Rachel Marwood: Holy Crap interview

Rachel Marwood is one of the stars in Holy Crap, a new stage show about... Actually, we'll let her explain all:

What's your forthcoming show Holy Crap about?

It's a musical comedy, and is absolutely bonkers! It's so naughty and farcical! It's about a religious pay-per-view TV channel that comes over from the States. As you can imagine it doesn't go over so well in Britain, so the channel doesn't make any money; the station owner, Bobby Del La Rey, decides to set the channel in another direction - showing pornography to the religious masses by justifying it within the biblical texts. It's all very silly, but also makes a cunning point about greed, corruption and power.

Who do you play?

The Texan lioness, Clarissa Lafayette. Bobby's right hand woman and general mischief maker.

How are you finding rehearsals?

This is my first musical and I'm loving every second of it!

It's incredibly hard work, but you'd never know it from the atmosphere in the room, we never stop laughing! The whole team are insanely talented which is really inspiring.

Our two leads, John Addison and Arvid Larsen, playing the deliciously deviant Bobby and evangelical innocent Rex, are wonderful. John's voice is insane and Arvid is pure comedy gold. I'm also loving working with Nuno Queimado who plays the other half of our comedy double act. He's so much fun to work with, it just feels like playing!

You're well experienced in comic performance. When did you discover you were funny?

I was quite a loud kid and loved making people laugh. When I was about 5 I'd start making up characters and performing them for my family. It wasn't always well met... being a girl you're expected to be pretty and polite. But I didn't really get that... and now I do it for a living!

You won the Funny Women award for your short film Defrosted in 2015, how did that film come about?

Defrosted was actually the first thing I ever wrote on my own. I'd had the idea for a while and a friend sent me a link to the Funny Women Awards. Having a deadline and a vague structure gave me the kick up the arse I needed! I wrote and filmed it over the next few weeks and got it submitted just in time on the day of the deadline!

What doors did winning the award open up for you?

I never in a million years expected to win. It gave me such a confidence boost, and everyone kept asking me "what's next?" Which pressured me into sitting down and write something else! Lynne Parker and The Funny Women team have been so supportive in everything I've done since. The whole experience has been incredibly empowering.

You might be best known to our readers for Figg & Dates, your comedy web series about dating in London in your 30s. What drew you to the medium of online mini series?

After creating short films I was really keen to write a series. So fellow comedy actress Amy Booth Steel and I wrote a 30 minute pilot, Skin & Blisters, and sent it out to producers. This is such a long process however, so in the meantime, the Mann Bros [directors] approached me and asked me if I had any other ideas for a series. I gave them an outline for Figg & Dates and they snapped it up. It got such a fantastic response that I'm now using the web series to try and sell it to a channel as a teaser for what would be full half hour episodes.

Has anyone who has watched the show decided to tell you about their terrible dating experiences?

When I first started writing the series, friends, and even people I'd just met, would regale me with their horror date stories. Some of them made it into the series... but I couldn't possibly tell you which ones!!

Since it came out people tell me which date they relate to, which is so lovely. Quite a few people have had a surprise younger date like Jess and Jonny in Episode 1!

What's next for you?

I have a few things in the pipeline that I can't talk about just yet. But my main aim is to get both Skin & Blisters and Figg & Dates made into series for TV.

And why should we all be rushing down to the King's Head to see Holy Crap this summer?

Gospel rock, whips and handcuffs, a ridiculous amount of PVC, and a fierce script by the Heather Brothers. What more could you ask for?