In this interview we catch up with Alex Van Ric who is actor, writer, director and producer of Monster Made. ”Monster Made is the story of two people who could not be further apart. Amanda Crowley is an unyielding lawyer who will not be intimidated by a man accused of murder. This man is Thomas Duncan who committed a heinous massacre. He is guilty. Without a doubt, the case is lost. Nevertheless, Amanda wants the case. She does not want to win it, but rather to understand how someone can become such a monster and possibly set a development into motion that will finally change something.”
How would you describe your show to someone discovering it for the first time at the Fringe?
Two people meet. They come from very different (inner) worlds and they become painfully close, recognizing the abysses and the way the other and they themselves, and ultimately society have become. Monster Made deals with a disturbing and upsetting topic: what makes us what we are? How much influence do childhood, trauma and socialisation have on our later thinking? But in the end, I would suggest, you discover it yourself, because what do I know? I still discover it time and again.
What moment, idea or frustration first sparked this show into existence?
I don’t think it was one specific moment. It was more a coming together of different conscious and subconscious thoughts and frustrations, reaching back to my acting training in London where I first came into contact with the ideas of Alice Miller, because I had so much anger in myself and my acting coach Giles Foreman said I should read Alice Miller, and I did, but it then took me several years after that to come back to her works and I did and I read more of her writings and about her ideas. She talks herself a lot about the rise of fascism during the 20th century and I am born German, and I always asked myself how could it be possible that this could happen in a dimension of unknown proportions? How can it be that human beings do unspeakable things to other human beings? These questions, combined with the tendencies and shifts in politics and in society which I observed, shaped an idea for a setting and two characters emerged. This idea and these two characters kept growing and talking to me in my head and this is what eventually developed into the play Monster Made.
How has the show evolved from its earliest idea to what audiences will see now?
I think after all the research I did follwing the first intial idea of the play, it has become more honest which includes that it is harder, but that was a challenge I had to accept and to let happen. I had to give the charachters the space to grow into the beings they are in the final play. I had to allow them, especially Thomas, to tell his mind, even if I personally don’t agree with his point of view. I had a hard time struggling with it while the process kept going on, but it also made Amanda much stronger and made her a fierce opponent to him. She is the real heroine in the story I think.
What makes Edinburgh Fringe the right place for this show right now?
The Edinburgh Fringe is known for challenging and bold storytelling, for courageous theatre making, and from the very first rehearsals back in late 2024 for our run in Berlin, I was playing with the idea of bringing this play to Edinburgh. I mean, it’s THE FRINGE and if a theatre play from a, let’s be honest, complete unknown, can make a difference, where when not in Edinburgh at THE FRINGE?! And why now? First, because one very practical and coming in handy reason, I have it finished and staged now; and secondly, which is more important, I find the political and societal shifts and developements very alarming.
What does bringing this particular show to the Fringe represent for you personally?
Bringing my play Monster Made and this particular story to the Fringe is my personal contribution to the social and political discussion that places the human being and its very existence and story into the centre of the argument, because I believe that is what we should be talking about, and I hope that it might make some kind of difference.
What has been the most unexpectedly challenging part of getting this show to Edinburgh?
Surprisingly, everything has gone pretty smoothly so far. So far! We’re not in Edinburgh yet! But, all joking aside, the biggest challenge so far has actually been the small detail of sending the posters and flyers to the theater within a specific time frame. A package from Germany to Scotland has to go through customs, and the delivery estimates ranged from 2–3 days to 2 weeks—not to mention the customs documents and declarations. So I decided to have the posters and flyers printed at a print shop in the UK and shipped directly to the theater. However, I had never worked with that print shop before, so I had to trust the reviews regarding quality and hope that they would deliver on time. The delivery seems to have worked, but I haven’t seen the posters and flyers yet. Fingers crossed they are good!
If audiences leave the venue holding onto one thing, what do you hope it is?
Hope! Hope that we are not doomed to stay where we are. Hope that change is possible and that it is never to late to change.
How do you think performing this show during a Fringe run will shape it?
I am very curious about what the audience will discover, what they will see and I’m sure these views and thoughts about the play will deepen the characters in the play and uncover even more layers that we might not even have thought of yet. I’m around with that play now for a good time of three years and every rehearsal we did, we did discover new things and I think and I hope this will keep going on and will be getting a boost by the Fringe run. This play, the writing of it, the rehearsals, the writing adjustments, the first run, the rehearsal period again, it all feels like a living organism and I don’t know, I think The Fringe is the annual health check. Let’s see where we stand!
Who do you hope this show finds at the Fringe?
Unfortunately, as it often is, the people who I think should watch this play the most, don’t care to watch it. But nevertheless I think theatre has the duty to tell the stories anyway; and we can take a bit out of every story for ourselves, from some stories big chunks, from other stories little pieces. But sometimes these little pieces have a huge impact. In that respect I hope that my play might inspire as many people as possible to think and to feel and to get into dialogue with oneself and with each other because in the end it concerns us all. We are all human beings, different but equal.
Finally, if this show came with a warning label, what would it say?
Warning! You may be challenged to feel things you might prefer not to feel, and you may be called to think about who you are and who you want to be.
Monster Made runs at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 24th – 30th August 2026.