Comedy / musical comedy
Bristol harpist Scarlett Smith combines music and comedy, and asks: ‘Any Objections?’
Describing herself as an ‘electro-acoustic harpist and comedian’, Scarlett Smith is the first to admit there has never been a blueprint for what she does.
Her musical repertoire is largely contemporary, characterised by harp ‘beats’ layered with fx pedals and looping effects to play familiar pop and rock songs, film scores and video game soundtracks.
Smith – who trained in circus and physical theatre at Circomedia and has a decade of performing experience, principally as a wedding harpist – will be debuting her first musical comedy show, Any Objections? at The Wardrobe Theatre on January 29-30.
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Electro-acoustic harpist and comedian Scarlett Smith – photo: Scarlett Smith
As a queer performer navigating a traditionally heteronormative landscape, the experience of creating something so different has been liberating for Smith.
She admits to struggling in recent years with the beauty-focused nature of the harp world – an instrument “stereotypically portrayed as luxurious, angelic, and highly ‘femme’”, and the judgement she has felt for not conforming to expectations of how she should present herself.
Accordingly, she is careful to signpost visitors to her website who may “already have some idea of what a harpist is”, that “spoiler – I’m probably not that”; going on to point out that “it could mean I’m not the right fit for you, or it could mean I’m everything you didn’t know you needed”.
Reflecting further on this, Smith admits: “It can be scary to show up authentically online or in person. I am so aware that stepping away from harpist stereotypes will lose me some work, but that it will also be the thing that helps me find my people; the clients who I can best serve.
Photo: Scarlett Smith
“But when you’re also going through a cost-of-living crisis, and with the arts being such a chronically underfunded sector, I often feel as if I’m tiptoeing along a tightrope of financially sustainable self-expression.”
As a performer, the multidisciplinary nature of Smith’s approach is both creative and exciting, affording her greater opportunity to play, to transcend language barriers, and to “support different energies” by moving from musical to non-musical sections, or blending the two.
Photo: Scarlett Smith
The concept of combining music and comedy “in a way that’s not solely comedy songs” is particularly thrilling to Smith, who remembers being inspired by seeing comedian and trombonist Faye Treacy at The Wardrobe Theatre in the late 2010s.
Any Objections? began by testing out ideas at open mic nights including Owl on the Roof, who Smith cites as being incredibly supportive to her experimentation. “I didn’t really know what the show would be about when I started”, she admits. “I just had this desire to explore what ‘Harp comedy’ could be.”
Scarlett Smith: Any Objections? is at The Wardrobe Theatre on January 29-30 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at www.thewardrobetheatre.com. Follow Scarlett @BristolHarpist.
All photos: Scarlett Smith
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