Edinburgh Fringe beckons for local theatre group
Nelson theatre company The Barden Party will soon be packing their bags for Edinburgh Fringe, a long way from their beginnings in the city’s backyards.
Artistic director Laura Irish founded the company four years ago after the pandemic led to a constant stream of cancellations, its name coming from a portmanteau of ‘The Bard’ and ‘Garden’.
Irish said to do a season there was “really prestigious”, and it was “incredible” for an independent theatre company to be able to take part.
Since their inception, the group has taken its musical twists on Shakespeare’s works to hundreds of backyards, vineyards and theatres, and in August will be performing their bluegrass Macbeth at the world’s largest performance arts festival for three weeks.
The show is well-practised and fine-tuned, its actors have recently returned from touring across Australia and New Zealand, putting on 97 performances in 33 cities.
Edinburgh was an opportunity to get noticed by international producers and directors and “elevate and represent” theatre in New Zealand, she said.
It was simultaneously “very scary and very exciting”.
“It could be an amazing trip where we perform and do the show and and reconnect as a cast, but it could be very difficult because there’s a lot of shows on, so it’s very competitive to get an audience.”
Edinburgh Fringe is an open access festival, so anybody could apply to go, but it was actually very difficult to get a venue, Irish explained.
While the venues were very selective, the show ended up having two venues competing for it.
Thanks to the generous sponsorship of a donor, a deposit had been put down for accommodation and flights paid for, but the troupe are currently crowdfunding through Givealittle to pay for marketing and for food for the hungry mouths of seven actors.
The Barden Party has performed four Shakespeare adaptations: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, as well as their bluegrass Macbeth.
At Adelaide Fringe, the world’s second-largest annual arts festival, the company won multiple best of theatre awards both this year and in 2024.
But despite their successes, and rave reviews, arts funding is the worst it has ever been, in Irish’s experience.
She has essentially stopped applying for grants, because it was “almost impossible” to get funding for Shakespeare, even though they were performing it in an out-of-the-box way and bringing it to life.
“It’s incredibly disheartening when trying to see what the future holds for the company, particularly in New Zealand,” she said.
Irish has also witnessed an exodus of artists out of Nelson. She said it was unclear as to what the funders were looking for and what they wanted artists to be creating for the city.
But before the seven person cast leave our shores, audiences in the company’s birthplace will be treated to a different kind of show entirely: Cocktales, a two person performance where actors play William Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe.
“It’s a very silly night where they make bespoke cocktails, based on their characters, for the audience, and interact with the audience, and then they put on a show full of music and poetry and comedy shenanigans,” Irish said.
While the show is immersive, those in the audience don’t have to interact if they don’t want to.
“It’s purely based on their comfort level,” she reassured.
Cocktales, presented by The Barden Party, is at 7pm at Fairfield House on June 19. Cocktails are from 6.30pm. Tickets are available at https://events.humanitix.com/the-barden-party-presents-cocktales-du4yphhr.
By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail
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