Renny Krupinski talks about bringing A DANGEROUS WOMAN to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Name: Renny Krupinski
Name of Edinburgh show: A Dangerous Woman
Venue: TheSpace@Jury’s V260
Performance time: 12.25 (6-11/8) 21.25 (13-15/8)
Show length: 60 mins
Ticket price: £8/£7

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your performing background?
I’m an award-winning writer, actor, director and an international fight director. I won a Scotsman Fringe First & DarkChat best Director for Bare @ TheSpaceUk Edinburgh 2010 as well as being nominated as The Stage best actor. Actress awarded best studio performance for my play The Alphabet Girl, Edinburgh 2015. I played the iconic Sizzler in Brookside and I’m the voice & face of Oblivion at Alton Towers. My play D’Eon was a 5* critical sell-out success at Hope Mill Theatre Manchester earlier this year. I used to write The Bill and have many Radio 4 comedies to my credit.

Tell me about your show, what it is all about?
A Dangerous Woman is a one-woman play starring Louise McNulty as a woman whose idyllic childhood-sweetheart marriage takes a sudden nosedive and she finds herself trapped in a life she doesn’t want. A random event and a chance glance sends her on a helter-skelter rampage of outrageous behaviour and a totally unique and unexpected career and life change, resulting in a bid for freedom everyone craves but is too afraid to embark on.

How long have you been working on this show and what is it that makes it relevant to audiences in 2018?
The play is an old idea that’s sat in my drawer for several years. After the huge success of D’Eon this year I was given the chance to tryout a new play. A Dangerous Woman sprang to mind but it needed a complete rewrite with a 2018 feel. I began writing it in March this year. With the state of the world in 2018, with so many people unable to escape their unfulfilled lives, A Dangerous Woman is a tonic to cure the 2018 blues.

Do you have any top tips for surviving the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – both for performers and visitors to the event?
1. Don’t waste posters on the Royal Mile.
2. Talk to your potential audience rather than shove a flyer in their hand.
3. Be selective in what you go to see. Pick something you know, something you completely don’t and something random and left field. Happy surprises are waiting round every corner.
4. Try not to stress. It won’t get you to the front of the queue any quicker and it won’t make your tech any faster.

What has been the funniest or most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you on stage?
A fellow actor stopped a scene mid-flow and told the audience we were going back to the start then walked off stage leaving me speechless.

At Bare in 2010 a blind man and his dog came to the show. There was one particularly violent scene and the dog stood up and started barking to protect the victim.

Who are your biggest inspirations in the industry and why?
Steven Berkoff. I love his writing. He’s a genius maverick that has never conformed to the prerequisites of what is considered the right way to do things. He invented his own way.

Do you have any pre-show rituals?
Whatever order I do things in on day one is the way it always has to be done.
What other acts are you looking forward to seeing at Edinburgh Fringe?

Julie Hesmondhalgh definitely as I missed her in Manchester and she’s a friend.

Why do you think people should come and see your show over the thousands of others on at the fringe?
The audience comments from the tryout were full of staggering superlatives, Louise McNulty is an extraordinary talent and my track record as a writer and director guarantees quality.

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