In Conversation with Anita, Lizzy and Kasey | My Anxiety is a B*Tch who Bakes
Today on Backstage at Fringe, we speak to Kasey Barratt, Lizzy Love and Anita Mei La Terra, director and cast of My Anxiety is a B*tch who Bakes.
They say baking is good for the soul. Well... whoever said that is a massive f*cking liar!Luce's kitchen has been taken over by Annie, a drag queen who won't stop making muffins. After yet another disastrous attempt at blueberry muffins, Luce decides it's time to put an end to Annie's incessant baking, before they burn down the kitchen (again). What follows is a series of baking fails, broken eggs, spilt flour and unsuccessful sabotage and the world's silliest food fight. Can Luce and Annie learn to co-exist? Is there such a thing as too many muffins? And maybe baking isn't really that good for the soul? My Anxiety is a B*tch Who Bakes, is a silly, messy, entertaining catharsis for the existentially anxious, combining a breakdown with baking, and a shit-ton of muffins, into a deliciously hilarious recipe.
Q: Welcome to Theatre Works! How are preparations going so far?
ANITA: Preparations are going really well! We started the process with a draft of a script, then developed it on the floor. We now have a finilaised script and a close to fully blocked show. We are excited to get it in front of an audience!
KASEY: It's shaping up to be a wonderfully ridiculous and very silly show with a few suprises along the way.
Q: You're sitting in a bar on a warm October night. Eyes drifting across the room, softly swirling your drink in your hands, and bam. There they are. Your exact target audience member. Can you describe them?
ANITA: Anyone who loves baking, muffins, food, anxiety attacks… actually they don’t really like anxiety attacks but maybe they experience them from time to time. Maybe they don’t like making phone calls, and hey neither do I. I don’t like making phone calls either. That’s our exact target audience member.
KASEY: To put it simply I wrote a show about anxiety for people with anxiety. So if you’ve ever had an existential crisis because your fridge broke or took two hours to write a two sentence email because it made you overwhelmed this is the show for you.
Q: What will audiences find in your show that they can't find anywhere else at Fringe?
LIZZY: They can find a muffin flying at their face. (Kasey: She's joking. I promise) They can find some real genuine insanity from my character which you won’t find anywhere else and a really fun dynamic between our characters. We’ve known each other for a really long time and this is the first time we’ve worked together in this capacity, and we’re having a ball.
KASEY: Audiences will not only find a ridiculous number of muffins and a heartfelt tribute to Mary Berry, but a slightly off kilter and absurdly ridiculous look into the the experience of anxiety. My goal was to create something that captured the absolute illogical absurdity of living with anxiety, through an absolutely stupidly ridiclous no less, and embraced both the awfulness, the silliness and sometimes complete exasperation at your own mind. I hope I have managed to do so.
Q: What will surprise audiences about this work?
ANITA: I think they’ll be surprised by the general intensity and chaos of the show and how just relatable it is. I find myself in both characters for multiple different reasons and I think audiences will find they do too, and that’s also okay.
KASEY: I think audiences will also be suprisded by the sheer number of muffins.
Q: What has been the most memorable moment in your process so far?
LIZZY: Anytime the whisk breaks is a pretty core memory.
KASEY: There are a lot of props in the show, and we are quite often introducing new props into the rehearsal room, which has led to a few prop mishaps from time to time. Once the whisk broke in half and went flying across the room mid scene, it was pretty spectacular.
My Anxiety is a B*tch who Bakes plays at Explosives Factory September 29 - October 3, as a part of Melbourne Fringe.
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