Edoardo Tesio will, alongside Theater Company della Luna, be bringing Love’s Concordia Bar to Edinburgh Fringe this year.  It’s an unusual new musical show exploring the nature of romantic love and what it means to different people.  This sensual, comedic burlesque show, coming to the Fringe for the first time, is an intimate and immersive experience for the audience, sitting at tables surrounded by the characters from the show



What can audiences expect from the show? Is there any audience participation?

Love’s Concordia Bar is a pop musical about a burlesque bar owned by Love itself. The only requirement for entry is that you must be in love. Between one sultry performance and the other, we get to meet the many eccentric guests of the bar embodying different types of Love. It’s not hard for many people to become dependent on the idea of what romantic love is or what we think it’s supposed to be. Once you experience romantic love for the first time, how easy is it to be okay without it? Or if you’ve never experienced romantic love, do you feel like you are incomplete because you don’t have a partner in your life? Love’s Concordia Bar is fun, entertaining, and will make you want to get up and dance, but it is also trying to challenge this dangerous idea we are constantly sold about how idyllic romantic love is. The audience will be entering Love’s Concordia Bar and sitting all around their fellow guests, the characters. We hope to create an intimate experience for those who are coming to watch us.

What made you come up with the idea of romantic love for this show? And how did you come up with the 9 characters? How would you describe them?

The idea for the show is rooted in our very own personal experiences. Three years ago, I was going through my first big break-up. I found myself missing being in a relationship and being in love way more than I missed my actual ex – it wasn’t about him. I wish I wanted to be okay on my own, but I didn’t. I felt stuck. I talked about it to the fellow co-writer of the show, Marjorie Murillo. She shared with me how much she was striving for a romantic relationship that had to be exactly the way she had it in mind. She was also stuck on an idea. We asked multiple people with different experiences in love to write letters about their relationship to romantic love. Wow! We got some insane and dramaturgically inspiring answers! We picked eight of those letters and we created characters out of them. For example, a letter about obsession gave birth to Mania and Fisima, two women who are so co-dependent on each other that they share one body—or a letter about the idea of being in Love with Love itself more than a person led to Agape, a young Latina woman who’s search for her Prince Charming is only fueled by societal and cultural pressure to find a partner. How would I describe these characters? Real more than anything else.

Tell us about the music for Love’s Concordia Bar.  Why Cabaret, Burlesque and a new take on Musical Theatre?

Olivia Amicangioli wrote and produced all the original pop music for the show. Our shows differ from traditional musical theatre because the songs don’t necessarily move the story forward as the acting does, but they build the world of the story. Our out-of-the-ordinary maximalist worlds are always such an important part of the shows. We want this bar to feel exciting and fun, the way love can feel at first. What is more fun than sexy burlesque-inspired music? In all our shows music is pop at its core and I don’t mean musical theatre pop, I mean radio pop. Olivia is a true talent and writes the catchiest tunes. Music from the show and some of our past pieces will be available on all streaming platforms starting in late July under the artist Theater Company della Luna.

A reviewer described a previous show of yours as “successfully being able to demolish conventions” (Electro Magazine about La Linfa del Villaggio). Do you think Love’s Concordia Bar does the same and how? 

I think that stereotypes or conventions depend on who is watching and where they come from. La Linfa del Villaggio is a show we produced in Italy, where the conversations around fighting homophobia, racism, and body shaming are not as normalized as they should be. We always bring ourselves on stage and tell stories that resonate personally with us, a diverse theatre company with members that come from a multitude of backgrounds. In Italy, that was seen as a fighting convention, even though it wasn’t necessarily our objective. Will our authenticity demolish conventions in Edinburgh? We’ll see in August!

Do you feel romantic love can be toxic and if so, how?

Not always, obviously, but oh yes! I have experienced and see regularly, romantic relationships that affect negatively who is in them. And mind you, I’m calling myself out too here. I have been very insecure while in a relationship before. You learn and you grow. In my opinion, communication and self-awareness are the keys to healthy love. The problem, in my experience at least, is that a toxic relationship that lasts a long time can affect the way you feel about yourself even after the relationship has ended. There was lots of therapy and unlearning I had to do after the relationship that inspired this show. One of the reasons I accepted so many of the things I did at the time was because of the idea I had about what a relationship is supposed to be and because I wanted so badly to be in love.

You describe Theater Company della Luna as a diverse company, ‘giving power to the LGBTQ+ community, all genders, races and body types’ How do you think it does this and tries to empower people?

As I said, we are just a diverse queer theatre company that tells stories that are true to us. We rarely use words to talk about topics such as homophobia or body shaming… These things usually just don’t exist in the world of our shows. In my opinion, this is what real normalization looks like. I hope that this gives power to whoever doesn’t see themselves represented in the mainstream theatre industry.

Would you like to tell us more about the company?

The founding members of the company come from five different countries (USA, Italy, Japan, El Salvador, and UAE). We have collaborated with over 150 artists coming from 14 different countries. We make theatre that is pop, new, and unapologetically authentic. Our original stories talk about human emotions in imaginary worlds. Since our foundation in 2021, we have produced five original shows in off-Broadway theatres, the New York Theater Festival, New York regional theatres, the Lovers Film Festival, and Italian theatres, obtaining press in multiple Italian national newspapers and American outlets such as Broadway World and Theater Access and getting positive reviews by critics such as Jed Ryan and Beatrice Ardizzone. Bridget Spencer took care of the choreography of the show, while Tomoka Takahashi curated the costumes. Ariana Pérez, Mia Pelosi, Brianna Clark, Valeria Napoli, Marta Fossati, and Ashitaka Porter are some of the performers bringing this story to life. 


All the details of when Edoardo Tesio is performing in Edinburgh can be found below.

https://res.cthearts.com/events?s=Della+Luna+&venue=&event_type=&season=

Show details: Edinburgh Fringe C Aquila Studio (C Venues) between 31 July and 25 August at 9.30 pm Running time 90 mins.  Tickets: £8 – £13 depending on night.  £2 off for concessions Home | Edinburgh Festival Fringe (edfringe.com)

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