Intervu Ishbel Ewing
Ishbel Ewing
I sit down with Ishbel Ewing to chat about her life, her work, and the unexpectedness of it all.
“Last year someone must have put a goblin curse on me and it came to fruition because it was insane. Pretty much, to keep it brief, there was three big bereavements in the family, there was severe illness in the family and during those two things I became disabled really suddenly. And I’m talking in an afternoon.”
I ask Ishbel who she is and what she does?
“I’m Ishbel Ewing…Do I say what I do?”
Yes.
After understanding, she goes on - animatedly, “Right now, I’m an english student at Bristol. Outside of that and before that - and the only way I can really describe it - is a Jack-of-all-trades in a creative sense, I commute between a lot of mediums and do whatever I fancy.” She adds, “I’m a blabbermouth.”
I ask about her process behind her work?
“I have to really think about this so I don’t butcher my words.” She hums before diving into it. She writes for a variety of genres and mediums. “I think because I’m mostly interested in writing, I think I jump between theatre, film and tv quite a bit depending on how I want the audience to interact with it because they all bring completely different interactions with the audience.”
She explains that, “I think with theatre, there’s something a lot more intimate. People are in the moment and I think I mean, I’d love to write comedy one day but I’ve got such a niche sense of comedy that I fear people might not laugh.” She laughs herself, “I like to write plays that are quite…I wouldn’t say sad…but they have quite a strong emotional theme to them or are very almost philosophical or the characters we’re focussing on are on a very microscale.”
“I don’t know if that’s particularly unique in any way but that’s how I approach it - Oh! I also like interacting with the audience in some way, I like to get them involved. I like to illuminate to them that they are there for a reason.” She says cheekily.
She pivots, “I think TV and Film usually have a bit of a larger scale for me, so either the story or the theme of the scripts take on a broader scope. I love TV shows that are anthology series, so they can have lots of stories that can run on from each other in it - make what you will of that!”
“I’m an enigmatic writer who will say things then read them back in a few months and go, ‘What the fuck was I saying!?!’” She exclaims passionately.
Ishbel Ewing
I ask about her most recent work compared to her older work?
She is laughing again, “Do you want to hear a really funny story? This is the first thing that comes to mind when people ask ‘when did I start writing?’”
“I remember I was four or five and the teacher was reading us a book and I just thought, ‘God, how fun would it be to write something and for everyone to read and be on the edge of their seats!’”
So that lunch time I got a load of A4 paper and I stapled them all together to be a book and I drew a knight and a dragon on the front. But because I was five years old I didn’t quite understand writing as a thing so I just filled those entire pages with squiggly lines.”
Oh, so it looked like writing?
“Yeah! So it looked like writing!”
“And I gave it to my dad,” she continues, “and I was like ‘Can you read me this story tonight?’ And he was really proud, he was like ‘shit, my five year old daughter has written a whole book in a school day’ and he opens it up and it was just lines! - But I think the passion was there! I was enamoured by the thought of writing.” There is a starry look in her eyes.
“I always loved it. I loved writing. And because I loved art so much, such a visual medium. I realised that film was this beautiful baby between them.”
“My most recent work is that I’m working on a TV pilot script for an anthology series about a supernatural thing happening in the everyday. I sometimes just ask myself the question, ‘what if I was walking to work and something extraterrestrial happened? What would I do?’
I ask her if there is anything that she is drawn to writing?
“There is always a theme that pops up and I don’t know why it does but it does. It's the supernatural. I love it! I love it!” She squeals, “I think it's such a great vessel to explore feelings, emotions and attitudes that we have towards each other.” She adds, “Even at university right now I have been focussing on supernatural modules. I don’t know why but it just makes my brain whirl.”
I ask what she wants people to take away from her work?
“Main thing is what I always take away whenever I see or read something good - And this is going to sound really lame - so sorry future Ishbel for making you lame - I always love leaving a theatre and cinema still feeling I’m still in it. Like I’m still in that universe. Just carrying the aesthetic with me. Like I’m seeing the rest of my day through it.”
I go to make a joke but stop myself.
“Please do, please make jokes.”
I was going to say that you’re the person who sees the main character and adopts their personality.
“Hey! Hey! Hey! I did not say main character! I am perfectly happy being the guy in the background. I think it’s like I’m carrying the potential to become the main character!”
Ishbel Ewinf
I ask if there is anything she’s excited to see herself?
