Interview: Joanna Orlowska - Off Script
Off Script is written by and performed by actress Joanna Orlowska, directed by Grace Evangeline Holme with Dramaturgy by Somebody Jones.
Off script tells the story of a journalist who navigates identity, language and integrity inside a British newsroom, as personal and political tensions begin to collide.
Ticket link: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/off-script
Venue: The Annexe at Paradise in The Vault
When: 7 - 14 August
Could you tell us a bit more about yourself and what the show is all about?
Off Script follows a migrant journalist working in a British newsroom who, during a live broadcast from a protest, suddenly goes off script. What starts as a professional situation slowly unravels into something much more personal, about identity, motherhood, language, and the pressure to stay “objective” when you’re actually living inside the story. I’m a writer and performer originally from Poland, and I’ve spent most of my adult life living abroad, between languages, cultures, and different versions of myself. My background is also rooted in storytelling from a more journalistic angle, so I’ve always been drawn to questions of voice: who gets to speak, and what it means to be understood.
The show has such an intense hook, a migrant journalist breaking script live on air during a protest. What inspired you to write a story about that?
There’s something about living between cultures and languages where you’re constantly adjusting, translating yourself. I think I wanted to explore what happens when that control slips, when something more honest, maybe less “appropriate,” comes through. It is described as a fierce, darkly funny solo play.
How did you find the balance between the intense themes of migration and motherhood with that dark sense of humor?
For me, the humour is part of the truth of it. It’s not there to soften anything; it’s just how people actually experience things. There’s something inherently absurd about constantly adapting yourself, switching codes, and trying to fit into different expectations. That tension can be painful, but it can also be funny in a very human way. The humour comes from recognition, those slightly awkward, uncomfortable moments where things don’t quite align.
What inspired you to bring Off Script to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year?
It felt like the right space for the piece. The show is quite immediate and exposed. It lives in that sense of risk and presence, and the Fringe really supports that kind of work. It’s also a place where you can connect directly with audiences, which feels important for this story. It’s not something I wanted to keep too controlled or distant.
What do you hope audiences will take away, feel, or think about after they leave the theatre?
The piece moves through migration, language, journalism, and motherhood, but it’s not really about any one of those things on its own. It’s more about the moments where they collide. I have a feeling people might recognise themselves in different parts of that collision, sometimes where they expect to, and sometimes where they don’t.
If you could describe the show in only three words to make people eager to come and see it, what would they be?
Unfiltered.
Shifting.
Alive.
