Malvolio's Fantasy

This summer we, Zuza and Isabella, are bringing our show, Malvolio’s Fantasy, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Malvolio’s Fantasy started off in Summerhall’s techCube, garnering great reviews. We expanded the play into a full 1.5-hour play in time for the Bedlam Festival. Despite three continents dividing the team, the show was a success, called “musical, witty and charming" (The Student), and “slay” (Shola A.).

Malvolio’s Fantasy History

After workshopping and collecting great reviews from audiences across Edinburgh, we are ready to take our original play to the world stage at the Fringe. Each iteration of Malvolio’s Fantasy is better than the previous, and a webseries and global tour are predicted for our future. The plot is constantly growing, and the characters are developing.

Both coming from a STEM-inist background we chose to leave and developing the songs with another stem-artista, Magda (who composed music for the first two runs of Malvolio’s Fantasy while studying a masters degree in neuroscience), Zuzabella put together a musical, campy extravaganza for the audiences to enjoy. 

Malvolio’s Fantasy pulls people in with its genuine joy and love for spoken word, music, Shakespeare and rhymes. It’s fun!

The Story

The show focuses on servant Malvolio, a brilliant fool who’s dream of a better life gets shunned and ridiculed. Why should our dreams of greatness be not taken seriously? Is dreaming of a better life a sin? As two immigrants, every cell of our body goes against that notion.

The gender-centric plot of the original served as a perfect background for discussion of feminism and gender roles in modern context. The pressure to marry put on Lady Olivia is all too relatable for women even now, the same as her opinions not being taken seriously. Women voices have been shunned by history just as much as the voices of the lower classes. Malvolio’s Fantasy was written to give these characters an opportunity to speak their mind.

Why We Need Your Help

We left our home countries of Poland and the United States to come to this bloody island. With limited resources, we wish to give Malvolio the story he deserves.

We have funded this passion project entiely out of life savings, meaning it will be completely up to how much audience we can bring in, and how much we can make from this fundraiser, that will determine what we can do in the future, such as taking this beyond Edinburgh and develop new storylines.

Costs You Will Help Cover

• Venue hire - we needed a venue that would be suitable for a 9-person cast to perform on, as well what could showcase Malvolio’s Fantasy to as large an audience as possible, which comes a cost of over £4k.
• Advertising - we need a large audience to make this show feasible, therefore we have put lots of money towards getting our show out there as first-time Fringe performers.
• Admin - such as Fringe society registration, insurance, and PRS PPL fees cumulate to £100s!
• Paying team - due to the size of our production, the cast and crew total to over 20 young creatives, all 30 or younger. As a profit-share, we would love to be able to compensate all the hard work everyone has put in, and your contribution can help make that a reality! 

Thank you so much for you support of our project. Malvolios Fantasy was born from passion for inclusive storytelling and campy drama. Each of you donations keeps the dream going!