Stop Trying to be Fantastic

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From award-winning writer/performer Molly Naylor (Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You, Sky One’s After Hours) comes this lyrical and funny spoken-word show that explores what we owe to each other and what we owe to ourselves. The project’s development was supported by Inn Crowd, a brilliant scheme that sends artists into rural pubs. Norwich Arts Centre also co-commissioned the piece. Molly Naylor is a scriptwriter, poet, performer and graphic novelist. Her stories and plays have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and she has performed at festivals and events all over the world. She has featured on several renowned radio shows and podcasts including A Good Read and The Guilty Feminist. Her third poetry collection is published by Bad Betty Press. She is the co-creator and writer of Sky One comedy After Hours. She wrote and performed the acclaimed solo spoken-word shows Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You and My Robot Heart. Her first graphic novel Lights, Planets, People! was published by Avery Hill in September 2021 and won the Broken Frontier award for best graphic novel. Her new live show Stop Trying to be Fantastic is currently touring the UK. She makes us think of the different ways we deploy to fend off our insecurities, which can sometimes be self-sabotaging. These strategies are very common: Abraham Lincoln, Michelangelo, John F. Kennedy and George Washington all experienced some aspects of self-sabotage before they made history – so we are not alone. A post shared by Grace Petrie (@gracepetriemusic) DIVA: Hey Grace. How’s the vibe up there in Edinburgh?

Swimming costume (swimming keeps me sane at the best of times)! Yoga mat (sorry, I’m that guy now)! Molly begins her story in the same place that it ends, with her sat in a room of a fertility clinic, and the aim of becoming an egg donor. But this was not to be…. One day, a magpie comes into a little girl’s house by mistake. It decides it likes her. She spends the next twenty-five years trying to get away from it. Finally making peace with her magpie, Molly lets him in through her window and faces him head on. After fearing him her entire life, she now can see that he isn’t the least bit scary at all and understands that she has only been running from herself; that it is now time to stop. And to live.I’ve also directed Butch Ado About Nothing by Grace Petrie, so I’ll be looking forward to seeing that! I’m also excited about seeing Chris Singleton and Roann McCloskey.

Grace: It’s lovely. It’s my first Fringe so I don’t have much to compare it to, but it’s just so nice being able to see stuff every day. As an artist, it’s very inspiring. It’s been a pretty big year for you. You opened for Hannah Gadsby at the Palladium, played Glasto and joined The Guilty Feminist tour down under. Have there been any “pinch yourself” moments? Do you have a nagging voice inside your head? How do you deal with it? Stop Trying to be Fantastic by Molly Naylor explores the challenges of having that constant internal nagging. Molly Naylor gives a warm in>mate performance making everyone comfortable, which dispelled the nervous mist among the audience from the first word. As both writer and performer Naylor takes strong grip of the script, something needed in a production that relies so heavily on its metaphor as its core drive. As the purpose of the production unfolds seamlessly, Naylors ability to hold the audience’s attention must be admired. Most of these strategies are destructive, although the first one, storytelling, gave her a successful career path. The second one, boozing, was not so fortunate. It led to unwise relationships, shame, humiliation and general problems with her health. But anything that makes the magpie go away, gets noted, and replicated.

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Stop Trying to be Fantastic has only a couple of stops left on its tour (NORWICH THEATRE (STAGE 2) – 19 May & LONDON 2NORTHDOWN – 22 May). It is a show that will offer a charming theatre outing while making you think about “ what we owe to each other and what we owe to ourselves”. It will certainly make you laugh, while making you think about the metaphor that you are trying to escape. NAC supported artist Molly Naylor is heading to Edinburgh Fringe this August at Summerhall with her new show Stop Trying To Be Fantastic.

It may or may not include some stuff that could be generously described as comedy. It may or may not have some songs. She doesn’t really know but at this point she’s just happy to be out of the house. The story is one that, as it evolved, felt like it could have been told about so many of us. Our self-doubt following us around, sat on our shoulder, like the magpie metaphor the story is staged around. Molly develops a lifelong learned habit of being a people pleaser, putting others first, being always altruistic. How many of us do the same traits apply to? When she spoke her last words, I was surprised to discover my cheeks were wet with the tears that had fallen, listening to the truthfulness of Molly’s final words. Ones that we all must surely take on board. At first, this show seems stranded between poetic horror and funny self-help, as if Bridget Jones had wandered into The Raven (only with a magpie). But it’s a slow burner and by the end is absorbing. Writer and actor, Molly Naylor, plays a version of herself who was traumatised by a magpie at a young age. The magpie then stalks her, and she develops strategies for getting the magpie to go away.

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If anyone’s seen me do a gig, I do talk quite a lot between songs. I tell stories and I try and make the introductions funny. Over the years that’s just extended until somebody said to me, “you know you’re a real folk singer when the introductions get longer than the songs!” So I thought, I need to put my money where my mouth is. I wanted to see what happens if there’s no safety net of a guitar. It’s just me with nothing to hide behind. It’s been an amazing experience learning that I can do that. I’m full of admiration for comedians who do it all the time, but I’m really proud of myself for taking the leap. How did you find striking the balance between funny and serious, when talking about such an identity-centric topic? The story starts with a metaphorical magpie which flies into Naylor’s childhood house. Magpies are considered to be a symbol of intelligence and wit and also, more menacingly, deceit, and the embodiment of dread. Molly tells us, often humorously, of her attempts to drive the bird away and totally engages her audience who want to know more of her adventurous journey. She takes us through familiar nostalgic territory and awakens in us memories of our own struggles. Her strategies included: getting drunk, throwing herself totally into work, and doing amazing acts of kindness. She desires approval, (don’t we all?), but striving to reach that, we often sacrifice relationships on the way. Award-winning writer/performer Molly Naylor has some ideas to share – with a little help from a feathered fiend, who may not quite be the monster it seems. Review by Jeremy Day. There’s something to do pretty much every night, but there’s also so much delicious countryside to disappear off into. It’s also a very queer-friendly city, which is a good thing! Also – Roys, obviously.