Fresh from the Vault Festival, Hooky Productions bring their show Experiment Human to the Brighton Fringe next month.
“Blending dark comedy with the surreal, Experiment Human tells the story of Monkion, a non-human creature, curious to understand the strange world outside their laboratory in the attic.”
Where: The Rotunda Theatre: Bubble
When: 17-21 May, 6pm
Ticket link: https://www.brightonfringe.org/events/experiment-human/
My thanks to Rosa and Maya Hallpike at Hooky Productions for telling us a bit more about the show.
What’s the best thing about being part of Brighton Fringe?
The buzzing environment, the mad creativity on offer, being in a place that celebrates queerness and being by the sea is a big pull of course!
It’s a joyful thing to be able to share art that’s accessible to thousands of members of the public, and we love how you can just stumble into a repurposed building turned into a theatre space, and see something astonishing and unexpected!
Congratulations on your Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence! What should audiences expect from Experiment Human?
Expect the unexpected! Non-human creatures (or ‘aliens’ as some have described them), hatching eggs live on stage, the truth about Benedict Cumberbatch, moments of total insanity, an intriguing story unfolding, genre-bending, improv rap, a freshly choreographed tap dancing number with a few shock revelations along the way!
We’ve also worked on making different ways to interact with the show available, which has been exciting and fun to develop.
We can’t wait to bring our show to Brighton Fringe. We think it’s the perfect place for Experiment Human to happen.
The character in the attic in your show is obsessed with Benedict Cumberbatch. Why, and is this a healthy or unhealthy thing?
Totally unhealthy (although Monkion, our character, would disagree). We explore what it really means to be a celebrity and examine the way we ourselves treat famous people.
We hope parts of our Experiment will hold up a mirror to the audience to encourage them to examine the state of humanity.
As for why Cumberbatch in particular, well you’ll have to come to the show and find out!
Your show has been described as surreal physical comedy. Is that the main USP of Hooky Productions?
That sums us up well! To add to that, as it is hard to describe our shows in words, we have created a whole experience of the ‘Experiment’ not only involving non human creatures in a parallel universe (which we, as sisters who’ve been building on this idea since we were young teenagers, know inside out) but also one that the audience can play an important part in during our shows.
What’s next for the company and the show?
It’s been a joy to develop Experiment Human so far and bring it on its journey culminating at Brighton.
We’re still experimenting with Monkion and have some exciting things in store, maybe even an international premiere of our new show and getting to perform in the quirkiest fringe venue in Edinburgh …?!