Montseratt Productions, made up of students James Lucas and Rafi Ritterband, are behind the new production Famous Last Words, which is at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer.
“Two failing writers recalling a drunken night remember a stroke of fortune which motivates them to finish their play. However, as creative tensions flare and truths are revealed, the narrative of their own struggles takes centre stage… Famous Last Words is a darkly comic exploration of art and its place in the world; through narrative playfulness, striking visuals and dynamic dialogue, this original work aims not just to bring our stories to life but to show the real life in all of our stories.”
Where: Space 3 at theSpace on the Mile
When: 24-29 Aug
Ticket link: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/famous-last-words
What can you tell us about your show? What is it about and where did the idea come from?
James Lucas: Famous Last Words tells the story of two struggling writers trying to piece together their drunken night out, new play and relationships with the world and each other. Having had a passion for writing and theatre since my early school days, I always knew that I wanted to go to the Fringe. However, the process of actually getting myself there at first seemed quite daunting, not just through the pressures of producing work which I would feel was worthy for a potential international audience, but also the practical elements of securing a venue, assembling a team and so forth.
These initial feelings regarding the process of art, its pains, its joys and its relationships to the real world are what produced the first hints of an idea for the play. The two arguing writers in the play, in some ways, resemble how much of the writing process feels: one side of you saying ‘this is great’ and the other side telling you that it should be erased from history as soon as possible, and as their passion boils over into anger, it is much like the frustrations of climbing the mountain of a blank page.
I also hoped that the play would capture something of the time of our lives that the cast and I are in. The play takes place a short time after the characters have left university, and although I am still in my first year, I hoped to capture something of that strange gap between adolescence and adulthood, where childhood dreams and real-world obligations begin to encroach on one another. As the two writers continue the pursuit of their dream, they clash with their roommate, Myles, who at first appears to be the voice of reason, encouraging the world of responsibility to take hold of his friends.
However, as the play continues, I hoped to explore how such advice isn’t so simple, and how dreams and reality aren’t as disconnected as we might think.
How would you sell it to audiences in one paragraph?
Rafi Ritterband: Like any good story, Famous Last Words grabs you and lands you into the frenetic mess of the creative process. You’re pulled back in time as the characters desperately try to piece together the mystery of the night before, whilst continuing to work on their play. Just when you think you know something that the characters don’t, a secret is revealed, and the rug is pulled out from under your seat: a game of theatrical cat and mouse ensues.
Whilst playwrights Milton and Hitch deliberate over the direction of their play, you’ll find yourself doing the same for the one you’re watching. Things begin to unravel at an increasing rate, stakes become greater, and relationships suffer irrecoverable blows. Everything accelerates toward a final crescendo before landing on a quietly satisfying truth: the stories we tell about ourselves often reveal more than we intend.
All the while, light, sound and physical theatre carry the shifts between past and present, and the dialogue takes care of itself as Milton and Hitch fight with language for a living. The play itself prods at a question at the heart of the Edinburgh Fringe: what are artists willing to sacrifice for the chance to have their work seen and taken seriously? If you happen to be an artist yourself or are simply someone who enjoys it, Famous Last Words documents the artistic struggle and earns its place as the thing struggled for.
Do you enjoy participating in the Fringe? And do you have any moments you particularly remember?
Rafi Ritterband: Although we’ve never performed at the Fringe before, we have already had quite a memorable process in trying to get there. We sought various routes to secure a venue, the most time-consuming being a proposal to my university theatre company.
What I thought would be an intimate 2-minute conversation with the committee turned out to be a full-scale pitch, standing on stage in front of the whole society. Others came with full casts, in costume, in party hats, occasionally acting out scenes from their shows.
I stood alone, timidly reading from my Notes app. Despite throwing in a few last-minute puns and appealing to the crowd’s sympathetic sensibilities, I had little electoral success. Our original play received a grand total of 0 votes, and it seemed the world premiere of Famous Last Words would have to wait another year.
And yet, here we are, only a few months away from our week-long run at award- winning theatre theSpaceUK in a prime spot on the Royal Mile. I do wonder how those smaller, peripheral university productions are coming along…not that I’m bitter or anything.
What are you looking forward to the most in Edinburgh?
James Lucas: It sounds obvious, but I’m mostly looking to people just seeing our show. The moments immediately before a first performance of any piece of theatre are always incredibly exciting; writing is only a small part of the battle and rehearsing another, but once the show has been performed to an audience, it becomes its own entity and is in many ways out of your control.
It’s that quality of theatre which engages me the most, and I can’t wait to see how the words that have been confined to the page for so long behave once life is breathed into them. That also, of course, brings nerves, but those nerves are the essence of theatre – you can never know how good something is until those first anxious minutes on stage.
I’m also looking forward to being at the festival as a spectator, as I’ve always wanted to go to the Fringe even without my own show being on, and I’m sure seeing the great work being put on all around the city will be thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring.
What’s next for the show?
Rafi Ritterband: The short answer is that we simply don’t know yet. We’re keen to get the show out there and see how it’s received, and from there we’d love to develop it further. Much of it is deliberately built to fit a smaller stage and a smaller budget, so it would be interesting to see how we might scale it up for runs elsewhere, such as London.
And even if it’s not with this show, the three of us will be back at the Fringe together, for years to come, I hope. That’s the modest plan, assuming we don’t land a Netflix deal, a screen adaptation and three Oscars!