Our actors perform three shows at the world-renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe 

Two of our Acting students and one of our tutors will perform this year at the world's largest performing arts festival – Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Every August, the open-access festival takes over the Scottish capital, and featuring on this year’s official Fringe programme are soon-to-graduate Acting students Salome Topuria with her show Vera’s Truth and Rhys Williams with her show The Queen’s Head, both produced as part of their studies here at Catalyst. On a significantly larger scale and at the iconic Udderbelly in the centre of town, you’ll find Sarah Bleasdale and her company The BARBAREN BARBIES performing their incredible BARBAREN BARBIES – A Wild Women Circus (seen above, image © Bernadette Fink).

We can’t big this up enough. Edinburgh Fringe has a long history of being the starting point for many actors, theatre-makers and comedians. Household names like Robin Williams, Rachel Weisz, Alan Rickman and Eddie Izzard all had their breakthrough performances at Edinburgh Fringe. In 2013, Phoebe Waller-Bridge performed her one-woman show that went on to become hit comedy-drama Fleabag. Our Acting Programme Lead – and director of Salome's and Rhys' pieces – Adam Donald Ferreira is prouder than ever, and said “we are a course that produces world-class actors and world-class work. Now there is a very real pathway for our third-year students to launch their careers in powerful ways.”

We interviewed all three of our superstar performers for a deep dive into their practice, their projects and their path to success.

How does it feel to be performing this show at Edinburgh Fringe?

The prospect of being immersed in art for an entire month, witnessing continuous performances and observing talent from around the world is what excites me the most. When writing my theatre piece, I already knew I wanted to present it to the world and reach wider audiences, but I never anticipated that my work would transition from the Catalyst theatre to the Edinburgh Fringe so quickly. 

What are you most looking forward to about this experience? 

I will be performing my piece twenty-five times at the festival! I’m acutely aware of how much it will change and evolve throughout the month, and this evolution is what I am most looking forward to. The different audiences each night will influence my performance, and their interpretations will alter my vision and perspective of the show. The concept of an ever-evolving piece is intriguing to me and I am committed to delivering a better performance each day. Having only performed it within our Catalyst community, I had some anticipation of the audience's reactions. At the Fringe, the responses will be spontaneous and that is thrilling.

Why did you want to play this character, at this time in your career, when you are just starting out as a professional actor?

I was very frustrated by the ongoing political situation in the world. The feeling of indifference that I felt from society and the feeling of being “useless” in chaos is what led me to create the iconic and unapologetic TV host Vera Ballero and endow her with the power to articulate the things I needed to express.

As a young artist coming from Georgia, where our freedom of speech is constantly suppressed and censorship is a significant issue, I felt that this theme would be the right starting point to transform my frustrations into art. Working on this piece has been cathartic, allowing me to say and do everything I aspire to in life, but on stage. Let’s say this is a tribute to my angry 21-year-old self, who desperately wishes to make a change in this world.

Think of yourself at the beginning of your training three years ago before you began studying at Catalyst, and then who you are now. How have you evolved and grown as a performer? And how has this show helped in that evolution to who you are today?

The past three years of Catalyst training have significantly enhanced my awareness of who I am as an artist and the kind of art I aspire to create. They have provided me with the freedom to explore my artistic self, becoming a unique and independent artist with my own perspective and goals. Through this piece, I have proved to myself that it is possible to create your own work as an actor. To keep yourself engaged and inspired, and not wait for the phone to ring! I feel more confident and I have grown as a performer as well as a writer, director and producer, because I had to embrace those roles in order to realise my vision to the fullest.

Soon, I’ll be performing a theatre piece solely written and performed by me at the world’s most prestigious theatre festival. Everything is possible – the sky’s the limit!

How does it feel to be performing this show at Edinburgh Fringe?

Edinburgh Fringe has a worldwide reputation, and I have heard about its vast opportunities and range of theatre since I was a child. So I’m still in disbelief that I am actually performing my own one-woman show at the Fringe!

I am feeling grateful to everyone who motivated me during the process – without their encouragement, I would not have applied. Otherwise, I am just doing as much as I can to be prepared. Performing every single evening for a month is new territory for me, so I just want to be open to whatever challenges the Fringe throws my way.

What are you most looking forward to about this experience?

“The Queen’s Head” is a depiction of gender expression, sexuality, emotion and trauma – as well as being a world of fun, it is also very personal to my truth as a transgender artist. When I perform for an audience, I am letting them into my world and we become partners on a journey together. I’m excited to meet a different audience every night, to play off their energies and entertain, shock and confuse them by presenting who I am and what I can do.

I’m also looking forward to the physical and emotional journey I will go on with my show. I will find new depths and possibilities in every nuance of each character and moment within the piece and have enough time to fully embody them. 

Theatre is just one part of your repertoire. Which other types of performance have you developed skills in?

Aside from performing on stage, I specialise in acting for the camera. I came to Berlin to focus on this skill and I’m now much more capable of expressing a story on screen. I also love to change my voice with accent, tone and character and to sing. This is a significant feature of “The Queen’s Head”.

