Hello, and welcome to
Regrets I've Had a Few.

I'm Paul Hunter, Artistic Director of Told
by an Idiot, and this is a podcast where I

talk to friends and colleagues delving
into what made them the

person they are today.

Hello and welcome.

My guest this month is a theatre company
who are certainly making a splash.

Formed by a group of students who met at
the Lecoq School in Paris,

this collective have created some unique
feminist theatrical experiences,

and their work has been described as a
brilliant mix of visual

humour and subtle satire.

Welcome, Bric à Brac.

Thank you so much.

Hello.

Well, I say Bric à Brac,
it's not all of Bric à Brac.

I have Alex and Kitty and Anna with me.

Could you fill listeners in on
who the rest of the collective is?

Yeah, of course.
Hi.

So myself - Kitty - Anna, Alex,
Christina, and Roxanne all met at Lecoq

back in 2013, and Bric à Brac kind
of began forming at the end of 2014.

But there were a lot...
There were a lot of us at the beginning.

I think there were,
in our first show, nine of us?

There were eight or nine.
There were a lot of us.

Then over the years,
people have been in and out, but it's

the five of us now who are a company.

At some point, fairly quickly, you
realised the lunacy of trying to have

a theatre group with nine people in it.
Yeah, tricky.

I think a few people didn't love the admin
that came with running a theatre company.

I see where you're headed there, Alex.

Well, speaking as someone who absolutely
adores admin, I've

managed to work through that.

Anyway, we will, of course,
talk much about Lecoq.

Touch on that because it's where you met,
and in the podcast, we've had various

guests who are either alumni or
indeed still connected there.

The wonderful Jos Houben has been
on the podcast and works with us.

I will grill you about that later.

But we will start how I usually start,
which is I'm going to invite you

to try to remember or return to
your earliest theatrical

experience, what you remember seeing, and
whether that was with family or

school or friends.

But if anyone has an early memory of
watching live performance

and what effect it had on you?

I have a really strong memory.

I grew up in Doncaster,
and my family are not a theatrical family,

but every year we would
go and see Blood Brothers.

I still think it's the one where if I got
on that as a resident or an assistant,

my mum would be very proud of me.

Everything else she doesn't understand,
but Blood Brothers is the one.

I think just the epicness of the music
and all the superstitions in it, I just I

remember thinking,
theatres are really cool.

Well, I have to say I'm very intrigued,
Anna, by the fact that you went

to see the same production as it/
They still do.

How many times have they seen it?

I think my mum has definitely
seen it over 20 times.

Extraordinary.

Like a super fan.

I hope it's the same actors in it
for the last 20 years.

That would be wonderful, wouldn't it?
Made the two boys.

That'd be fantastic.

Well, that's quite a unique thing.

Yes, of course.
I can see why that would have an impact.

Kitty, what about you?

I think I was about eight or nine, and my
mum took me to the Little Angel Puppet

Theatre because I grew up in
North London, Manor House.

I remember she took me there and it was
the Secret Garden with shadow puppetry.

I remember going in and being quite
scared because it was very dark.

She was like, it has to be dark
because it's shadow puppetry.

I'm being not aware of
what was going to happen.

But I remember it being really visually
arresting and being very interested in

that and being like, how does it work?

I remember talking a lot afterwards
about, but I don't understand.

How does it work?

I think that sparked a bit of
inspiration in me, for sure.

Also, that feels a very creative
first experience of live performance.

Yeah, definitely.

Because I don't think there was a lot of
speaking in it from

what I remember as well.

Then
years later, training at Lecoq and doing

the training we did,
I think maybe at eight, I was

like, yes, I need to speak less.

Move more.

And be a shadow.
Speak less, move more.

That's not a bad...
I should have that in my notebook.

Alex, what about you?

It's a good question.

I think the first memory I have of seeing
theatre I was maybe seven or eight, and I

was staying with a really good friend
of mine and her family in Myrtle Beach.

