INTERVIEW | 'SURFING THE HOLYLAND' ERIN HUNTER, EDINBURGH FESTIVAL 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 city.
Ahead of the festival, I have fantastic interviews coming up from some of the acts who will be heading there to showcase their work.
Today's interview comes from Erin Hunter who discusses her solo comedy show Surfing the Holyland. It focuses on female empowerment and heads to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August.
So to begin with, tell us where your interest in theatre came from?
It’s in the genes! My mom’s an actor and helps run a theatre in Los Angeles, and my sister is a TV writer and actor (my poor dad, who had a normal 9-5, was surrounded by drama queens!) And from the tender age of ten, I was shuttled around to auditions in Hollywood, I remember lots of tiger moms and cheesy 90s headshots! It wasn’t till I was a teen that I got hooked on theatre. I went to a very hippy, performing arts high school and was cast in the classic American play, Our Town. The director, Ginny, was the human embodiment of a hug and her passion for theatre was totally infectious. There was also something in the camaraderie and friendship of theatre that I was really attracted to and I could already see (even at the age of fourteen) it was lacking from the hustle and competition of the film industry. My love of theatre is eventually what drew me like a magnet to London!
You come from Los Angeles - what opportunities are there out there for women like you when you are creating work?
Although a native Angelino, I’ve now spent nearly half my life in Old Blighty so I can’t offer a firsthand account of what things are like for women there in 2022! My impression is that it is still really tough. The stats don’t lie. There’s only been three female directors to win an Academy Award. Ever (and Chloe Zhao who won in 2021 was the first woman of colour to be nominated). And there is a 2:1 ratio of male to female characters across Advertising, Film and Television (gulp). Just ask Geena Davis. BUT I think there are reasons to be hopeful, excited even! I think there is much greater (and growing) awareness of the need for gender parity and for greater diversity represented on screen. And with the dawn of streaming platforms, gone are the days of a few very powerful Hollywood execs calling all the shots from their ivory towers. Just look at Phoebe Waller Bridge and Michaela Coel, who took sledgehammers to the rules and to the glass ceiling and always stayed true to their unique voices.
You are one half of an award-winning comedy duo, Hunt the Vigan. Can you tell us a little bit about the work you do with that and what influences you use for your work?
Certainly! My comedy partner, James Gavigan and I have been making comedy content for the better part of a decade: sketches, web series and a few TV pilots. We’re really interested in highlighting the absurdities of being human and have tackled everything from Brexit to public breastfeeding and that global pandemic…man-flu. We share a very wacky, off-the-wall sense of humour, which is probably why our first creation together was a vintage style screwball comedy web series, A Quick Fortune, which involved lots of physical comedy and pratfalls. And of course we were heavily influenced by the Screwball genre, totally ahead of its time, always featuring strong female heroines (my faves are Bringing Up Baby with Katherine Hepburn & Cary Grant and It Happened One Night with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert). Our series toured global festivals including Raindance and won a screenwriting award! We also had a viral hit with comedy parenting video, Boobies in a Box, which has amassed over 8 million views & features my daughter when she was an itty bitty baby. It ignited a debate about public breastfeeding and was featured in global press including The Huffington Post who called it "hilarious".
As actors-turned-writers, we’re very influenced by the mockumentaries of Christopher Guest (Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman). We love how much improvisation is clearly used in the filmmaking process, letting his talented characters actors let rip on set! The TV series Catastrophe by Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney (another ½ Irish ½ American duet) had a big impact on us, with their hilarious but brutally honest take on parenting.
You use your own experiences of living in Tel Aviv, where you became a surfer and converted to Judaism for love in your piece. Although there are some differences. What encouraged you to build a piece of comedy from that?
When we moved to Tel Aviv, I remember bawling my eyes out wondering what the hell I was going to do there as an actor who spoke approximately five words of Hebrew! But having branched out into writing with my comedy duo, I knew the answer was - write something. Plus a one-woman show had always been on my bucket list, now I just needed a topic! I tried to force a story about motherhood but it just wasn’t clicking. Meanwhile, I’m taking surfing lessons and totally falling head over heels for the sport (I call it a sport, really it’s a way of life), marvelling at this zen, surfing community smack dab in the middle of a conflict zone! And I’m writing down my observations of the Israeli ‘balagan’ (Hebrew for chaos) - it’s colourful, it’s loud, it’s frenetic. And although neither of us are religious, I did convert for my hubby (that’s a conversation for a separate interview!) And my experiences as a convert were often so surreal: from prickly dinner table debates to doing the Jewish baptism, ‘the mikvah’, butt naked in the Pacific Ocean to having imposter syndrome in Tel Aviv when people would ask “Are you Jewish? You don’t look Jewish!” These combined experiences just felt so unique, and hilariously incongruent, a story that was screaming to be told - it became a no brainer!
But as you mention, there are some differences, I definitely take A LOT of artistic licence. As the saying goes, why let the truth get in the way of a good story!
In my most recent preview, one audience member said ‘even though it's set in Tel Aviv (to comic effect) its themes are universal!’ And I think that’s because it’s a classic fish-out-of-water story, and an immigrant’s story. Many will identify with the culture clash, the loneliness of leaving home, the trips to Ikea! There’s also a deep dive into devotion and faith: Heather’s husband Zach finds ‘The Wailing Wall’ while she finds a wall of water. The show explores the parallel devotional aspects of religion and surfing - every surfer I’ve ever met worships at the altar of the sea! There’s also, ahem, fertility problems (‘turns out I’ve got lazy ovaries and Zach has slow swimmers’), and a sexy surf teacher, a drunken snog, and all the fun of a marriage in crisis! Although it’s definitely not a show about the conflict or regional politics, it does show The Holyland in technicolour: the good, the bad, the ugly…and the waves! Mostly the waves.
