Emily Ayoub, Madeline Baghurst and Christopher Carroll - Plenty of Fish In The Sea Edinburgh Interview

As part as our Edinburgh Fringe 2024 coverage we are running a series of interviews with artists and creatives that are taking part in the festival. 

In this interview we speak to cast members Emily Ayoub, Madeline Baghurst and Christopher Carroll who will star in Plenty of Fish in the Sea.

Where did your arts career begin?
Emily - It began in Sydney, Australia. My first gig out of drama school was doing theatre and education tours around Australia. From there I did lots of indie theatre shows, more tours up until training at Jacques Lecoq in Paris. Following this training, I founded Clockfire Theatre Company and started making my own work. 

Christopher Carroll, Emily Ayoub, Madeline Baghurst. Photo by Geoff Magee.

Maddy - As an 11-year-old running around Norman Lindsay Gallery in NSW with dark lipstick and teased hair as one of the three witches from Macbeth…  

Christopher - An inspirational drama teacher, Bairbre Kennedy, who gave her time and energy after the school day was done to stage the likes of King Lear, Death of a Salesman, and Macbeth with a group of teenagers. She gave the work real value and set a standard that allowed us to take it seriously. That led me to train as an actor at Trinity College Dublin, and twenty years later, via a stint at the Lecoq school in Paris, I’m still acting, writing, and making theatre in Australia.

What can you tell me about your show?
Maddy - The show was born from my dissatisfaction with my dating life and my love of fishing. I noticed that the already widely used sayings in the dating world that links dating, fishing and hook up culture are already denouncing what it is that I find so concerning about modern day dating. And voila, many rigorous hours of creation later we have ‘Plenty of fish in the Sea’. 

Emily - A castaway is saved by a Nun and her apprentice Bernadette. They give him a “temporary” place to stay in their monastery lodged in a seaside cliff. Communication is tough as one of them has taken a vow of silence and the other speaks only French. He is a total stranger to his new surroundings and he ends up in the throes of a very absurd kind of hook-up culture all centred around the duo’s obsession with fishing which they treat as their religion. It’s fantastical, darkly absurd and very physical. It’s a multilingual work in English, French and a kind of hybrid-imagined “Middle English”. At its heart we denounce the idea of “finding the perfect catch”. 

Christopher - Plenty of Fish in the Sea is a poetic, ridiculous, and absolutely one-of-a-kind piece of theatre about a lost soul who gets hooked out of the ocean by a demented nun, and initiated into a bizarre, ritualistic world of fishing and sybaritic excess, brought to life by a trio of dextrous physical performers.

How would you describe the style of the show?
Maddy - The show is a very physical piece of absurd theatre. It's darkly humorous and wonderfully adventurous. 

Emily - It’s what I’d describe as a physical absurdist-style comedy. It’s contemporary theatre that embraces old-school theatricality. Surprising objects pop out of odd places, furniture moves as if it’s on a ship at sea, characters misinterpret each other’s languages - it’s fun, it’s cheeky, it’s inventive and darkly absurd.

Christopher- Physical, silly, surprising – a darkly funny fable unlike anything else you’ll see at the Fringe. All three of us trained at the Lecoq school, and this show is a good example of Lecoq’s style, delighting in a high level of physical technique, and unbounded imagination.

How have you approached developing the piece?
Maddy - As Christopher said, we all trained at the international School of Jacques Lecoq. When creating new work with our company Clockfire Theatre Company we are constantly referencing permanent values and ways of creating proposed by this school. We were really guided by our pleasure in making this piece and a sense of play and physicality. 

Emily - Our process is ensemble-led so we all contribute to the devising process. For this piece, we were inspired by the modern societal pressures of “hook-up” culture. We decided to draw on fishing metaphors linked to finding companionship to find the world of the piece. When we think of hook-up culture/dating we don’t necessarily think of a nun in a monastery, but we allow the work to take us where it will!

Christopher - It’s ever evolving. It’s a devised piece, so it emerged through the play of the rehearsal room, following the threads of intuition, and rigorously crafting each moment to be as vivid and arresting as possible. We’ve already brought the show to the Sydney Fringe and Adelaide Fringe (to much acclaim, etc), but I’ve no doubt it will continue to transmogrify over the run in Edinburgh.

Photo by Geoff Magee.

How do/will you prepare yourself for a run at the Fringe?
Maddy - By looking up the best coffee places in Edinburgh and making them part of my daily commute to the theatre. 

Christopher - I’m currently playing the lead in a production of Crime and Punishment in Canberra but should have a relatively quiet couple of weeks in July to stock up on sleep, do plenty of stretching, and tie up as many of the loose ends of life as possible to allow me immerse myself completely in the festival.

Emily - Our show will have a short re-rehearsal period in Sydney at the end of July and once we arrive in Edinburgh, we’ll very much be hitting the ground running. We are re-building our set from scratch so our preparation will very much be centred around doing that! Plus flyering. We’ve been in the throes of a big fundraising campaign to get us to Edinburgh, so we’ve been immersed in the world of Edinburgh for some time now. We are thrilled to be bringing our show to a global audience.

Other than the show, what’s something you’re looking forward to doing in Edinburgh this year? 
Emily - My partner and I will be bringing our two young kids along for the trip so lots of family time. We’re excited to see a plethora of theatre, visit museums, galleries and we all love the outdoors so doing a few trail walks are definitely on the itinerary. 

Christopher - Adding to my wardrobe with a visit to Walker Slater menswear.

Maddy - Seeing as many shows as I can, and it may sound a bit daggy but MAKING FRIENDS. 

What keeps you inspired?
Christopher - Touring to festivals is a great way to refuel my enthusiasm – just to be reminded of the breadth of incredible work, and the mad, defiantly hopeful nature of artists, creating all this magic out of nothing. I take enormous pride in being a part of that community and standing alongside them.

Emily - Seeing groundbreaking theatre, witnessing artists taking risks to bring their work to the world. 

Maddy - Sleep. 

What do you hope an audience takes away from seeing the show?
Maddy - I honestly just hope that they feel like they’ve been on an adventure… and maybe a bit seasick. 

Emily - We hope the show sparks joy! It’s a highly physical and visual performance and uses minimal tech elements. It’s cheeky and a bit dark. We want audiences to feel inspired by the work and the way it’s made.

Christopher - Pure delight, and a suspicion that the world is a brighter, fizzier place than you once thought.

Where can audiences see the show?
Assembly George Square Studios, 11:25am – start your day with a burst of mischievous and altogether delicious FISH.

Tickets are available from https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/plenty-of-fish-in-the-sea#:~:text=Description,dissection%20of%20dreams%20and%20desire.

Photo by Geoff Magee.