Interview: Milanka Brooks, Mum and I Don’t Talk Anymore

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 Milanka Brooks about their piece, Mum and I Don’t Talk Anymore.

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

My name is Milanka Brooks and I’m an actress and writer. I started life in the North with a Mancunian accent, and then moved South where I quickly learned the best pronunciation of ‘bath’ and ‘raspberry’. I spent my twenties working in Europe, bouncing around countries and boyfriends, and between all the adventures I did some really fun tv jobs as an actress, namely Johnny Vegas’ fiancée, Ionela, in Benidorm on ITV for two seasons, Princess Svetlana in The Windsors on Channel 4, and the no-nonsense blue alien Elena Tulaska, in Black Mirror’s USS Callister. I moved out to Los Angeles in 2018 and last year I started writing my first solo show, Mum and I Don’t Talk Anymore, which I’m thrilled to be bringing to this year’s Fringe!

What is your show about?

For years I’d been wanting to write about my flamboyant and eccentric Serbian Mother, Lela, and I decided last year was the time to do it. I’d been developing it for television for a while but then it struck me that audiences should meet Mum as close-up as possible as her verve and flair simply had to be shared. There were too many stories I wanted to tell, too many ‘isms’ that I’ve heard over the years all told in the thickest of Eastern European accents: “daaaarling, let me tell you ze truss”, and always with a glass of Sljivovica, the national drink in the Balkans…

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

The audience goes on a journey with Mum and I, from my childhood memories to Mum’s love of fitness (and an exercise video I made for her one day), to my boyfriends, to hers, and us telling each other our stories. There was a point however where we stopped sharing our misadventures, and that becomes part of the audience’s experience as they journey through the decades with us. I wrote the show at the end of 2023 and have been working with my awesome director, Ben Cavey, on it since. We did a few work in progress shows in LA and London, which went really well! We got great feedback, made a few changes and we’re excited for audiences to meet my Mum, Lela.

What made you want to take this show to the Fringe?

There is no bigger honour and platform to showcase new writing and a solo show than The Edinburgh Fringe Festival! For years I have admired so many friends and artists for having the guts and the vulnerability to write and perform their own shows. It was a level I never thought I’d reach. Putting your deepest thoughts and most intimate memories on paper is a real challenge, you question yourself continually throughout. You think you must be completely mad for keeping going, but you do. And then somewhere along the way you get into the swing of it, the play of it all. And that’s where it feels great. The more I committed to it the more I wanted people to meet my mum, hear our stories, the good and the bad. People come from far and wide to Edinburgh, but our shared experiences often intertwine; parents, financial problems, nice boyfriends, not so nice boyfriends, an immigrant parent and life sometimes being lost in translation. What better place than The Edinburgh Fringe to connect with people over so many similarities!

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

Pace yourself, immerse yourself in the festival but if you’re there for a while take time out to see some sights or nature to get a little more perspective. Plan your route so you’re ideally heading to shows in one area then moving on to the next (that’s probably not even possible so don’t take note of most things I say…)

Why should people book to come and see you?

It’s really more about them coming to see my Mum… She’s the real character of the show! Mum will entertain you and keep you fit, maybe even throw some curveballs. Hopefully you’ll recognise some parallels to your own life in one of my stories, or one of the many characters I play. Mum and I Don’t Talk Anymore is an honest, entertaining and poignant show about two best friends; a mother and her daughter.

When and where can people see you perform in Edinburgh?

I’ll be on at The Crate Assembly George Square at 14.50 from July 31st – August 25th, except August 14th. 

The question is… which show will I possibly see that’s on at the same time on my one day off!