I’ve also developed my movement and dance skills a lot since arriving in Berlin – specifically in pole dancing, yoga and contemporary dance. I learnt a lot from our movement tutor Sarah, who always put emphasis on being present in your body. As a part of the Berlin ballroom scene that centres BIPOC trans and queer people, I have learnt how to vogue – a style of dance that comes from 1970s black trans culture in New York. It’s through the community and friends I have made in this slice of Berlin that I’ve stepped into my true self and have made this city my home.

What are your next steps within the industry going to be?

I’m already in contact with venues in Berlin and the UK about performing, so watch this space if you can’t make it to Edinburgh. I’m currently inviting agents, directors and people in casting to my show – so I’ll use the Fringe to get my name out there and find agency representation for work in screen and theatre, both in the EU and UK. Since working on the film “Mamántula”, which premiered at Rotterdam this year, I’ve been in contact with a few production companies and already have some shooting days confirmed for September.

After graduation, I will get my freelance artist visa and then my career in the real world will begin! Of course, I always self-initiate work rather than wait around for someone to give me a job. This is a quality that was hammered into me by my acting teacher at drama school in Liverpool and I am grateful for that.

How has the Acting programme at Catalyst helped you express yourself?

The acting programme at Catalyst was what I needed because it was fresh and unique, unlike most drama schools in the UK. I love classical techniques but I did not want to do another course that has been around since the 1700s. That’s why Catalyst was the best choice for me. From the very first semester, my eyes were opened to the possibilities of cinema and how many roles within film I actually see myself doing.

I learnt how to write scripts from Katerina, which is now a huge part of my practice. The “Films that changed us” classes gave me so much knowledge of cinema history that I never would have known before. Finding obscure films and diving into their context has become something I really enjoy and thrive on. The focus that Catalyst places on impulsive acting and “showing” instead of “feeling” has completely changed the way I approach a scene and I am very grateful to the tutors Marcio, Ariane and Greta for implementing this.

Of course, the solo theatre module in third year is all about self-expression and I would not have “The Queen’s Head” without my time here. Catalyst showed me the freedom you can have as an actor and artist.

When she’s not teaching our Acting students movement and stagecraft, Sarah Bleasdale is a member of the BARBAREN BARBIES – a Berlin-based international circus company. Since bursting onto the Berlin scene in 2022, the company of five have performed together over 100 times, touring throughout Germany, Austria and Poland and receiving standing ovations left, right and centre. Audience feedback has included “This is the best show I have ever seen”. Off the back of this success with both audiences and critics, they’ve been offered a place at the Fringe’s Udderbelly.

What does it mean to you to be performing at Edinburgh Fringe? How are you preparing for it?

It’s a very special and important moment for each of us. It has been an individual dream of all of ours for many years in our various art forms and disciplines. Now we get to do it together for the first time. Our preparation has included reducing our two-hour show to a one-hour version. This has been quite an undertaking, especially as the two-hour show had a tried and tested dramaturgical arc! The exposure to an international market is an important part of our Fringe experience. We are hoping for bookings in both the UK and further afield.

Preparation for the Fringe is no mean feat – it requires a lot of work and is not without risk. Ultimately, I hope at the Fringe we can continue to touch people with what we have created, to create a lot of joy and laughter.

What is your role within the company and its show 'BARBAREN BARBIES – A Wild Women Circus'?

On stage with the BARBAREN BARBIES, I am a dancer, Drag King and physical theatre performer. I also play some live music. We work with a devising model, collectively pooling our expertise in creating, writing, dramaturgy and direction, and on top of that I contribute choreography and movement direction.

The show strikes a brilliant balance between entertainment and sparking meaningful conversation around feminism. Was this challenging to achieve?

We did not set out to make a ‘feminist show’ per se. Unfortunately, putting five strong women on stage together in a circus show (or any kind of show for that matter) is already read as a ‘statement’ as it is not the norm. This is more a comment on where we are as a culture, than a statement we ourselves are consciously setting out to make. We set out to spark joy, have five grown women on stage having fun, playing and poking fun at everyone, ourselves included. 

We all have our own sense of humour, and are trained in many different disciplines. We devised this show together so it’s a very authentic combination of all of our voices and points of views. The fact our show is richly layered is a testament to all five of us having varying perspectives and opinions.

At Catalyst, how do you help our Acting students build confidence on stage?

My movement curriculum is entitled ‘How to inhabit your body’. I often quote Moshe Feldenkrais of the Feldenkrais Method who says “If you know what you’re doing, you can do what you want.” At face value it appears simplistic, but ultimately it is rather profoundly referencing infusing consciousness into one's body – which is the actor's tool. The more consciousness one has, the more options and freedom is available to an actor. Fostering this consciousness is a building block to growing an actor's confidence on both stage and screen.

Performance presence is also something I care deeply about and am passionate about nurturing in others. Live performance is a very specific beast, and my wealth of stage experience over the last 15 years has informed how I work to empower students with this ability. 

Support The BARBAREN BARBIES and their run at the Fringe by donating to their GoFundMe page.