Edinburgh Fringe Chats (#56): Julia Taudevin, AUNTIE EMPIRE

8 Jul

Conducted by Emmie for Theatre and Tonic

As anticipation builds for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025, we’re catching up with a range of exciting creatives preparing to bring their work to the world’s largest arts festival this August. In this series, we delve into the stories behind the shows, the inspiration driving the artists, and what audiences can expect. Today, we’re joined by Julia Taudevin to chat about their show, Auntie Empire

Can you begin by telling us about your show and what inspired it?

In 2019 I had a Summerhall residency in which I set out to explore the technical and comedic possibilities of live gore on stage. As part of that exploration I had to come up with a character to try out those effects on which led me to thinking who I would most like to see disembowelled. That led me to the British Empire and Auntie was born. As part of that lab I teamed up with my friend and the amazing film and TV director Niamh McKeown (Dinosaur) to make Auntie into a short film. The film did really well on the festival circuit but the feeling that Auntie had to be live continued to niggle away at me. Finally I figured out what it was - Auntie is clown, well, she is bouffon, the dark clown. And a clown needs a live audience. This led us at Disaster Plan to ask Jordan & Skinner, one of Scotland’s leading clown and physical theatre companies, to collaborate and bring her to life. And here she is!

What made you want to bring this work to the Fringe this year?

The show addresses locally and globally current political themes of national identity, patriotism, and reckoning with the past of Empire. While the show’s emphasis is on Scotland and Britain, these themes of nationhood, nationalism, community, and empire have global resonance. In a period of political upheaval, the question of “who we are” has never been more topical. As a society we are obsessed with Britain as an idea, a community, a unifying identity – and yet at the same time an identity that is angrily contested, fractious and uneasy. Meanwhile, popular social and cultural movements are constantly questioning the imperial past on which British pride has traditionally been based. What does Britain mean to the world today? What does it mean to the British, including to the Scottish?

How would you describe your show in three words?

Hilarious, Ridiculous, Grotesque

What do you hope audiences take away from watching your performance?

I hope they will have laughed a hell of a lot while they’re in the room and as they leave I hope they will start to think about what ideas of Britain, nationhood and/or Empire means to them individually.

What’s your top tip for surviving the Fringe?

Popping out for a swim at Portie.

Where and when can people see your show?

The Dissection Room at Summerhall, 22nd August, 5:30pm