The UK tour of Swipe Right Theatre’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019 musical hit Scream Phone continues at the Komedia in Brighton (26 November 2021) before arriving at London’s Soho Theatre for performances on 17 and 18 December.
Swipe Right Theatre was founded by NATASHA GRANGER and Kerrie Thomason to produce engaging theatre that champions womxn’s voices, stories and talents. Their critically-acclaimed debut show 2 Become 1 was written in 2015 and went on to have three sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and a transfer to the King’s Head Theatre, Islington for two full runs in 2017.
Directed by Tom Parry, Scream Phone, written and performed by Natasha (Melody) and Kerrie (Janice), premiered at VAULT festival in 2019 and went on to have a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and a national tour that year. Swipe Right Theatre also runs workshops in writing and creative practice with womxn’s groups and university students.
Natasha is also co-founder of Anglo-Swiss theatre company Theatre Fideri Fidera where her credits include Ugg ‘n’ Ogg and the World’s First Dogg, Pitschi: The Kitten with Dreams (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/UK tour) and Oskar’s Amazing Adventure in the Snow (UK tour). Her other theatre credits include Don Rodolfo, The Wrestling and The Reunion (Edinburgh Festival Fringe).
Here Natasha continues Musical Theatre Review’s interview series: Five Questions With…
After all the disruption caused by Covid, what has it been like to be back to work on Scream Phone, creating the touring production with the rest of the Swipe Right Theatre company?
It feels amazing!! This tour was planned for April 2020 so after three reschedules we can’t quite believe that we’re finally back on tour. We hadn’t seen each other for a long time so there was a lot to catch up on, we didn’t get much work done on the first day of rehearsals.
Can you tell us a bit more about the inspiration behind the show (based on the retro classic game Dream Phone) and previous productions?
Scream Phone all came about one night when me and Kerrie were staying in my childhood room in Brighton, and playing Dream Phone. For those who don’t know the game, it’s like Cluedo but instead of the lead piping there’s a giant pink phone, and instead of a murderer you’re working out who your crush is. There is something a little sinister about it and as we love old slasher films like Scream and Halloween and find the tropes and clichés so funny, we thought mixing these could be a brilliant basis for a musical.
You have a number of roles, as co-founder of Swipe Right and as co-writer and performer when it comes to Scream Phone. How difficult is it juggle to all those tasks or do you welcome the challenge?
It’s definitely a challenge but luckily we already know the show so that takes the pressure of worrying too much about learning lines and harmonies. Having a director we really trust has helped enormously and working with Tom Parry has been such a brilliant experience and we can really trust him to steer the show to where it needs to be.
More widely the company is committed to celebrating women’s voices, stories and talents, an example being your debut show 2 Become 1. Can you tell us more about that vision?
We write what we would love to see, and it is so important to us to champion womxn’s stories and put them front stage and centre. Womxn are HILARIOUS, yet cis men still dominate the comedy circuit, so we want to create funny, female-led theatre that breaks boundaries and is also an excellent night out.
Impossible question, but can you pick out a special highlight from your career so far?
I think it would have to be performing 2 Become 1 for the first time back in 2015. We were so nervous as we had been working on it on our own for months and didn’t even know if it was any good. I’ll never forget hearing the audience laughing and enjoying our work for the first time and knowing we were on to something with our writing!
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