The production: “Hayfever”

 

After being selected out of 300 plays to have a first version of the play showcased at Theatre Peckham, London; 'Hayfever' is now transferring at the iconic Arcola Theatre in May before going to one of the main houses of New Writing at the Edinburgh Fringe,  SpaceUK!

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Hayfever is serious play that doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s an absurd, highly entertaining, interactive dark comedy exploring the struggles of Moyna, a young woman trying to integrate as a foreigner in her new home country and figure out how love works under different cultural codes.

 

A social message in an innovative format

 

What remains of the story of an immigrant when viewers are enabled to strip her world off her ‘oriental’ props and her circumstantial staging? Can our soul survive the nature of social media culture? Beyond metaphors, for a zero waste show, everything is literally for sale! The audience can commercially highlight and even own a section of the story and its aesthetic reality. You will be able to bring glimpses of our story, which will be auctioned, back into your house!

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As the protagonist’s profession is painting, various paintings of fringe artists will also be exhibited as part of the set so that audience members can offer bids. 

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In this immersive production, the audience members can also explore and steer the characters’ destiny, with the opportunity to zoom into any character’s inner feelings, requesting a monologue, a song or the unexpected at any time of the show. 

 

The Team

 

We are very proud of our creative team. It includes creatives and cast coming from incredibly diverse backgrounds in the arts, business, tech and innovation and originating from all over the world; we're bringing together seven different nationalities on stage. Read more about our team’s exciting profiles here. 

 

About the playwright

 

Eleonor Schumann. Hayfever is Eleanor’s debut play. It was first showcased in 2019 at the Playground Theatre as a part of RebelFest, and was then selected to be performed at Theatre Peckham Fringe out of 300 plays in 2022.

 

About the Director & Producer

 

Roxane Cabassut is one of the founding members of Emerge Production House. An acclaimed producer, Roxane is driven by discovering ways to champion emerging artists across multiple forms. She recently adoapted a modernised/bi-lingual version of Romeo and Juliette directed by RSC director Aileen Gonsalves, which is now touring in the UK/Switzerland/France.

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Last year, Roxane  was engaged as a freelance producer at the Bush Theatre where she worked on the curation of their 50th anniversary season and five of their Retrospective shows. She recently directed her debut short film called My life’s dream. In 2019, she directed Hayfever, which debuted at the Playground Theatre part of their Rebelfest, and subsequently played at Peckham Theatre before transferring to the Arcola Theatre and SpaceUK theatre! Hayfever marks Roxane's debut theatre directing credit.

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The Cast

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What We Need 

 

A total donation of £25,000 will fund a significant portion of our needs for the Edinburgh run: venue rental, accommodation, technical/music production. This is broken down into a 40% costs for venue rentals, 30% for accommodation and 30% for parts of our technical/music production. 

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Please note that we are developing our budget with care about basic requirements for artistic creation, while also dealing with very high demands in rental costs, technical and artistic fees. Our raised amount can cover core costs of the production, but not the totality of artistic fees. In case we surpass our target donation, we will dedicate the extra raised amount to covering the remaining parts of our artistic fees.

 

Other Ways You Can Help

 

Whether you have the resources to donate or not, if you feel passionate about our social cause and project, we would still like to invite you to:

• Join our platform of artists, creators and voices within which we inform, exchange and workshop ideas. Join here: https://www.emergespace.co.uk/contact

• Help us to get the word out about our new production. Share our social media posts and make some noise about your campaign. FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/emergeprod INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/emergeprod/

 

If you are a business and aligned with our cause, there are also alternative ways of supporting us via:

• Resources (goods, rehearsals space, accommodation place in Edinburgh)

• Services (marketing support)