» Forget Me Not at Brighton Festival Fringe
Sharon Elizabeth talks about her fringe show Forget Me Not at the Parlure Spiegeltent
People think the 60s were wild but really the 20s blew the 60s out of the window. Many Victorian ways and values were challenged and dropped by the youth of the day. For women it was an especially liberating time. Flappers were really partying for the sake of it. A lot of money had been made through the war and they were on a high with the sheer joy of being alive. There was an undercurrent of great loss in these times. Many men were lost in the war, and there was a huge man shortage! I have learnt that there was a fragility in the youth which is what I hope to capture with Forget-Me-Not’s secret that she reveals later in the show.
Another unique aspect of the show is that Paul and I have a singer and composer/pianist relationship which was very common in the day. With Paul’s years of being a top TV/film composer he often uses the music to underpin the mood as he would for the TV. I feel very lucky to have Paul’s talents in the show, as his sensivity to me as a performer really makes the experience more enjoyable for me and the audience. Forty percent of the songs are original.
Paul composed Forget-Me-Not, Join the Sisterhood and Soprano in the Shower.
To a Lost Boy was based on a melody from a BBC4 doco film score that Paul composed this year and I wrote the poem and lyrics.
Mata Hari is a song that I have written, one lady in the audience thought it was the best song in the show and was convinced that it had come out of a
musical!
Old classics are Indian Love Call, It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie, You’re the Cream in My Coffee, Fascination and Begin the Beguine. And we even have full opera – Musetta’s Waltz Song from Puccini’s La Boheme. People love the old songs and a comment I hear time and time again from my older audience members is that “I haven’t heard them in years”.
I came up with the concept and wrote the script and self-directed. I have approached the show totally from my intuiton, drawing on my years of being an entertainer. Audience participation is my thing! I think Forget-Me-Not is good old fashioned entertainment.
Forget-Me-Not, Parlure Spiegeltent, Fri-Sun, 8-10 May, 6pm. Tickets 0844 8007114