And her mum took us to go see...

It was called The Lullabies of Broadway.

So it was a medley of all sorts
of different musical numbers.

And I remember sitting there and watching
it and just being like,

I want to be there.
I want to be where they are on stage.

Then afterwards, my friend Elizabeth and I
just made up songs for the rest of the

trip, and we ended up creating a song
called Showbiz Broadway, which we

performed to the whole third grade class
when we got back to school.

I have to say, Alex, that no disrespect to
Blood Brothers or the Little Angel

Theatre, but that's proper showbiz.
American showbiz.

It was very showbiz.
American showbiz.

That sounds really
lullabies, but how fantastic.

Are you still in touch with your friend
that you created that with, or is that

not a relationship?
Yeah, she was, she was at our wedding.

Oh, how cool.

Did she go down the showbiz path like you?

No, she's a nurse.

Well, I feel I'm sidetracking here
slightly about your friend there.

I'll bring this back.

Obviously, you're growing up in
different places.

Doncaster, where were...
North London.

Whereabouts?
In Canada or America?

America.
I moved all over.

Okay.

But I suppose my next question
really, or thought was, you've had

your first theatrical experience.
You've seen that.

At what point did the notion of
performing yourself become a thing?

Was that at school or a youth theatre?

Or how did that all start?

I remember.

I think it was actually before I saw that
show because we were living in LA at the

time, and that was earlier in my life.

It was Thanksgiving, and I remember I have
a very strong memory of sitting on the

swings with my aunt, and she said
something about, Why

don't you write a show?

And I didn't know how
to write at that point.

She I was like, well you tell me what you
want everyone to say, talking about me and

my cousins and my brother, and I'll write
it down for you, and you can follow it.

This is a script.

We wrote this show about a turkey getting
being captured and eaten at Thanksgiving.

I
don't remember what happened in this show,

but I remember at the end, there was
somebody who was a turkey, and at the end,

we came on with a piece of
paper that had a turkey on it.

From then on, it was all
family get-togethers, cousins, we would

always make little shows together
to perform for the family.

How wonderful.

The fact that you had a dramaturge
who was see it down for you.

Then what sounds like a fairly Brechtian
influence with the drawing of the turkey

on the paper, it's an eclectic mix there.
Kitty, what about you?

How did you end up?

I think similar to Alex, I was a child who
made my parents and carers and family

friends watch me dance or tell jokes.
Tell jokes?

Excellent.

Yeah.

I used to love doing that, reading joke
books and then being like,

Look at this joke I made up.

And everyone I was like, Did you?

I think that was the signature move.

But then when I was about nine, I joined a
youth theatre in Tottenham, and that was

in a little community hall, and there were
a group of us from

my primary school who went.

I remember being so excited because we
made a show, so it was a device show about

a tour group of really grumpy people
on a tour with these wacky tour guides.

I got cast as one of the tour guides
and I was like, I love this.

It was really fun.

My best friend who I've known since I was
four got cast as one of the grumpy adults

on the tour and she was
really, really angry.

But I was the tour guide.

Welcome to showbiz.

I have to ask, as someone who lived very
happily in Tottenham for 10 years,

and my kids were born there.

We had a lovely time there.

Whereabouts was your youth theatre?

It was in Chestnut Park,
in the community centre.

I don't know if they do drama there still.

It doesn't seem as used, but sometimes
people are outside it because

I live quite near there still.
I know, exactly where it is.

In that community.
Because I went to...

Well, it's Chestnut, but Woodland Park
Primary School, so the

primary school right next to it.

So, yeah, a short walk from
school, but I loved it there.

Very good from Tottenham to Lecoq.

Anna, I might be slightly changed my
question because I'd like you to talk

about performing, but obviously I'm
intrigued because I know one of your

key roles is obviously directing the
repertoire and the work

that you do in Bric à Brac.

A little bit about the performing, but
when was this idea that actually this

what this thing called a director?

