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10 The Founder | Wednesday 28 May 2008
Edinburgh Feature
Darning Jilly
Royal Holloway’s Edinburgh Fringe Production
They’re at it again, Royal Holloway’s Drama
Society are off to Edinburgh…this time to
show of the work off an avant garde feminist
play by the playwright Aerin Davison who
sadly passed away last May. Her poetic
and poignant play Darning Jilly was written
during her MA in playwriting and will be
performed in Edinburgh for the whole of
August by this uber talented cast…
G - Tamar Karabetyan
J - Lara Stavrinou
Jack - Marcus Griffiths
K - Charlotte Higgins
L - Cathy Devlin
R - Ali Christian
By Beth Turrell
BT: Can you tell us a bit about
the plot?
TP: The plot is a tricky question
actually! It is about a young London
woman called G who has committed
a series of murders in the style
of Jack the Ripper-but against men.
That is the back story. When you
meet G she is in a mental hospital
and she has a psychiatrist who
is treating her and then you can
follow her mental breakdown and
her obsession with Jack the ripper.
The plot then, I guess, is a series of
questions. Is G a monster? Is she
Jack the Ripper’s re-incarnation?
The script ten breaks down into
a series of images and pulls away
from formal dialogue. By the end
of the play, words are invading
the page and there is, for example,
some pages in the script that blood
drip down so it’s a very visual piece
I’d say.
BT: Wow, sounds quite poetic…
TP: Yeah it’s really exciting, it’s definitely
drawn on the poetic practise
course that can be studied here-it’s
been a huge inspiration in terms of
concrete poetry etc.
BT: Sounds great, why was
Darning Jilly chosen to take to
Edinburgh?
TP: I got the ball rolling and I
chose it because Aerin Davison-the
playwright-wrote it for her masters
in playwriting and she passed away
last may just after she finished the
play. I hadn’t read the play myself
yet but I had written a play with
Aerin in my second year so I knew
she was talented I knew she was
really into feminism and gender
studies and the more poetic aspect
which I am really interested in
pursuing as a director. Then I approached
Sophie Robinson who is
doing a PhD in Queer Poetics and
was Aerin’s housemate and so we
started building up a small team.
When I finally read the play I loved
it, I thought it was phenomenal and
I really wanted the challenge, it’s
very testing.
SR: Aerin did a degree in English
and Drama and then an MA in
playwriting along the way she got
involved in the experimental poetry
world in London. I think the play is
half influenced by her MA and also
seeing stuff performed by people
such as Sarah Kane, Martin Crimp
and Joe Orton and critical theory.
She experimented with sound and
visual elements and with her drama
theory I think she was trying to
blend all three with Darning Jilly.
The cast of Darning Jilly rehearsing on campus
It’s a fantastic play; I wanted to
do something with it but didn’t
know how! With such great actors
at RHUL and the atmosphere
of innovation we wanted to do
something with it. Tom and I chose
it because of our friendship with
Aerin and professionally because of
my interest in the avant garde and
his directing background.
BT: How are the rehearsals
going, how are the cast getting
on?
TP: Working with the cast has been
brilliant, we have mainly working
on physical activities, and there
have been so much workshops
and different exercises. I have only
just introduced the script so we’ve
definitely been building up by doing
activities and exploring ideas
using loads of different techniques.
The cast are unbelievable they went
through a horrendous audition
process and somehow managed to
stick with it, they work well together.
The characters the really underwritten
so there’s loads of room for
interpretation and manoeuvring.
We are looking at character work in
the next couple of weeks too!
BT: You have been getting
the cast involved with lots of
extra activities such as poetry