We sat down for an exclusive interview with Beatrice Hyde and Ben Everett Riley, playwrights of new play Namaste! coming up to the Golden Goose Theatre from October 16th and 17th.
Tickets here
How did your time working at a leading London yoga studio shape the world and characters of Namaste!?
Oh, there are so many fun quirks and eccentricities in the yoga studio environment that inspired our play. We both had lots of experiences and anecdotes to draw upon, like job interviews on bolsters, witnessing the line of loyal followers on the waitlist for the rockstars of the yoga scene, and hearing yogis howl like coyotes during a workshop. Yes, you read that right – it’s a real thing! We were also inspired by the wonderful diversity of the teachers, clients and staff and wanted to reflect this in our play. Our experience of working in a yoga studio made us reflect on issues in society today, such as the hypocrisies of the wellness industry and the growing generational divide between faithfulness to tradition and the allure of new trends on social media, which we wanted to draw on.
What drew you to the clash between yoga’s traditions and social media culture as the central conflict of the play?
Yoga is fundamentally based upon traditions and ancient practices. A lot of the newer practices draw from the roots and traditions of Ashtanga, but let’s be real, some stray quite far from the origin of yoga. We’re looking at you – puppy yoga! We observed ourselves that within the yoga community this is a big point of contention. So we felt that this would be something important to highlight.
Why did you choose an influencer with no yoga knowledge as the protagonist, and what does Gina allow you to explore that an insider could not?
Gina represents anyone who is new to the yoga industry. Some of the traditions are strange for anyone who’s not often around it -, I mean how often do you ‘om’ together, chant, eat shiitake crisps in normal day-to-day life? Gina allows people who’ve never done yoga before to discover the world with her, laugh along, but also gain a curiosity for the yoga community we have both fallen in love with.
How closely do the more outlandish elements, such as rap yoga and “scream and weep” yoga, reflect practices you encountered in real life?
Ok. We have to confess – rap yoga is something we made up. We wanted to push the yoga boundaries beyond what you’d ever normally come across. Sheep yoga is just a cookier version of goat yoga, scream and weep yoga originates from breathwork classes, and Broga is a REAL thing. Oh yes. The yoga scene is very varied and there are constantly new wacky classes coming out, and we wanted to reflect that in our show.
As a work-in-progress, what do you hope to learn from audiences at Lambeth Fringe before developing the piece further?
We want to use the Lambeth Fringe to hone our script and to learn how far we can push the satire, while keeping the characters grounded and relatable. With the feedback from our audiences, we hope to see what people can relate to, which jokes are really landing and what room audiences see for improvement. We also hope for this to help us gain real traction moving forward, and we are interesting in developing the show into a TV sitcom down the line too.
How does your writing partnership work in practice, and how did you approach balancing humour with the play’s more serious questions about authenticity and commercialisation?
Our writing approach is literally like having a writer and a dramaturg together. We have had countless meetings to discuss storylining, character arcs and honing characters so they each have their individual voices. Having someone to bounce ideas off of and honestly tell you what works and what comes across as try-hard is rare and magical. In practice we would usually divide up the scenes so one of us would take a first pass at the scene and then the other would hone and refine in the edit. We have worked carefully on every line so that the more serious conversations don’t feel too heavy, but are addressed in a way that can provoke thought and debate on these societal issues we want to shine a light on.