SIX star Annabel Marlow on doing two shows at the Edinburgh Fringe

The Leeds Alumni and original SIX cast member makes her solo debut at the 76th Edinburgh Fringe, the world’s largest performance arts festival.

Sitting down at a table at the members-only Brooke’s Bar in Edinburgh, Annabel Marlow opens up about doing two shows at the Fringe, student advice, her life at Leeds and future plans.

She has ‘Public – The Musical’ at the Pleasance Courtyard, just across from her debut show ‘…Is This Ok??’ with only one hour gap in between.

“It’s kind of ideal, I was stressed about it at first but it has worked out fine because it’s a short enough time to sustain the adrenaline.” She mentions that she basically only has half an hour by the time she finishes Public and goes to the other sub-venue for her own show. “It’s also long enough time to warm up again and have a breather or a chat in between. I’m not in a rush to get ready for the next one because I feel like if it was two hours or an hour and a half to properly chill out, I would start to get tired.”

She also shows enthusiasm for being able to flyer about her solo show after Public. “It’s amazing that I get to talk about my show at the end, hug people, walk across and get ready for the next thing.”

However, there is one downside to doing two shows at the Fringe and it’s the delicate matter of maintaining her voice. 

“The only rough thing about it, is my voice – both shows involve massive singing – but it’s not that crazy since none of them are physically or emotionally draining…I just really love doing them…it’s just that if the voice goes…well…”

Therefore, I ask how she takes care of her voice in order to avoid losing it.

“During the day I try to do very little, which is hard since I have different people visiting over the whole month and I’m socialising a lot.” She tells me while mentioning that her brother and her best friends arrive today and are meeting her after our chat. “I do try to stay in bed or go for a walk, but mostly just chill out for as long as possible before 5pm”, when she has to start warming up. “I’m also having a lot of vitamins and not going out…that much.” She says laughing. 

“It’s just not worth it losing my voice or feeling rubbish and having a hangover when I have to perform, I’m also kinda tired in the evenings anyway, after a couple of drinks and chatting to people I’m ready to go home.”

I mention how this is not her first time at the Fringe since she was part of the original cast of SIX The Musical back in 2017 – as if she could forget – and ask her what made her come back and do two shows.

“Since doing SIX I’ve been coming almost every year with friends or staying with my brother”, who also comes every year. “It was last year when I started telling everyone I was going to write a show. In my head it was like if I told everyone, if I said it, then I wouldn’t be able to go back on my word. So I made it happen.”

The team that helped her make it happen involves: the GingerBread PR Agency and Stamptown’s creator, Zach Zucker, who is the producer of Annabel’s debut solo show. She proceeds to tell me she met him through “being a fan of his comedy”.

 “One day I was chatting with him on instagram telling him I was writing a show and after he saw some videos of me doing a bit of comedy, he was like I’m interested in producing it.” She enthusiastically says: “I didn’t even know Stamptown was a whole production team!” 

For Public, she auditioned during her final week of drama school in London – she did a masters at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama – “It was just a workshop at that point, until we won the Pleasance’s Charlie Hartill Award which allowed us to come to the Fringe.”

When she got the role, she doubted accepting it as her show was already in the works. 

 “At that point, I was already doing my show and when they told us our time slot would be 18:30, I doubted doing it for a moment…but then I was like: obviously I’m doing the show.”

Her debut show ‘…Is this OK??’ is a comedy musical gig with original songs about anxiety, sex, dating and uni friends, and I’m intrigued how she came up with the idea for it.

“I did my first proper gig during drama school last year. My friend Alice and I made this night where I was going to perform all the songs I wrote during lockdown and then during the breaks they would go buy her art, which she had made her business by then. The plan was making a bit of money but mostly sharing with our friends and family the stuff we created. I performed everything I’ve written, some of it was funny. Just very silly cosy  vibes. After that night, I thought maybe this is what my show could be, just me and my songs and not playing any character.”

She proceeds to tell me the bit on the show with her ‘mum’ is not actually the voice of her mum but one of her friends – “I had a whole other bit where there is a voicemail of me telling my mum that I have not casted her as my mum and it was really funny but I had to cut it because of time.”

As we start talking about her songs, I ask her if she plans to release them anytime soon.

“I want to, so much. It was one of my goals this year, to record some of my favourites but I took it off the list after deciding to do the Fringe because it was way too many things.”

She is still keen to do it next year when she gets back to London – “I definitely want to record at least three of them, definitely next year. That will be amazing.”

When I ask her if she had a moment of realisation where she decided to pursue musical theatre and/or comedy she mentions it has always been her dream.

“Is it really cringe if I say I’ve always wanted to do this? It was the thing that I loved the most and it was always present in my life and in my family.”

Leeds Musical Theatre Society is where I met all of my best friends and did incredible shows, which was also my first time doing big musical theatre…apart from SIX of course. 

Back in late 2018, when she came to Leeds for her BA in Theatre and Performance she had a different mentality. “I used to say: Let’s see if something else catches my eye. I want to go to university and be surrounded by people that aren’t just into acting.”

However, after those three years she realised there was nothing else she wanted to do and went on to pursue a Masters in Contemporary Acting which “filled her with confidence.”

Those three years were filled with good memories as she tells me how “great” Leeds was: “I loved the course and met loads of amazing people. I also loved the city and did so much. I wrote a lot of comedy and performed with the LUU Big Band at HiFi and Belgrave over those years. That was the first time I was properly singing in a non theatrical sense.” 

She was also part of the Leeds Musical Theatre Society – “That is where I met all of my best friends and did incredible shows, which was also my first time doing big musical theatre…apart from SIX of course”. 

“Before I came to Leeds I had no idea the music and theatre scene were that good…the standard just blew me away…it’s insane”, she gushes about it. 

One great song from her debut show is dedicated to her university friends who she spent a year in lockdown with. “My final year was messy…it was during lockdown, plus all you’re thinking about is what you want to do next.” 

This leads me to ask what advice she would give to people that are now in that position, going into final year. “You have so much time to decide what you want to do, you do not have to decide within a year…that’s crazy. Finish whatever you need to do, work as hard as you can to get the grades you want and then take all the time you need. If you know what you want to do immediately, that’s amazing but if you don’t, you have so much time.”

Giving more advice about Leeds University, she insists that people shouldn’t forget to enjoy the city: “Go to Hyde Park and have a beer. You’re literally surrounded by your best friends and living in an amazing city. Make sure you hand everything in but have a good time!” 

As we reach the end of our conversation, I can’t help but ask what the future holds for her. 

“I’m going to be in the Wizard of Oz in November at Watermill Theatre. It’s a beautiful theatre outside of London, in Newbury.” 

This gives her enough time to “chill out” for the rest of September as she is set to start rehearsals in October.

 “I’m just going to sit on the sofa and pass out, and after the Fringe I’m excited for that.” 

This won’t stop her from continuing doing what she likes the most – “I want to write more songs. I’ve had the best time playing them but I’m excited to keep on writing.”

“I want to continue performing ‘Is This Ok??’ somehow, and I’m sure something is going to happen with Public. You can feel it.” 

I have no doubt she will continue performing her debut show as the sold out audience was hooked from the very first joke she made. Meanwhile, Public is being critically acclaimed, with 5 star reviews from The Stage and Theatre Weekly and 4 stars from The Scotsman and Evening Standard. If you are currently at the Edinburgh Fringe, these two shows are a must see.