Elsie: Hi, I'm Elsie. I'm one of the Directors of Tragicomic.
Sally: I'm Sally, I'm the other Director of Tragicomic.
Kathy: And I'm Kathy, I'm their mum.
I trained as an actor, and I'm a director. And an actor!
E: Wonder where we get it from!
Minnie: Hello! I'm Minnie, I'm one of The Candle Wasters,
so I create and write and produce.
Helen: So I'm Helen, I'm Minnie's mum. And I am a callcenter operator in the main
But I'm also an artist.
Claris: Hello, I'm Claris Jacobs and I'm one of the writers and the production designer of Tragicomic
This is my mum!
Tilda: My name is Tilda.
I run a recruitment company, we specialise in the not-for-profit sector.
Robbie: Hi everyone! My name is Robbie Nicol. I am one of The Candle Wasters,
the honorary dude. And who are you?
Noeline: Uhm, I'm Robbie's mum.
N: Mostly I am retired now. R: Yeah. Good on ya.
C: What is your mothering style? T: Lordy.
T: Love, really.
H: Love.
N: Love. Love! R: Yeah, just give lots of love, make lots of mistakes.
N: Love, like icing, covers it all.
K: Obviously, I had no control.
E: Yeah, because we've become artists.
R: How about Hamlet? Do you know anything about Hamlet, ma?
N: To be or not to be. R: Yeah, that's Hamlet.
H: Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him well.
T: It's pretty tragic.
K: It's an amazingly modern play.
For such a very, very old play.
Just the way it's all about his psychology.
Yeah, in that moment of doubt he's exploring life and death, isn't he?
E: Mm! K: Shall I kill him now? Is that the right thing to do.
K: You know, and what is life anyway? And what is death?
S: Which again! That's such an oddly modern question for the time period.
Which was quite a religious time period, and all that.
I mean I'm not sure that Shakespeare was a particularly religious person.
Cos I know that his dad went to prison for not going to church.
Shakespeare did go to church. But he had to. Cos you got fined if you didn't.
R: Okay, do you want to put your headphones on?
N: Alright, yeah. I'm not good with these. Is that right?
R: It's actually the other way, sorry.
R: No, you weren't to know. N: Alright, cool.
N: That's it. R: You feeling comfortable?
N: Pardon? Yup. R: Okay, good.
R: Your first viewing. N: It looks cool.
R: Okay, she already thinks it looks cool on the first frame and we haven't started yet.
Okay, ready... And... Go.
"But her dad's not around"
"For whatever reason."
[Martin rambling] [Tilda laughs]
[Noeline laughs] [Martin still rambling]
[Helen laughs] [Martin keeps going]
H: Oh no.
"The literal motherfucker" [Kathy laughs]
"Is it even legal for our principle we have sex with a teacher"
[Tilda gasps] T: Shit.
K: Colours are beautiful.
"My comic is about a wounded Knight who's on one final quest"
"It's a mystery about a ghost."
S: See that little Hamlet reference right there?
E: Fencing gear. K: Mm. Mm-hmm.
E: Looks like Sally's bedroom in my mind. K: Yup.
E: A lot of this is Sally's drawings.
T: Ooooh!
Oooooooo.
That was a bit spooky.
H: Whaaat? [laughs nervously]
Can we see that bit again?!
Whaaat?
R: So what are your first thoughts?
N: I thought it's, ah, I thought it's really good.
And was very capturing. You know it felt like....
It felt like how a young person would behave in that situation.
T: Oh my god [Nova] does the tragic teen SO well.
She's so, she's so good. Nova is just superb.
C: Yeah. T: She does that grumpy, surly superbly.
K: The relationship between her and her best friend is fantastic.
H: Very serious, this one.
Kinda cool. But there's lightness to it.
N: But it has a Candle Waster flavour.
N: You know? R: Yeah.
N: I love the way it always feels real.
The characters feel contemporary.
K: The rat's great. E: Yeah. [Albus is] a good rat.
K: The drawings look really good. S: Hyurk!
[all laugh fondly]
T: Seeing the older sister and being, just falling in love.
That was a lovely moment.
N: At the beginning when he's a teacher in the class because I have been a teacher -
R: Yeah, yeah, I know! That's another thing I was thinking about.
N: It's always amusing to see a teacher in the classroom.
And trying to explain some emotional, and than you know...
R: Absolutely putting a foot in it. N: Yeah.
T: Next episode! I want to see what happens!
M: What did you think of the relationship between Hannah and her mother?
Did it seem realistic?
H: Ah, yeah. Very much so.
Cos they're both frightened of each other in a way, in a sense.
I think they're both kind of scared in how to approach each other.
T: It's obviously a tricky situation, because the mother's the bloody principal.
I mean, whenever is that a good idea?
K: I think it's a great choice that she's the principal.
E: Oh, good.
K: Cos that gives her that kind of status,
that she has in the original play.
R: What was it like being a parent to me as a 15 year old?
And does it seem like it compares to this at all?
N: I was thinking actually, sorry Robbie to not relate to you,
R: Outrageous.
N: I'd probably relate it more to Kate,
who was 12 when I was originally on my own.
And how I was trying to run a double life of being a good, home parent and also dating.
R: One of the things that we kind of wanted to examine is also,
I guess the guilt that can come with being a mum as well.
N: Absolutely.
R: Because wanting to have some opportunities for yourself and being
able to still treat yourself like a human and a person and being able to
have like a sexuality and stuff.
N: Yeah, and needs warmth and companionship of your own age,
N: as well as being a mum, you know? R: Yeah.
N: It's really, you do have guilt around that.
Are you abandoning your child's emotional needs?
Who just wants you to be, you know, the traditional family at that point.
So they can bounce away from you. Not doing the same thing as you and dating.
K: Well at 15, at 14-15, you were both obsessed with Shakespeare.
Sally in particular was obsessed with Shakespeare,
And in particular obsessed with Hamlet,
In fact, I bought something along to show you:
This is the project Sally did in Year 13.
This is her comic based on Hamlet.
That's why it says Hamlet there.
K: And, um, E: It's a good time.
K: This is a particularly great page.
It even has flaps.
E: Woah. S: Woah!
M: Do you want to see more?
H: Yeah. Very much.
I'm always curious about how The Candle Wasters
how the story unfolds. And I know there are gonna be twists and turns.
And perhaps things won't go quite the way that you anticipate them going.
M: Yeah, where do you think they're gonna go?
H: I don't know. I don't know!
That's what I know about The Candle Wasters, is that it's not formulaic.
I don't know, you guys are kind of unpredictable in that way, and I like that.
T: I would binge watch that entire thing. Right now.
K: I'm really excited to see the webcomics inbetween the episodes as well.
How you can go from one to the other.
And how that will flow.
Sally's busy drawing at the moment.
R: Thank you, everyone, for watching! We really appreciate it!
Thank you for taking the time to visit me and my lovely mum.
N: Aw. R: Okay.
R: Bye everyone! Say bye to the people, ma.
N: Oh, okay, bye! R: Goodbye!
E: Goodbye! K: Bye!
T: Thank you so much! C & T: Byeeee!
H: Thanks, guys. M: Thank you!
M: This is my mum, thank her. Wow, Helen, she's great.
H: Minnie, she's amazing!
M: Wow, I love her!
[both laughing]