Em Braddick and Katerina Topali from TOPBRA Productions bring their debut show, 333, to Voila! Festival this month.
“333 follows their separate trials and tribulations. Mill is a high-performance engine of relentless self-optimisation. Gen is less than bothered, paralysed by choice and chain smoking her twenties away.
They judge, they blame, they fail to listen. The result? They’re drowning in unspoken tension.
“Love thy neighbour”? Yeah, right.
333 is set against the backdrop of the London housing crisis. Told through shifting realities, fantasy, movement, awkward silence and mess, the show explores the gap between private and public selves, generational divides, and whether, in a world obsessed with the “self”, it’s still possible to just talk.
It might make you laugh. It might make you squirm.
And it’ll definitely leave you wondering if the two actually hate each other off stage.”
Where: Etcetera Theatre
When: 3-4 Nov
Ticket link: https://www.voilafestival.co.uk/events/333-2/
Tell me a bit about the show? Where did the idea come from?
Katerina: So… at its core, the play is about loneliness and self-obsession; and how the culture drives us in that direction and what happens when you try to make sense of a world where different “right answers” and “ideas of happiness” are being sold to you.
That sounds far too serious.
Em: It’s funny as well. Mill and Gen are so polar opposites that naturally, comedy just occurs from what we’re trying to show. It highlights it better, I think.
The world isn’t black and white and tragedy can’t exist without comedy and vice versa. It’s not all doom and gloom. The world isn’t all doom and gloom!
Mill and Gen constantly blame each other for their problems.
It’s easier to hate what you don’t know, rather than trying to understand it. We want 333 to explore that, and how it affects these women’s relationship as well as themselves individually.
Where did the idea come from?
Em: The idea for the play came from Katerina exploring how absolutely detrimental the current cultural climate can be.
Katerina: By cultural climate, we mean the cultural fixation on productivity, achievement, and health optimisation as keys to fulfilment.
The awful myth that success depends on relentless self-improvement that we’ve somehow internalised and turned into a life philosophy.
Em: We met for a coffee after graduating to kinda discuss these ideas and how we would make, what was an idea for a solo play, into a two-woman project.
We knew we had worked well together in uni, so we thought, why not build off of these ideas and see what we can come up with? Thus birthed Mill and Gen.
Why should audiences choose your show? How would you sell it in a sentence?
Katerina: If you are an ordinary person living in a major city, feeling that something’s wrong but you can’t quite put your finger on it, and you’re trying to create the life you think you deserve, and you’re somehow convinced that your hard work and self-discipline will get you there.
If you’re struggling to find your place in the world, going through an identity crisis, can’t stay still or hate your flatmate, then come along.
Em: It’s a very vulnerable piece of work. We show a lot of ourselves throughout the play.
Katerina: It’s not curated. We haven’t filtered anything, we didn’t have any time for that. It’s all instinctual, and maybe that’s the beauty of it.
Em: We never created 333 with the intention for audiences to like it.
Some people might like it, some might hate it.
Katerina: As long as there is an emotional response, we’ve done our jobs.
Em: In a sentence: if you don’t like it, I’ll buy you a pint afterwards.
Katerina: Thank God it’s a small venue.
What does being part of Voila! mean to you?
Em: It’s a great start for us in the industry, and their values are excellent. It’s been very easy and streamlined for us as a debut company.
Katerina: If we can do it with full-time hospitality jobs, then they’ve obviously made a very accessible festival! The main obstacle for most people like us starting in theatre is access to the opportunity in the first place.
Em: And Voila! use their platform for exactly that. We want a seat at the table and Voila! has laid out the chairs for us.
How did you make a start in the industry?
Katerina: This is our start. As actors, writers, directors, producers, costume designers, lighting designers, auditors and social media managers.
Em: 333 is our debut production. In under a year, we’ve (somehow) managed to start up the company, write a play, produce and direct said play… and now we’re performing in a festival with it. It’s been a long 11 months.
What’s next for the play?
Em: At the moment, we’re searching for a producer and for a residency at a venue. Fringe Festivals (London and beyond) are on the cards too.
Katerina: We know that 333, is a good play. But we can help knowing that there’s so much more we can do with it, especially from a staging perspective that we haven’t explored purely because of a lack of resources. So, the plan is to find the right collaborators to keep experimenting.