It is August which only means one thing – it is Camden Fringe time! Over the next few weeks we are chatting to acts that are performing at the festival and finding all about their show and what they would call this years iconic Camden Fringe Pigeon! Today we speak find out about the play A Foray in Innocence.

Date: 15th – 19th August
Time: 19:30
Price: £12 Concession: £10
Location: Upstairs At The Gatehouse
Ticket Link: https://camdenfringe.com/events/a-foray-in-innocence-feature-play/

Hello! Tell us about A Foray in Innocence 

A Foray in Innocence takes place in 17th century London and involves a fictitious monarchy as they grapple with the many obstacles that arise from leading the nation, some of which include pending war and an assassination attempt. 

How did you come up with the name of your show that your taking to the Camden fringe?

Mostly I just thought it had a nice ring to it and it sounded fancy as it’s a fancy play… but then I began to justify it, and there are characters in the play who are going into completely new areas without fully realizing the weight and consequences of these new occupations. 

For example, George, a broke and struggling writer getting employed by the palace; Jacob, having to step into the role as the new King of England; and Emilia, a budding revolutionary finding herself engaged to marry the new king. 

Tell us a little bit about your style of show?

I spoke quite a bit about this with the director Liam and the costume & set designer Sarah and we decided to use paintings and drawings from the time period in which our play takes place as our springboard of inspiration for the style of the show, but to then take it in our own direction and play and experiment with it a little and that’s what we’ve been doing.  

What will your show be about?

A Foray in Innocence follows King Jacob, a young man thrusted onto the throne of England after the recent death of his father; Emilia Turner, a young and rebellious freedom fighter of 17th century London who hatches a plan with her friends to take down the royal household; and George Brooksby, a young poet madly in love with the inspired Emilia.

What other acts are you looking forward to seeing at the fringe?

There are a lot of comedy shows playing, I’d love to get in and see a couple of those, but honestly I haven’t looked through the entire catalog yet, there seems to be a lot of great stuff on and I’m excited for the festival as a whole… 

Have you done the fringe before? What have been some of your favourite shows to date and why?

I have not. First timer. 

What advice would you give to others who want to perform at Camden Fringe next year?

Start your preparation early. The earlier you start, the smoother the experience, at least that’s my experience so far but it’s still early days. I might be giving some other piece of advice by the time the show is staged. 

But A Foray in Innocence is quite a big show with lots of characters and it is also a period piece. I started working on this Camden Fringe production as far back as January and then slowly others got involved and started to help me and now it seems to be coming together and taking on a life of its own which is great. 

What is the best thing about performing at the Camden fringe?

The support from the Camden Fringe team and also the support from our venue ‘Upstairs at the Gatehouse’ has been fantastic and the low financial costs for being involved in the Fringe compared to booking a theater independently really makes it all possible. 

Also getting to perform a show like this in the heart of London is something I’m very excited about. 

London can be an expensive place to perform in – what key advice would you give to performers that is a sort of life hack?

I’m very new to London so if anyone has any life hacks for me please let me know! 

What are your three favourite things about Camden?

I haven’t been to Camden a great deal but I’ll go with: 

1. Amy Winehouse of course 

2. There were lots of really great places to eat 

3. Some of the streets looked really vintage too which I liked a lot… 

Favourite one liner you have done in a show and why?

I lived in New York for a couple of years and one of the first acting things I got involved with there was a staged reading where I played a parrot and I had about six lines in total through the whole thing and my first line was ‘Squuuuawk! Son of a bitch! Son of a bitch!’ in a high pitched parrot voice, and every time I did it it got such a laugh from the audience, mostly because they weren’t expecting it, and then after I said it that was the cue for one of the other actors to come over and shake me and say ‘shut the hell up you stupid bird!’ because I was interrupting a serious conversation between him and his grandmother. 

That was a really fun piece. It was actually a couple of small pieces bunched together and ours was one of them. And the guy overseeing it all, Jack Hofsiss, who has sadly passed away since, was a pretty well known theater maker in New York and who had also directed the original Elephant Man on Broadway and won a Tony award for it, but at the time I was completely unaware of all that, it was only afterwards I found that out. 

Who would be your ultimate dream audience member?

For this play Stephen Fry is coming to mind… I would love to hear what he thinks of it 

The iconic image of the Camden Fringe is the Pigeon – if you could call this years pigeon a name to represent its style what would it be and why?

Hmm this years style for the Camden pigeon seems to be inspired by a magician and given that our play is set in old London I’ll pay homage to one of the famous magicians from the court of Queen Elizabeth I, John Dee … so as a name for the Camden pigeon I’ll go with ‘John d’Pigeon’… 

If people want to find out more about you where can they follow you on social media?

They can follow everything about A Foray in Innocence on @forayplay on Instagram and if they want to know more about my other projects then they can follow my personal Instagram on @ronan.colfer or my Twitter on @ColferRonan 

And Finally in three words – Why should people come and see the show?

Dramatic. Engaging. Poetic!