Unforgettable Girl at Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Hello, I am Elisabeth Gunawan. Depending on who you are and where you are, you might know me as an actor/artist/maker of disturbing things, an ex-colleague at Google, classmate at RADA, random girl you met at a basement/workshop/poetry slam/seminar/etc., or someone you haven’t seen for twenty years.

I have an appeal to make to you today, if you are intrigued, please read on.

What is Unforgettable Girl?

Money can’t buy love, but for a monthly fee that is only a little bit more expensive than Netflix, you can have the Unforgettable Girl, a mail-order bride (direct from the wasteland of Asian stereotypes) to cure you of your loneliness. This dark comedy is an irreverent, no-holds-barred bouffonesque theatrical experience about the violence our culture inflicts on bodies of colour.

The piece began when I was at RADA as one of only a handful of East Asian people in the entire school – in a drama school space where everyone, especially women, are put in a competitive pressure cooker, it was interesting to notice that not being white salvaged and excluded me from certain notions of womanhood. Being in the fringes of notions of personhood, womanhood and beauty was simultaneously a lonely and freeing experience. It evolved across reflections of my constantly ever-changing visibility as a Chinese woman in Indonesia (where it was awkward), in Singapore (where it comes with huge privilege), in America (where it was weird) and in the UK (even weirder). It grew alongside atrocities like the Essex 39, the shooting in an Atlanta spa (until now still not a hate crime) which were quickly followed by a trove of happy ending jokes. What is the indignity of living in a body that if mangled, destroyed and killed is followed by laughter?

This piece is a response to a world that systematically dehumanizes and objectifies women of color. Unforgettable Girl explores all the ways in which she may cut, mangle and reattach herself in order to survive. The title itself, ‘unforgettable girl’ is a trope of male desire – not because a woman needs male affection, but because it might give her freedom, protection, agency and personhood.

I know everything I’m saying is not a unique experience, but one that is shared by entire communities across the world who have been marginalized from notions of personhood and beauty, who have lived entire lives Otherized and dehumanized in small insidious ways. I want to invite you to help us fight this imaginative violence.

I brought in Created a Monster to shape writing into a world and journey that expresses the struggles of dehumanisation and turns the white gaze upside down, drawing on their experience working with physical storytelling and LeCoq-based practices, particularly bouffon – the art of mockery – to dissect the encounter between Vaccine and the audience. The piece is also a big milestone for the company, and also the first time they are taking a show to Edinburgh Fringe

Unforgettable Girl has ignited and excited audiences; from our 2-night run, we received critical acclaim including a 5-star review from The Stage, an OffFest Award and Best Performer in a Play by The Stage Debut Awards.

It is perhaps best described by the review we got from the Stage, written by Angelo Irving:

‘[It forced] the audience to question its own blind spots, conceptions of comedy and the very real threat of unchecked consumer capitalism. In highlighting the juxtaposition between those in the West who believe that everything—including humans—can be purchased, and the unspoken trauma of being viewed as a commodity, Unforgettable Girl leaves an indelible mark on its audience.’

and of course, the highest accolade we received was an audience member who said it is ‘more entertaining than Netflix.’

Why Edinburgh Fringe?

Edinburgh Fringe is widely known as a marketplace where anyone* can showcase their work and book a national/international/outerspace tour or a Netflix Special. But for us, bringing this show up is a big focus in itself.

Many voices have specifically called out how the Fringe festival lacks diversity:

‘the Fringe website claims: Anyone who has a story to tell and a venue to perform in can put on a show here.’ “However, we, artists of colour like many marginalised groups, struggle to find truth in this statement as this does not reflect the struggle and the financial strain for artists of colour and working-class artists to produce a show at the Edinburgh Fringe. Nouveau Riche expected a different festival this year, a more diverse and safer festival for our company and community.’ –Nouveau Riche on Edinburgh Fringe 2022

Not to mention performances in yellow face as recent as 2022. I myself performed at Edinburgh Fringe in 2022 in a production of Macbeth, where Mumble Theatre waxed poetic about the Weird Sisters, comparing us to ‘three Chinese schoolgirls on the first night of the Mikado.’ I assure you the reviewer wouldn’t have written that if three white women were playing the witches. There is a need for accountability, courage and a healthy dose of embarassment from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival community.

Unforgettable Girl is an in-your-face provocation and challenge to acknowledge one’s identity, visiblity/invisibility/invincibility and how one is complicit in the cultural violence. We genuinely believe that by taking the risk (to our coffers and our egos) and bringing the show up there, it might lead to real change – that the Fringe will become more open and welcoming for global majority artists and audiences.

My hope is also that I will flip through the 2-inch fringe catalogue this year to find many more artists from East Asian backgrounds and other historically marginalized backgrounds telling their own stories.

*that is anyone who can shell out the £10-20K upfront cost of taking a show up there!

How far we’ve come (from the basement of RADA!):

We are one of the joint winners of Pleasance’s Generate Fund for global majority artists – they are generously granting us 5K and innumerable in-kind and mental support.

Both the R&D and premiere of Unforgettable Girl has ben generously granted 2 National Lottery Project Grants from Arts Council England, and we are in the process of applying for another grant to cover our upcoming mini-tour. Of course, their assistance is limited by their jurisdiction in financing projects in England, not in Edinburgh or Scotland.

We have had incredibly generous support from our partners VOILA! Festival, Bloomsbury Festival and Lighthouse Poole’s Centre for the Arts throughout our whole development period.

I hope this shows you that a lot of people believe in our vision. Edinburgh Fringe has always been notoriously financially challenging, but we also believe it is an incredibly important platform for us.

With your help we can go even further – to infinity and beyond!

Production Budget

The below is our budget

Wages during 1 week remount rehearsals (for a team of 5 at ITC minimum) – £2.5K

Wages in Edinburgh Fringe (for a team of 3 people (whole period) and 2 people (2 weeks) at a Fringe Minimum) – £8K

Travel + Per diems – £2.5K

Set/Props/Costumes – £500

Marketing/PR – £3K

Graphic Design/Photography/Videography – £1K

We are fortunate that accommodation and Fringe registration fees will be covered in kind. With ticket sales, based on expected turnout in Edinburgh Fringe (advised by Pleasance) we expect to make ~£8K in addition to the £5K from Pleasance and £2K from the KeepItFringe fund – that leaves a gap of £2.5K we hope to close!

How you can help:

Donate to our crowdfunding campaign – every little bit does help!

Spread the word about our campaign – to your friends/family who might be particularly interested, on your social media, etc.!

If you are in London, we will be performing previews at Omnibus Theatre on July 28 & 29 – watch this space for more information.

If you happen to be based in Edinburgh or are going to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, come watch the show from August 4-28 at Pleasance Beneath at 3.40pm

Warm thoughts/prayers/mantras from anywhere in the world are also welcome.