INTERVIEW | 'Stop Trying To Be Fantastic' Molly Naylor, Edinburgh Fringe

The countdown to the world's biggest arts festival Edinburgh Festival Fringe is on and arrives next month for its 75th anniversary. Between 5 - 29 August you can enjoy a diverse selection of work from across the UK in Scotland's capital. 

Ahead of the festival I have fantastic interviews coming up from some of the acts who will be heading there to showcase their work. Give my last interview with Sarah Southern about her comedy piece, Scandalous! here. 

Next up I'm joined by Molly Naylor whose spoken word piece 'Stop Trying To Be Fantastic'. The work explores the various ways in which humans try to avoid suffering. 

Can you begin by telling us a little bit about yourself - where did your interest in spoken word come from? 

I’ve always written poetry but didn’t really realise that spoken word was its own thing until I started going to poetry nights when I moved to Norwich, and seeing visiting performers like Lemn Sissay, Salena Godden and Ross Sutherland. I loved the immediacy of it, and the way that the poetry felt raw and fresh as well as having depth.

What drew you to creating spoken word work? 

I find spoken word suits people who like to borrow from other forms. Often spoken word shows borrow from theatre, stand-up comedy, live art and storytelling. I find this really exciting and a great way to bring new audiences to the work, as it has the capacity to appeal to people from all those forms. If it’s good, obviously. If it’s not, it has the capacity to appeal to absolutely no one. Yikes! Getting nervous now.

What are the challenges of developing your style of work? 

I’ve always loved writing and telling stories. Performing I find harder as I often feel quite physically awkward and struggle to feel comfortable in my body. This is slowly changing as I grow older, I can feel myself letting go and becoming more free.

You’ve performed at the Ed Fringe before, what does it do for artists like yourself? 

It can be a really useful way to progress your career, if your show goes well… but mainly, the best thing is how bullet proof it makes you as a performer, and how many people you meet while you’re there. It’s also weirdly mindful, sometimes, in that you don’t have much capacity to think about things outside of what you’re doing that day. 

Tell us a little bit about Stop Trying to Be Fantastic which you are bringing to the Ed Fringe this summer…

It’s a show that explores the various ways in which humans try to avoid suffering. It’s about how a magpie came into my house when I was a kid, and how that one event changed everything for me. It’s about strategies for surviving life, and what happens when those strategies don’t work. It’s a stripped-back piece of lyrical storytelling, with a banging soundtrack. It’s a little bit sad, a little bit funny and hopefully inspiring and useful. 

Where did your influences come from for this show? 

I’d been wanting to write about the shadow sides of empathy/altruism and the notion of saviour complex for a long time… I’d also started getting really interested in the incredibly high standards people around me seemed to be holding themselves to in a variety of ways. I found a way to bring these ideas together by telling a true story about an extended period pf struggle in my own life. I hope it speaks to other people’s experiences too, I’ve tried to make it as relatable as possible. The show asks quite a specific question of people, so I’m hoping people might find it useful (as well as entertaining).

It is a nearly-true story - what is it like to share something which is quite personal with an audience? Is there a level of being vulnerable about it? 

I’m used to it by now, having spent years mining my own life. I definitely have enough distance from the events in this piece, and it’s less about sharing the details of my life and more about pitching a specific way of looking at the world that I find personally both useful and hopeful.

How long did it take to develop this show? Has it changed a lot from your initial ideas? 

I thought it was finished just before the first lockdown, but then those previews were obviously canceled so I had a couple of years to tinker with it and check it was saying what I wanted to say, as well as letting it respond to the events of the last two years.

You are also directing Grace Petrie’s debut show ‘Butch Ado About Nothing’ during the festival too. What is it like to have a different hat on for the festival this time around with that? Can you tell us a little bit about Grace’s show? 

Annoyingly our shows clash, so I won’t actually be able to see it except for on my day off! But I’ve been at the previews, and I’m incredibly proud of what she’s created. It’s a really vital show about gender and patriarchy, that manages to be both informative and incredibly funny. 

Besides your show, are there any that you’d recommend that families should go and watch during the festival?

Still Floating by Shon Dale Jones at Summerhall looks wonderful. I love Shon’s work. 

Where can people come and see you during the festival?

I’m on at Summerhall, Cairns Lecture Theatre, 5pm. 

Tickets for Molly Naylor's 'Stop Trying To Be Fantastic' at the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe can be booked here.