Persistent And Nasty

Elaine and Louise chat with actor Holly Jack about her career and her first venture into filmmaking with her short film Safe Home which she wrote and directed. This film was a reaction to what happened to Sarah Everard and we do touch upon this a little. So a trigger warning for around the 20 minute mark of the episode. We also chat Holly’s work in River City and living in LA. Below is the link to grab tickets to see Safe Home at the Edinburgh Short Film Festival https://www.edinburghshortfilmfestival.com/buy-tickets-2/ Below is the link to stop the arts cuts petition and please write to your MSP and MP. https://www.campaignforthearts.org/petitions/scotland-cuts-reimposed/ https://www.megaphone.org.uk/events/demo-stop-the-cuts-to-culture-funding?link_id=1&can_id=f0884d67d9138b6f44316b85881bb956&source=email-join-us-next-week-to-stop-the-cuts-to-arts-funding&email_referrer=email_2062668&email_subject=join-us-next-week-to-stop-the-cuts-to-arts-funding&link_id=2&can_id=3a49a7db8e1e7a584b066e3ef5c8eb48&email

Elaine chats with co-directors Ellen Renton and Rachel Drazek of Stellar Quines production of Disciples in association with The Traverse Theatre. Elaine, Rahel and Ellen chat the creation of Disciples, their working process, the joy of a creative rehearsal space and of course we couldn’t avoid the conversation round the Scottish Government breaking their promise to reinstate the 10% cut to Creative Scotland’s budget. Disciples is on at The Traverse Theatre Edinburgh 5-7th October 2023 and Northern Stage Newcastle 7-9th November 2023. Tickets below https://stellarquines.co.uk/show/disciples/ Below is the link to stop the arts cuts petition and the information on the Demo being held outside the Scottish Parliament 3rd October 2023 at 12pm. https://www.campaignforthearts.org/petitions/scotland-cuts-reimposed/ https://www.megaphone.org.uk/events/demo-stop-the-cuts-to-culture-funding?link_id=1&can_id=f0884d67d9138b6f44316b85881bb956&source=email-join-us-next-week-to-stop-the-cuts-to-arts-funding&email_referre

In the last of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe series of this year Elaine chats with writer/director Mwansa Phiri. This episode is slightly different as we discuss the experience of the festival, the highs, the lows and what the month has been like for Mwansa. We also chat future plans and next year’s show. It’s another brilliant episode with another brilliant human. https://linktr.ee/mwansarp PODCAST SURVEY - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdcubjL4oZn3H63Z671OOmgNanXWCxjGUZPdjkKtwNtC0TvFQ/viewform GENERAL SURVERY - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJhctgvUD6RjhPR0n0-d7wJhoaF4XWVzl0U4sDeGpFYjXP8A/viewform waiting for a train at the bus stop '17 minutes. That's how long it takes to die by train. I looked it up once'. Chilufya – you can call her Chili – doesn't know whether she is coming or going. Which makes perfect sense since her name literally means 'the lost one' and lost is exactly how she's felt most of her life. Struggling with low self-esteem and a waning sense of self, she finds

Elaine chats with the brilliant Holly and Brooke about their show Hooked: Mr Sister. On @Just the tonic at the Caves @1.05pm till 27th August. We chat soulmates, being women in comedy, moving from serious drama to comedy and much more. Another brilliant episode with brilliant humans. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/hooked-mr-sister https://www.instagram.com/hollyandbrookearehooked/?hl=en https://www.tiktok.com/@hollyandbrookearehooked Hooked: Nr Sister Holly and Brooke are hooked on each other. Watch the duo stumble through the vows they have taken to be besties forever, or as they like to call themselves, Mr Sisters. From money saving experts 'Nifty and NooNoo' to dating in the dark at 'Le Nuit de Sexe', Mr Sister is a wonderful mix of sketch and character comedy that truly is a spectacle of imagination and comedy. Someone once said, 'If you don't get your own sketch show, I'll be disappointed', and Hooked would hate to disappoint. ‘Spectacle of imagination and comedy’ (FunnyWomen.com). OUR WEBSIT

Elaine and Louise chat with the creators of Slash Leah Hennessey and Emily Allan. Slash is on @ Summerhall until the 27th August @10.15pm. We chat the creating the show, finding that person you connect with both personal and creatively and all things Fanfiction. Louise is in her element. Another great episode with brilliant humans. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/slash Slash The Blond (Emily Allan) and The Dark Haired One (Leah Hennessey) attempt to transcend the banality of identity and the terror of consciousness through cosplay, anglophilia, critical theory and song. Incorporating fan-fictional pairings such as Lennon/McCartney and Sherlock/Watson, interspersed with meta commentary by infamous second-wave feminists (Camile Paglia, Andrea Dworkin) and mashed up 80s punk songs, they guide the audience through an infernal fantasia of perverted intertextuality. Described as 'prankish genius' (TheParisReview.org) and 'the ultimate fanfiction play' (Syfy.com), Slash is a pop-feminist tour de force abou

