Opening tomorrow at Camden Fringe, A Party for My Uncle Brian is a comedic exploration into the extremities of loneliness. Produced by MilkTongue (writer George Bennett, designer Frances Jennings and director Fionn Wagstaff).
Where: Union Chapel, Upper Hall Bar
When: 27-28 Aug
Ticket link: https://camdenfringe.com/events/a-party-for-my-uncle-brian/
What’s your show about and what inspired it?
A Party for My Uncle Brian follows Joe as he attempts to throw the best birthday party ever for his elusive Uncle Brian.
Utilising masks, puppetry and Barry Manilow, we bear witness to Joe’s life and loneliness through the stories he chooses to tell and more importantly, those he does not.
The show initially began life in 2023. I was freshly out of a long term relationship and had thrown myself into the post-COVID world of online dating with all the self-destructive tendencies of someone who was desperately searching for a form of connection, no matter the cost.
As I began to pull myself out of this hole, I became curiously aware of friends of mine starting to fall into similar pitfalls and I simultaneously began to write about these cravings I was having for attention, validation and companionship, mainly as a form of slightly self-indulgent therapy.
The more I wrote, the more this writing moved away from the personal and towards a question: what would the loneliest person in the world look like?
How would they talk, where would they live and most importantly, when they did eventually interact with people, how would that change them?
Around this time I’d also become fascinated with the cultural curiosity that is birthday parties, this idea of celebrating someone so intensely for such a short amount of time, the high that comes from being celebrated and ultimately the inevitable crash back down to earth that follows.
Combined with my own personal nostalgia surrounding birthday parties in the early-mid 2000s, of being a child running around a baptist hall pumped up on cake, squash and mini sausages rolls, the show was born.
Why should someone book your show and what might they expect?
Our show has a lot jammed into it’s hour runtime! Are you a fan of comedy, mask work, puppetry, Barry Manilow, new writing, 2000s-themed birthday parties, silly hats, karaoke, absurdity, whimsy, self-destruction, hope, birthday boy badges or bunting?
If so, this is the show for you. If not that’s ok, but you should come and see it anyway because tickets are only a tenner!
How did you make your start in the business?
Fi (our designer) and I are both from Devon and credit it with igniting our collective passions for theatre. Fi was heavily involved with Exeter amateur dramatic clubs as a teenager whereas I came up through the Barnstaple Fringe Theatrefest scene.
We both trained as theatre designers at UAL and have been working together in the industry ever since, whether that was on shows for our previous company jarfrog, as technicians on various immersive shows in London or freelancing in various roles on Fringe shows.
Fran (our director) is a classically trained ballet dancer who studied musical theatre with a focus on dance and acting. The three of us met whilst working for the White Horse Theatre company, touring English theatre across Germany!Â
Do you have a favourite type of venue to work in?
As a company, we’re fans of creating work in non-conventional spaces. The first time we staged the original version of this show in 2024, it was performed in an over 500 year old church tower.
This time we have the pleasure of performing in the upper hall of the Union Chapel. We wanted a space that wasn’t a traditional black box space, but instead was reminiscent of a baptist hall, somewhere you’d find a children’s birthday party.
We wanted somewhere that would feel like an immersive and expressive part of Joe’s world and luckily the Union Chapel more than delivers! It’s a beautiful, characterful space and we’re incredibly excited to bring the show alive within it’s old, storied walls.
What’s next for the show?
Whilst we don’t currently have plans for the show to continue past this year’s run at the Camden Fringe, who knows what the future will hold! We’d definitely all be interested in further exploring the world of Joe and Uncle Brian if given the chance.
During production and rehearsals we’ve been constantly pulling on threads and uncovering new themes, new characteristics and new elements of the world which we hadn’t previously considered, so I think there’s a lot of material there for us to mould into something interesting!