00:00Great.
00:04Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers.
00:07Lovely to speak to Rachel Blackman, who's bringing a show to Brighton before too long,
00:11and it comes with a fabulous title, You Aren't Doing It Wrong If No-One Knows What You're Doing.
00:14Though it sounds like there's an awful lot encompassed in that title, isn't there?
00:19And it goes back to your childhood in Australia,
00:22a family of musical perfectionists, is that the first time?
00:28I think that's fair to say, Phil, yeah.
00:30So what are you saying with this?
00:32It's you coping with perfectionism and not necessarily being a perfectionist yourself,
00:36isn't it?
00:37Well, I think when you come from a family of perfectionists, it's very easy.
00:42That's just the water you're swimming in, right?
00:44So that was what I inherited.
00:46And I really had the sense that that was normal.
00:51In our family, that was baseline.
00:54So I guess what I'm trying to explore in the show is what might be the territory
01:01between perfectionism and failure.
01:03Like, if we could open up some territory, like stretch open that territory a little bit,
01:08what might playing in that area be like?
01:11And is the implication you're trying to open up a healthier territory?
01:16Perfectionism can't be that great for the soul, can it?
01:19Well, I guess it achieves certain things.
01:22But there's also a big cost if we're not able to, if I'm not able to make a mistake
01:29or kind of experiment and fail, like fertile failure, sweet failure, one of my friends
01:34calls it, because that's how learning happens and discovery happens.
01:39And we can't discover unless we're prepared to fall over a few times and work out how
01:43to do it better next time.
01:45So it sounds so intriguing.
01:46But the point is, you've worked through all this before writing the show.
01:51We're not, we've not got you on stage working through it all for life.
01:56No, oh good heavens, that would be awful.
01:58No, no, it isn't a territory of like needing to try and solve these problems live.
02:09They are solved.
02:10It's more, yeah, it's more inviting the audience into the questions so that you can reflect
02:15on it in your own life and your own relationships.
02:19And I found a lot of people after the show are reflecting on their own stories, their
02:24own childhood stories.
02:26What's the actual format for the show?
02:28Just you?
02:30It's a solo performance, yeah, with a direct, it's got quite a lot of direct address and
02:35some scenes as well.
02:36But mostly I'm talking directly to you and you're invited into my world.
02:44And a lot of that's the world of my childhood.
02:48And through being invited into my world, hopefully there's an opportunity for you to
02:53reflect on your own, what normal was in your childhood, in your family environment.
02:59Yeah.
02:59Fantastic.
03:00Well, it sounds fascinating.
03:01Rachel, really lovely to speak to you.
03:03Good luck with the show and possibly a tour next year.
03:07Thank you so much.
03:07Yeah, 2025.
03:09Hopefully it'll be in the rest of the UK.
03:11So keep me posted.
03:12Lovely to talk to you.
03:14Talk to you too.
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