12 May An Interview with Bragi Theatre

We interviewed Annie and Nicholas, winners of the Outstanding Production award last year, about their involvement in the festival. Have a read through their experience.

What first drew you to participate in Between Words?

(Nicholas): Bragi got involved with the Between Words in its first year. We were itching to produce something after a long COVID development process had led nowhere. I had Bedsprings, this one-act that I had been tinkering with over the past few years. It had gone from a ten minute play to a twenty minute play to an hour-long play, and after a string of unsuccessful Fringe draws, I started hearing about this festival in town and I knew that it was an opportunity that we couldn’t pass up.

What was it like to win Outstanding Production last year — and how did that affect your confidence or career moving forward?

 (Annie) Last year’s win was incredibly validating as an artist who has often been told that my works are eccentric or “weird.” It proved that voices like ours, ones that could unabashedly express our humour and sensibilities, would be welcome in the Victoria theatre scene, and that an artist like myself didn’t need to pack up and move elsewhere to find an audience. Consider the Dongfish was a piece that was out of our usual comfort zone at Bragi Theatre and with its artistic success has given us the confidence to move forward with a piece like Hawk Lover, a script which is different in so many ways but just as much unusual and passionate.

What are you working on this year, and what excites you about returning?

(Nicholas): The Hawk Lover is a hugely ambitious project. It combines so many different tones and styles and ideas, and it is a credit to our incredible team that it is even possible. I hope it communicates some of the surprise and wonder I felt on reading Marie’s lais for the first time.

(Annie) This project pushes me as a director out of my limits and brings me back into a space with a wickedly talented cast and crew. Previously we sat in the comfort of collaborating just Nicholas and I, and it’s refreshing to have a new script to unpack, rip apart and stitch back together. Nicholas’ writings are always a refreshing treat.

Has your involvement in the festival led to other creative opportunities?

 (Nicholas): For the past two years, Bragi has taken the shows we develop for the Between Words and remounted them as a double-bill with other local shows. These self-produced remounts are an opportunity to apply the feedback we get from the adjudicator, collaborate with other artists, and share our work with more people. And then these double-bills have led to other projects and opportunities for our company as well, like our upcoming SKAMpede show Vorvox and Zorzox Visit Earth, a sequel of sorts to Consider the Dongfish.

Why do you think festivals like this are important for local artists?

(Annie) Festivals like this are important to artists like us in Victoria because despite the city having a flourishing arts community, there is a desperate need for well-equipped venues that are accessible to both artists and audiences. Until the city can fund more for us and provide more venues that are accessible financially and physically, festivals like this need to continue doing the work to prove that our theatre community deserves to be invested in and that it yearns to flourish.