Interview: Emily Carding on Hamlet (an experience) (Edinburgh Fringe)
- Immersive Rumours
- 5 days ago
- 8 min read
Photo: Brite Theater
The multi-award-winning creators of Richard III (a one-person show) and Timonopoly, Brite Theater, return to Edinburgh Fringe this August with their audience favourite, Hamlet (an experience). An interactive and participatory adaptation of Hamlet, the show allows audience members to get up close to the prince himself as he directs them in the story of his life.
Directed by Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir and starring Emily Carding - one of the best actors working in immersive theatre today - the audience takes on the role of the players arriving at Elsinore, with Hamlet needing their help to assume the roles of his friends and family to help resolve the great questions of life. Journey through the play together and become immersed in the story like never before.
Ahead of its Edinburgh Fringe run, we caught up with Emily Carding to talk about the audience's reaction to performing Shakespeare in front of an audience, how a decade of performing interactive theatre has informed their process, and how it feels to be revisiting the show after its touring life was cut short by the pandemic.
Hamlet (an experience) at Voidspace Live 2025. Photo: James Lawson
Immersive Rumours: Hi Emily, thanks for speaking with us today. To kick things off, do you mind introducing yourself and telling us a bit about Hamlet (an experience) for those who are unfamiliar with the show?
Emily Carding: Sure! Hi everyone, I’m an actor, writer, theatre-maker and artist. I’ve been around for a fair bit, so I’ve done a wide variety of things and have now pretty much settled into an immersive niche. Hamlet (an experience) is a very minimalist and intimate show, designed for small audiences, in which I play Hamlet and you, the audience, are the players arriving at Elsinore. With a little coaching and a simple cue script, you take on the roles of the important people in Hamlet’s life in order to tell his story.
Immersive Rumours: We saw Hamlet (an experience) a little over a year ago at Voidspace Live, and vividly remember being cast as Claudius. On top of having a few brief stage directions, getting the opportunity to ham up being murdered was a really fun experience. On the whole, how do audience members respond to being cast and having an active role in the show?
Emily Carding: Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir (the director) and I worked really hard in rehearsal to make sure we took time to make people feel as safe and relaxed as possible. As Hamlet in director mode, I talk through what will be required of people and give them a few minutes to flick through their cue scripts, which are very short and simple but give people enough so that they are contributing creatively without overwhelming them with too much text and action. It’s time well spent because it’s not long before people really start to have fun.
Obviously every audience is different, but there’s often a pile of bodies on the floor at the end after extravagant deaths! No spoilers, but there’s one bit of audience action that often brings me to tears. People are really supporting each other…it’s a privilege to witness.
Immersive Rumours: Speaking from experience here… Audience members don’t need to be familiar with the original play to enjoy and engage with the show, right?
Emily Carding: That’s right, you don’t need to know any Shakespeare at all. It’s a really fun introduction for those who don’t know the plays at all, or a great antidote to the terrible way they’re often taught in schools. It’s all guided; the cue scripts are simple and easy to follow, and failing that, it’s worked into the show that Hamlet is directing, so I’m there to keep things running on course and free people up to make fun choices. For those who do know and love the play, it’s an opportunity to experience it in a really personal way.
Hamlet (an experience) at Babel Festival, Romania. Photo: Augustina Iohan
Immersive Rumours: The show is returning to the Edinburgh Fringe after previously appearing there in 2018. Why did now feel like the right time for the show to get another outing at the festival?
Emily Carding: Well, the show toured a little in 2019, to SoHo Playhouse in NYC, Babel Fast in Romania and a few other places and then 2020 happened. We only revived it for Voidspace last year and then a couple of other performances, but I was too busy with other commitments to plunge into it properly, so after a lovely run at the Storytelling Centre with Timonopoly last year I thought…why not? Let’s have another crack at it while I can still just about get away with playing Hamlet. It’s a poor financial decision, but it nurtures my soul.
Immersive Rumours: Hamlet (an experience) is the second part in a trilogy of shows, alongside 2015’s Richard III (a one person show) and 2025’s Timonopoly. Can you tell us a bit about how the trilogy of shows came to be, and how Hamlet (an experience) differs from the other shows in the trilogy?
Emily Carding: Kolbrun and I met whilst studying for an MFA in Staging Shakespeare at Exeter University, which included residencies at Shakespeare’s Globe. Those residencies, where we were fortunate enough to experience the closest thing possible to Early Modern performance conditions by performing on the Globe stage, inspired us to see how far we could take the principles of shared light and direct address with the audience.
I had also voiced that I’d love the challenge of a solo show, and how much I wanted to play Richard III properly (I’d played him in scenes in class and in another play of our devising, Shakespeare in Hell). All of this coalesced into the concept for Richard III ( a one person show), in which I would play Richard and the audience would play the other roles.
