Kangaroo Court bring their play to Edinburgh Fringe.
“Described as equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, Shotgunned is a new, intimate piece of theatre centred around the people we lose that shape who we become. It is a deeply relatable tale of joy, loss, and reconciliation, and has been met with great acclaim throughout the UK in 2024.”
Matt Anderson, co-founder of Kangaroo Court and writer/director of Shotgunned tells us more about it.
Where: theSpace at Surgeon’s Hall
When: 2-10, 12-24 Aug
What are you looking forward to the most at Fringe?
I’m extremely excited for Scottish audiences to finally see Shotgunned!
The past few months have been tough, as there has been so much to organise and we are only a wee team, but when the lights go down and the show begins, I truly believe audiences will love it.
I’m also excited to see all the unique stories other shows bring to the festival.
The Fringe is a creative hub like no other and every day you can find multiple things that inspire you to keep making art.
Tell me about Shotgunned. It’s Kangaroo Court’s debut production – where did the idea come from and what’s it all about?
Shotgunned is a passion project. An amalgamation of my past experiences and relationships that fuse together to form an honest, yet fictional story of love and loss.
It is something that I began writing years ago, and as life continued and I reached the second half of my twenties, I consistently edited, until one day I realised I had the story I wanted to tell.
The show was originally produced at a University, where some friends and I spent our free evenings rehearsing when we should have been writing our dissertations.
Those first few shows that we performed locally were an unbelievable success, better than anything we could have hoped for.
Now, over a year later, Shotgunned is officially presented by Kangaroo Court and has performed in Exeter, Bath, and London.
There are a lot of plays about millennials in love – what makes this one stand out?
Shotgunned has a couple of features that make the show stand out, the main one being its structure. It isn’t a will-they-won’t-they, it’s a won’t-they.
The opening scene of the play is the last chronologically, and we the audience are instantly shown Dylan and Roz post break-up, telling us how the story inevitably ends.
The show then takes us back through their relationship, with over twenty short scenes that move freely around in time.
We are shown highlights and lowlights, the ways this couple worked and the many ways in which they didn’t.
Shotgunned was created with the message that just because a relationship fails, doesn’t mean it should not be celebrated, and the final scene of the show cements this idea fully, rarely leaving a dry eye in the house.
How did Kangaroo Court start, and what’s the USP of the company?
Kangaroo Court was created by myself and Joseph Cobb. Two aspiring creatives who met at University together and instantly found we had a similar attitude and mantra when creating work. Joseph has a long and impressive history in the world of cinema, having directed and produced films that have appeared in international festivals. My experience stems from the theatre world, where I worked as an actor for a few years and wrote several plays – one of which previously had a successful run at Edinburgh Fringe in 2018. The pair of us hope to produce all manners of work for the screen and stage, while always ensuring our productions are accessible and enjoyable to a more general audience who wouldn’t normally be enticed by intimate storytelling.
What’s next after this run?
Well, that’s the big question isn’t it! The team and I are doing everything we can to promote Shotgunned and encourage any media and industry professionals who are attending the Fringe to come check it out. The play’s themes are universal and it feels appropriate for further touring or adaptation opportunities. In the meantime, we have established a relationship with The Studio Jack, an award-winning theatre in London who have read the script and are interested in hosting Shotgunned for a 5-night run. We are also in the very early stages of new projects, with Joseph and I both working on new scripts and excited at the possibility of expanding Kangaroo Court’s production list to longer than one!