We caught up with Fizzy Sherbet to tell us all about their new podcast series which is now live!
“It’s cold at the moment, isn’t it? But all the fog and ice cannot dampen our excitement here at Fizzy Sherbet, as we have just released the first series of our podcast on Monday 17 January 2022 and are still buzzing.
Following our successful pilot series as well as some fizzy chats with interesting women in theatre, such as playwrights Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, director Maria Aberg, Tonic Theatre’s Lucy Kerbel, and Heidi Wiley and Sarah Sepulchre of the European Theatre Convention, we are now going live with the first ‘proper’ series.
It’s been quite a journey, from a series of play readings at the Hackney Attic to what is now an Arts Council funded award-winning (yes really!) theatre podcast with reach across 45 different countries worldwide. Our call-out for plays resulted in over 400 submissions from all around the world and it was incredibly exciting to read them and discuss and curate the next series with the panel.
We selected six plays written by Athena Stevens, Caridad Svich, Lashay Green, Fernanda Rocha, Grace Chapman and Sonja Ferdinand, pictured below.
The first full series of six narrative podcasts will include plays with themes such as female friends finding queer love together later in life, motherhood and knife crime in the black British community, a poetic piece about swimming the channel, and the story of a flight of an unaccompanied refugee boy from a war zone.
The season kicks off on 17th January with The Diagnosis by Athena Stevens, directed by Anna Girvan and recorded in front of a live audience at the Bush Theatre. It was such a thrill to realise how much energy a live audience can bring to proceedings and it’s a brilliant episode to start off with. Inspired by the Cassandra Effect, a metaphor from Greek mythology of a Trojan woman cursed to deliver true prophecies but never to be believed, The Diagnosis is about a woman who awakens one morning able to see how those closest to her will lose their power and autonomy. Athena Stevens is a writer, performer, director and social activist. In 2019 she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for her play Schism. This episode also includes special guest Sophie Williams, author of Millenial Black and Anti-Racist Ally.
Other writers include Danish writer Sonja Ferdinand, whose The Dream Machine was recorded in front of a live audience in Denmark, directed by Sofi Orem Skoglund. We were very lucky to make it there and back just before the travel restrictions kicked in again. Writer of Scientific, Fernanda Rocha is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and film researcher from São Paulo, Brazil, her play will be directed by Sandra Theresa Buch from Denmark. Blue by US-based Caridad Svich, whose recognitions include an OBIE for Lifetime Achievement, Ellen Stewart Career Achievement Award from ATHE, and a Visiting Research Fellowship at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama will be directed by Lily McLeish. Lashay Green presents Eulogies, and is a poet, spoken word artist, writer, and playwright from North-West London working with director Erica Miller. Finally, Grace Chapman, known for It’s Not A Sprint, presents May Day, a beautiful piece about female friendship and life-long love, directed by Yasmeen Arden.
We are so proud of all our writers, directors and actors and of course the core team, which consists of producers Ameena Hamid and Steph J Weller, directors Anna Girvan and Sandra Theresa Buch and writer/performer (as well as our lovely co-host) Josephine Starte.
Have a look at www.fizzysherbetplays.com to find out how to get involved and listen to the episodes or find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or at fizzysherbet.podbean.com. If you like what you hear, please leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts, like, follow and subscribe. Let’s get fizzing!”
By Tamara von Werthern & Lily McLeish, co-founders of The Fizzy Sherbet Podcast