Elaine and Louise chat with Lula Mebrahtu or Lula.XYZ about her exciting new show OommoO which is on @Summerhall in the Red lecture Theatre @4.15pm until the 27th August 2023. We chat the creation of the show, telling stories with the beat of life, loss and so much more. It’s another wonderful episode with another wonderful guest. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/oommoo Oommoo Real-life events of a first-generation immigrant navigating the duality of two cultures, Habesha (Eritrean/Ethiopian) heritage and British identity. It looks at the effects of memory loss on a displaced community. When you've left everything behind for the promise of something "better", and it's not better… When you have nothing but memories and memory is fading… What do you have? Interviewing language, customs and music with wearable tech MiMu gloves, it's a poetic reflection of an emotionally visceral experience unpacked through an Afro-Futuristic East-African lens. Neither a musical, drama or gig theatre... It's a new kind of

Elaine chats with the co-writer and the two performers of Six Chich Flicks, Kerry Ipema & KK Apple on @Bristo Sq until the 28th August 2023 @8.25pm. We chat, movies, working in New York, survival jobs, the patriarchy and much, much more. Another brilliant episode with brilliant, funny humans. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/six-chick-flicks-or-a-legally-blonde-pretty-woman-dirty-danced-on-the-beaches-while-writing-a-notebook-on-the-titanic Six Chich Flicks or a legally blonde pretty woman dirty danced on the beaches while writing a notebook on the titanic. Fresh from Off-Broadway, the sold-out, smash-hit comedy finally comes to Edinburgh. Six Chick Flicks parodies your favourite movies in one hysterical, fast-paced show. NYC performers Kerry Ipema (One Woman Sex and the City) and KK Apple (UCB Theatre) bring all the most iconic moments and montages to life with songs, dance breaks, and biting wit. 'This is pop culture parody at its best' (NOWToronto.com). 'A true treasure' ***** (Winnipeg Free Pres

SPECIAL EPISODE. Today Elaine chats with not one but two creatives who both have shows on at the Edinburgh festival. First time we have had a collar like this and it was gorgeous. Elaine speaks with writer of Gunter - Lydia Higman on @Summerhall till the 27th August @9.10pm and creator of Growler - Dee Mulrooney also @Summerhall until 26th August @7.00pm. We talk about both shows, patriarchy, witchcraft, the power of the earth and our connection to it, the importance of telling of history to learn and grow from it and so much more. A cracking episode with two brilliant humans. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/gunter https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/growler GUNTER A true story of deception, magic and torture. 1605. Two boys have been murdered. Their mum wants justice. Hot from their five-star sell-out show Belly Up, DIRTY HARE present Gunter: a chaotic reimagining of the most notorious bewitchment case you've never heard of. 'A company to watch' ***** (TheatreReviews.co.uk). Cast: Julia Grogan, N

Elaine chats with artistic director and performer Georgia Gegura of Yuck Circus in now till the 28th August @Assembly George Sq Gardens @4.20pm. We chat returning to the Edinburgh Festival, women in circus, creating her own circus company, passing your skills on t the next generation, the importance of community work, showing taboo subjects to open up much needed conversation but always with movement and fun and much more. Another brilliant episode with another incredible human. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/yuck-circus Yuck Circus YUCK are back with their sell-out show. High-flying acrobatics, absurd confessions and groovy dancing – all smashed together with their trademark ripper comedy. Winners of top-tier Fringe World Martin Sims Award, Best Circus at both Melbourne and Sydney Fringe, and Best Emerging Artist at Adelaide Fringe, get ready to witness a powerhouse of female circus performers kick art in the face. 'Flight of the Conchords meets Cirque du Soleil' ***** (Stage). 'One of the best and

Elaine and Louise chat with writer, comedian performer Sophie Zucker about her show Sophie Sucks Face which is on now until 28th August @Underbelly Bristo Sq @10.15pm. We chat the inspiration for the show, her writing jobs on The Daily show and Dickinson, making people laugh, enduring love and much more. Another brilliant episode with another brilliant human. https://underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/event/sophie-sucks-face Sophie Sucks Face From The Daily Show's Sophie Zucker comes a one-woman musical about love, death, and incest. When Sophie accidentally hooks up with her cousin, she must decide to shun him or seduce him at the next family gathering. Audiences have called the show a modern evolution of the greatest Jewish comediennes, invoking Barbra Streisand, Elaine May, and Gilda Radner. With an original score of all bops, like how radio stations used to play Grease, Sophie Sucks Face is a 'delightful showcase of Sophie's cornucopia of talents, but equally as important, it's very, very funny' (PasteMagazine