And how do I cram all this into seventy minutes? With difficulty! The story is jam-packed and went through many drafts making each word justify its place on the page. It’s all tied together with its, frankly, fabulous structure! Each scene is a surf lesson, and the story is constantly moving: jumping playfully to and from the water, back and forward in time. From the beach, to an Ohio apartment, to a wild wedding in the desert, back to the beach, to Jerusalem, to a cold lake in Minnesota, and back to the beach again. I think it’s all about economy of language. You don’t need pages of narration or dialogue to convey something important: dive in partway through a scene and get out early. Audiences are smart and will catch on quickly!
Surfing the Holyland also includes comedy songs - did these come before or after the writing process of building this piece?
Yes indeed it does! I knew I always wanted to have ukulele songs in the show (a new skill I was gagging to bust out) and the joy of creating your own work is, well, you can do what ya want! And as both surfing and the ukulele come from Hawaii, it felt like it was meant to be! Although I did have a few song ideas from the get-go, some scenes in early drafts simply said ‘insert song here.’ They developed more at the end of the writing process and were a lot of fun to create. My director, Adam Lenson, who is a musical theatre specialist really helped me craft and finetune them. I can’t reveal too much as some are plot spoilers but I’ve got one called ‘An Orthodox Party at Ikea’. And audiences have consistently commented that the ukulele anthems (as my producer has now rebranded them) are their favourite part!
What can people expect from seeing this show?
They can expect a funny, fast paced, dynamic, edgy, edge of your seat ride with ukulele anthems, lots of comedy characters and fearless physicality…and surfing…on moving boxes! But I think this audience member from the London premiere sums it up best: ‘I laughed, I cried, I laughed again and now I want to learn how to surf.’
Seeing more women over 35 on screen and onstage is really important. Do you think representation for this age group is really sparse for any reason in particular?
Yes, based on my own experiences, sadly, I’d say it is sparse, desert tumbleweeds sparse. For myriad reasons…but mainly I’d say the patriarchy! It’s also due to the huge challenges for women returning to work once they have babies and the lack of support. And finally I think it’s due to lack of gender parity across the industry: you need writers to create the right roles, and producers, studios, and theatres to commission it, and in my opinion this will happen when women 35+ are inspired and encouraged more to write those experiences; and when more women 35+ are producing, are heads of commissioning at studios, artistic directors of theatres etc. Basically a lot more diversity at the top, less cis white men holding all the keys to the castle!
However, I do see light at the end of the tunnel! Take my fantastic producer, Kristin Duffy of Slackline Productions whose entire mission is about putting women 35+ in the driver’s seat: redressing the gender balance, offering work with female characters at their heart and focussing on stories of women 35+. And with all the female & non-binary led work happening at Ed Fringe this year, the winds of change are a comin’! Cue Erin stepping down from her soapbox.
It is great to see female empowerment be showcased in your piece. I feel like there is more conversation around it now but do you feel as though theatre/comedy is a great medium that doesn’t do enough to showcase it?
I think the answer again lies with venues, producers, studios etc commissioning and programming work by women (especially older women) and other marginalised groups. While I think stories of empowerment are very inspiring, the simple act of commissioning more diverse work is an act of empowerment in itself, regardless of content! And plus it’s more fun and interesting for audiences!
Thrilled and terrified, in equal parts.
As the world’s largest open access theatre festival, it offers so many artists a platform they might not otherwise have, to experiment, push boundaries and reach new audiences. Equally audiences will discover new stuff they wouldn’t see in traditional theatre spaces and the West End, and to catch ‘the next big thing’ in their breakout performance…you know, like Surfing the Holyland ;-). Plus with the world’s media, and theatre and TV industries all descending upon Edinburgh, it can be a launchpad for artists and companies, which is often dictated by what shows audiences are flocking to! And after 2020 was cancelled, and 2021 was pretty small, this is a chance for artists to get back on their feet - so come one, come all!
YES! Too many to mention but for starters: Norris and Parker: Sirens, Headcase by Kristin Mcilquham, Push by Popelei, Godot is a Woman by Silent Faces, Period Dramas by Heather Milsted, Whisk(e)y Wars by Joyce Greenaway, Liz Kingsman: One Woman Show, Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder by Francesca Moody Productions and Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula The Sea Witch by Fat Rascal Theatre.
I’ll be printing out the #femifringe map of female and non-binary led work to plan the rest of my Fringe. You should too! It’s on Twitter. Click here.
I hope they’ll be glued to their seats with anticipation, laugh lots, have a good little cry; and to surprise them! I hope they’ll leave with a fresh perspective on the Holyland and a lingering feeling of hope and inspiration. And that they’ll immediately tell all their friends to come along before downloading the app Magic Seaweed to figure out where they can book a surf lesson (the folks at C2C Surf School are pretty cool and my producer is obsessed with what Groundswell Scotland are doing with their women-centred surf therapy)!
Where can people come and see you during the festival?
They can find me, my surfboard and my ukulele at The Underbelly Bristo Square (Dairy Room) at 2.55pm, 3-29 August except the 15th (when I will be collapsed in a heap on The Meadows with a G&T).