FRINGE REPORT INTERVIEW: ROHAN ACHARYA

'If Ro was cremated, the fumes would intoxicate half of London.' Comedy entrepreneur Rohan Acharya lives legendarily in the fast lane, and he's just acted his first sex scene. John Park met him ...



Rohan Acharya's stretched out on a chaise in his luxury riverside apartment, exhaling clouds of cigarette smoke. He's a chunky, sexy guy with a wicked smile that women find irresistible. It's midwinter, he's planning the party of a lifetime, same as he did the gig of the century midsummer in Edinburgh.

That was 60 acts in 60 minutes at C Venues The Establishment Club. For the climactic 60 In 60 night, Acharya picked an eclectic mix of the very best, and up and comings, and played them to a packed house on edge with excitement.

That night, punters who'd paid just the normal ticket price got to see acts including:

Rob Deering, Andy Fox, Andy Zaltzman, Johnny Dynamite (John Oliver), Giant Pineapple Boys, The Legendary Polowski Murders, Paul Kerensa, Slippers (aka Alex Woodhall), Stan Stanley, Ewen Gilmour, Liz Stevens, Susan and Janice, Peter Buckley Hill, The Consultants (Perrier Best Newcomers 02), Matt Reed (Daily Telegraph Open Mic Finalist 02), Moonpath, The Infinite Phenomenon, Wonderhorse, Scott Baker, Steve Oram, Tom Meeten, Patrick Monahan, Alexis Dubus, The Black Sheep, Sketch Club, The Hit and Run Crew, Simon Farnaby, Nick Swift's Evil Disco, Silky, Henrik Elmer, The Bing Show, Alek Maxwell, Club Seals, Steve Williams, Neil MacGee, Jonny Berliner, Graham Anthony, Revolution, Sweethearts n Bodyparts, The Trap, Aisle 16, Second Option, Cock and Bull, The Marx Brothers, Mr Sex, Simon (Trevor and Simon), Marcus Cummins (saxophonist from Rosie Brown), Miranda Hart, Hamfisted, Cy Thomas, The Stone Crabs, Lloydy, The Changeling, Lucy Porter, Jason John Whitehead, Russell Howard (aka Nuclear Joe Fantoni), Jez, Geoff Aymer, Everyone (The 60th Act).

The Establishment, which Acharya programmed every night of the Fringe from 1 till 3 in the morning at C Venues, was a remarkable achievement. Acharya used two objectives: to help audiences pick the shows they'd later go and see in full (by sampling a wide cross-section of fringe performances); and to provide a nightly first-class balanced show. It was a nightmare challenge, the two constraints often pulled in opposite directions. It's a measure of Acharya's talent and entrepreneurial instinct, that The Establishment earned some of the best word-of-mouth at the Fringe.

The list of acts in his four-week nightly run of The Establishment included many he'd later use for the 60 In 60 special (above), plus a wide-ranging net of the new, the fascinating, and the best:

Noel Fielding (Perrier Award Nomination), Tom Price, Diwan, The Consultants (pre-empting, on the 2nd day of the Fringe, the Perrier Best Newcomers Award), Rob Rouse, Spencer Brown, Ministers of Satan, Matt Blaize, NewsRevue, Mat and MacKinnon, James Goldsbury, John Oliver, John Cooper, Alan Francis, Ben Clover, The Specialists, Tony White, Sound Songs, Rob Forknall, Steve Keyworth, Jay Sodagar, Hils Barker, Danny Bhoy, Playtone, Gen Brister, Neil Mullarkey, Avante Garde, Wine Tasting, The Ironing Board Of Murder, Karen Cockfield, Reginald D Hunter, Seven Affidavits on Authority, Anorak of Fire, Jaelith Mahoney, Chambers and Nettleton, Liz Stevens, Josie Long, Vicki Frango, Dancing Dana, The Bomb-Bitty Of Errors, QB The Turkish Magician, Harry Gooch (aka Martin Meacher), Danny Buckler, Barry Castagnola, The Jammy Tarts, The Reverend Dicktate, Laurie Crowter, The Quite Good Show, The Scam, Duff, Sarah Ledger, Paul Karensa, Dan Antopolski, Dave The Singer, High Child, Bran Damage, Shazia Mirza, Adrian Pointen, Gordon Southern, Priorité à Gauche, Sy Thomas, Infinite Number Of Monkeys, Rhys Darby, An Audience With Peter, Matt Holt, Nick The Box Orifice Kid, Nick Revel.

To which Ro Acharya's modest footnote is: 'All done on a budget of zero. Charm, confidence: people seem to love doing my gigs.'

OK, so what's the boy about?

Kicked out of Oxford University, Rohan Acharya gained double honours in English and Theatre Studies at Warwick. As a - precocious - schoolboy, he'd done arts A-levels at Kings College School (KCS), Wimbledon and acted in his first Edinburgh role. It was the KCS Theatre Company production of Luigi Pirandello's Man Beast and Virtue (1993). The Scotsman gave it 4 stars.

