Not a Big Boy, Barons Court Theatre
With less than one week until the opening shows come to Camden Fringe 2025 it’s really a great time to take a look through all our interviews to get an idea of what’s to come for the next four weeks. You can find all our interviews here with more coming each and every day of July.
C. Hakan Akgül‘s Not a Big Boy, which will play at Barons Court Theatre for two performances only on 8 and 9 August (tickets here) finds Kerim is stuck in a visa office queue. Whilst he waits his turn he looks back at his life and his mother.
But we’re all for looking forward rather than back here, so we grabbed hold of Hakan to ask him about his upcoming show.
What can audiences expect from the show?
A heartfelt exploration of waiting around in a visa office. In its core, it’s a show about being stuck in between countries and ages and emotions. It’s like sitting in a diverted bus, stuck in traffic, hoping or fearing the next announcement.
Is Camden Fringe going to be the show’s first time on stage, or have you already performed elsewhere?
We have already put Not a Big Boy on at Drayton Arms Theatre last year for a short run, and it was sold out! (Yes it was a very short run but still!) So we wanted to bring it over to Camden Fringe to let it be seen by new people, for a newer and better experience for it.
What was your inspiration behind the show?
It all came from this idea of standing up for oneself. You know that conversation with friends where you complain about your boss and talk a big game about how you’re gonna tell it to them like it is the next time. And then the next time does come, and suddenly you can’t find that big game anywhere within you? I wanted to explore that, but sadder.
How long have you been working on the play?
The show was created as a short monologue, as part of the Istanbul International Theatre Festival in 2023. Then in 2024 it became a full length play in London. Now it’s continuing that life. So the answer is: for a while.
Is this version how you originally envisioned it or has it changed drastically since you first put pen to paper?
Well it was a short play at first so it has changed. But the heart is still there. It is still mostly a story about a guy stuck in a visa office, talking about his mum and growing up.
Being a fringe festival, we all know sets have to be bare minimum, how have you got around this with your set and props?
I believe that challenges are the best cradles for innovation and creative solutions. Since the show takes place in a visa office and the main antagonist is the sheer bureaucracy of it all, we went in a paper focused direction! You’ll see a ton of different documents, mostly real and mostly were actually used in my own visa applicatons, all around the stage in different shapes and forms.
If you had to describe your show as a colour what would it be?
Baby pink and baby blue. Bit on the nose but… The show is called Not a Big Boy so, no need for pretention.
If you had to describe your show as a meal what would it be?
Yogurt. There’s a whole angry monologue about it within the show. You gotta hear it to believe it. (Also if you’re thinking that yogurt is not a meal, you’re not thinking big enough)
If your show had a soundtrack what songs would definitely be on it?
Definetly the song “Mama’s Boy” by Dominic Fike and “Francis Forever” by Mitski. The first is kind of obvious, the second is a spoiler.
What words of advice/encouragement would you give anyone thinking about doing Camden Fringe next year?
Just go for it! Honestly it is so much fun and you feel like a part of something much bigger than yourself, all the people are up for it and up to help each other out. It refuels your trust in the industry. Just go in for the hell of it instead of expecting to win the lottery and you’ll have a blast.
Thanks to Hakan for spending some time to tell us about the show. Not A Big Boy plays at Barons Court Theatre on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 August.
