A finalist for The Stage Innovation Award, Emma-Louise Howell’s play I Really Do Think This Will Change Your Life is a hair-pulling, fake-nail scratching, cat-fight against get-rich-quick schemes and what it means to be a Girl Boss™. Ahead of its debut at Edinburgh Fringe, we caught up with Howell to find out more abut the show.
Q&A with Emma-Louise Howell
How does it feel to be making your debut at Edinburgh Fringe?
Oh it’s amazing to be debuting my show here. I’ve been up every year since 2018 in one way or another but this will be my first time taking my own work there so it feels super exciting, especially with the backing of the Pleasance’s National Partnerships programme, the Mercury and ThickSkin behind us. They’re all such pros and have such wisdom about the festival that I feel like I’m learning something new and invaluable every single day. It’s not an easy feat at all and I was really, really daunted by it originally, so to be able to have all this support is amazing.
What can you tell us about your show and its inspiration?
I Really Do Think This Will Change Your Life is a one-woman whirlwind through the world of Multi-Level-Marketing and Get Rich Quick Schemes. It delves into the social media realm of Girl Bosses and those life-changing, carpe-diem girlies that try and convince you they’re living their best life. I wrote it back in 2021 on the Mercury Theatre’s playwriting programme after lockdown had absolutely inundated little old unemployed me with these schemes as people tried to grapple with furlough, job losses etc etc. I never get sucked into one but it amazed me that I knew that all these people grappling with the depths of unemployment and crisis but were still presenting to us that they were having their best life. That element of performativity was something I found super interesting to explore in Theatre so I just kind of ran with it.
How do you think audiences will react to the show?
50% of audiences: ‘How did you learn all those lines’
30% of audiences: ‘Woah what a whirlwind’
15% of audiences: ‘I was recruited into an MLM once and it was wild”
5% of audiences: ‘THESE ARE NOT PYRAMID SCHEMES, PYRAMID SCHEMES ARE ILLEGAL, THESE ARE LEGITIMATE BUSINESSES, I AM GOING TO SUE”
How have you been preparing for the festival?
Pre-emptive multi-vitamins, berrocca, fitness classes, sleep and lots and lots of rehearsing.
We’re lucky to have already done a run of the show at the Mercury last year but the show has changed a LOT since then. We learnt so much from getting the show in front of audiences so we’re trying to rebuild, delve deeper and really give our audiences something bulletproof and full of comedy and chaos in every minute.
One of the massive strengths of the show is our unbelievable creative team who have created a fully immersive digital world as part of the show with video design screens, creative captioning and really vibrant lighting and sound so a lot of time is being spent refining that and giving the audiences something really bright and colourful to sink into.
Will you get a chance to enjoy the rest of the festival?
I always enjoy Edinburgh. Even just sitting in the Courtyard or Summerhall or on the Mile, there’s such a buzz and an energy around that I always leave feeling inspired, motivated and a little bit more hopeful. Of course there will be stressful moments, of course there’s the gamble that the show won’t sell well, of course I will be riddled with imposter syndrome and comparison a lot of the time but it holds such a special place in my heart, I think it is impossible not to enjoy.
I Really Do Think This Will Change Your Life is at Pleasance Dome from 31 July to 26 August