At Warwick, Acharya hit the ground if not exactly running (his amiable approach to life is more of a fast stroll): he admits to 'A very prolific and hugely enjoyable theatrical career'. Tony Kushner's Angels in America gained an acting commendation from the National Student Drama Festival (NSDF)for the whole cast, with Acharya playing Belize and Mr Lies.

One way and another, he's done Edinburgh every year from 97 to 02:

1997: Acharya script-edited, directed, co-produced and acted in Tapestry (Scotsman 4*). It was created by an amalgamation of 20 student writers, and played the Garage Theatre for 2 weeks.

1998: He took his own adaptation of Punch and Judy for adults (using actors) to Edinburgh: Acharya wrote, directed and produced The Comical Tradgedy Or Tragical Comedy Of Mr Punch. 'We were up for 2 weeks and got a nice review in The Stage'. Acharya also operated sound and performed a cameo.

1999: For the first time, Acharya did the whole month. The production was Ubersausage. Scotsman 4*, and Three Weeks 5*.

2000: Acharya directed and produced Ubersausage's UberWorld in Edinburgh. Scotsman 4*. He helped adapt for stage and produced the version for children, UberChipolata. Scotsman 4*. He produced NewsRevue, directed by Kirsty Housley. Scotsman 3*.

2001: Rohan Acharya directed and produced UberArmy, gaining 'Two 5*, seven 4*, two 3* and lots of good reviews'. He produced, directed and programmed the cabaret UberNacht. Acharya also started his own cabaret, with 45 acts in 45 minutes in the Oxygen Bar - his personal favourite gig to date. He directed Bag It Up's Lipstick On Your Teeth, written and performed by Pippa Sarl, Lauretta and Sharon Gavin.

2002: Employed by C Venues as Events Coordinator, Acharya programmed, promoted, arranged and ran The Establishment Club (see above). He was consultant director in the later stages of The Bing Show.

I'm longing to ask: so what about that sex scene? But Nic Watson interrupts. Nic's arguably one of the finest techs in fringe theatre, he's lit magnificently at Edinburgh, and countless shows at the Canal Café Theatre, and at London's Cockpit Theatre, where he's currently Technical Director.

So what about Ro, then, Nic? Scandal, preferably?

Nic Watson: 'Qualities such as diplomacy, planning, punctuality and a professional attitude are just a few of the things that Ro doesn't bring to a project.'

Whoops. That one slipped past Ro's PR. But hang on, there's more:

Watson: 'Despite this, I don't think I've ever had as much absurd and ludicrous fun working on a show - or anytime - as when I've been with Ro. There is something profoundly irritating and stressful about working with the man, but for some reason - no matter how many times I swear blind that I'll never do it again - I keep going back.'

How did they meet? Watson: 'At the Carnal Caff in 2000. I'd innocently gone to see Ubersausage. He employed me as a technician for the theatre initially, but I later got embroiled with many of his later schemes including UberArmy, UberNacht and The Establishment.' So he's known the lad from what Acharya readily admits were the happiest days of life to date.

Acharya: 'The Canal Café Theatre? The area? The site? Wonderful.' He'd just left university, and went in as Artistic Director for a year in Feb 2000. He succeeded Marc Wootton, who went on to do Cyderdelic at the BBC.

'I loved the space,' says Acharya, 'Great seating layout, small stage, and a really rank off-stage area. Magical. I fell in love with the theatre.'

'There wasn't a lot of audience, and NewsRevue (a key revenue-earning show) was being cancelled quite a lot - though it was an excellent show. There were gaps in the programming.'

Scheduling had been at random times. 'I decided to do 2 shows a night, 7 days a week', creating 14 slots. And he fixed the times: 7.30 and 9.30 on weekdays, 7 and 9 Sundays. The timings, creating certainty for the potential audience, have remained the fixed points of the theatre's programming.

Nevertheless, Acharya says, 'Initially, it was tough to get interest going.' So he created a focus. 'I almost exclusively programmed comedy and cabaret.' He pushed this. 'Mostly sketch shows, double acts, impro, character comedians, cabaret acts.'

It worked 'A lot of acts started getting photo-splashes in magazines like Time Out. After 6 months, the audience couldn't stay away.'

'People started to trust the programme,' Acharya says. 'It became a very busy place - it got back on the map. Avalon came 3 or 4 weeks in a row. There were writers' meetings very Thursday, and the writers actually came - we made them into social events. People enjoyed the place, we focused hard on the punters.'

It was a hard year - Acharya was producing Ubersausage at the same time - and he loved every minute. 'I learnt an immense amount - things that probably challenged me most: the economics, banking. I'm not good at sums.'

Acharya had a strong team, with technicals in excellent hands: Nic Watson, and Leanne Archbold (the 'Oi! Leanne!' still referred to in Count Arthur Strong's Forgotten Egypt).

Kirsty Housley was briefly Promotions/Marketing manager during Acharya's tenure - she left to become Artistic Director at The Etcetera Theatre. Following her departure, Acharya restructured, and took over promotion and marketing, with an administrator to handle paperwork.

'Covering that immense amount of programming made organising later cabaret work much easier,' says Acharya. 'Programming the Canal Café was my favourite thing. It was a lot of fun, a lot of hard work.'

