Words & Photography: Louisa Clarke
Evangeline Barnby noticed a spark for theatre in school, felt it form a flame as she competed in competitive music festivals for singing and acting, and committed to feeding the passion through classical training and a foundation year in Barcelona. Now, Barnby is completing her studies at East15 Acting School, where she met, now partner-in-creativity, Louis.
Louis Critchley is someone who could only ever see themselves in the arts, spending his life performing in theatres but, besides some basic familiarity with the guitar, never considered himself a musician before East15, let alone a writer.
Where Louis was self-taught and immersing himself in the technology side of things, Evangeline was trained in music theory and instruments. Where lyric and melody came easily to Evangeline, Louis gravitated towards harmonies and chords, working off of progression and feel. Where Louis’ instrument is the guitar, very chord-centric, Evangeline’s instrument is the harp, very melody heavy. A near perfect collaboration was discovered where a process could begin with a voice note and become a full backing track.
It couldn’t be forced, it started within them with a spark of excitement and enthusiasm to experiment and create, nurtured by supportive teachers.
Barnby shares rave reviews of the place that has simultaneously grounded and lifted them up, with particular focus on their cultural education, from witchcraft to martial arts to commedia and clowning to various traditional explorations that “really changed my opinion on dance”.
That is where the partnership grew, along with another creation by the name of Cullen - a full, original score, comedy musical parody: think first Twilight movie meets Heathers the Musical. If you have done your due diligence in immersing yourself in this world, your mind may have lingered on an entirely different parody musical of the Twilight persuasion, but Barnby and Critchley were a step ahead! Of course, that doesn’t stop them from peeking out from behind the curtain to get some inspiration. After all, as Barnby and Critchley said, “writing is all about stealing and taking”.
Take it from Louis; “make sure you’re stepping on the biggest guy’s toes because they’re clearly standing there for a reason.” This creative time continued, adding feminist values and contemporary storytelling to an existing Balinese narrative, composing, building a collaborative team to truly gush over.
“Little eight-year-old Evangeline that could barely read a book would have genuinely never thought that she could write an entire show...”
“I’m so glad I did it because I genuinely never thought I would write, ever” says Barnby. “I still love performing, and we still do projects where we perform but, especially this year, I’ve taken more of a creative look, directing, composing, writing, and that’s been really fun.”
This dramatic dream team took on the “daunting” first staging of their show, Angels the Musical, at New Wimbledon Theatre in June this year, after overcoming the rejections and personal obstacles with no hint of embarrassment.
Sharing her experience working through a severe learning disability, Evangeline says: “Little eight-year-old Evangeline that could barely read a book would have genuinely never thought that she could write an entire show.”
The first title under the company, Angels was a huge step towards professional recognition and possibility, and every trickle of revenue will now be poured into their next projects.“I haven’t had a bad experience from doing the entirety of Angels and setting up this company” says Evangeline.
The pair are spending this time, steps ahead of their final year of university, building the company from the ground up with bits of creativity, instinct, advice and figuring out image and style, ready to properly launch after graduation. “I know that it’s always going to be about people,” she says. “People you recognise on the street, stories you recognise. Telling other people’s stories whether they’re fiction or fact, that’s what the Lucid Theatre Company is about.”
“It’s pretty unknown for second years to create a theatre company to put on professional shows so we’re doing well...”
As they prepare to leave East15 and cross that threshold into their professional careers, they describe the atmosphere as competitive but supportive. “It’s pretty unknown for second years to create a theatre company to put on professional shows so we’re doing well”, says Barnby. Her trust in her own abilities and respect for the industry radiate from her as she focuses on sharing her writing and performing with the public and, as she so beautifully put it, giving them a reason to watch it. Her outlook on navigating the platform exhibits maturity, with outstretched arms for any advice and a pocketed pinch of salt for any criticism.
As a performer, Barnby describes herself as quite passive but, as a writer, says “I need to send a message. I have wanted to do musical theatre for a long time, but I find musical theatre to not be a welcoming place for a plus sized girl”, she shares. She has spoken publicly a few times about this but still wants to do more. She sees a future where the atmosphere can be friendly and unpatronising and see these beautiful women as more than just Tracy Turnblads and Martha Dunnstocks.
The change is happening, but slowly. Courtney Bowman’s portrayal of, leading lady-lawyer, Elle Woods in Legally Blonde at the Regent’s Park Open Theatre last year received rave reviews and opened all-important, positive discussions in the media. But worries stem in Barnby from watching the behaviour of select teachers in drama schools. This changes into confused anger as we discuss the sad truth of the eating disorders which are often prevalent in the performing arts more than other industries. “I was seeing it destroy people around me”, Barnby says. “No one needs to go through that, it’s ridiculous and we need to stop it.”
When asked about the future, Critchley proves himself as someone who lives in the here and now, sharing a hesitation to view his life and career as a journey with an end point, like so many of us feel the need to. He says: “You don’t listen to a symphony to listen to the end, because they’d just play one chord and it’s over, you go for the journey, you want to hear it all.”
“No one needs to go through that, it’s ridiculous and we need to stop it...”
I left Evangeline and Louis enjoying their current collaborative endeavours, writing an untitled commedia dell’arte with a talented group of Lucid Theatre Players, including Holly Campbell of the original Angels cast, for a possible summer season next year.
The Lucid Theatre Company will be focussing on Hope, a new original play by Evangeline, based on the true story of a childhood friend who fought bravely against cancer, but sadly lost at the age of sixteen. The show is a celebration of a happy life of singing, colour runs, fundraising and award-winning bravery. “It is incredible how much this girl did”, says Barnby. “I want it to celebrate her life because she was never upset and was so very brave.”
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