Slade Wolfe – Andrew Slade and Lexi Wolfe – are two disabled, neurodiverse creatives with a passion for powerful theatre and a deep love for the Edinburgh Fringe.
Lexi is a multi-award-winning actress and writer. Andrew is a producer, technician, and performer who made his return to acting last year after seven years away.
Lexi tells us about her two solo shows playing at the Fringe this year.
After Shakespeare
“Returning for its third Edinburgh season, After Shakespeare asks what happens to Shakespeare’s heroes and villains once the curtain falls. Lady Macbeth, Portia, Hamlet and King Hal reflect on power, love and survival, beyond the endings we think we know. In this acclaimed solo show, Lexi Wolfe transforms seamlessly between four iconic characters, weaving Shakespeare’s language with historical insight and fresh dramatic imagination. Witty, poignant, surprising; a thoughtful, inventive celebration of voice and consequence, long after the lights fade.”
A Forgotten Woman: Mrs Oscar Wilde
“Constance Lloyd is rarely remembered in literary history, overshadowed by her infamous husband. Feminist, writer and mother, her life is told through letter excerpts written in her own hand, revealing wit to rival Oscar’s, with dry humour and fierce selfhood. From a troubled childhood to society womanhood and quiet tragedy, this intimate solo performance restores a voice history diminished, inviting audiences to root for a brilliant, resilient heroine. Her story unfolds with grace, courage, humour and defiance.”
Where: Annexe at The Space @ Symposium Hall
When: 7-29 Aug (alternate dates, see links for full details)
Ticket links: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/after-shakespeare; https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/a-forgotten-woman-mrs-oscar-wilde
You are appearing in two shows at this year’s Fringe – one, After Shakespeare, on what Shakespeare’s key characters do once the play ends, and another, A Forgotten Woman, on Constance Wilde. What can you tell us about them?
After Shakespeare is one I love to perform, because I’ve given myself four vastly different characters to play. I’ve brought it to Edinburgh twice before, and this may be its last year, at least for the present. I’ve always been something of a Shakespeare nerd, and loved writing and performing something that meant I could explore my own question of What Happened Afterwards.
I’ve been told numerous times that people’s favourite is the last one to the stage, Lady Macbeth, whose real-life story is a little different from what is told in the play, and I do so love playing her. The play will always hold a special place for me, as well, as it won me my first (of 2) Best Actor awards at the Buxton Fringe, back in 2021.
A Forgotten Woman: Mrs Oscar Wilde was one of the first shows I ever wrote and performed. I’ve been nominated for the same above award (Best Actor at Buxton), twice for that one. I’d long been fascinated by the idea that Oscar Wilde’s relationships with men were something of an open-but-unspoken secret in polite society in his day, and yet here was this wife who’d also borne him two sons, and I wanted to know her story.
The more I looked into it, the more fascinated I was by this strong, put-upon, sweet and possibly rather naive woman who suddenly became a celebrity, had a wit as sharp as Oscar’s, wrote herself and organised many causes, and then got a chronic condition and died before forty. I composed much of the show around letters she wrote throughout her life, and felt she honestly deserved, at the very least, for people to know she existed and was a fabulous woman.
For After Shakespeare, how did you choose your eventual four characters from such a rich set? Was it a deliberate choice to have a gender split?
Absolutely: I have always loved playing both genders, and have only ever had one complaint (or rather, perplexed question about it) the entire time I’ve been doing it. The human experience is so visceral in Shakespeare, I think it’s easier in a lot of his work to care less about gender than what’s actually happening to the characters, so take advantage of that here. To play national-hero-who-is-actually-awful Henry V, then brooding, emotional Hamlet, followed by the shrewd and ambitious Portia and finish off with a wronged, terrifying Lady Macbeth is a bit of an actor’s dream. It’s certainly mine.
Choosing was difficult. At one point, I had the likes of Titania and Richard III as close contenders, but I both have only an hour to get everything in, and I have to give the characters I do have satisfying story arcs, so I had to have faith in those whose stories jumped out at me as either being obvious or the most satisfying both as a player, and as someone who would want to watch the show.
Do you think that Oscar Wilde is sometimes given a free pass at his wife’s expense? You use her real letters in A Forgotten Woman – have they offered a new perspective on things?
I think generally, he has been. The persecution of him as someone who had relationships with men, we should continue to feel sympathy for, but honestly, he was really rather heartless when it came to Constance. Actually, thoughtless might be a better word, because I don’t think he particularly saw himself as doing anything wrong, and so didn’t understand the impact his betrayal and the scandal that it caused would have on her or his children. In a way, that makes it worse – he genuinely didn’t consider her that much, and she paid the price in the end.
I use a good few snippets of her own words, yes. When I went to research her first, I wondered how on earth such a sensible, keen woman could put up with her husband carrying on with other people. Yet I soon came to believe that she was either completely oblivious to it, or so deep in denial she couldn’t let any of the red flags make enough sense for her to realise what was going on. She only ever mentions anything to do with it around the scandal itself, but there is a delicious line I wish I could include where she refers to Bosie (Oscar’s lover and downfall) as ‘the terrible person’, a few years later. Devastating, really, and I know the audience will join me in really feeling for her.
How did Slade Wolfe start, and what was your first production idea?
I auditioned for Andrew fifteen years ago! He remembered me, we stayed in touch, and when I performed in Croydon some years later, I brought the idea for a TV script to him. We started the company together based on that.
Sadly, that particular script hasn’t gone anywhere yet: it was another Viking-style drama, and by the time I’d got it to really sing, the market was awash with things of a similar theme. You never know – give it a decade or two, and they may be back in fashion again, but I’ll definitely be playing a different character than the one I intended. We’ve been performing my one-woman shows all over the country, and online during the pandemic, ever since!
What’s next for these two shows post-Fringe?
After Shakespeare will likely be something I take it to Buxton again once or twice, as it went down fairly well when I took it to Canada as well. I’d love to tour Constance’s story in its fuller form, because it’s the kind of story that a lot of people, especially, I think, women can relate to.
Mostly, the women who these stories belong to are incidental, and not the main character, and I think it’s important we continue to find, remember and tell those lost stories. Though to be fair, I’d love to take After Shakespeare out for a spin as well. It’s only ever done online and the fringes, and there’s life across all those genders yet!