Bristol comedian Louise Leigh describes herself as “a wordsmith living in an idiot’s body,” a second career that has now spanned a decade. At this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, Leigh performed not one but two shows daily, pairing with fellow comic Pauline Eyre before launching her solo hour, Octopus. The show arrives at The Wardrobe Theatre on November 12.
Using the octopus as a metaphor
Leigh said the octopus serves as a many-tentacled metaphor for the various roles she fills. The idea began after learning that octopuses have a brain in each leg, which she felt was a perfect way to discuss her struggle with multi-tasking. She said she wanted to resist the expectation that women in midlife must be the “grown up in the room.”
“More importantly, I also wanted to be really silly, and quite vulgar, because I think – especially once we’re in midlife – women are often expected to be the grown up in the room, and I want to resis,” Leigh said.
Leigh structured the show around eight octopus facts, using them as jumping-off points to avoid the intimidation of writing an hour from scratch. During previews, she let audiences choose the order of the facts, which reduced pressure. A consistent order eventually emerged, allowing her to trim the eight segments until they fit within the hour limit.
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Leigh said she used more music and sound and created costumes she would usually reject. She allowed herself to make a “really terrible costume out of tights” rather than telling herself it might be bad.
The Fringe grind
Performing the show daily over a month at the Fringe tested her discipline. Leigh said she was stressed at the beginning, worrying about remembering her words and maintaining energy for a second show.
By the end of the month, she found that even with tiny audiences, the show connected. She received messages from people days later who said they enjoyed it. In a festival as large as Edinburgh, Leigh said that level of engagement felt incredibly special.
“By the end, Octopus was this sort of glowing hearthstone that I returned to at the end of the day,” she said.
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Leigh said she is pathetically grateful that people chose to see her show. She aims to reflect their lives back to them on stage, often using things she feels ashamed of to show the audience they are not alone.
She also appreciates the architecture of The Wardrobe Theatre, where she performs on November 12. The venue surrounds the audience on two sides, requiring her to consider what everyone is seeing. Leigh said the backstage area is tiny, filled with costumes and lights that remind her of film scenes, giving the space a “real, mucky, backstage glamour.”
Louise Leigh: Octopus is at The Wardrobe Theatre on November 12 at 7.30pm. Visit thewardrobetheatre.com for tickets and follow the artists @louiseleighcomedy.