Emily Steel returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with How Not to Make It In America, a darkly comic, deeply personal exploration of ambition, trauma, and youthful delusion set against the backdrop of 9\/11. Developed with Theatre Republic and heading to Summerhall, the show draws on Steel\u2019s own experiences of arriving in New York just weeks before the attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started as an actor, and then I became a playwright,\u201d Emily explains, tracing a journey that now sees them as Artistic Director of Theatre Republic as well as writer and associate director of this production. \u201cSo yeah, I\u2019m the playwright of How Not To Make It In America. For this season, I\u2019m the Associate Director, directing the remount.\u201d<\/p>\n
At its core, the piece follows a young Australian performer chasing success in New York, only for those dreams to be destabilised almost immediately. \u201cIt\u2019s about this young, naive Australian actor, who moves to New York in the middle of 2001, and he\u2019s been there about three weeks when the Twin Towers come down,\u201d Emily says. \u201cSo his dream of making it as an actor over there is really thrown into chaos by what\u2019s happened in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Despite its premise, the play resists becoming unrelentingly heavy. \u201cHaving said all of that, it\u2019s actually quite funny,\u201d Emily reflects. \u201cSometimes it makes people cry. But it makes them laugh as well. So hopefully a little bit of a roller coaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
That emotional duality stems from lived experience. \u201cWhen I just got out of drama school, I had the slightly crazy opportunity to go to New York, and I really didn\u2019t know what I was doing over there,\u201d Emily admits. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a work visa. I didn\u2019t know how to make any connections, and I was there for about three weeks before 9-11 happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
The story itself took years to emerge. \u201cThe play came from a couple of decades of trying to work out what my own reaction to that had been all about,\u201d they say. \u201cA lot of writers end up processing their life and the world through storytelling, and I think at the time, I\u2019d really been in denial about what an impact that massive event had had on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The aftermath of 9\/11, as Emily describes it, was marked by unpredictability and impulsive choices. \u201cThere were lots of breakups, or people got married, people made big choices about their lives, because you had this sense that it could all end tomorrow,\u201d they explain. \u201cIt\u2019s that reflection on what it\u2019s like to be young and naive and do really stupid things, the stupidity of youth is actually quite beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
That balance between absurdity and heartbreak defines the show\u2019s tone. \u201cIf you look closely at pretty much any situation, there\u2019s a level of absurdity to it,\u201d Emily says. \u201cPeople are heartbreaking and ridiculous at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
On stage, that complexity is embodied by a single performer playing dozens of roles. \u201cHe plays 28 characters, and has a lost count of the number of accents,\u201d Emily says of actor James Smith. \u201cWhat he brings to it is really extraordinary, the vocal work is amazing and precise, and he\u2019ll just turn from one accent to another.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Beyond voice, the transformation is physical and immediate. \u201cJust the way he holds his body will shift you, in the tiniest millisecond, and all of a sudden he\u2019s somebody else,\u201d they add. \u201cWhich is a real gift, I think, as a writer, to write for somebody who can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Returning to Edinburgh feels like a full-circle moment. \u201cI went to Edinburgh when I was very young, and I made a deal with myself that if I survived it and still wanted to be an actor, I would apply for drama school,\u201d Emily recalls. \u201cSo bringing a play, about being a naive and unworldly young actor, back to the place where I did that myself, feels weirdly right.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is also the unique atmosphere of the Fringe itself. \u201cThere\u2019s an energy to it, you go from one show to the next, and you just don\u2019t know what you\u2019re going to see,\u201d they say. \u201cSome of it\u2019s extraordinary, and some of it\u2019s terrible. And it\u2019s just a really wonderful thing to be part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as for convincing audiences to take a chance on the show? Emily has a simple starting point. \u201cWhere were you on 9-11? What do you remember about that day?\u201d they ask. \u201cNow imagine that you are an Australian actor, no phone, no TV, no internet, and you see this black smoke filling the sky. What\u2019s that going to do to your dreams?\u201d<\/p>\n
For younger audiences, there\u2019s another entry point entirely. \u201cA lot of young people weren\u2019t even born when 9-11 happened, and that kind of blows my mind,\u201d Emily reflects. \u201cSo for them, it\u2019s a bit of a history lesson, very much of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
How Not to Make It In America is less about failure and more about what remains when certainty disappears. \u201cIt\u2019s about resilience, and about holding on when things don\u2019t go as planned,\u201d Emily says.<\/p>\n