Xhloe and Natasha are gracing the Fringe once more with their presence and bringing all three of their consecutive Scotsman Fringe First – winning shows – And Then The Rodeo Burned Down, What If They Ate The Baby and A Letter To Lyndon B. Johnson Or God : Whoever Reads This First – back to Edinburgh. But first, they penned a correspondence to Pepper&Salt detailing what happened before the rodeo burned down, who, what, why and how they ate the baby and who read the letter first, Lyndon B. Johnson or God.
How would you summarise your shows?
Xhloe :And Then The Rodeo Burned down is the story of a rodeo clown who wants to be a cowboy, until his shadow comes along and messes everything up. Think metatheatre, western vibes, anticapitalism, and self love.
What If They Ate The Baby is the story of two neighboring 1950s housewives living the same seemingly mundane conversation with the threat of something much more sinister going on. Think surveillance, bodily autonomy, queerness, and paranoia.
A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First is either the story of two boy scouts pretending to be soldiers or two soldiers reminiscing about being scouts. Think American Nationalism, masculinity, storytelling, and military.
How would you say your ideas and shows have developed from And Then The Rodeo Burned Down to A Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson or God : Whoever Reads This First ?
Natasha : We like to think we are constantly improving as playwrights and creators, we’ve sharpened our sense of writing about American identity, our physicality as performers, and our relationship to absurdism, but we still feel like these shows are never done, it’s a blessing and a curse. Even though Rodeo and Baby are a couple years old now, we are excited to show this years Fringe audiences some updates to them!
What are you looking forward to at the Edinburgh Fringe ?
Natasha : Our audience at the Fringe is more passionate than anywhere else in the world, we are so looking forward to connecting with the people who have made our journey possible, audience we’ve met in years past, super fans who keep coming back. Getting the chance to chat with people who feel almost as strongly about our work as we do is such a gift, and nothing beats the energy of the Fringe.
” We take trusting our audiences very seriously, not only in the way that you can trust as a writer that your audiences will “get it” without you having to spell it out, but almost more importantly letting go of the idea of them “getting it” at all.”
Natasha
Where do the ideas for your shows come from?
Xhloe : Everywhere! Our daily lives, other theatre we watch, books we read, podcasts we hear, conversations we have with other artists, you can take any small idea and extrapolate, discover its relation to our culture, to others, what’s the history there? How can we subvert that? We have LONG notes app lists in our phones of everything from full fledged plot ideas to revisions that ignite old ideas to single words or archetypes that we think are worth exploring.
Natasha :Rodeo was inspired by a true historical event we heard on a podcast, the original seed for Baby came from a tv scene, and LBJ started as a joking conversation about things we hadn’t written about yet. The one thing we’re sure we’re never short on is ideas.
How would you describe your writing style?
Natasha: Our writing style, we like to say, is absurdist, non-linear, clown, physical theatre that is influenced by elements of historical Americana and pop culture. Something we consider characteristic about our writing is the way in which the form of the show and the narrative always have a strong relationship, that is to say “how” we tell the story is directly linked to “what” we’re saying, they go hand in hand.
How did you come to clowning as a medium through which to tell your stories/ explore these socioeconomic issues?
Xhloe : We like to think we have always been clowns, even looking back at our silly skits we wrote in high school, we have always been drawn to that sense of play, physicality, and exaggeration in our performing. It wasn’t until we both formally studied clown that we were able to pinpoint the tools and language that already existed and incorporate them into a style that already suited us. Clown is uniquely suited to cover political and socioeconomic issues because clowns have always been mirrors to society, exaggerating and reflecting back how humans are, drawing your attention to the absurdity of it all.
What is your writing/ devising process like?
Xhloe : Every process for us is a little bit different, we like to think that the show has to demand the process from us, we adapt our process to how the play changes, but something that is consistent throughout everything we create is starting visually. We are both super visual people, we have backgrounds in visual art, we make pinterest boards, paintings, we describe images, we brainstorm the colors, the moments, the physical shapes we will make on stage, all before putting pen to paper with words. For us this helps the words and the images of the show feel innately connected, rather than finding the visuals from the words after.
