Amelie Breach, Ava Borthwick and Lola Morgans are three Norwich schoolfriends who are preparing to take their Drama A Level show to Edinburgh Fringe next month. Here, they explain how it was just too funny not to take the trip up to Scotland!
How did you spend your summer holidays, after your A Levels? For Norwich schoolfriends, Amelia Breach, Ava Borthwick and Lola Morgans, it’s going to involve a nine-day run performing their self-penned comedy play, The Attendants, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe!
In it, they play three flight attendants for Applesby Airlines (best described as ‘not as classy as Ryannair’), and will be also be introducing audiences to the various other characters they meet in flight.
‘We make three people seem like an awful lot more, I like to think,’ says Lola. As a result, audiences, can expect ‘hot pilots, security guards, lads from Norwich and posh girls’.
Amelie says: ‘I play Audrey, who is a little bit ditzy and quite boy-obsessed – that is her main focus. She’s single and she’s ready to mingle!’
Ava says: ‘I play Amy, one of the younger ones, but not as young as Audrey, so she’s a bit more sensible, but she often misses the point of the joke and has a very annoying mother, who comes into play later in the show – Lola plays the mum.’
Then there’s Nicole. ‘Nicole is one of the older flight attendants,’ says Lola, ‘and is maybe more responsible than the other two.’
Inspired by the playwright John Godber, this original show was written and performed by the three friends from Norwich High School for Girls, for their Drama A Level show back in the Autumn.
During the performance for the A-level examiners, one of their parents was overheard saying to another that the show would be perfect for Edinburgh Festival. Then everyone got on board with it! A few months later, the venue is all booked, and rehearsals are well underway.
It’s been a steep learning curve: ‘It’s been quite a complicated process,’ says Ava. ‘We had to do a venue search and The Space was the best venue to come back.’ Then they had to find accommodation – never easy when it’s Festival time.
The Attendants promises to be 20 minutes of hilarious observational comedy. Set in 2005, around the time they were all born, the music will be of that era (with Jess Glynne’s Hold My Hand, as used in the Jet2Holidays advert, thrown in for good measure). Amelia, Ava and Lola will be performing to nine different audiences during their stint at TheStudio – and no two performances will be quite the same. ‘It will be the most performances we’ve ever done,’ says Lola. But she adds: ‘It’s going to be so much fun.’
Friends and family will make the trip up to Scotland to see the show, but Amelie makes the point: ‘It will be interesting seeing how people, who don’t know us so well, react to it. We’ve performed it to friends and family but not to complete strangers.’ Especially given the fact the show involves the odd Norwich reference – Norwich City Football Club, for example, gets a mention.
The 18-year-olds expect to be among the youngest performers there, but it will be a perfect distraction from the nervous wait for A-level results. As well as the friends all studying Drama, Amelie has studied English and Psychology; Ava, Classics and Business; and Lola, Textiles and English.
They all sound particularly nervous about the Drama results – all hope to go to university in the autumn and then pursue a career in the industry. Amelie hopes to go into film and TV; Ava hopes to be a producer; and Lola hopes to do textile design, leading to costume design. Getting to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has already taught them a lot, as Lola says: ‘It’s funny how this has all kind of helped us – it’s been invaluable,’ says Lola. And she adds: ‘It will be really nice to maybe collaborate again in the future.’
Before the next stage of their lives unfolds, are they all going to jet off somewhere together and enjoy a proper holiday? ‘Maybe we’ll fly back from Edinburgh,’ comes the reply, ‘dressed up as flight attendants.’
Amelie Breach, Ava Borthwick and Lola Morgans will be performing The Attendants at theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39) at 2.25pm each day between Thursday 4th August to Saturday 12th August. theSpace on the Mile is in the Radisson Blu Hotel in the heart of Edinburgh City Centre. More information and tickets are available online at theattendants.co.uk
Featured images, by Tamsyn Morgans
Article by Emma Oussen in Folk Features – folkfeatures.co.uk/the-three-friends-flying-high/