She takes a moment and then tells me, “Yesterday was the first theatre performance that not only I had seen in ten months but that I was able to sit through in its entirety - And that’s such a stupid small thing that other people wouldn’t think about - but for me, that’s such a huge hurdle to sit in a public space with so much stimuli and make it through it - and so that’s given me a huge boost in wanting to go to more theatre performances and more cinemas and more “networking” events.”
“The main thing is the RTS West England awards are coming to Bristol! That will be really exciting to see and meet people there. Also, the performance I mentioned, Bristol’s performance of “Little Shop of Horrors” was really good.”
I ask Ishbel something she has alluded to throughout. She is comfortable enough and kind enough to share. I ask about what happened to her?
“So this answer…I’m going to be honest and vulnerable and TED Talking my way through this, so you’re going to have to walk with me…I had an insanely cruel year last year and the repercussions of that in my creative life I’m now starting to see. I did not have the time, the health, the ability, to cultivate all the stuff I had worked for the years before. And now coming back to all this creative stuff…I feel almost lobotomised…because it's a skill, it's a muscle, you have to train it.”
She goes into more detail but starts with a joke, “Last year someone must have put a goblin curse on me and it came to fruition because it was insane. Pretty much, to keep it brief, there was three big bereavements in the family, there was severe illness in the family and during those two things I became disabled really suddenly. And I’m talking in an afternoon.”
I got something a toddler could recover from, I got it from a stomach bug and so that completely derailed any plan that I had for 2025. It stripped everything back. That experience is something I am now exploring through writing. Because I think there are so many things that I wasn’t really absorbing during that time that I now am which I think make really good commentary on tragedy and how much autonomy we get from just having a healthy body. Which I did not realise but now I do.”
I ask what advice she’d give another creative?
“I have so many pieces of advice. But I don’t know whether I’m qualified to give it because whether or not I follow it myself can be debated. Because I always think that if I ever do become more well known I want to have kernels of advice I can just give to people.”
“My first bit of advice that I really like - Can I swear? I don’t want to seem like a pottymouth.
She has been swearing up to this point.
“I was told by a writer, ‘let it be shit.’ My biggest obstacle is that I struggle with perfectionism. I’m really bad at being comfortable with a piece of work that I’m not happy with and that’s always going to be the case when you start something. So, my main piece of advice would be to let it be a big pile of steaming rubbish, maybe even the first year, let it be rubbish. Do bits of tweaking here or there and then just leave it! Leave it in a drawer and put it in a different font and then come back to it when you’ve almost forgotten about it. When you read it back you will go ‘Oh my God, I can see a story here and I can see what parts are really bad.’”
“The other piece of advice that I have, that I apply everyday, is that if you can do it for 2 you can do it for 20. If there is a task that you really don’t want to do, say to yourself ‘I can do this for 2 minutes’ and most of the time you’ll find you can do it for more but even if you can only do it for 2, then 2 is still better than nothing. It’s kind of the same mentality as 5 press ups is better than no press ups.”
“During long projects you’re always told to put it into chunks so that you can better metabolise them - but for me - I need to break those chunks into crumbs. It’s especially useful if you don’t have the motivation or you're coming back from something that has sapped quite a bit of your creative thought away. It’s a good way to get running again.”
I ask Ishbel what’s next for her?
“I am working on a poetry book. I’ve written most of the poems…? I say that with a slight question mark because I don’t know whether I want to publish it or perform it. It’s my passion project from last year, it’s how I’m coming to terms with it.”
“It follows the journey of the initialization of my disability and my feelings after that and the period of where there was slight recovery and slight hope and now this post period which is more stable and there is reflection. It’s almost a year anniversary since it happened. It makes for a creative fuel.”
“And being away from it for so long…I’m so rusty and it's kind of getting over that disappointment and getting into a place where I can feel happy to be creative and I’m starting to do that. I’ve joined onto an Edinburgh Fringe show to be their marketing assistant. I’m co-writing a show with a friend - she's so lovely. And just seeing more stuff!”
“The fringe show is called Bodyparts. It’s set in rural Scotland - huzzah! I’m helping with the artwork with that which is really fun because I haven’t done painting in a while.”
Ishbel can be found on instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/ishbelewing/
A podcast, The Girl You Need, that she was on can be found here: https://podtail.se/podcast/the-girl-you-need/-12-ishbel-ewing/
“Light Me,” a short film she produced with can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=DaFhVCEDiF29fz3j&v=t5NRJ7HF6LQ&feature=youtu.be
“Dear Vengence” another short film she helped with can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZO-aA1qSZ0
The instagram for Bodyparts can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/bodypartsfringe/
Ishbel Ewing