When did you learn about
what a director did?

Really late.
I thought really, really late.

I grew up in a slightly weird way where my
mum started a school

with five of her mates.

And so there are only six of
us in the school in Leeds.

And we were put on, they'd make us do
unabridged versions of Shakespeare

from age five.

So Midsummer Night's Dream and Merchants
of Venice, which is really odd.

But I used to know everybody's lines.

I was terrible on stage, but
I would know all the lines.

And I think looking back, that's an
indicator of where I've ended up, which is

I really want to know everything
about everything and go behind

the scenes of everything.

And then in school, we do plays, and
they'd always cast me as the larger

man and pad me up in pillows.

And it used to make me cringe inside.

But I loved theatre, but
I knew I couldn't be on stage.

So then I ended up doing puppetry because
I thought, well, you're on

stage, but no one looks at you.

And enjoyed that
for a while, but then started making my

own shows with people around
me and I've got an idea.

Let's do this.
Let's try this.

Then I went with an ex to see a Complicité
show, and I thought,

how are they doing this?
I've never seen anything like this.

And which show was it?

I think it was Street of Crocodiles.

It was when I was in high school, just at
the end, and I did not understand how

you could make something like that.

Then started looking a little bit into
Lecoq and then saw work by Told by an

Idiot and Rhum & Clay, and
I wanted a gang.

I looked up Lecoq and I saw you had to
act, and I thought, Oh, gosh, this is not

going to be fun, but let's have a crack.

Then two years trying to avoid
performance in a performance school.

Okay, that's interesting.

Well, you led us, I suppose,
to that point in the journey.

You, by the sound of it, that discovered
Lecoq, maybe through seeing the Complicité

show and finding out about that.

Alex and Kitty, how did you
discover Lecoq and what it was?

I did my undergrad at Sarah Lawrence
College in New York, and I knew that

I wanted to study abroad in Paris.

We had a connection somehow to Lecoq, one
of the professors at Sarah Lawrence

knew Pascal at Lecoq very well.

I talked to her about it.

The programme sounded amazing.

I had been doing a bit of movement work at
Sarah Lawrence as well, so it

felt like it was just meant to be.

Then, yeah, I had to do...

I don't know if you guys had...

I had to do an audition for the professor
at Sarah Lawrence in order for her

to recommend me to go to Lecoq.

But, yeah, fell in love
with it once I got there.

I really.
Excellent.

An American parents, of course.

Yes, take us back to the old
neighbourhood Hollywood once more.

Kitty, how did you hear about Lecoq?

I was in my second year at Uni.

I went to University in Sussex, and I was
doing English lit, but I quickly, from the

first year of Uni, was in the Drama
Society and all my tutors were like,

You're never going to do that well in
your degree if you keep doing play.

It actually took me a whole first year.

I didn't get into anything in the Drama
Society until the final

term, the struggle.

That was really fun.

I worked with a director.

We did 4:48 Psychosis.

Oh, my word.

I love that play because of
the experience I had with it.

We used Complicité's rehearsal book.

I remember being like, Oh, I'm
really interested in this process.

But in my second year at Uni, we went to
Edinburgh with a show with the Drama

Society, and I went to see a student who'd
been at Sussex with the person who

directed the show, and he had made the
show, and his company were called Rhum &

Clay, Anna has already mentioned,
and it was called Shutterland.

It was 2011.

I saw the show and I came out and I said
to my friend, Where did they go to school?

She said, Lecoq, I'd never heard of it.

I went back to my little Edinburgh fringe
flat, looked it up, and I

was like, I want to go there.

Then I just waited until I was old
enough and had enough money to go.

How interesting.

The three different roads to
Paris that the three of you went on.

I sometimes think about this, or sometimes
people have asked about this, about when I

first met Hayley and
John, 35 odd years ago, at what

was then Middlesex Polytechnic.