His successor as Artistic Director was Emma Taylor. Taylor: 'Rohan interviewed me - for two hours! He short-listed me and I got the job.' She was delighted. 'He trained me for two weeks and showed endless patience. I learnt a hell of a lot from Rohan.'

Over the following years Rohan and Emma have become good mates. Taylor: 'You can get a lot of stick in this job: unless you actually do it, no-one else can quite understand it. So we've got a lot of mutual respect.'

After he left The Canal Café, he was brought in by HMS Comedy to programme their Absolute Comedy nights at Madame Jo-Jos. Traces of the venue's transvestite past remain, particularly a pole (for dancing, don't ask) which Acharya tried to persuade successive acts to embrace (only Rob Rouse obliged).

James Harris from HMS Comedy is a committed fan of Acharya's: 'I met Ro when I was a NewsRevue writer and he was AD at the Canal Café. Then he directed a run of NewsRevue at Christmas 01. We both took comedy shows to C Venue in 01 and 02.'

'Ro's a fantastic storyteller. His grasp of comedy is clear to see when you sit and chat with him for any length of time.'

'He's very enthusiastic about people and things he likes, and this positivity is infectious (thankfully, I've always remained a miserable sod, despite his efforts).'

'Ro was instrumental in getting HMS Comedy a 200-seater Edinburgh venue in 2001 for our debut sketch show Evolution. He very kindly put in a good word for us with the venue when we thought the opportunity had passed.'

'Despite his laid-back demeanour, Ro is very passionate when it comes to directing or programming shows. Don't let the cuddly exterior fool you: he has the heart and stomach of a - well, a slightly less cuddly person than you'd expect.'

'And he always has an opinion.'

At first, Acharya advised simply on programming some of the acts, then took over the whole bill. He concentrated on putting together well-structured nights for a sophisticated West-End fringe-compatible audience, picking in early 2002 acts which would be highly successful at the Fringe - many of whom he'd return to at The Establishment:

Nic Swift's Evil Disco, Oram and Meeten, HMS Comedy, Arnold's World of Skill, Rob Rouse, Shazia Mirza, Natalie Haynes, Shepherd and Farnaby, Giant Pineapple Boys, Rob Deering, Eve Tindale, Arnold Widdowson (compere), Matt and Mackinnon, Andy Zaltzman, Susan and Janice, Dan Antopolski, Tom Price, Laurence and Gus, The Legendary Polowski Murders, Club Seals, Neil Mullarkey, Stan Stanley, Matt Blaize, Geoff Aymer, Mark Felgate, Dara O'Briain, Sean Lock, Kirk and Messingham, Adrian Pointen, Noel Fielding, The Consultants, Peter Buckley Hill, Pete Gold.

The illusion of the scatter-brained artist is shattered when you look at how Acharya plans. The 60 In 60 Edinburgh show, and the whole of The Establishment's run (for example), was planned on a single sheet of A4 paper. With hieroglyphics as dense as those of the Rosetta Stone (and as informative to the outsider), Acharya masterminded 30 days of premier cabaret on a crumpled sheet of paper. It's a task that, assuming they were up to it in the first place, would saddle most people with a filing cabinet. He has the ability to reduce complexity to simplicity, and an innate understanding of balance - the skill of a true impresario.

So, what's the future? And what about that sex scene?

'The day job is crucial for providing for my son' - he's a devoted dad. 'I'm interested in radio and tv - in production. And I want to get back to direction.' He's currently working on producing a sketch show with narrative. 'I want a running order that just flows. And gives the actors time to get changed!' But, with narrative? 'I think you can have chronology and plot in a sketch format. And I want to explore darkness, the gruesome side of humans.' Sounds serious. 'Hopefully intellectually.' Sounds worrying. 'Yes, but funnily.'

Marc Blakewill, from HMS Comedy, is long familiar with Acharya's work and echoes him: 'Ro is definitely on the dark side of the force. The shows I've seen him direct, from Ubersausage to NewsRevue, always have an edge.'

'As a director Rohan has a great ability to see and extract the human element from ideas-based comedy. This intuitive understanding has led him to direct some very good productions indeed.'

And every project has takers queuing round the block. Why? Nic Watson again: 'A whole host of bright young things on the comedy circuit will return to take part in the latest hair-brained plot with Ro for no payment and generally no good reason. I still can't figure out why we do the things we do for Ro. Maybe it's because he brings with him a innate sense of fun and mischief and explains his ideas in such a passionate, entertaining and relentless way, that people end up agreeing with him because it's so much easier than trying to make him see sense. He puts the 'Ro' into 'loveable rogue'.

Finally, Acharya's ready to divulge all about his epic sex scene.

'It's a film called Dark Corners, made by Jeamland, directed by Oscar Chan. There's a guy who hears banging and reckons everyone's having sex except him. No, it's the wind. No, it's a couple above having sex.'

And you're playing the sad loser?

'No. I'm the guy having sex.'

Was it, er, hard? 'No.'

Well? 'It was enjoyable, liberating.' Acharya pauses, a cheerful smile on his slightly saturnine face:

'And surprisingly easy.'

END

Interview with Rohan Acharya by John Park

16 January 02

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2011