Somehow I was able to acquire a press pass for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe and thought I best make the most of it. After being inundated by emails from magicians I managed to find some shows that piqued my interest.
One such show was ‘Before The Drugs Kick In’, a hybrid stand-up/theatre piece that has been nominated for the BBC writers room prize this year for best new show. Written by New York stand-up Mike Lemme and performed by Maria DeCotis, who is also a New York-based stand-up in her own right. The performance is a cerebral dive into the imaging of Lynn T. Walsh, a woman who has been sectioned for self-harm as she waits for her son to visit her on his birthday in November 1998.
It discusses how women of a particular generation experienced, and were ultimately let down, by stigmatisation and a lack of proper understanding around mental illness, avoidably and devastatingly so. The narrative is partly inspired by Mike’s own relationship with his mother. Its presentation is inherently confronting, you slowly realise the mechanisms of its built reality as the narrative slowly reveals itself to you. Using the format of a stand-up set also allows for a tilted obscurity to transform the more morose aspects whilst simultaneously playing with the format and tropes of stand-up comedy more broadly.
I sat down, or more accurately stood next to a wet bench, with the show’s creator and star to discuss the process of collaborating on such a personal project and how they struck the fine balance of tragedy and comedy to keep audiences on side.
How are your fringes going?
Mike: Fringe is going great. This is my third time here and easily this first week has gone much better than all last fringe[s]. We have a better venue, better time slot, better just overall experience. I brought two shows here last year, a stand-up show and a play and this year were just focusing on ‘Before The Drugs Kick In’ and it’s [a] much more relaxing and enjoyable experience.
Maria: This is my first fringe. And I’m doing two shows, I just thought why not? It’s been really good to have the experience of doing this show, which I’m just acting in, and the other show I wrote.
How did your guy’s collaboration for this piece come about?
Mike: We met through doing stand-up in New York and then I had a play last year called ‘Healing Plus’ and Maria did the voice-over work for it. Her lines in the show got bigger laughs than some of my lines, so I knew I had to work with her again. When I landed back in New York from Fringe last year I texted Maria saying we should work on something. A year later we’re back with the show.
How has it been playing this character compared to doing your own stand-up show?
Maria: I’m a trained actor so it’s something I’m really passionate about. I’ve been doing stand-up [for] a while but I’ve wanted to get back into acting so I was really excited to do a play again. And also it’s just me so that’s really exciting. It has been a very close collaborative process, we make changes to the script together and we talked about where the character is in this moment and what makes sense for her to say or do. So it was very collaborative in that way too, both being stand-up and writers. So we’re using a lot of different tools on this piece. I think it would be really difficult to do a piece like this if I didn’t have experience doing stand-up. Because it’s such a different skill when you’re up there by yourself.
In regard to that collaboration. How have you found sharing such a personal story, not just sharing it with strangers but also with each other?
Mike: We built this character together and it’s been an amazing, relaxing, cathartic experience. And I tried talking about this on stage in my own stand-up, talking about my mum, when I was younger and it works so much better having Maria take on this character and tell my version of my mother’s story through this character. I feel like I’ve figured out how to tell this story without me being on stage. And I enjoy it better. It’s weird to do a ten-minute set and talk about your messed up family in ten minutes because it might go great or it might not go well. But an hour show with a piece of theatre feels like the right way to tell the story.
Maria: Early on in the rehearsal process we talked about ‘Am I playing your mum?’ and [Mike] was like ‘No you’re playing a character’. So I feel like that also gave me [the] freedom to not be scared or precious about; am I doing this right? Am I going to hurt his feelings? You talk about this in the talk-back, it’s like honouring your mum through this story and honouring so many other women who have had this experience. Because we’ve already talked to people whose mums have had similar experiences.
It’s interesting hearing it from that perspective where you’re bringing your own character to this person. Do you notice yourself learning new things each night?
Maria: Yeah and I think it depends on the conversation I’m having with the audience. Like some audiences come in very serious and then some audiences come in and are like this is stand up [a] show. So it kind of depends on what they’re bringing and how I meet them. I tried to bring in more energy tonight at the top so it’s not just this sombre story because it is about her finding healing through humour and finding this other world to go to through humour.
Mike: Today was Maria’s 11th or 12th time doing it in front of an audience. So every show the characters [is] coming more and more to life. Like even seeing her walk across the stage. Cos with Maria’s actual stand-up you kind of standstill, now she’s pacing back and forth like Chris Rock.
“I think it would be really difficult to do a piece like this if I didn’t have experience doing stand-up. Because it’s such a different skill when you’re up there by yourself.”
-Maria decotis
Lastly, what other fringe shows have you been seeing or any you’re excited about?
Mike: I cannot wait to see ‘And Then The Rodeo Burnt Down’, there at The Space as well. They came to the Fringe last year, they were only supposed to be here for a week but ended up getting a Fringe first award from the Scotsman [and] they extended for the whole run, sold-out all those shows. They’re back with that show and a new show called ‘What If They Ate The Baby’, they are two of the coolest theatre people from New York; Chloe and Natasha. I’m looking forward to their show very much. Got to support New York.
Maria: I keep talking about this puppet show, they did this small excerpt at a Summerhall party one night, I think it was called ‘Bill’s 44th’.
Mike: It’s like an adult puppet show.
Maria: I was so moved [by] the short ten minutes excerpt I got to see. So I’m really excited to see that, I just have to wait for my other show to end.
I love puppets!
Mike: Me too!
Before ‘The Drugs Kick In’ plays at TheSpace @ Surgeons Hall until the 26th of August.