Obviously, for a younger generation, I
sometimes have to explain what a

polytechnic is, but I won't go into that.

But I do vividly remember the first
occasion of meeting Hayley in the

little canteen at the school
and thinking she seemed terribly exotic.

I was 17 from Birmingham and hadn't been
further than Belgium by this point,

whereas she'd been working in Italy as a
chamber maid and all these

things, and I was like, Wow.

On that note of first meetings, do you
each remember the first time

you all met at the school?

Yes.

Anna, yeah?
Yeah.

What do you?
Well, I do.

I remember because Alex had a party
and I thought I wasn't invited.

Which is ridiculous.

But you went anyway.

I just thought, look at this cool American
who I thought was a twin with another

person who was at the
school, which she wasn't.

I thought, look at that cool American.

I really want to go to her party, and then
crashed it, I think, very awkwardly.

And then Alice, I think
we'd spoken beforehand.

I had a party in my flat a couple of
nights before

Lecoq started, and we'd found some
people on Facebook that might be going.

And I was so nervous.

I remember Alice just being
very, very cool as well.

The Facebook group was good.

I wonder if they still do that, but we had
a Facebook group, so we

met with a few people.

We were looking at flats together
and going for dinners and stuff and

being like, We live in Paris now.

And I didn't speak any French.

That was trying to
find nice French people.

A challenge.

Similarly to Anna, I remember you being
very cool, Kitty, being slightly like,

Who's this cool British person?

That's so funny because to me, I
was like, I have nowhere to live.

I don't understand what people are
saying, but the bed is so nice.

Then with Anna, we did one of
the first autocourse together.

It was the one where we
set it on the canal.

It was with Tontian.

You're looking at me like, No.

Anyway, I remember it really well because
it was the first one that we shared back

with the professors, and they
actually gave us okay feedback.

I was like, Oh, wow, Anna
knows what she's doing.

Because she really directed that.

She really took control of the
assignment that we had that week.

It's interesting.

I've visited the school and I
come and watch autocourse and stuff.

I remember because of our teaching via
John Wright, who had

been with Lecoq and Philippe Gaulier and
whatever, as we were leaving,

and John was saying to me and Hayley, You
should make something together,

which, of course, we were completely
in awe of that this teacher had

said, You should do something.

Then we met in a café in Camden and
proceeded to have no ideas whatsoever.

One thought I remember the time was
saying to John, Should I go to the Lecoq?

I think I should go?

He went, he said, You could,
but I don't think you should.

I think you should go and make work now.

You'll encounter lots of other things.

Also, I didn't have the money or any way
of going there, but it was just some

pie in the sky idea.

I'm a bit like you, having
seen early Complicité shows.

They were only 10 years older than us, so
we saw a lot of their very early work,

which is the big input.

However, in a roundabout way,
I suppose my question is more about the

sense that you arrive at the school which
has such a particular philosophy and

the idea of the creativity of the
performer, what did it feel like when you

were suddenly thrown into that world where
you're having to make it up, you're having

to come up with stuff on a regular basis?

Kitty, what did that feel like?

I read the book before I went, which was
great because lots of the improvs that he

talks about in the book,
you do in that first time.

It really talks you
through the first year.

But I remember going and thinking, I had
made a theatre company at university.

We had read the Complicité rehearsal book.

We were like, I went thinking,
Oh, I can make devised theatre.

I know how to do that.

Then I went and it was actually really
humbling for me because the

teachers with me were quite tough.

I felt like I got a lot of tough
love, and I think for me that worked.

But a lot of the time they basically were
telling me, You don't

know what you're doing.

That actually helped me in a big way.

But at first, I think I really had to get
over the fact that

I thought I knew what I wanted to
make and what it would look like.

It really changed what I thought a
movement sequence was, because I was

obsessed with movement sequences at Uni.

I'd be like, I put a
movement sequence in a play.

Then I got to Lecoq and they
were like, What is that?

