Jake Mace
Jack Sears is the creator and lead performer of Giselle: Remix, billing it as a radical queer reimagining of the classical ballet Giselle. The piece follows a hopeless romantic who comes to realise the brutal reality of queer intimacy is a far cry from Hollywood’s happily-ever-after. We caught up with Jack for a pixelated pint to find out how Fringe has been treating the show, and what we can expect if we see it in our final week of the festival.
You can catch Giselle: Remix until August 24th at Forth at Pleasance Courtyard from 15:40 (70mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Jake: Hi Jack! Your show has been described as “a radical queer reimagining of the classical ballet”– tell us about what inspired the show and why you decided to bring the story to the stage.
Jack: Hi Jake, thank you for having me! The show came from a need to create something new. Hannah Grennell, a Royal Ballet dancer at the Royal Opera House, was curating a late-night takeover of the space under the guise of queer nightlife and asked me to co-curate with her. Then we were both invited to make an original piece based on something from their repertoire at the time — they had Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, and Dante.
I went away and started creating, and Hannah then came in to choreographed. Romeo and Juliet comes with so much preconception — every version has probably been done worldwide. Dante didn’t resonate with me at that point. But with Giselle, I could relate to some of the themes personally. I didn’t know much about the ballet initially, and that lack of preconception gave me freedom. I liked the idea of keeping the title while taking it down a more heterogeneous or queer route.
It felt like the right project at the right time — both emotionally and creatively. There hadn’t been many queer reinterpretations of Giselle — Akram Khan did a radical version a few years ago, but otherwise it wasn’t widely explored. That meant there was space to develop it and take it somewhere new, which made it an exciting opportunity.
Jake: Tell us about what the audience can expect coming into the show, and what they might not expect about the show.
Jack: Well, the unexpected is really the theme. It’s been tricky to market because it isn’t strictly anything; it draws from lots of styles, genres, and influences. We’ve billed it as Matthew Bourne meets Leigh Bowery, or like Ballet meets Berghain, to try to capture it quickly.
Audiences can expect a real deviation from the original: more introspective, insular, destructive, and full of queer energy – both utopia and hedonism. It’s unapologetically queer, performed by highly trained dancers from the country’s top institutions, but doing work you wouldn’t expect to see them do. It gives them space to be themselves.
What you also can expect is that a lot of love and care and passion and skill from everyone involved has gone into this project and that it is a very unique live experience.
This show has not been made to come to the fringe to then appeal to TV producers. This is made by a fringe artist for the fringe.
What you cannot expect? The original ballet. Strictly speaking, you cannot expect “ballet” either — though the performers could obviously bash the ballet out it if they wanted! Instead, it’s taking those skills and moving them into a completely different sphere.
Jake: What are you hoping the audience might take away from the experience, if anything?
Jack: The main thing I want is for the audience to be entertained for an hour and ten minutes. As long as people come out thinking ‘that was money well spent — I thoroughly enjoyed myself’, then that’s the main thing.
I don’t want to tell anyone how they should feel or try to dictate their emotional response. I just want to present something truthful on stage and let people react however they do. If they’re moved or take something meaningful from it, that’s really wonderful. If they don’t like it, that’s fine too — as long as they’re respectful to us whilst we are on stage.
But I think getting to make a space for such incredible queer dance talent and making that as accessible as we can do for fringe audiences is so exciting and I get excited about people getting to experience them every time we step on the stage.
Jake: With Edinburgh Fringe 2025 well under way, what have you enjoyed doing the most this month?
Jack: Dare I say it but… it hasn’t been watching shows. I find the curse of working a Fringe in whatever capacity is taking some time to find your own rhythms regardless of shows and then when you get into a rhythm, it’s the final week and you’ve got to cram them all in.
The main thing I’ve loved doing this month is spending time down Leith Walk near my accommodation and going to Oh Deer cafe – which the dancers and I love – every morning and sitting and chatting to the baristas Sinan and Nima for a few hours every day.
There’s also a pub called The Joker and the Thief which we also love that is so welcoming and warm.
So having my little OCD creature comforts in them has been my favourite part in making this my home for the month.
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?
Jack: I’d say a Bombay Sapphire gin with ginger ale. It takes a gin and tonic and just changes it slightly – makes it a little more specific — a twist or a remixing of it, if you will. It’s both familiar but also completely unexpected.
And it’s the right level of pretentiousness when you order it.
A reminder, you can catch Giselle: Remix until August 24th at Forth at Pleasance Courtyard from 15:40 (70mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Image Credit: Ali Wright
Lamesha Ruddock
