100000Vodka Presents "Drink Whole Night"

Xinyu Lu talks with us about the inspiration behind 100000Vodka, a theatre company formed by MA Applied Theatre students, and about producing their first show Drink Whole Night, which the company are presenting this year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Drink Whole Night is running at the Fringe from 17-19 August, and was written and directed by Xinyi Chen and produced by Xinyu Lu. It includes stage management from Qingyang Jiang, costume from Shumai Zhang and Sijia yu, and performance from Wanwei Zhong, Zihan Zhang, Wenjing Yao and Jingting Zhou.

The show combines “installation art, theatre, photography and modern translation software to give you a night of alcohol overdose – also dreaming and becoming a god”.

Can you tell us about what led to you and fellow MA Applied Theatre students forming 100000Vodka?

In this year’s Applied Theatre programme, we are very lucky to have met a lot of native Chinese speakers in the same class, and due to the fact that we come from the same cultural background, the link and empathy between us is even deeper, as if we were family members of each other in a foreign land.

During our studies in Applied Theatre, we learnt a lot about workshop formats and activities. After class, we’d often communicate and discuss with each other, just like we do different workshops in class. Slowly, we developed the idea of doing theatre together.

We are ‘100000 Vodka’, a Chinese student team. We call ourselves a Chinese community performance group, exploring themes and stories that we want to explore in a cultural context that resonates with us. 

Your new show Drink Whole Night is running at Edinburgh Fringe from 17-19 August. What is the show about and how did it come together?

Our play will present the stories of three socially-identified women - a journalist, a doctor, and a screenwriter - over the course of one Mardi Gras night. It is a tale of nonsensical fantasies and reflections on fate and existence, set in a bar on a night of revelry.

If the bionic man has tears, what are they made of? Can death itself be the standard answer? How does “love” and seduction paint art in a different light? Is God so foolish as to love the world or is the world so foolish as to believe the lie that God loves the world?

A futile or seemingly futile evening, a dialogue between God and man, God and God, man and man, a magical bottle of wine, an orgy. ​ Combining theatre, installation art, multimedia images and modern translation software to give you an evening of alcohol overdose, dreaming and becoming a god.

What do you hope audiences will take away from the show?

1. See an original native Chinese drama.

2. See and think about Asian women and their current situation.

3. Consider different perspectives towards some of the social issues that Asian women face.

There are lots of Central students involved in the show, can you talk a little about how you collaborated together, and how your training at Central impacted the show’s creation?

We are a team of fledgling students, and this is the first time we have worked with students from other majors at Central. All of the team members came together with a passion for first-time theatre and a love for the play itself. The interesting thing is that all the team members are native Chinese speakers, so we learnt from each other during the collaboration, and hope to bring the thoughts on women’s issues in the Chinese context to more people.

What advice would you have for other artists considering participating in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?

It’s a rare opportunity to be involved in the Edinburgh Festival, and I hope we can learn from each other and exchange ideas, it’s going to be a collision of the arts!

What are your future plans for 100000Vodka?

I hope that we will continue working together beyond our graduation, and I look forward to the opportunity for new collaborations to emerge in the future. Fresh blood is also encouraged!

Find out more about Drink Whole Night, and book tickets on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe website. 

For a full list of our student, graduate and staff shows Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year, visit our Central at Edinburgh 2023 listing page.

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