Fringe Fever: We chat with Anna Lumb (Melbourne Fringe)

A Quick Chat With Anna Lumb…

 1.     What three words best describe you Fringe show? Dark, Comical, Weird
2.     Who does your show speak to? People interested in live performance, experimental theatre, The Last Tuesday Society or fans of vaudeville/cabaret/circus. 
3.     What other Fringe show will you NOT miss?Me Pregnant by Nick Coyle and Miles O’Neil’s (the show after me) World Around Us II is wonderful!
4.     What other Fringe show do you wish you were in? Sweet Child of Mine by Bron Batten. Everyone’s raving about it!
5.     What do you love most about the Melbourne Fringe? Anything goes. 6.     How many Melbourne Fringes have you performed in? Four
7.     If you could invite anyone to see your show (and you know they would come), who would it be? Grace Jones, Peaches and Nico.
8.     What is the best theatre advice you’ve received? Commit. Commit.
9.     What was your most embarrassing moment on stage? Bursting on stage with a banana shoved down my pants and the front row was all eight years old.  
10.  Do you have any pre- or post-show rituals? Pre show – application of false eyelashes and side stretches. Post show – glass of wine.
11.  What’s your favourite theatre superstition? Do you believe it? Gosh I don’t think I have any. Be fearless. But that’s more of a mantra I guess.
12.  What was the last book you read? 100 Years of Solitude.
13.  What TV show do you never miss? I’m a closet fan of Dr Who and Grand Designs. Also True Blood. 
14.  What film will you watch again and again? I don’t like to repeat but if I had to mention some films I recently enjoyed; Winter Bones, some Alfred Hitchcock classics, okay I also really love old MGM musicals like Daddy Long Legs and Singing in the Rain. 
15.  Who will hate your Fringe show? People that don’t like dancing and some fundamentalist religious groups. 
16.  What show changed how you see theatre? Why? Not what. Who! There have been a few key individual performers/artists whose work I’ve followed over the years that have really influenced the direction of my own practise. Seriously ballsy ladies in both the visual art and theatre industry that are making brave and tantalizing masterpieces that don’t shy away from the ugliness and wonder of life.   
17.  What was your first time on stage? Preschool Xmas play. I was Rudolph.
18.  What is the first theatre show you remember seeing? It was probably Phantom of the Opera or the Buddy Holly Musical. 
19.  If you had access to the TARDIS, what performance would you see first? Josephine Baker, Charlie Chaplin, Rolling Stones, Woodstock; how do I pick?
20.  What director/actor/writer would you just die to work with? Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola. Maude and Anni Davey – wait, I’m already working with them!
21.  What is your favourite theatre space in Melbourne? The Spiegeltent, The Bosco or the Tiny Top. 
22.  Where in Melbourne do you always take visitors? Dumplings and a good local coffee shop.

23.  How do you have your coffee? Strong flat white, no sugar.
24.  What’s the best pizza topping? Napolitana
25.  What do love most about your Fringe show? My Double Bass player, Thomas William Butt. He’s a genius. Awwww.