I was like, Okay, I need
to rethink everything.

For me, I think
I found it quite overwhelming, but it then

put me in such an empowering position to
be like, Okay, I know nothing

as myself as a performer.

I have an idea of what I like,
but I'm just going to be open to the

people I'm in the room with
and see what comes out.

Actually, that's what I think they're
really good at at Lecoq as well,

because you're in two groups.

Me, Alex and Anna weren't
actually in the same group.

Alex and Anna were in Group B.

I was in Group A with
Christina and Roxanne.

You work with so many different people,
and it's great because working with all

those different people from all around the
world, you get different

things from everyone.

For me, I think it was quite humbling, but
then it was a really good experience to be

like, Oh, let's just throw myself
into this and see what happens.

It's interesting.

You said earlier when you arrived,
you had nowhere to live, no money, and

they were telling you didn't
know what you're doing as well.

So you had a triple whammy of
things to be coping.

Yeah.

On our first day, at the end of the day,
they said, Does anyone still not have

anywhere to live and I put my hand up and
they said, Does anyone have

somewhere to put them up?

And actually a fellow member, a girl in my
class was like, I'll put

you up for two weeks.

They were all about the
community, which was nice.

Very good.

Alex, how was it throwing
yourself into that world?

Yeah, I came in not knowing much because I
had what my professor had told me, but she

made it sound like this mystical place
where you learned how to be the colour

blue and might cry at some point.

So I really didn't know.

I hadn't learned the word.

I didn't know what the word
devised meant at this point.

I didn't know what devised theatre was.

So once we got started, when I was told
every week, you to make something with

your classmates, that
idea really excited me.

I thought that was an incredibly
exciting and creative way to work.

But then when you actually start to do
it, you realise, oh, this is challenging.

Our group, especially, I think we were

a little bit trying to please too much.

And so we were so concerned with trying
to get it right, trying to get it right.

And I think,
well, I don't know if we ever really broke

out of that, but still, I found it
pretty fun, even when it was challenging.

And the movement stuff I found really
interesting, and it just clicked.

I felt like I just got it.

So, yeah, my experience was positive.

Go ahead, Anna.

I really struggled.
I can't lie.

I didn't know it was a boxing hall.

I didn't know it was all
going to be in French.

I had not really read up on it.

I just had this idea of, I'm going to
go learn how to be a clown in Paris.

That sounds cool.

When I got there, it was a shock to the
system, and then suddenly you're having to

improvise, which is terrifying still to
this day, where

they say three people get up and people
are pushing each other out of

the way to get up there to do it.

I would avoid it every a single day
until the teacher would go, Anna, you

need to get up, and stumble through that.

I actually tried to leave
at the end of first year.

Normally, you put your name down to get
into the second year

and they say yes or no.

I, two weeks before the end or
three weeks, just didn't turn up.

I said, I can't do this anymore.
This is horrible.

But I love all the people.

Then Paula, who was head of the school at
the time called me in and she'd

never spoke in English to me.
I never had a clue what they were saying.

We would be improvising and I'd have to go
up to someone next to me

going, What are we doing?

They're like, You're a polar
bear carrying an iceberg.

She called me in and she spoke
English to me for the first time.

She's like, You need to come back
because you've got a good eye.

With what's coming up because you do this
performance at the end of first year, your

group needs you,
so you need to go be with them.

Give it two more weeks.
I was like, Okay.

Then did that and then stayed for the
second year, which was traumatic

as well, but enjoyably traumatic.

That's very interesting, the three
different experiences and

responses to the experience.

At what point
did you, as a group, including all the

others, decide to go, We're going to try
and give this a shot post-school and

try and make something?
How did that happen?

In second term of the second year,
I think we had a meeting at Alex's flat

with, I think, 12 people
at that point who all-

It was even more.

There were loads of people from
our year who came to that meeting.

And we said, We want to make a show.

Does anyone have any ideas?