Kolbrun was able to nab us a fantastic residency in Reykjavik, Iceland, where we had a space and a bit of time to see whether we could make the concept work, starting with the original text cut down to a couple of hours (we’d need to slice this by half) and the idea that I as Richard, would simply manipulate the audience into doing what I needed to do.
By the end of the first day, we knew we had a lot of work ahead of us, but we excitedly realised the idea was going to work. Our first work in progress performance was for an Icelandic audience, script in hand, and was a huge success. This was a great sign for future international touring! We premiered at Prague Fringe in 2015, where, incredibly, we won every award on offer. People instantly started asking what other plays we might try in this style.
I forget exactly when we decided on a trilogy. Hamlet was my idea; Kolbrun never liked the character. We wanted to push the idea of immersion and audience agency further and, guided by the nature of Hamlet’s character (notably not a man of action), we had the idea to include another Early Modern convention, that of the cue script. This meant trusting the audience a lot more, and it really paid off. Of course, the show’s touring life was cut short by COVID.
Timon was an idea we’d had for years, originally as a dinner party which we simply had no budget for. When the name ‘Timonopoly’ popped into my head, and the concept of making it a gameshow inspired by Monopoly, that’s when it became feasible. Then Kolbrun went and booked us a venue for Edinburgh Fringe while I still struggled to render it. The deadline helped enormously - as did bringing the wonderful game designer Arlo Howard on board. I’m looking forward to finding more touring opportunities for the whole trilogy.
Oh gosh, I did them all in one day a few months ago. That was nuts. I think the thing I love about Hamlet (an experience) that sets it apart is how the focus is so much on the audience and the energy they bring to it; it becomes very personal, and there’s a huge amount of trust there, both ways.
Hamlet (an experience) at Babel Festival, Romania. Photo: Augustina Iohan
Immersive Rumours: Outside of your work with Brite Theater, you’re also one of the best-known immersive performers around, having also worked on shows such as Bridge Command, The Locksmith’s Dream and The Key of Dreams. With such a wealth of experience under your belt, how has your approach to and understanding of interactive theatre changed over the years?
Emily Carding: Immersive is such a wide umbrella, and these are all very different shows in many ways, with some skills specifically brought to bear in each one. Keeping the text on track and making the adlibbing seamless for the Shakespeares; practical service skills alongside performance, absorbing information very quickly and keeping things running to time at Bridge Command; the stamina and pacing of being in character for 24 hours at The Key of Dreams. They are all, however, responsive, with varying degrees of audience agency. In all of these shows, the audience are in the world and affect the world, rather than separated as voyeurs.
That means the most important skill remains being fully embodied in character, whilst allowing the awareness of service to story, technical requirements (including timing) and audience. The most intense example of this is absolutely The Key of Dreams, where I get the most extraordinary sand pit to play in, interacting with audience members on an incredibly personal level throughout the day, including small talk (and big talk) over lunch and dinner, until we find ourselves in a dark ritual, with them either trying to save my soul or push me further over the edge.
The skills to be able to carry it off were definitely forged in the solo Shakespeare shows where I have so many considerations that I have to learn, then integrate enough for them to be instinctive and feel natural to the audience.
Hamlet (an experience) at Babel Festival, Romania. Photo: Augustina Iohan
Immersive Rumours: What have been some of your highlights from previous years at Edinburgh Fringe? Either memorable moments or unforgettable shows.
Emily Carding: Oh wow, so many. Last time I took Hamlet (an experience) to Ed Fringe, the legendary improv star and wonderful actor Mike McShane came along, and I cast him as Polonius, which was a treat for everyone! Wandering the venue in character as an AI android when I was doing my show Quintessence and being put in a bubble by children’s entertainer Poppy Bubbles…I also did a bit in a comedy show as that character, 2 Truths and a Lie.
Quintessence is a deadly serious show, with the odd comic moment, but the character unleashed on the world becomes amusing in a Data in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation kind of a way. One for the nerds (my people) there.
As I think about all the shows I’ve seen over the years, it becomes a sort of wondrous montage in my mind, of extraordinary drama, colour, circus, comedy, music…it’s a celebration of the human soul. Don’t we need that more than ever?
Immersive Rumours: Finally, how are you feeling ahead of bringing the show back to the festival, and what are you most looking forward to doing in Edinburgh this year outside of performing?
Emily Carding: I’m looking forward to plunging into the pure celebration of art, meeting up with folks from all around the world who I only see in Edinburgh, seeing as much as I can - from shows by friends to completely unexpected treasures…and getting out into the landscape when I can. Scotland is incredibly beautiful, and the hills, forests and lochs are a necessary balm in these chaotic times. I’m also determined that Kolbrun and I will find a karaoke night, because it’s been too long...
Hamlet (an experience) runs at George Mackay Brown Library at Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30) from 7th to 17th August at 16:30. For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com
