Edinburgh Fringe Q&A: James Rowland

Piece of Work is gonna be a lovely, joyful, warm story about life, the universe and chicken burgers. Yes, it is also about our self destructive nature and also suicide but what is life without a bit of light and shade?

I have made this show in partnership with Jonny Humphries who is an extraordinarily intelligent and patient man. Also with the input and support of many of my friends, my partner and my brother. It’s the nature of solo shows to be quite isolating and I try and offset that by involving as many kind and forgiving loved ones as I can.

 

I think all of my shows try to have a combination of the serious and silly, the infinite and mundane… but I think it’s for an audience to decide what they think it’s all about.

That they have spent their time and money (both in short supply these days) in a way that is worthwhile.

Absolutely, if this story has an overarching theme as far as I’m concerned, it is context and the futility of pretending it doesn’t exist. Art doesn’t have to directly address any subject but it can’t escape its context.

No. At the moment the artistic landscape in the UK is precarious as heck. In my time making shows it has never been worse, and I think the same applies to the UK in general. Marginalised and poor people are finding it harder and harder to survive whether in art or life in general. There seems to be little or no chance of that changing in the near future either. Now more than ever it’s absolutely vital that we’re honest about that. That we don’t rose tint things and we tell the truth about the state of things. I am, however, constantly excited, inspired and filled with joy by the people I see making work and simply surviving against this backdrop. 

Sometimes it is hard to feel the positive parts of any edifice that is as big as the Fringe – it is, as we all often are, largely in thrall to capitalism, imperialism and patriarchy. However any endeavour made by artists to quixotically tilt at the shit flinging windmills of the world is a positive thing. I love the Fringe for those people and endeavours.

Keep doing what you can where you can. Being kind. Trying to make space for positive change in everyone’s lives.

Absolutely. Stick a pin in the programme, go and see as much as you can afford. I’m specially excited to see some friends shows – Playing Latinx by Guido Garcia Lueches, The Butch is Back by Reuben Kaye, LORENZO by Ben Target off the top of my head.

Touring Piece of Work and my last show Learning to Fly, and making the third part of this trilogy as well as continuing to run the Last Thursday Club – a storytelling night that I put on with my friend Roann Hassani-McClosky. Honestly the future looks tough but the work is wonderful to do.

Ha, I’m quite crap at this bit – I have a mailing list that I update irregularly, you can find the link on Twitter and Instagram.