Interview: Amy Conway, Catafalque

7 Jun

Ahead of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024 we’re chatting with a range of creatives who will be heading to the city over August to find out more about their shows. Today we’re chatting with Amy Conway about Catafalque.

1. Can you tell us a bit about you and your career so far.

I’m originally from Sheffield but moved north to study philosophy at Glasgow Uni and then acting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The fact that I’m still working in Scottish Theatre 15 years later is testament to the level of support I’ve received from the Scottish arts community. I started out an actor but now I’m a theatre maker, a playwright, a community facilitator and even a clown! I can’t compare because I haven’t lived in London, but it feels like the culture here is more Who are you as an artist? and What are you interested in making work about? rather than What are you? And what box do you fit into?

2. What is your show about?

Catafalque is about death and how we honour the dead...on the surface. But underneath a few feet of earth, it is also a play about who tells our story, about how we manifest different versions of ourselves so we can accept different truths, how grief is about loss of self as well as the lost of those we love, about how the call to collective accountability can be a wake up call to bring us back to life.

3. What was the inspiration for the show and what’s the development process been to get to this stage?

I became a civil celebrant a few years ago and have conducted funeral services across the West of Scotland. I’ve experienced personal loss myself of course, but to be a witness to grief and the ritual of death from this somewhat removed perspective was a fascinating insight into the human condition and into Western culture and practices surrounding death.

I’m also a volunteer listener for the Samaritans and I’ve spoken to so many people in crisis over the last decade, so many for whom death feels much closer than is comfortable. And in contrast to being a funeral celebrant, there is so much less self censoring – because telling a stranger at the end of the phone who you will never meet can free you to tell the truth however shocking or horrifying that might be for everyone else in your life.

So when Scissor Kick commissioned me to write a play, I wanted to pour my experience of these two worlds into the same playing space: one of grief and pain that is proper and formal and buttoned up, and the other that is messy and ugly and angry. I’ve been developing the show with them for about a year and I’m so excited to now have Beth Morton on board as director to bring the show to the Fringe.

4. What made you want to take this to the Fringe?

I’ve had the best theatrical experiences of my life at the Fringe, and I’ve seen sometruly brilliant art over the years. The Fringe continues to change my understanding of what live performance can be and I want to be part of that!

5.Apart from seeing your show, what’s your top tip for anybody heading for Edinburgh this summer?

Summerhall is always my favourite venue to visit, and I’m not just saying that because Catafalque is on there! There’s such a great mix of new writing, physical theatre and more experimental contemporary performance that I often just stay there all day! The meadows is right outside and the Summerhall courtyard vibes are electric! [note: I don’t work for Summerhall, I’m just a fangirl]

6. Why should people book to see your show?

Because it’s a play about funerals written and performed by a real funeral celebrant. Because it’s a tense, confronting, thrilling ride. Because you will come away feeling glad to be alive!