Q&A: EDINBURGH 2024: Carmel Clavin on EDINBURGH LIMINAL

BWW caught up with Carmel Clavin about bringing Edinburgh Liminal to the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

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

I've been making a spectacle of myself for as long as I can remember. The past few years, I've moved more into immersive and cabaret spaces - they get to use all the toys in the box of art making so I like that best. 

Can you tell us a bit about your show, Edinburgh Liminal?

It's a game! This interactive, city-wide game of art and wit invites the curious to solve puzzles, make art and connect with the people and places around them. At its core, Edinburgh Liminal is an entanglement of hearts and minds to fight back The Void, that hungry thing that saps our inspiration and makes us numb. The project is narrative, different every day and joyfully collaborative. In the end, you may end up a member of the Wandering Liminal Society yourself! 

What was the creative process like for Edinburgh Liminal? 

Labyrinthine. My co-creator and I are both immersive makers but he is a puzzle nerd and I am more story and human-focused. We put our skills together to build this thing, generally called City Liminal, to tour around the world to spaces great and small and delight and inspire people. We started with cities I've spent time in before so we could have a baseline understanding of local vibes and landmarks. That led us to discover even more details and stories and that fueled our own inspiration even more. Every place has its own vibe, but festival time anywhere magnetises the curious and brave. I spend heaps of time trying to nail the welcome and the send-off according to that local vibe so guests feel a sense of trust quickly and glow when they depart. Also, we built puzzles and projects that tickle diverse ways of thinking - some more kinetic, some deeply cerebral - so lots of people can find their way in.

What has it been like developing a show built around the city of Edinburgh? 

Joyous and challenging. I had a list of possible locations as long as my arm (scouted on foot over three days) and we cut it back to four. I love this city so much but we had to keep the game centred within a twelve-ish minute walk. Canongate is a neighborhood dense with opportunities for discovery so we are based out of The Museum of Edinburgh.

How do you balance giving audiences a narrative to follow while also allowing them to collaborate and explore? 

The narrative is the why but not the how. The Wandering Liminal Society fighting against the Void is WHY you are there (explained in the first five minutes by the host) but HOW is held firmly inside of the puzzles we give you and the artistic materials you are assigned. There are as many ways to reason, solve and express as there are people on this earth. The art that comes out of these prompts is brave, weird, messy AND most of them are fed into our Inspiration Library to help inspire future players. Poems written in Adelaide inspire sculptures in Edinburgh, songs recorded in Edinburgh will be heard in Gothenburg and so on.

Do you have any favourite spots in Edinburgh that you’ve discovered while working on the show? 

I've discovered a few tea shops and pubs I'm grateful for from my three days of scouting! Also, the Wyrd Shop on Canongate has the best people running it and a lovely selection of witchy materials. 

What do you hope audiences take away from Edinburgh Liminal? 

I hope they feel entangled with this place. I hope they feel their hearts connected to the others around the world who've created bravely with them. I want them to talk about it for years to strangers and lovers. I hope they pay attention and fight the Void. 

How would you describe Edinburgh Liminal in one word? 

Magnetic. 

Edinburgh Liminal runs from 1 to 23 August (no performances on 5, 6, 12, 13, 19 or 20 August) at the Museum of Edinburgh - Courtyard at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

 

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