The Fringe has made its name by making names. When television was booming, producers peppered audiences on the lookout for their next star. A performer could be whisked from a low-budget show in a pub basement to a primetime panel with a live studio audience. Those on the fringes really did seem to be pulled into the middle, lifted up the rungs of the ladder and into stardom.
A lot of the time, these emerging stars occupy identities that often go underrepresented. With accommodation getting pricier and the city getting busier, many have questioned whether this model still stands, or whether the only thing “fringe” about the festival is its name. Does this authentic Fringe still exist, and where can we find it?
Indra Wilson brings us Float, which isn’t the science fiction space odyssey you might expect, but a raw exploration of how a young person copes with pregnancy loss. Written from Wilson’s personal experience, the show uses the metaphor of a solo space mission to examine their decision to be a single parent and how they cope when crashing back down to earth.
The show tackles the oft-stigmatised issue of pregnancy loss in young people with unwavering strength, aware of its status as a ‘taboo’ topic. Though Wilson admits, “at scratch nights I see shoulders tighten up – people don’t know how the show is going to handle it,” they have moved audiences who “see their own grief stories” within the production.
As a genderqueer person, Wilson states, “We made the decision to give employment for trans identities and non-binary identities. It was our main focus to create a rehearsal space which we had never seen before. Though it’s my lived experience, this is now all of our story to tell, it’s all of our work.”
The organisation Somewhere For Us has looked into the queer population at the Edinburgh Fringe, finding that in previous years just 5% of participants identified as LGBTQ+. Despite this, writer of Lost Girls / At Bus Stops Róisín Sheridan-Bryson says “everyone I know is gay. I look around and everyone’s gay.” Made up of an almost-entirely queer team, Lost Girls / At Bus Stops is a crushingly enticing love story that palpably lays out all the feelings one has whilst devastatingly in love. The play, set at the Fringe, will soon run at the Fringe in Assembly George Square.
Speaking about her show’s reception, Sheridan-Bryson says, “There’s a particular feeling with some of the reviews that we got, and this isn’t any shade to them, but I think it being reviewed by straight people was a very different experience for them. Multiple reviews used the word ‘sweet’, but lesbians were weeping whilst watching it.”
Looking at the history of queer theatre, we notice that lesbians are rarely in the fore – so how do you feel inspired when paving the way? Sheridan-Bryson says she notices little flashes in all sorts of content, be it the romance of Bridget Jones’ Diary or a single scene from sitcom Hacks. “A lot of the experience of being a queer person is searching desperately for that one tiny bit of authentic representation, and you always find it in the most unexpected places. It feels like there’s almost an insatiable thirst for queer representation, and there’s never enough.”
It’s not uncommon to hear people remark that the Fringe isn’t what it used to be, but through Wilson and Sheridan-Bryson’s shows it feels as though industry barriers are being broken down constantly. Entirely queer teams are leading production studios to work in new, fresh ways, spotlighting people who have been in the dark for years.
Float, Gilded Balloon Patter House, 30 Jul-25 Aug (not 10, 24), 6pm
Lost Girls / At Bus Stops, Assembly George Square, 15-24 Aug, 2.20pm