Monday 1 August 2016

Yuri's Dramaturgy: Mathilde López @ Edfringe 2016

Yuri
Patrick and Adele can’t have children and then Yuri appears. But who is Yuri? Why is he here? Is he dangerous? Is he Russian? Should we love him? A play about infertility, scrabble, supermarkets, sex, nationalism, the stranger in your living room and the absurdity of wanting to bring children into our deranged world. 

It’s also about love. 

Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61) ​ 
22:10 Aug 4-9, 11-14, 16-21, 23-28

Award-winning August 012 in association with Chapter Arts Centre and National Theatre Wales presents the British premiere of Fabrice Melquiot’s absurd comedy. Adapted by Daf James. Directed by Mathilde López.



  • What was the inspiration for this performance?

    A scandalous play by Fabrice Melquiot followed by a joyful collaboration with Daf James and the actors to translate and adapt it.

  • How did you go about gathering the team for it?
Interviewing and casting…is that not exciting enough?

  • How did you become interested in making performance?
I guess I’m driven by the urgency to stage what’s going on in my head before it can hurt.

  • Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
I usually spend a lot more time in R&D exploring space and format but the process for Yuri had to focus on translating and embedding the text culturally in Wales, not the words only but the rhythm, the bodies and the landscape so that is what we did.

  • What do you hope that the audience will experience?
Joy, horror and ultimately a tsunami of compassion.

  • What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
None, we just wrestled with the text, the ideas of the text, the world of the actors and the shape of the space until we felt we were onto something.

  • Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
I think you need to come and see the show and then place me in the tradition you think I belong to.


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