Breakfast With B24/7 Mayfest’s Kate & Matthew

Matthew Austin and Kate Yedigaroff are the artistic directors of Mayfest, Bristol’s unique annual festival of contemporary theatre. Martin Booth meets them before this month’s festival takes over the city once again. Illustration by Harry Morgan

Matthew Austin and Kate Yedigaroff look at each other and smile. They have just ordered exactly the same food and drink combination as each other, even saying their choice of poached eggs in perfect synchronisation.

“What you don’t know about us is that we’re actually married,” Kate jokes. “It’s theatre’s big secret.” The pair may not be married but their close friendship is a crucial component of their close working relationship. At this time of year, Mayfest may take up most of their time but through their production company Mayk there may often be several other productions to occupy their time through from an initial concept to possibly an international tour.

Matthew and Kate met while they were both studying drama at Bristol University. Although they were in different years, they had the same circle of friends and later went on to both work at the Bristol Old Vic, where they took on the mantle of a new festival founded by then artistic director David Farr (writer of The Night Manager) based closely on one founded by current artistic director Tom Morris when he was at the Battersea Arts Centre.

From its early days framing experimental work at the Old Vic, the festival has grown enormously to become an undoubted highlight of Bristol’s cultural year, with a growing team in place meaning Matthew and Kate no longer having to collect tickets on the door of every show, although I get the sense they miss the close involvement in every single show.

The location of our breakfast, Ironworks on Broad Street close to Mayk HQ above the Exchange on Corn Street, was the suggestion of one member of their team. Matthew arrived first and was soon sat on by Tinker the cafe dog before Kate arrived and their synchronicity started, both ordering identical breakfasts of a bacon roll, red sauce and a latte.

It may still be early in the morning, but the pair are fine company, talking passionately about their work with Kate occasionally launching into the accent of a Broadway impresario when she feels she has been too serious about her craft.

Although strong words have been exchanged, they claim never to have had a row. They used to live together in St Werburgh’s and although they don’t see each other as much as they used to outside work – with Kate now a mum – a meeting at the other’s house can still turn into an evening watching the Eurovision Song Contest.

“We’re very different but we’ve got very similar tastes of what we think is fundamentally good  about theatre and experience,” Matthew explains, Tinker now scurrying about under our feet. “I think that’s why we work well together because we can both be strong in different ways that the other one can’t.”

The pair differ most widely in our conversation soon after the bacon rolls arrive after what seems like an interminable 25-minute wait when I ask them what constitutes a great day at work for two people who admit they have never even had a job description.

Matthew goes first: “Mine is an opening night, being in the middle of something while it’s happening. That’s when I get the most excited, seeing an audience experience something. We have shows where half the audiences completely loved it and the other half hated it, that’s really exciting. I love being there at the front line.”

This is one answer where Kate cannot finish Matthew’s sentence, and she waits for him to stop talking before giving her own considered response:  “I like that too, but my happiest days are if I’ve been in a rehearsal room with an artist and having a long conversation about an idea. I really like the moment where something feels impossibly exciting and perhaps impossible, and then there’s a breakthrough, a way of making that happen.”

With funding and contracts in place, Matthew and Kate now sometimes plan up to three years ahead, but as our time comes to an end it’s back to thinking about this year’s festival, the pair walking together back to Corn Street, deep in conversation.