and nothing at the same time. To care about your appearance, but to look natural; to enjoy your youth, but to make sure you have a partner and children by the time you’re 30; to have no concerns, but to live in a world that doesn’t make being a woman easy by any means. It explores the healing process that we must go through after experiencing something traumatic, but in a way that is never graphic, placing the aftermath, the hope and the integral part our relationships play in this process at the forefront!

What was the creative process like for Float?

After being accepted into the MAC Belfast’s Hatch and Scratch program, we began research and development in September 2021 for Float, before we really knew that it would end up becoming Float! We asked each other what annoys us, what makes us angry, and what do we know? Slowly we felt our idea coming together – this conflict between trying to “live your best life” in a world that puts 97% of women at risk pretty much all of the time. We knew we wanted to tackle this difficult topic in a new way, which is where our personal experience of living with your pals in your early 20s came into play, as well as how important we feel our friendships are with the women around us in supporting each other and getting through the hard times together. We carried out surveys about the representation of assault in media to get more opinions than just our own and researched journals, articles and past events in Northern and Southern Ireland to begin creating a story that was well-rounded, approached this theme with a new outlook and could present audiences with a show that offered a sense of hope. Whilst drafting the play, we received incredible dramaturgical support from the Lyric Theatre Belfast. So having the support from two of Belfast’s leading theatres allowed us, especially as new artists writing our second-ever play, and first-ever full-length one, to feel supported and encouraged to continue to believe in the importance of the story we wanted to tell – a story that is authentic, empathetic and honest.

After two years of writing and rewriting, we formed our team. We had worked with Caoimhe McGee before on OCCUPIED. and knew we’d love to have her input again, then she introduced us to our fantastic designer, Ronan McManus. We then held auditions and found our incredible cast, Ellen Andrews, Leah Williamson and Annie McIlwaine for our shows at Dublin Fringe Festival. Since then we have also found the lovely Annina Noelle Watton who has joined the cast for Edinburgh!

What is it like working together as not only co-writers but co-producers?

Thankfully, we aren’t just co-writers and co-producers, but we’re also genuinely best mates. That makes things much easier! In terms of writing, we’re pretty much always on the same wavelength, and have found ourselves crying together over our laptops or laughing at each other’s jokes until we’re also crying too! We have the sort of relationship that makes it easy to talk things through, if one of us likes something and the other doesn’t or if a joke isn’t landing, we’re very comfortable with each other and find it easy to talk through anything that we feel isn’t working. When it comes to producing it’s exactly the same! We also produce with our friend Caoimhe McGee who is just like us – the environment is always positive, easy-going, but productive.

How do you balance the comedy of the show with the seriousness of its themes?

This was the most important question that we asked ourselves throughout the writing process for Float. After OCCUPIED., we found our voice pretty quickly as writers – we love a good laugh, but we also have so much we want to say. We wanted to tell a story that accurately portrayed the student experience in all its glory and in all its gloom, and in itself, that is an experience that is constantly a tightrope between having a laugh and having serious stuff to deal with, as is your 20s in general.

We also knew how important it was to show that the healing process after trauma isn’t linear, which is why the show’s timeline moves about quite a lot, but more importantly, it was to highlight that some days will be great, you’ll have a laugh, you’ll feel almost like yourself again, but the next day could be another bad one, and that’s okay. Finding this balance wasn’t always easy, but we also knew that having this comedic side to it was necessary to bring a new approach to this theme and to give audiences a bit of breathing space, as well as our cast! Sometimes it feels strange to say that a show that explores assault at its core will also have you roaring laughing, but it’s true – and we don’t think we’d be doing the theme much justice if you didn’t get to feel all of these emotions within the hour!

What is it like bringing Float to the Edinburgh Fringe from Northern Ireland?

Mental. Absolutely mental. We visited Edinburgh last year with Theatre and Dance NI’s Fellowship Programme just before we debuted Float at Dublin Fringe Festival and just knew that Edinburgh is where we wanted to end up a year from then. So, here we are, a year on . . . Taking Float to Edinburgh. Thinking about it is both overwhelming and exciting! It’s a huge task to take on, but we had so much fun at Dublin Fringe and just enjoy doing this show so much that we knew that we wanted and needed more audiences to see it. We’re buzzing to be part of this year’s incredible programme alongside so many other artists, and especially alongside other fantastic female-led productions!

What do you hope audiences take away from Float?

We hope that they feel a sense of hope and solidarity after Float and reassurance that there is always a way forward, regardless of how difficult it may seem to be at the start. We want them to see that women are complicated, we aren’t perfect and we shouldn’t be either – our four characters all have their own flaws, their own things they need to deal with and their own healing journeys they all need to embark on for whatever reason. We want audiences to feel recognised and heard with Float, and well-represented! As well as that, it’s important to us for more audiences to be exposed to the Northern Irish female voice!

How would you describe Float in one word?

Hopeful.

Float runs from 1 to 25 August (no performances on 7, 13 or 20 August) at Assembly Roxy, Outside at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Photo Credit: Rachel Foran

 

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