Seven Minutes and a Dolphin, Canal Cafe Theatre
If you’ve been reading all our Camden Fringe 2025 interviews, you may have noticed these opening paragrpahs often look very alike! What can you expect when we’re trying to do more than 100 of them! Safe to say this one is a little differenty though! If you haven’t been following all the interviews, then you might not know we’re publishing more each and every day of July. You can find them all here.
Seven Minutes and a Dolphin is a piece of new writing, brought to the stage by Wavelength Theatre. Billed as a wholesome, fast-paced comedy, it follows a group of family friends on a cruise holiday. When a tsunami is detected coming their way, rumours spiral, relationships bloom and fall, and friendships are tested.
We caught up with producer Amy Reeves, writer/ director, Tammy Berman and performer Rali, who shone some light on what audiences can expect in the show that will be playing at Canal Cafe Theatre from 8 to 10 August, with tickets available here.
What can audiences expect from the show?
Tammy: Have you ever been on holiday with your family friends? Because that’s what you can expect. The fun and laughter that comes with being all together on an adventure, interspersed with bickering, teasing, inside jokes and arguments. It’s a sunny show and a sweet story, imbued with love, with characters who are relatable, inspired by people who I know and love.
Amy: I hope you’ll be able to see just how much we have put into this show. When our actors get up on that stage they are inviting you into stories that represent our lives and perspectives, and that vulnerability makes the show the heartwarming and fun exploration of youth that it is. If just one person came out of the show having been inspired to try something new, chase their dreams, and put themselves out there, then I would know we had done what we came to do.
Is Camden Fringe going to be the show’s first time on stage, or have you already performed elsewhere?
Amy and Tammy: Well kind of…. Seven Minutes and a Dolphin first took to the stage as a sixth form led school play…. and look how far we’ve come! This revival reflects our development as artists, focusing on relationships and identities that represent ourselves. As Wavelength Theatre’s second Camden Fringe show as a company, we are excited to give a new twist to the play that started us on our journeys.
What was your inspiration behind the show?
Tammy: I wrote the original version of the script with a friend when we were at school. We looked around us and saw a lack of fun, silly, wholesome plays. So, we wrote Seven Minutes and a Dolphin to bring the family-friendly joy of sitcoms to the stage. We wanted to create characters that audience members could relate to and root for, and a story that felt believable. This time around, I adapted the show to focus even more on the characters, bringing family relationships
What was it that drew you to this show and role?
Rali: Having worked with Wavelength Theatre last summer, I was really excited for the opportunity to work with this fantastic company once again, especially as I was involved in the original performance of Seven Minutes and a Dolphin! Even though there are some changes to the script, the core message of friendship really speaks to me. One of the changes actually happens to be my role! I play Paige this time around, and I’m really excited! Paige’s fun-loving attitude and ability to lighten any situation is both a challenge and a joy to act, and I can’t wait to get on stage and do my best!
What brought you all together?
Tammy: Our love for theatre and an at the time completely unwarranted self-confidence! Last summer, having just finished school, I had the idea to put on a show. I took the idea to Amy to help me find a place to do that and so became Wavelength Theatre. Having joined the Camden Fringe, and found a lovely theatre, we reached out to all our theatrical friends from school and from home and soon we had a wonderful cast. We call ourselves the Wavelength family, because we are just that. We look out for each other, support each other, and work together to create theatre that we are all so passionate about! And, most importantly, we have tons of fun doing it.
Amy: My friendship with Tammy was the start of the Wavelength family, supported by our determination to put ourselves out there and take a risk. Every member of the cast and crew knows that it is our offstage friendships that allow us to share such special stories and create powerful theatre, and we truly couldn’t do it without them. From those who have been involved since the first days of the show at school to the newest members of the team for whom this is their first Wavelength adventure, our excitement, passion, and determination is the glue that keeps us together.
How important is audience interaction to you?
Tammy: We are performing at Canal Cafe Theatre, which is a fabulous space. What excited me most about it is the cabaret-style seating which means our audience can have a classy cocktail while they watch the show. We are utilising this to make the whole theatre feel like the cruise that the characters are holidaying on. We want the audience to feel immersed in their world. There will be characters running through the audience, interacting with them as guests on the cruise, and there’s even a concert within the show!
If you had to describe your show as a colour what would it be?
Tammy: Bright blue! Blue like the sea, our snorkels and the background of every single Instagram story we post (drop us a follow here!)
Amy: It has to be yellow – our Canva colour palette has been there for us time and time again, always starting and ending with our iconic Seven Minutes yellow.
If you could perform this show anywhere in the world where would it be?
Tammy: On a cruise. Site-specific theatre really interests me, and I think it would be so exciting to direct this show on an actual cruise with actual cruise-goers!
Amy: I love this question, and my answer is easy – back in the theatre at our school where the show first took to the stage. Seven Minutes and a Dolphin is a celebration of our progress and development, and to take this revival back to its roots would be beyond special.
What’s the most valuable piece of advice you’ve received during your career, and how has it influenced your work on this show?
Tammy: When I was applying for universities, deep down I really wanted to apply for Theatre, but people sort of expected me to apply for English. I had a chat with my drama teacher, and he told me that the best thing you can do in life is the thing you love. And I’ve never forgotten that!
Amy: Impossible is just an opinion. Starting Wavelength Theatre was a brave jump, and it came with some doubt from those around us. We’re not too young to achieve our goals and it’s never too early to start doing what you love. Our show last summer taught us so much about diving in at the deep end and learning as you go, and I’ve really taken that forward to this year’s show – it’s our love of theatre that got us this far and we’re not done yet.
Thanks for your time, your enthusiasm is really infectious. Seven Minutes and a Dolphin will play at the Canal Cafe Theatre from 8 to 10 August.
