Or What’s Left of Us
Summerhall
Sh!t Theatre are Rebecca Biscuit & Louise Mothersole. They make politically engaged shows with a deliberately DIY aesthetic using a collage of live documentary, song, comedy and multimedia. They research, write and perform their own work, also taking the roles of lighting, sound, video designer and musical director between the two. They make superficially chaotic but actually deeply crafted shows that are frequently fuelled by political anger ‘It is possible to be desperately sad and have fun at the same time” declare Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole in Sh!t Theatre’s Or What’s Left of Us, and what a mantra that proves to be.
The origin of this production is inspired by the momentous losses both experienced - of a parent in Mothersole’s case, and of a partner in Biscuit’s: Adam Brace, who was also the team’s director. How do you go on after this? How do you continue to create? The show isn’t particularly sad. For most of the hour the pair bring their usual intelligence, tom foolery, humour, and brilliant close harmony singing to the fore. They pass around a bowl of beer and tell us how they joined the community of a Yorkshire folk club and take mushrooms before attending a music festival and cross paths with Steeleye Span. There’s a great story about a tea towel!
They wear a black and white combo of medieval peasant costume and for some of the show don Wicker Man-esque headress. They talk about the film Midsummer. They explain that they are not using a slideshow for this show, and neither are they wearing their usual white face. Turning to folk helped them get through a rough patch. They’re both great singers and music has always featured prominently in their work, and Or What’s Left of Us has them performing folk ballads, songs which often are ribboned with death. These songs, about the harvest, the passing seasons and the possibility of renewal, took on new painful resonance.
It’s not until the end of the show that the duo – Rebecca in particular – try and expel the poison, spitting out bitter, absurd shards of painful memory, from feeling weirded out by the dressed body to a bizarre chat with a New York Times obituary writer. The last 10 minutes are as raw, candid and personal as it gets, and somehow managed to be about their specific experience of loss as well as capturing the brutal rug-pull of losing anyone suddenly.
Following the show we’re invited to hang out with Sh!t Theatre in the Summerhall bar and sing some songs. It’s entirely optional but it’s a unique and generous offer from these confident and beautiful performers. Sometimes we need to sing together.
Some quotes around this show which I think are interesting from Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole: “There’s a widespread, ancient belief that excessive grief disturbs the dead; that your tears will burn holes in the corpse of your loved one. Which is why it’s important to get merry at funerals, and why this show has jokes. Joy and sorrow don’t cancel each other out - they can exist at the same time.”
“We genuinely got into folk music because we were looking for a way to be together in our grief, and this show has come organically out of our very real love for folk music and the real joy we felt when we first went to a sing around at a folk club. At the same time, we aren’t going to shy away from the horror of grief.”
“Folk can be twee. Yes, it is a bit embarrassing. But it’s also unnerving, terrifying, comforting and joyful. Sh!t Theatre strives for the same. Twee and terrifying.”
One of this year’s best at Edinburgh Fringe.
The really great news is that Sh!t Theatre are part of Sydney Fringe’s International Touring Hub in September 2024 (at New Theatre) with an earlier show called Drink Rum with Expats. They are super cool artists and create rigorous and inspired work. Highly recommended!
Kate Gaul
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