Edinburgh Fringe Chats (#61): Ana Evans, SHELL

9 Jul

As anticipation builds for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025, we’re catching up with a range of exciting creatives preparing to bring their work to the world’s largest arts festival this August. In this series, we delve into the stories behind the shows, the inspiration driving the artists, and what audiences can expect. Today, we’re joined by Ana Evans to chat about their show, Shell.

Can you begin by telling us about your show and what inspired it?

Shell is a drag-led clown-infused explosion of spirit. It follows a cringe yet earnest hockey bro Andy who leads a sex ed club and an otherworldly Peanut who is ravenous for your desires. It’s sex education, it’s queer embodiment, and it’s a really fun time. Written and performed by me, Ana Evans, and Co-created and directed by Linnea Scott. It’s inspired by parts work therapy that asks us to identify and explore different “parts” of ourselves as a way to understand ourselves. Peanut and Andy are two parts of myself exploring my relationship to body, gender, and embodiment. It’s queer, it’s weird, and it’s celebration.

What made you want to bring this work to the Fringe this year?

I started embodying this drag character in 2021 very quietly in the safety of my room without telling many people about him. Cut to 2023 when Linnea and I attended the festival as audience members and we both were overwhelmed with the magnetic energy of the streets, the big, bold, experimental work, and…the Drag Kings. It was at the Fringe we saw Drag Kings perform for the first time and something really changed in both of us then. I realized the thing I wanted to make could come out of my room if I wanted it to. We’ve both been performing Drag since and it’s surreal, dreamy, and full circle to be returning to Edinburgh now with our own King show.

How would you describe your show in three words?

Bold, Surprising, & Spirited

What do you hope audiences take away from watching your performance?

I hope the audience leaves feeling like we collectively opened up the floodgates to their own spirit, celebration, and embodiment. As much as this show is my personal unleashing, I am only able to do it through the community built in the audience. So I hope they leave feeling like they were really a part of something, and inspired to embody desires they’ve maybe never given space for.

What’s your top tip for surviving the Fringe?

This is our FIRST FRINGE, so ask us again at the end of August. But the best advice we have received is that there is no right way to Fringe. Trust what’s right for you, and that will guide you to the version you’re meant for.

Where and when can people see your show?

Zoo Southside @ 15:05 (not 6, 13, 20)