Themis Theatre’s Libby Boyd, Charlotte Boyle, and Ruby Blue Tansey-Thomas have managed to find time in the middle of their run of Schrödinger’s Lesbians at The Glitch in London’s Waterloo for a pixelated pint with us here at Binge Fringe. The show examines Archaic Greek poet Sappho’s fragments and asks us how you are supposed to cope with a history that’s written you out of it. Join us as we dive into the show here.

You can catch Schrödinger’s Lesbians at The Glitch until the 14th April at 7pm (65mins). Tickets are available through the Venue’s Online Box Office.

Jake: Hi team, can you start by telling us a bit about your company Themis Theatre and how you all came together to work on this show?

LC&R: Hello! We’re Themis Theatre: a new writing collective dealing in myth, mayhem and mis-represented women. We were at Drama School together during Covid (physical theatre on Zoom was not the one) and we spent our final terms working in a bubble together. Part of that involved creating two short plays, and about halfway through we were like, ‘well this is a lot of fun, let’s keep doing this‘ …so we did!

Our first show, The Dissent, began as a scratch piece for Theatre Royal Plymouth’s LAB Season in 2022 and grew into a full-length play at The Golden Goose Theatre. Blissfully ignorant of hardship, we decided a tour was the logical next step, so off we went and, after a steep learning curve in what making and sharing work entails, came back to London for VAULT Festival 2023 as part of Generation V.

Jake: Tell us about Schrodinger’s Lesbians, and about how you ended up finding yourselves creating a piece about Sappho’s fragments.

Libby: We use Greek and Roman myths a lot as base for our work, and knew we wanted our second show to be queer. The problem is that there are no lesbians in the myths… or at least I couldn’t find any. So I thought why not use the literal origin of the word lesbian? What’s so intriguing about Sappho’s work is that we barely have any of it. What we do have are fragments, and the more I researched, the more I realised that it’s quite an apt metaphor for the gaps in queer history.

That being said, although Schrödinger’s Lesbians is about the erasure of queer history and the importance of being remembered, it’s also just a love story between queer women: The L Word meets Ancient Greece in 6th Century BCE, if you will. We’re putting queer female friendships and relationships front and centre, in all their gorgeous, complex (and sometimes messy) splendour. This show is both for and to celebrate our community. Representation matters: we’re here for the lesbians.

Jake: One of the central wheels that the piece spins on is about erasure – tell us about the personal experience of working on a piece exploring that theme and how it’s been for you all.

LC&R: It’s been joyful but – occasionally – dispiriting. There’s been so much fantastic work recently in uncovering queer histories, but sometimes it’s not until you start delving into it that you realise how much has been lost. We’ve joked a lot in the rehearsal room about historians trying to frame these women as just good friends, but the reality is that queer history has consistently and ruthlessly been erased across the centuries, and what we lose are the markers of those who have gone before.

But Sappho’s words did survive – albeit in fragments – and whether or not there’s any hard proof she was queer, or even had the terminology to self-identify in her own time, her biggest legacy are two words: Sapphic and Lesbian, and isn’t that an act of both defiance and remembrance in itself?

Jake: What are you hoping the audience might take away from the experience, if anything?

LC&R: That’s a tricky one – you never know what an audience will take away because everything we see is tinged with our own life experiences – but I think it comes back to joy. We had a chat at the start of this process about how so many plays about queer women focus on their trauma (not to mention the ever-present bury-your-gays-troupe), and we wanted to make something which ultimately returned to queer joy as an act of resistance.

At the very least, we hope our queer audience members leave feeling seen. And happy. For others, perhaps a moment to reflect on queer history which they might not have otherwise thought about. This is a lesbian rom-com set in Ancient Greece: we want people to sit back, relax, and watch some women fall in love. 

Jake: Tell us about how the show has ended up being performed at The Glitch and about your relationships with the other creatives involved.

LC&R: After its first outing (pun intended) at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre for Camden Fringe, we really wanted to develop Schrödinger’s Lesbians for a longer run. We applied to The Glitch because we were looking for a space that truly gets the vibe of what we’re doing – unapologetic, bold, and queer. The Glitch is the perfect venue for us: intimate, experimental, and a place where queerness is celebrated in all its beautiful glory. It felt like a natural progression, since VAULT Festival gave us our first chance at staging our work, so to be back in such a warm, welcoming venue is wonderful!

Themis Theatre is made up of just the three of us, currently without funding, but passionate about the stories we want to tell. It means we often wear multiple hats and deal with a lot of stress leading up to a show. This time around, we’ve been able to extend the creative team for the first time, and bringing our fantastic director, Bobbie-Jean Henning, on board has been an absolute dream! She understands exactly what we want to say and create and has brought so many new ideas to the table (along with plenty of laughs). Our lighting designer, Dmitry Bashtanov, completes the team, bringing our wild and wonderful lighting expectations to life.

Ultimately, Themis Theatre thrives on collaboration. We all bring something unique to the table and it’s made this whole process so much fun. Creating something that feels true to our experiences and our community has been the best part, and we can’t wait to share it with everyone at The Glitch!

And… if you can’t catch up at the Glitch, you have another chance to see the show at Clapham Omnibus July 4-5th, as part of the Festival 96 programme – a spectacular celebration of queerness and theatre.

Jake: Given the themes of Binge Fringe, if your show was a beverage of any kind (alcoholic, non-alcoholic – be as creative as you like!), what would it be and why?

LC&R: A glass of wine, specifically white wine – Sappho hasn’t drunk red since *that* night at Adonia Festival (you’ll have to see the show to find out why)…

A reminder, you can catch Schrödinger’s Lesbians at The Glitch until the 14th April at 7pm (65mins). Tickets are available through the Venue’s Online Box Office.

Image Credit: Lidia Crisafulli