Target reached!
The extra money would help us pay back some of the accommodation and living costs fo...
Blue & Pip at the Edinburgh Fringe
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Aim
A modern-day folktale about endometriosis, the patriarchal healthcare system, and the ebbing of the tides, coming to the Edinburgh Fringe.
Introduction
Hello! We are the company behind Blue & Pip, a new piece from writer, performer, and drag artist Helena Fox/King Hoberon. This crowdfunder is for us to raise some extra funds to support our production costs for putting on Blue & Pip at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August! We have a run from 5th-27th August in the Perth Theatre, theSpace on North Bridge, as well as 2 preview performances at The Bridge House Theatre in London on 31st July and 1st August!
Show synopsis
Blue loves the sea. Blue is sick. The doctors aren’t listening. And the sea is making the illness worse. As the pain grows, Blue and their wife, Pip, set out to find answers and get Blue to the sea before it all becomes unbearable. Blue & Pip questions what it means when we both grieve and celebrate our bodies at the same time, and salutes the comfort we seek in our surroundings.
Blue & Pip follows 20-something-year-old Blue as they navigate the care system and work with their wife, Pip, to discover how to live with endometriosis. This story is brought to the stage with wit, cynicism, and heart.
You can learn more about the show here: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/blue-pip.
Why the show is important
1.5 million people in the UK suffer from endometriosis, a long-term and potentially debilitating womb condition. It takes sufferers on average 8 years to be diagnosed, with misdiagnosis common and testimonies often dismissed by medical professionals. Though starting to be covered ever so slightly more in contemporary media – you may have read Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends, or seen its TV adaptation – it remains largely undiscussed and underdiagnosed.
See below for some experiences of endometriosis, all taken from Endometriosis UK’s website:
"It reached the point where I experienced it every day of the month and was rushed into A&E twice monthly (once during my period and once during ovulation) and would often be given morphine as pain relief. I kept being told it was ‘normal teenage cramps’" - Alice
"Life hasn’t felt “normal” for quite some time. As a trained nurse, I know and have been taught the value of talking therapy. Endometriosis does not only affect you: it affects your family, your partner, your children, often your siblings – in fact, I have a close relative with endometriosis, too. Dependent on how we may feel, the effects can be transferred without intention onto other people in the family. No area of my life is untouched, even intimacy." - Dorette
Blue & Pip seeks to bring these experiences, so rarely depicted or discussed, to the fore. You can read more about endometriosis here: https://www.endometriosis-uk.org/understanding-endometriosis.
Where the money will go
This money will help us to pay for costs including festival registration, insurance, and set & costume! The Fringe can be a financial challenge, and so it would really help us if you were able to support us to front these costs. The more money we make from crowdfunding, the more we are able to financially support our cast & crew through profit-sharing from ticket sales.
See below for a rough breakdown of where the money we receive would be spent.
Festival registration - £295
Insurance - £215
Costume & props - £50
Set - £50
Hiring rehearsal spaces - £100
About the company
We are all current students or alumni of University of Cambridge, and are all passionate about making theatre that is passionate, funny and thought-provoking, as well as queer and disabled led.
Helena Fox is the creator and co-writer of the five-star, award winning Edinburgh Fringe musical Rust, which was shortlisted for Best Musical at the Edinburgh Fringe 2019 by Broadway World and Musical Theatre Review. You can find out about more of her work here: https://www.helenafox.co.uk/.
The company also includes producer Ella Pound, part of the team behind Edinburgh Fringe musical On Your Bike, which won the Musical Theatre Review’s Best Musical Award 2021, and Penn Balint, who successfully directed new-writing piece Attrition at the National Student Drama Festival in 2022.
This will also be many of our team’s first Fringe experience, and we are all so excited to bring Blue & Pip to the stage in August!
To keep up to date with our Fringe adventures, you can follow us on Twitter and Instagram @bluepipfringe.
Reviews for Helena Fox's previous work
‘Close to flawless’ ★★★★★ Musical Theatre Review
‘Raw and honest’ ★★★★★ Broadway Baby
‘Genius’ Rikki Beadle-Blair
‘A sharp comic tongue’ A Younger Theatre
About the Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is an annual celebration of art and creativity that takes place in August. This year (the Festival’s 75th anniversary!) It will run from 5th-29th August. You can learn more here: https://www.edfringe.com.
This project successfully funded on 14th July 2022