Those are some of the questions that plague our protagonist, who also asks why every partner she’s ever had died in mysterious ways. Poison? Check! Drowning? Check! The poor woman is wondering if she’s cursed.
Technically she is. The one to apply this wicked curse is called Rosalie Minnitt, the writer and actor of Clementine. Clementine is the protagonist of an eponymous one-hour show that explores Clementine’s mystery where her lovers all face ill fortune. She embarks on a journey to find the answers she needs in solving this mystery and leaves a wake of chaos with her every step.
The idea to create this chaotic and funny show came to Rosalie during lockdown.
“It was an idea that popped into my head when I was roaming around the field going truly crazy. Like, I genuinely cannot even emphasise enough how much this show was just basically a fever dream.
I did a little home video thing where I forced my sister to film me running around fields. We were both kind of going a bit crazy. And I really, really love this as an idea as a character. It kind of just developed from there.
I was like, ‘I'm just gonna write it. I'm just gonna put it on. And I'm just gonna see what happens.’ I did that last year, I've been working on it for like a year now. But I put it on. The worst that could happen is that it's really embarrassing.
And it is embarrassing, even though it's gone well. But I set myself a goal. And I just want to say I did it. So that's kind of where it came from.”
When creating her character, Rosalie thought about small details to make her character more alive, from making Lana Del Rey her character’s role model, and her simply being an outrageous person to hang out with in modern times. Throughout the entire process, Rosalie has had fun and hopes to encounter more fun in the next iterations of her show. One possible idea she’s thinking about is wondering how her character would be encountering social media.
“Gosh, she would be all over the shop. I'd love to make some TikToks of her because I think that she'd be outrageous. Maybe she does need a social media account... Maybe that's next!”
The play is not set in a specific time period, but the general idea is that it’s historical. Rosalie enjoyed the audience's confusion at trying to pinpoint the exact time period her show is set in. Before the play begins there is a disclaimer telling the audience that the show has been ‘fully’ researched – which means don’t expect anything to be accurate or factual. For instance, there’s sunglasses and uber cars that make an appearance, things that exist in a more modern time period.
Rosalie sadly drew the line at Clementine visiting the pyramids, as that could make her show more chaotic than it already is. It’s impossible to link the show to one specific period or year, but when writing the play Rosalie had the regency era set in mind. She’s a romantic at heart who loves the regency era, a time period that she would have loved to live in.
“I'm a romantic at heart. I love those TikToks that are like ‘ooh he says that he loves you but you know, Wordsworth wrote this about his wife’ kind of thing. I mean we didn't have too many rights, which weren’t great.
But I definitely would have loved to have received some lovely poems. I'd love someone to fight for me, you know, fight for my hand. That would be a great fight for my honour. I'd love it.
I also love the idea of not having to work and just being able to lounge about all day. That would have been brilliant. But I think if I'm being honest, if I lived in the Regency Era, I'd probably be at the bottom of the pile, working in some kind of factory somewhere. So I don't know if I would have been a lady of leisure, sadly. But if I had been, I would have loved to lived life like that.”
So what’s next for Clementine? Rosalie has a few ideas.
“I'd love a prequel. Can you imagine? Oh, my God, that would be really funny. I kind of want her to go to high school. I kind of wanted it to be like senior year. I don't know how that works, but I imagine she's trying out for cheer. She's in her homecoming dress. I just like the idea of putting her in a high school setting. Not that it makes any sense.”
If you’re upset, you missed Clementine at VAULT, then don’t worry! Clementine will visit the Brighton Fringe in May and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August. And to hear more about Rosalie’s thoughts, listen here!
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