And I said, Yeah, I have an idea.

I want to make a show about smoking
and class and the story of my dad.

And everyone said, Okay, let's try it.

But we have to meet up every Saturday at
this big hall in the middle of

Paris where people rehearse.

And then that ended up being nine
people that would turn up every week.

Then we got a slot at Southwark Playhouse
during the third term to do three

performances, I think, in the studio.

We all went on the train from Paris to
London to do these

three performances, which
the school wasn't very happy about, but

I'm really glad we did it in hindsight.

And performed it.

It went really well, and we knew
from then that we wanted to continue.

After the third term, we did that
show again and took it to Edinburgh.

Yeah, and stuck together, and
then we continued after that.

It's interesting.

Given the international mix of the school
and where you were, was it always going to

be a sense of basing
yourself back in the UK?

Or was Europe an option or elsewhere?

Or was it always going to be the
UK that going to bring you back?

I think a lot of us were going back
to London, or a lot of people were moving

to London who weren't from the UK,
but they were moving to London after

school because they were like, I'll go
Paris to London and then see what happens.

I think it worked out that
a lot of us were in London.

But then Alex was back in the States to
finish school, so we didn't

have her for a little bit.

But then we knew when she came, if
she came to London, that would happen.

That's been a bit like Roxanne now is in
Canada, so she's not as involved now,

but then if she comes back to the UK.

I think we always thought that that was a
benefit as well, that we had people all

over so we could
potentially go and take...

We've always said we would love to take a
show to Norway because we've had a lot

of Norwegian players in Bric à Brac.

Still not happened maybe one day.

That's something we've
always thought about.

But I think with Ash our first show,
that was always going to be in London.

It was just who was going to be in London.

Yeah.

It's interesting, I suppose,
then you make something.

We had a similar journey.

We went to Edinburgh with our first show.

At that point, we weren't in any
way thinking about making a company.

We just wanted to make a show
and get it on in Edinburgh.

I vividly remember standing outside
Pleasance, too, or whatever the venue was,

and I had to make my entrance because
I had to enter through the audience.

I remember looking round at the rest of
the Pleasance thinking,

whatever happens, however
bad this goes or whatever the reviews

are like, at least we can say we did it.

At least we can say we made it.

We didn't take a play off the shelf.

We didn't do a version of Hamlet.
We did this.

Then luckily, it took off
and from there, it spiralled.

But
I suppose my next question is, obviously,

I encountered your work for the first time
in 2019 with Mustard Doesn't Go with

Girls, which I thoroughly enjoyed, as
you know, and I spoke to you after.

But I suppose
I was interested then, and I…

When people become something more coherent
and they move on,

what do you think defines your work
and how do the shows differ?

What are the things that you think, yes,
this makes it a Bric à Brac show, but

what's the difference
or how do they change?

I feel like we were just talking
about this, weren't we, Kitty?

Yeah, we were talking about this on the
phone the other day, how

to describe it on a flyer.

All of our shows have
been really different.

We are led by whatever Anna is inspired by
at the moment, and she inspires all

of us, and we're always on board.

The first one was the show, Ash,
based on the true story about her

father's relationship to smoking.

That was a lot of movement.

It was using manipulating suitcases.

There was live music on stage as well.

Then we made an immersive show, making fun
of the weight loss industry, which

included games and lots of colours and
characters and alternative endings.

Then we made Mustard Doesn't Go with
Girls, which was a kid's

family show, musical.

Then Glass Ceiling, which was a live film

show about astronauts, female astronauts.

Now this one's completely
different as well.

But I think the through line is, I
think it's storytelling in

surprising ways, in interesting ways.

I
think we like to play with lots of

different elements and bring them together
in a way that makes sense for the show,

for that story, if that makes sense.
It does make sense.

It's interesting having seen
the Mustard show, and now obviously,

wonderfully collaborating with you as our
Associate Company on The

Intrusion that was lied into that.