Natasha : Our process also always involve a lot of revision, we are constantly questioning if a choice is the absolute best one that can be made, by the end of a devising process our scripts are torn apart, drawn on, rearranged and scribbled out, never treat a script you wrote as the bible.
In your opinion, what is the purpose of art and theatre in society?
Xhloe : This is a big one! We think theatre serves to remind everyone of human connection, it’s something so unique to live theatre, and why no matter how many movies or streaming services or social media platforms there are, live performance isn’t going anywhere. Theatre can be escape, entertainment, informative, you can make audience peer into another perspective or hold a mirror up on their own, but the reason to do it through a medium like theatre is to remind them that that specific moment can only happen because we’re all in the room together. You can’t get that anywhere else.
You shows contain very thoughtful explorations of complex issues layered into the narrative and movement. What advice would you give to writers who want to write more political theatre but are worried about being too heavy – handed?
Natasha : We take trusting our audiences very seriously, not only in the way that you can trust as a writer that your audiences will “get it” without you having to spell it out, but almost more importantly letting go of the idea of them “getting it” at all. Especially with heavy topics it can be tempting to make sure your stance on something as the writer is clear, but a lot of times this translates to audiences feeling like you’re forcing them to feel or think a certain thing.
Xhloe : At the end of the day you can’t control what someone will get from a piece, it’s something you sacrifice when you share work with people, you have to sacrifice that control. Focus less on getting your point across to as many people as possible and more on crafting moments that give everyone something to think about, even if it’s not all the same.
All three of your shows are very rooted in emotion and yet possess these really tangible socioeconomic insights. How do you balance all the parts of your storytelling to achieve this?
Xhloe : A big part of this for us is what we call “double duty”. We want every element of our show to be functioning on a minimum of two planes at a time. Whether a line functions as a joke but also foreshadowing, or a scene that serves as characterization but moves the plot along, or how a moment between a character can speak to their emotional state, but could also be a statement about the higher theme of the show. Making sure that every moment is doing double duty helps to balance larger sweeping themes, the message of the show, with the human, the personal, the grounded reality for the characters.
“Clowns have always been mirrors to society, exaggerating and reflecting back how humans are, drawing your attention to the absurdity of it all.”
Xhloe
Why do you think audiences have a visceral reaction to your shows?
Natasha : We think a big reason is because of the ambiguity in the absurdism of our shows, everyone can find a bit of themselves in them. A lot of our work has characters that are pretty ambiguous in identity, whether its age or gender or even time period. The other thing that really seems to draw people is our relationship, our shows are always the two of us, and whether our characters are feuding or lovers or desperate for approval from one and other, our shows revolve around power dynamics and relationships, it’s been wonderful to see the way people get attached to our characters.
Xhloe : The last bit, we think, has to do with our shows being quite different from a lot of mainstream theatre and, as a result, is new and surprising to a lot of audience. We often hear people say “I didn’t know theatre could be like that” or “I’ve never seen anything like that” or “I hadn’t though about clown/ storytelling/ absurdism/ etc. that way before”.
Your shows possess distinct chronological aspects or aesthetics to them. What time period would you like to set a show in next or explore?
Xhloe : There are loads of historical eras that interest us, chronologically would mean it’s time to explore the 1970s or 1980s which is full of great inspiration. We’re also really fascinated by Prohibition America, or the Great Depression especially with what’s happening with the economy in the US today. We’ve also toyed with going even further back, the 1800s, the Industrial Revolution or the Renaissance. We don’t yet know what’s next but we are not short on historical inspiration.
If you absolutely had to go back in time, where would you go?
Xhloe : I would have to choose the 1980s, the music and art and culture i’d give anything to experience, plus it’s not too far back, I still want indoor plumbing and telephones.
Natasha : Maybe this is even more of a cop out but i think the late 90s or early 2000s, I think that’s where I fit aesthetically, I’d go back and go to a Shakira concert for like $20.
Pepper & Salt 
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