The circus is heading to the East End as The Night Kitchen Cabaret explores the world of juggling and stilt walking in Family Tree, as well as dance at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) this week.

Roses Urquhart, the director and star of the show, explains why she wanted to capture the heart of this part of London and add a new twist…

What is the show about? Does it link with your previous shows?

Yes, absolutely. It is set in an east London kitchen run by Ruby, who hosts the cabaret and five of the characters are recurring ones including Mabel and Great Uncle Alfie. It is a familiar setting and character, but a new story.

What can audiences expect from the show?

It is basically a comedy but it is really theatre, fused with cabaret, with music and circus. Ruby is desperately trying to put on a show but her performers aren’t turning up. Also, her neighbour is working on a gin that doesn’t cause a hangover, so there are a few interweaving storylines mixed with cabaret. It is multi-disciplinary theatre and basically a fusion of lots of different art forms told in a narrative structure.

When did you come up with the idea for the show?

I first created the show in 2007. I was asked by some friends to MC their East End wedding and I came up with the character of Ruby for that. People at the wedding thought Ruby must have her own show somewhere, so I put them at their word and wrote a show for her. At the time I was very engaged with the classical theatre tradition but was also interested in music festivals and the spontaneous energetic celebratory energy that performers have in that respect, so I was trying to create a show that married those two worlds, which was when I first came up with the idea for the cabaret.

Did you grow up in the East End? I didn’t but I’m an honorary East Ender. I first moved to Bethnal Green 20 years ago and I lived in a commune on the corner of Bethnal Green Lane with 17 people and a big fat cat, so that was my introduction to this part of London. I fell in love with the markets and street-life and lots of the stories explore the fascinating history of the East End with all its different characters.

Where did you grow up?

In the north east of Scotland, which was very different. At 16 I went to live in France for a year and that is where I got introduced to theatre and circus. I had an amazing host family who had four kids and every summer the kids would get together with all their cousins and do a street circus show at a festival in the South of France. They taught me lots of circus skills, such as juggling, stilt walking and acrobatics and so I did a show with them that summer, before bringing them all to Edinburgh, which was a festival I was familiar with and we did street theatre there too. From that point, I got involved in various companies doing street theatre in London and I ended up going on to do theatre at RADA, which is what gave me this interest in multidisciplinary theatre.

When did you make the leap into directing?

After I left RADA in 2005 and became a jobbing actress, I wasn’t having much fun and was spending an awful lot of time going to the auditions where it would be to play something like a maid and have two lines. Before I trained I was in this amazing show I loved, my first professional job, called A Midsummer Night’s Dream, set in 70s disco-land. It was a New York hit that had come to the Edinburgh festival and then moved to London.

Theatre is a really hard thing to be in if you’re not having fun. When I started doing The Night Kitchen stuff I got so much more back for the energy I put in and I had a very clear vision of what I wanted it to be and how I wanted it to work and became the director from there.

Family Tree, GBS Theatre, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Malet Street, Fitzrovia, WC1E 7JN, until Saturday July 2, 7.15pm. Details: nightkitchencabaret.co.uk

By Rachel Russell