Elf Lyons talks Horses, her newest present touring the UK after a slew of 5 star critiques at The Fringe.
What can we anticipate from Horses, which you’re touring within the UK in May after receiving an awesome variety of 5-star critiques on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe final yr?
Expect large laughs, large shocks, extreme violence and bloodshed, some very foolish bits, and probably some tears. Horses is a chaotic cocktail of comedy, clowning, mime, theatre, and pure emotion. It’s full of nostalgia, absurdity, and a good quantity of existential dread—oh, and, in fact, lots of horses.
What do you suppose makes the present join so strongly with audiences?
I by no means actually know which components of my reveals will resonate with folks or who they’ll have an effect on essentially the most. One of the largest surprises with Horses has been the variety of males who get unexpectedly emotional by the tip. I additionally love seeing folks return with their family and friends—it’s one of the best praise. At its core, Horses is about nostalgia, grief, and the unusual, bittersweet technique of rising up. Parents who’ve watched their kids develop up typically say they it reminds them of watching their kids transition from innocence to maturity. Adults bear in mind what it was prefer to play, and everybody—whether or not they realise it or not—feels that quiet ache for one thing they’ve misplaced. Also, horses like it. And anybody who has met a horse, or just admired one from a respectful distance, appears to like it too.
Did you do any uncommon analysis for Horses? Please inform me it concerned lurking in a subject and making an attempt to speak with precise horses.
Oh, I went deep. I realized so a lot about horses. The bizarre factor is, regardless of how a lot analysis you do for a present, solely about 5% of it really makes it in. I watched using classes, studied horse births on YouTube (which has completely wrecked my algorithm), and took an unreasonable variety of up to date dance courses. I additionally flew out to Prague to work with the good Trygve Wakenshaw on the physicality of the piece. All of this, and but, to today, no precise horse has ever responded to my messages.
What’s the one factor you want audiences understood about Horses which may not be instantly apparent from the skin?
Come in with an open thoughts. And, crucially, belief that I do know what I’m doing. There is a technique to the insanity.
The audiences who take pleasure in Horses essentially the most are those who let go and lean into the playfulness. If you sit there along with your arms crossed, ready for me to ‘impress you’, you’re making life tougher for your self. A present is rarely a battle between performer and viewers—it’s a collaboration. If you are available able to have a great time, the present takes off.
Clowns don’t at all times get the respect they deserve. What’s essentially the most ridiculous false impression you’ve heard about clowning?
That it’s straightforward. That you simply ‘go on stage and feel it out’. Absolute nonsense. Good clowning takes critical ability—each bodily and mentally. You want the physique of a trapeze artist, the stamina of an athlete, and the flexibility to spin about 5 totally different comedic plates without delay.
Imagine an alternate universe the place Elf Lyons is not a comic. What’s she doing as a substitute, and the way is she nonetheless inflicting chaos?
I like working with folks, I like educating, and I like serving to others embrace their creativity. So I’d in all probability wish to work at a group centre, working in outreach, or discovering some strategy to help artists and performers. I adored being a trainer, however the burnout is actual. If the training system have been more healthy, I may need stayed in it. But, then once more, I do take pleasure in working round smashing up greens, making bonkers reveals and pretending to be animals, so maybe this was inevitable.
What is it that drew you to clowning and mime?
Regardless of your age, background, language, or training, non-verbal humour cuts by way of all the pieces. It’s common. I like making work that’s accessible, the place you don’t want prior data to take pleasure in it.
That stated, I by no means really set out to be a clown—it simply occurred. I by no means formally skilled as one, however everybody stored calling me a clown, and finally, I gave in. As for mime? I like it, regardless that I’m not notably good at it. I name my model ‘spaghetti mime’—it’s all in regards to the feeling and the humour moderately than technical perfection.
What’s the worst potential job to have in the event you may solely talk by way of mime?
999 emergency operator.
Your reveals typically push the boundaries of style—what’s a efficiency model you haven’t tackled but however would like to?
My subsequent present (which can be my final within the realm of comedy) is all about flight and flying, and I wish to incorporate circus into it—a lot of methods, aerial work, and taking part in with gravity.
If you needed to clarify clowning to somebody whose solely reference factors are IT and Ronald McDonald, how would you set the file straight?
A clown seems on the world with the eyes of a pet. They are gentle on their ft, by no means make a noise after they hit the bottom, and by no means goal to harm anybody. clown at all times sees the world with hope.
If you needed to create a horror-comedy present primarily based by yourself life, what’s the scariest and funniest second that will make the lower?
To be sincere Raven (my final present) just about explored and excavated these points of my life. I’m at the moment turning that into a movie so that’s the subsequent mission as soon as I put this present within the steady. So, clearly, I’ve unresolved points.
Is there a second out of your childhood that, in hindsight, makes it fully apparent you’d find yourself doing what you do?
When I used to be little, I refused to put on knickers and would parade across the playground, morgue, and psychiatric workplace fully starkers. A born exhibitionist.
You’ve had lots of success with Horses on the Fringe. Is there a second within the present the place you secretly suppose, “I can’t believe I get to do this for a living”?
Considering one main college trainer known as me a “dyslexic dog” and one other advised me I had “no physical skill whatsoever,” the truth that I now make a residing out of bodily comedy is deeply satisfying. If I may return and hug my 10-year-old self, who cried on a regular basis, and inform her that that is the place she’d find yourself, she’d in all probability cease crying (briefly).
Touring is exhausting however rewarding. What’s your responsible pleasure once you want a break from the stage and the horses?
I swim. For hours. I put an audiobook on, hook up with my headphones and I simply blast up and down the pool like a shark.
What’s essentially the most unexpectedly emotional second you’ve ever had on stage?
In Adelaide, nobody received as much as be a part of me on stage on the finish of the present. It was a surprisingly emotional expertise. You neglect how beneficiant UK audiences are. UK audiences are on the entire very sort, open and giving and are in my view one of the best audiences to carry out to. When you journey to totally different nations you’ll be able to actually see how cultural attitudes and outlooks form viewers responses. (Especially on the subject of points corresponding to gender, class, race). Afterwards, folks stored saying, “Oh, I would have gotten up,” to which I merely replied, “But you didn’t.” That second basically modified the present—it took on a sadder ending, all due to the viewers’s decisions.
What’s the funniest or most sudden factor you’ve overheard about Horses?
Men steadily inform me, “I wasn’t convinced at first, but you won me over.” I like to reply by yawning of their face.
Also, a vegan society as soon as lodged a grievance with my administration about animal cruelty as a result of they genuinely thought there was a actual horse concerned.
Looking on the broader cultural context, does Horses provide any commentary on the world at present?
We’re residing in a time the place extra folks than ever are feeling lonely, anxious, and lower off from one another—round 3 million adults within the UK say they really feel lonely on a regular basis. Meanwhile, we’re glued to our telephones. Horses pulls all of this again to the massive query: what does it imply to be human? How will we wish to join, and how much folks will we wish to be?
If Horses had a theme track, what wouldn’t it be?
White Horses by Jackie Lee. It’s hopeful, nostalgic, and makes me really feel protected.
See Elf Lyons: Horses on tour at The Stand in Glasgow on seventh June. For tickets and extra data go to https://www.mickperrin.com/tours/elf-lyons-horses/
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