But it does feel like I read a quote,
which I think is from a review, very

positive review of the Mustard
show, which talks about the satire.

I see that satirical thing in what
you're describing and what I'm seeing.

I think that's quite an interesting, not
saying that's solely what it is, it's a

mix of things, but I can see why
they would talk about that.

Even as you're now, as we record this,
you're now working on The

Intrusion, I see that there as well.

It's quite an interesting
element, I suppose.

Yeah, sorry, go on.

Yeah, I was going to say, I think with Ash
as well, we had a run of all the adverts

for cigarettes, through the times and how
they were promoted as something that was

good for you and healthy and how they
were sexy and how you should smoke.

I think we're interested in what sparks
discussion in us, how feel about

the material, morally in different things.

I think it's always about finding the
funny in something that can

be really dark and serious.

I've never really thought about that, but
all of our shows have been

quite satirical, I would say.

When you talk about the weight loss thing,
and I didn't see, but I can

imagine your take on that.
It's quite interesting.

Anyway, we are now collaborating and
brilliantly excited by what you're...

I'm not going to give too much away for
the listeners that have to come many

of the wonderful places you're taking it.

Open in Leeds is right, isn't it?

Leeds Playhouse, I got that right.

I suppose this...

I don't know, maybe this
is a tricky question.

I suppose...

What does it feel like,
this is your show that you're making, but

we've invited you to
come and do it with us.

Have you collaborated with
another company before?

Is this the first time?

You can be totally candid.

I won't press stop on the podcast.

Does it feel a strange experience that
you're not totally on your own, but

you're now with another company?

Yes, it's terrifying, but it's brilliant.

So I think when we saw the call out,
we've been massive fans of

Told by an Idiot, forever.

I think I've said that
a lot over the years.

But when we saw the call out, I posted it
on the group, and we all had loads of

things going on in our
lives at that point.

I've got a two-year-old,
Kitty was filming.

Alex, I think, was in between
America getting ready to get married.

And I said, We've got to go for this.

And then we became busy.

And then Alex, I think the weekend before,
said, If we're doing

this, we need to do this.
Off we go.

And we did it the night before, stayed up
till quite late with an absurd idea about

cockroaches, which my husband detests.

And we were like, no, we're doing it.
It's going to be fun.

I had no expectation of of getting
it and then having to do the show.

We just wanted to be seen by Told by an
Idiot, and you do these brilliant artist

surgeries, and we've popped up in those
over the years with different people.

And then when we were being shortlisted,
we were like, oh, wow,

we really want this.
We really want to do this.

But we still don't know what the show is.

So then when it came through and we were
like, oh, God, we got to make it now.

That's scary.

And people that you admire watching you
make that is scary, but I think that's

good for where we're at as a company
because you can get really comfortable and

you go, this is how we make it, and we're
all mates, and you mess around in

a room and hope the work is good.

But we take our work very seriously,
but in the room, we're not very serious.

That's a good combination, I think.

I always think it's good to take
the work seriously, but never yourself.

I think that's a good way
around to think about it.

Sorry to jump in there, Anna.

Well, thank you very much, Alex, for
reminding your colleagues and friends

that you needed to get on with this.

I'm very glad that you did.

We're obviously delighted because
it brings a totally different energy and a

different way of looking at stuff, which
is always interesting for us as well.

But with connections, being in the room
with you, it's really fascinating to see

stuff that goes, Oh, yes,
it's not like how we do it, but it kind of

is in a way, or stuff where you go, Oh, I
hadn't really

seen that before, or how you, and it's
also fascinating just on a personal level,

to see how another group
communicates with each other.

You obviously have a great friendship, and
then you're making this stuff together,

and I always think that's intriguing.

Well, we obviously can't wait to see The
Intrusion, and I know it's going to have…

I always think when I think of your work,
and certainly when I saw that show in

Edinburgh, how
strongly connected to the audience it is

and how theatrical it is, which
obviously why we were drawn to it.