Elaine and Louise chat with writer/director Lucy Hayes about her new play Bitter Lemons on from now till 28th August @Pleasance Courtyard Beneath @2.20pm We also talk the themes of the play (brief mentions of abortion), to knowing what you want, moving from being an actor to a director, being bold, the disparity in pay in women’s football and much, much more. Another brilliant episode with another brilliant human. Bitter Lemons In the pressurised worlds of football and finance, two women carve their own path. After the loss of her dad, a goalkeeper prepares for the league final, while an ambitious banker battles her fears of being tokenised to secure a promotion. But as their pitches get closer, worlds collide as life shifts unexpectedly and in parallel. How do you face your biggest challenge yet? Winner of a Pleasance Edinburgh National Partnership Award and supported by Bristol Old Vic, Bitter Lemons is an explosive debut play tackling the pressures on women’s bodies and the power society holds over th

Elaine and Louise chat with actor/writer Peyvand Sadeghian about her show Dual دوگانه on from the 17th – 28th August @ Pleasance Dome @2.55pm. We chat about the inspiration for the show, Peyvand’s own life as a dual citizen of Britain and Iran, peoples preconceived ideas of Iran and dismantling them, the big training question and creating your own work. We also talk about how close we all live to ending up living in a dictatorship. We must fight the good fight. Another brilliant episode with another brilliant human. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/dual Dual دوگانه Dual دوگانه One woman, two passports, two names: Peyvand is British, Parisa, Iranian. As a child Peyvand visits Iran with her father. They're held by the Iranian government, unable to return to the UK. Spoiler: They did eventually return. But what of Parisa? An award-winning solo show made in collaboration with a multi-national team featuring drag, animation, and the voice of Pedar (if you know, you know). Peyvand and Parisa fracture and m

Elaine and Louise chat with comedian, writer, performer Kelly McCaughan about her show Catholic Guilt on now until the 27th August @Underbelly, Bristo Sq @10.15pm We chat the inspiration for the show, fancying Jesus, being a “sexy clown” and much more. Another great episode with another great human. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/kelly-mccaughan-catholic-guilt Catholic Guilt NYC/Philly-based comedian Kelly McCaughan (HBO, Apple TV+) presents Catholic Guilt. Does daddy Jesus's naked body on the cross make you wet? Spoiler alert: So will this show! (No, seriously, there's water). We dive into that and much more: Losing our virginity in the most holy way, abortion, a bowling experience that leads to impure behaviour, and the list goes on.... Through audience participation, cringy personal recounts, and stand-up adjacent clowny performance, Kelly's raw, dirty, hilarious show exposes the impossible standards of being Catholic. We will laugh. We will sin. Will we make it to hell together? OUR WEBSITE -

Elaine and Louise chat with the wonderful Larisa Faber & Eugénie Pastor, the creator and co-performers of Stark Bollock Naked which is on now till the 28th August 2023 at Assembly Roxy (downstairs) @3.10pm. We talk the inspiration for the show, the biological clock and all that means, drama training – to train or not to train, the joy of finding people to collaborate with and Larisa speaks about her experience of living in a country that was communist and then how you navigate out of then when one day your country is no longer under a regime. A pack, inspiring episode. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/stark-bollock-naked Stark Bollock Naked Is the motherhood question bugging you too? An international smash hit about our reproductive shelf life and what (not) to do with those (ageing) eggs. Featuring stunning video mapping, comedy-infused storytelling and a live score of gynaecological instruments, stark bollock naked is a multimedia show with a real naked body and an honest conversation about reprodu

Elaine chats with writer/performer Eva Lily about her new show I’ve Got Some Things To Get Off My Chest on from now until the the 28th August at Gilded Balloon Teviot @1.40pm. We chat boobs, the inspiration for the show, being a theatre kid, medical misogyny, our love of the NHS, the joy of the festival and the power of making your own work. A great chat with a great human. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/i-ve-got-some-things-to-get-off-my-chest I’ve Got Some Things to Get Off My Chest According to Google, Eva's boobs weigh the same as: two and a half bottles of tequila; two bricks; or the average new-born baby. Quite a weight on your back and finding bras off the rack for a rack that size is near impossible. Despite being an ideal candidate, misogynistic medical standards leave Eva feeling like a tit for asking for a boob reduction – will the whole thing be a bust? This one-woman, two-mega-boobed comedy explores the failings of women's healthcare – underfunded, under researched and, much like Eva's b

