Interview: Edith Alibec, ‘Glitch’
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 Edith Alibec about Glitch.
Can you tell us a bit about you and your career so far..
I am Romanian born, half Romanian, half Tatar, studied acting in Germany, premiered my first show (‘Why the Child is Coking in the Polenta’ based on the book with the same name) in Germany (Munich) in German, staged it in Romania in Romanian, staged it across the UK in English. So one could say I don’t belong to one place, I like to move around, play in multiple languages.
I also produced and acted in several theatre plays in Romania.
My first Fringe was last year where I debuted my first solo show from scratch ‘Tea and Milk’, directed by Dana Paraschiv. We’re coming back this year with a reworked version of the same show, we love the experimental nature of the Fringe - and we’re crazy to to a reworked version. Actually I am and I drag her along.
We’re also going to Volksbuehne Berlin The Green Salon (biggest theatre in Berlin) to stage Tea and Milk (for the first time in German!!) in November,
What is your show about?
Official descriptions: 10 year high school reunion. Lost dreams. Lost friends. Lost your shit when you reunited with the one. Things should have been better. But Life seems to have encountered a glitch. Where do you go from here?
The show tracks the journey of a woman navigating a moment when her entire life unravels. Fresh from a breakup, stuck in a weird job in London and having sex with randomers, she goes back home for the high school reunion inevitably reuniting with her mother.
Drenched in edgy dark humour, the show sheds light on the intricate facets of the mother-daughter relationship amidst the challenges of living abroad, sporadic reunions, shattered dreams from youth, and the void that forms when there have been so many things left unsaid.
What was the inspiration for the show and what’s the development process been to get to this stage?
That feeling that you do not fit into society’s expectations for your age gap. Feeling behind. This was the start. But then it focused more and more on the relationship with the mother which I began exploring more profoundly as the writing process progressed.
The initial R&D phase of the project was supported by Arts Council UK, and the journey to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 was facilitated by the Romanian Cultural Institute and the Keep It Fringe fund. Two work in progress performances were held in May 2023 at Camden People’s Theatre in London.
And now we’re doing a reworked version. So I guess we never stop lol.
What made you want to take this to the Fringe?
The fact that we felt that we could explore more some themes in comparison tot he previous version.
Apart from seeing your show, what’s your top tip for anybody heading for Edinburgh this summer?
Some good ice cream but I forgot the name. There’s a huge queue there always.
Why should people book to see your show?
To laugh and to cry!! That’s what other people said, not me.
“No one is like Edith; she managed to make us laugh and cry in the same show.” - Anonymous, feedback form, Bucharest
“It seemed like comedy, and in the end, you find yourself, alongside the character, in tears. Superb. Emotional.” - Anonymous, feedback form, Bucharest
“It was a high-speed rollercoaster in a straight line of laughter and then a powerful up and down with the ending. Smart and on-point lines, a true millennial.” - Anonymous, feedback form, Bucharest
“I laughed and cried a lot. A lot. And it was really good.” - Sabina Strugariu, Instagram post, Bucharest
When and where can people see the show?
Assembly George Square, The Crate, 13:15, 31 July - 26 Aug
