Folkestone-based Smoking Apples Theatre, who are known for their visual theatre making and puppetry are back with a new show for 2025 and the focus is intergenerational connections. ‘Three’ centres on three neighbours and their family relationships, with the company using the art of mask for the very first time. I was blown away by the attention to detail in their family production ‘Kinder’ in 2023, which looks at the WWII kindertransport movement from a child’s perspective and last year they premiered ‘We Are More Alike’ in Folkestone Harbour Arm. Ahead of the show’s opening at Folkestone Quarterhouse this Autumn, I had the opportunity to ask co-director and writer Molly Freeman some questions about the show.
In your new show ‘Three’ you are ‘addressing the importance of intergenerational connections’. What inspired you to create a show about family relationships?
We started making Three back in 2023 and were coming out of the pandemic. This time was tricky for a lot of reasons but it really made us realise the importance of families, and not being able to see them or having to be careful about seeing them. We lost so many of the older generation during this time, including one of our co-ad’s Nan, and I think the changing nature of our own relationships with our grandparents; older age, sickness, our parents becoming grandparents etc. made us want to explore how these relationships with the older generation can shape us.
What can you tell me about the three neighbours at the heart of this story: Ida, Jaanvi and Ralph? How are they connected?
Ida, Jaanvi and Ralph all live in the same block of flats. They are neighbours but not necessarily familiar ones; sharing the same space and time but essentially living separate lives. Ida is a rule breaker; she loves a boogie and is a little bit naughty round the edges. Jaanvi has recently arrived in the UK, from India and is here to support her family and Ralph is an ex-military man who is alone but quite contentedly so. The story that unfolds is about how each of these characters create their families and offer up pieces of a puzzle that they didn’t always know they were missing.
To what extent have you drawn on your own family experiences in the writing of the script?
Someone asked me the other day which of the narrative strands I identify with and I suppose the honest answer is that I can relate to parts of all of them. I always try to write from what I know so my own experiences and that of the creative team are heavily drawn on. We’re lucky that we have such a generous team who are willing to share so much. In the last two years that Three has developed, as a collective, we’ve lost grandparents, seen our own parents become grandparents and had children of our own, so the heart and soul of the show is rooted in our own experiences.
You are known for your puppetry, but in this show you are also introducing masks. What is it about this particular narrative and these characters that encouraged you to introduce a new art form to your work?
We really wanted to explore mask as a way to work with age. Our cast are not older adults so it felt like an exciting medium to be able to explore the aging process respectfully. And of course, within the theatrical world, we are also able to age the characters across the duration of the show. It was really interesting to work with puppetry and mask alongside each other. They share many attributes but they are also very different techniques, so there was a lot to learn. Working with Rachael Savage, artistic director of Vamos Theatre, was invaluable here. Both have a beautiful way of magnifying human action though and this works really well in the show.
The show ‘serves as a powerful reminder that we need our third generation’. What do you hope audiences take away from this intergenerational story?
I hope that the audience leaves Three feeling inspired to live life in full. Regardless of whether you’re 17 or 70, wherever you are on your timeline, your hopes, dreams and desires can still be fulfilled.
What are you most looking forward to, presenting the show at Folkestone Quarterhouse this Autumn?
We are based in Folkestone so we’re hugely looking forward to playing in our hometown! We can’t wait to see the response from the audience when we present Three. There is honestly nothing I love more than sitting in the crowd and watching the audience watch our shows. It’s not that I’m not interested in what the cast are doing (I’ve seen it a few (thousand) times by this point) but more that I love seeing the audience’s reactions.
Watching Three in Folkestone
I wish Molly and the company all the best for their upcoming performances in Folkestone. If these production images are anything to go by, audiences are in for a visual treat! It also sounds like a very personal and reflective piece of theatre. ‘Three’ is at the Quarterhouse on Tuesday 4th, Wednesday 5th and Friday 7th November 2025, with tickets available via the venue’s website.
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