Elaine and Louise chat with the brilliant Cora Bissett about her show What Girls Are Made Of on at Assembly Rooms – Music Hall from 3rd to 27th August 2023. We chat the show, the music industry, carving your own path and so much more. A brilliant, inspiring episode with a brilliant, inspiring human. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/what-girls-are-made-of What Girls Are Made Of In 1992 a schoolgirl from Fife was catapulted to a rock star life in an indie band. Touring with Radiohead, partying with Blur, she was living the dream. Until she wasn’t. Based on her teenage diaries, this is the true story of Cora Bissett’s rollercoaster journey from the girl she was to the woman she wanted to be. Performing with a live band, directed by Orla O’Loughlin, Cora celebrates life’s euphoric highs and epic shitstorms, asking what wisdom we should pass to the next generation and which glorious mistakes we should let them make. OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk Persistent Pal & Nasty Hero - Pals and Hero M

Elaine and Louise chat with actor, writer, producer, filmmaker April Wish about her new show Wendy, My Darling on at the The Space @Surgeons Hall 4th -12th August 2023. We chat the creation of the show, Hollywood, being a mother in the industry, following your true self and much more. Get your tickets here: http://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/wendy-my-darling Wendy, My Darling Following her return from Neverland, Wendy Darling, now a certified Grown Up, moves to Hollywood to become a writer. This modern take on the classic story of Peter Pan features non-stop multimedia elements with celebrity video appearances by Jon Cryer (Pretty in Pink, Two and a Half Men) and Busy Philipps (Freaks and Geeks, Girls5Eva). Wendy is a charming, potty-mouthed mother to a tweenager who finds herself stuck in a "creative death spiral" as she struggles to stay relevant in a fickle business. Topical, heartfelt and hilarious, Wendy, My Darling is "...a voice for all women who found out hard truths about the real world as they

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE 2023 SERIES Elaine chats with performer Sian Clark about her new show Icon on at Summerhall from 2nd August till the 27th. We discuss the show, training, performance art, being a woman in stand-up, our mutual fear but love of horror, stage fright and our existential crisis. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/icon https://www.summerhall.co.uk/about/a-brief-history-of-summerhall/ iCON The world is in crisis and so is Sian Clarke. Never mind, it will probably be ok. Let's all just try to have a nice time. Welcome to iCON, a show where everything is probably fine. In a world that is crumbling, and thoughts are spiralling, and the void you used to scream into for sweet relief tells you to go f*ck yourself, Sian Clarke asks: can we all just try to have a nice time for once? A show about the world, a show about a breakdown, a show about... it doesn't f*cking matter at this point anyway. https://www.persistentandnasty.co.uk/ Ed Fringe Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLS

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE 2023 SERIES Elaine chats with writer Ashlee Elizabeth Lolo her new show Blueprints which is on at Pleasance Courtyard from the 17th August till the 28th August. We talk about where we are and where we want be, respecting your elders, the importance of teaching your craft and the joy of black love and how we need more of it on on our stages and screens. A packed episode. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/blueprints BLUEPRINTS Are you destined to repeat ancestral patterns forever? If you could know the entire history of your bloodline, and everything you’re passing on to your children, would you want to know? Adam and Faith do. Welcome to the Blueprints programme, where we can protect you from the past because, after all, knowledge is power. Right? Blueprints, a new show by Ashlee Elizabeth-Lolo is about beginnings, knowledge, and ancestral inheritance. OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk ED FRINGE FORM NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Persistent Pal & Nasty Hero - Pals and H

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE 2023 SERIES Elaine chats with performer Sophie Craig about her new show I Love You Now What? on at Pleasance Courtyard from 2nd August till the 28th. We discuss the play it’s origins, grief, losing a parent, coming from a working-class background and being a woman in comedy. A packed episode. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/i-love-you-now-what I LOVE YOU NOW WHAT? Can love survive when someone dies? 'No bastard ever warned me that your love life goes down the shitter when someone dies.' This brilliantly funny, heart-warming and raw debut play by actor and comedian Sophie Craig, examines a beautifully ugly story about grief and love's place within it. I Love You, Now What? opens a window into Ava and Theo's lives, following the diagnosis and loss of her father, causing her world to come tumbling down. Directed by Toby Clarke (director of the Olivier-nominated Warheads) and produced by The REcreate Agency. OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk ED FRINGE FORM NEWSLET