The next interview in our stagey chat series is with Esther Joy Mackay. Esther's show, Save the Princess, is currently running as part of Camden Fringe. 

Get yourself comfy and join us for the next segment of Stagey Chat!

Hi Esther, how are you today? Thanks so much for chatting to Stage to Page! Would you mind introducing yourself and telling us how you first got into the theatre industry?

Hey! Thanks so much for the interview. You’ve caught me in a chilled week between shows so all is well on my end. I’m a theatre maker in High Wycombe, meaning I kind of do a bit of everything. As a teen I was very much into acting and Shakespeare. After many unsuccessful drama school auditions, I eventually did an acting course at Fourth Monkey Theatre Company, where I became very interested in making my own work. I did a course on playwriting at the National Theatre and fell in love with writing even more. Now I run my own theatre company, The UnDisposables, meaning I sometimes write, sometimes act and sometimes produce - or in the case of this show I do all three!

Your show, Save the Princess, is part of the Camden Fringe this month. Can you tell us about the story?

Sure! It’s kind of a crazy ambitious show, I tend to get a bit carried away! The show opens with a simple choice for the audience: Bario or Tuigi (no relation to any other famous Italian plumbers…). Then there’s a glitch and suddenly Princess Plum becomes the chosen playable character. From there on she is launched into an unexpected journey to find freedom. She is unprepared and uncertain, and it's the audience’s role to help her make each key choice along the way. The outcomes of each choice are not always clear. Depending on what they choose, she will learn new skills and truths about the video game multiverse. But only one out of the 6 possible endings will give her the freedom she set out for. Having said that, there’s a lot of fun to be had in every path she could take!

Female characters are often portrayed as the "damsel in distress" in video games. With Save the Princess being created by a female-led team, can audiences expect this stereotype to be diminished?

I suppose it depends on how they play it! But yes in every outcome we playfully poke fun at the ridiculousness of this ‘damsel’ role female characters have too often been trapped in. We’ve also had lots of fun referencing some of the incredibly deep and complex female characters that do exist. One of my personal favorites is our nod to Samus from Metroid, who was a surprise female character in her original game (because playing as a woman was so unheard of 38 years ago!). It’s also been loads of fun to watch Grace & Gabi embody some typically male-dominated games and parody the very silly sexist tropes that sometimes find their way into gaming culture. Small spoiler for you, there is a Fifa scene and a Call of Duty scene which Grace and Gabi are SO funny in, but we have never actually performed them in front of a live audience because no audience has yet made those choices! I’m very hopeful they will come to life in Camden this year.

The production involves the audience using an online web application to choose their own adventure for Princess Plum. How difficult was this to incorporate into the show, and for this reason, can audiences expect a different show every night?

Absolutely they can expect a different show every night! I think on the last count there are 56 possible choices in the play, some that have small effects and others that have drastic consequences. The app is super easy to use, it's available online from any browser at www.savetheprincess.co.uk (so no need to download anything!) and we ensure there is free Wi-Fi available in the venue. When a choice is open, audiences can simply select either the circle or triangle button to make their choice based on the options available, for example run or hide, fight or flee, take gun or leave gun, etc. It’s quite fun in a way to have a show where the audience don’t have to hide their phones away on flight mode! Of course there is risk of notifications going off, but I think that all adds to the glitchy-gamey feel we’ve created in the show.

As a huge video game fan myself, I have to ask - what's your favourite video game, and who's your favourite video game character?

Easy answer. ‘The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker’ is my all time favourite game and probably always will be because I’m a sucker for nostalgia. Plus I just love the characters, the music and the heart of the story. My favourite character at the moment is probably The Bard in the puzzle adventure game ‘Wandersong’, they are so full of optimism and joy and I had SO much fun playing as them. I only recently discovered Wandersong and I absolutely love it, so I always want to give it a shout out because it deserves a bigger audience. Bonus answer, and in a stark contrast to show that I do also like darker games, I LOVE Ellie from The Last of Us parts 1 & 2 (who doesn’t!).

My blog is called Stage to Page. But if you could turn any book, from page to stage, what would it be and why?

The Power by Naomi Alderman would be wicked on stage if you had the budget for it! Imagine all the amazing special effects and staging you could experiment with. Plus the diverse characters are fantastic and the provocative questions the story poses about power and people is one that I think would have audiences thinking for a while after watching.

And finally, why should people book tickets to Save the Princess?

Because it’s a lot of fun! And besides I really want to see what choices you all make! Will you try your best to save Princess Plum, or are you more interested in causing chaos? There is no right answer! As a company we just take great pleasure in making our audiences laugh and bringing them excitement. If you like games as much as us, you’ll enjoy all the references, if not, you’ll enjoy the tantalising feeling of being responsible for the plot. Either way you’ll come away wondering what could have gone different, and then maybe even want to come again?

You can book tickets to Save the Princess, here.