BUMP&GRIND Theatre present FRIGID
An award winning Irish play at Underbelly Cowgate at EdFringe 2023.
Niamh O’Reilly is still a 'fridget' – she’s never been kissed – and at 14, she'd want to hurry up. Tonight at the local teenage disco, her friends are on a mission to change that – whether she wants to or not. Set in Dublin in 2007, Niamh takes you on her journey through the 'innocence and discovery and fun – and mortification and terror' of Irish adolescence. A coming-of-age comedy about frenemies, first times, and figuring it out.
Listing information
Dates: 03- 27 August 2023 (no show 14 August)
Time: 12:40
Location: Iron Belly, Underbelly Cowgate, 66 Cowgate, Edinburgh EH1 1JX
Run time: 50 minutes
Tickets: online from https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/frigid and
https://www.underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/events/event/frigid-by-rosa-bowden
A terrible question to start, but is the play autobiographical?
It's a great question. The play isn't autobiographical but heavily based on my own adolescence, growing up on the northside of Dublin. I grew up in a housing estate and there were 6 or 7 girls my age within a 1 minute walk of my house. We were bound together from a young age but I remember as we hit our teens, rifts were formed as hormones raged.
So I was really keen to give Niamh, the main character, a similar friend group. I've borrowed snippets of memories and phrases that we used to say to create the story. One of the most dreaded questions you could be asked back then was "are you a fridget" - it's a made up word, the noun of "frigid" if you will and we took it to mean you'd never been kissed, although the actual word has far more misogynistic overtones.
Would the company place themselves in any particular tradition of theatre? Are there other companies who have inspired their process or product?
BUMP&GRIND Theatre Company has quite a blend of influences – our work is a mix of storytelling, physical theatre and character comedy. We tend to focus on the personal as political. Our first play Bump was a one woman play about a girl having an abortion and we created it in 2017 in the context of the repeal referendum in Ireland and the conversations we were having about body autonomy. But we wanted the story to feel relatable and honest, rather than didactic. Companies and artists that have inspired us are Corn Exchange Theatre (an Irish company who also train actors in Commedia Dell'arte) Paines Plough, Broken Talkers, Katie Mitchell, Zoe Coombs Marr to name a few.
Has your experience of making the work the Dublin fringe shaped its format in any way?
Debuting at Dublin Fringe was significant for me for sure and I definitely wrote a lot of the play with Dublin audiences in mind. It's a festival very rooted in the city and its history, so I wanted to make sure it felt like a true representation of Dublin. Language and wit play a big role in the play, there are lots of Dublinisms and Irishisms. But I don't think it's inaccessible for non Irish audiences, lots of the language is explained by Niamh.
What are you hoping that audiences will experience when they see your show at the fringe?
I hope audiences come and see the show and have a good laugh, a collective cringe and a moment of reflection on their own experiences of growing up. We were all 14 once and know what it's like to not fit in and Frigid celebrates the "fridget" in all of us.
Are there any shows that you are looking forward to seeing during August?
I'm super excited for Sunday's Child's new show Chicken in Summerhall. I'm also pumped to see all the awesome theatre in Underbelly this year – Dugsi Days, Butchered and Declan are a few from my list. There are some great Irish artists here this year – Lie Low by Ciara Elizabeth Smith in the Traverse, legends Fishamle have 2 shows; King at Dance Base and Heaven at Traverse and Junk Ensemble come to Zoo with Dances Like a Bomb (again to name but a few). Comedy, wise I'm a big Meg Stalter fan so I'm excited to catch her show at Gilded Balloon.
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