But we're going to wrap up
now, if that's all right.

I always wrap up the same way by
asking seven quickfire questions.

Because the three of you, you may
confere, but not for very long.

It's got to be quite
immediate, your response.

The first question is, Wes
Anderson or Michel Gondry?

Wes Anderson?
Wes Anderson?

English mustard or French mustard?

Mustard doesn't go with girls.

That's not an answer.
Sorry.

Good one.
Trying to help it.

That's good.
Good answer.

Florence Pugh or Saoirse Ronan?

Florence.

I was going to say Saoirse.

Oh, I like a bit of division.
That's good.

Alex, you're the deciding vote.

Florence, I'm sorry.

Oh interesting.

Croque madame or croque monsieur?

Madame.
Croque Madame.

Don't you just...

Sorry, you Parisian's you.
Can you just...

I think I know the difference.
What's the difference?

Madame has an egg on top.

Yes, you're right.
You're right.

Thank you for clearing that up.

This one, if you had to compete in the
Winter Olympics,

would you be either in the bobsleigh
competition or the ski jump competition?

Is bobsleigh a team that more people-
You can be a team.

You have a team, bobsleigh, where you're
on those things and you go

hurtling down the mountain in a...

Hurtle down the mountain,
but altogether, sounds fun.

I'd like to see you-

I've never skied, so I can't
speak for my strength in that.

Let's do a bobsleding team.
Do a bobsleigh show.

Let's do it.
Next show.

Perfect.
Sorry, throw that in.

Could be like a Bric à Brac
version of Cool Running.

If you had an Edinburgh slot to
choose between, you only

have two slots to choose.

Would you choose 10am or 10pm?

I think the 10am theatre
slot is often really good.

I always listen to Kitty about that.

Well, just because I worked at a venue.

But I volunteered at venue.

I think the 10am theatre slot, you
can catch some really good stuff.

It's interesting.

Sorry, before my last question,
I pause for a second to digress.

There was a brilliant company who
I adored called The Right Size.

I don't know if you've ever heard of them,
but it was Hamish McColl and Sean Foley,

and their work was directed by Jos, and
they were brilliant,

astonishing double act.

They took one of their best shows called
Stop Calling Me Vernon,

brilliant title, to the Pleasance.

We'd been the year before and Hamish
said, They've offered us a 12 o'clock lot.

I said, Oh, midday is fine.

He said, No, it's midnight.

What do you think?

I said, Well,
I said, Your show is mad enough

and wild enough and funny enough
to maybe cope and work.

I don't want to hold me to that.

But anyway, they went for the 12
Midnight's lot in Pleasance,

and I saw it to be supportive.

There wasn't many people there.

I remember on one night, it was about 30
of us, and we had laughed like drains.

I'd seen it about four times, but this
audience absolutely wept with laughter.

I remember at the end, there was a
brilliant moment where Hamish and John

were on stage, and then
the applause started and Hamish

said, Thank you very much for coming.

If you've enjoyed the season's
performance, keep it to yourselves.

It was such a brilliant way.

Then they eventually sold out.

Anyway, there's a good story of Edinburgh.

My last question, I know Christmas has
come and gone, but I'm going to ask you,

Muppet's Christmas Carol or
Muppet's Treasure Island?

Christmas Carol.
That's me.

What are you saying Anna?

Have you seen Treasure Island?

I've not seen Treasure Island,
so maybe I need to go with that.

Well, I think you're right.

I would agree with you.

Christmas Carol is a masterpiece,
but I think Treasure Island is very good.

It's a very good adaptation
for Robert Lewis Stevenson.

Get it on the list.
Anyway, something for the weekend.

Gang, it's been so lovely catching up and
having a more in-depth insight into your

meetings and trainings and how you work.

Obviously, we're going to
carry on working together.

Thank you very much, and
I'll see you all soon.

Thank you.
Thank you so much.

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