If you reviewed your own show, how would you describe it?
A funny, poignant and strangely relatable show about the madness of weddings and why we’re still ‘married’ to the idea in 2026. Sad Bride is a heartfelt tale about a remarkable yet unremarkable wedding obsessed woman, Bride Thompson – a queer individual trapped in a system that’s taught her marrying a man is the only way to be happy. Her story is told in multi-media and through the voices of the strange and beautiful characters in Bride’s life which allows us to explore the show’s themes (compulsory heterosexuality, the wedding industrial complex, and the insidious world of self-creation on the internet) through character comedy.
You’ll leave Bunker Number 2 laughing, questioning and simultaneously more and less weird than you entered, now with a tamagotchi-licking Bride in your heart.
Tell me a little more about your show and what audiences can expect?
Sad Bride is a dark character comedy about a woman called Bride, who has been obsessed since she was a child with getting married. Over the course of the show, the audience watch her furious search, alongside her serious side-hobby of trolling women who do seem to have it all figured out online, and see her finally reach the aisle, only to run away and hide in an abandoned cupboard. It’s a story that questions how we still see identity and queerness in the world of weddings. Audiences can expect a host of weird characters (all played by me, Charlotte) telling a story about a woman a lot of us might feel like we know, in a new way. Weddings, comedy, internet trolling, an alternative spirit, theatre magic, on-the-edge of your seat hope, and a girl’s search for a person that will finally make her ‘normal’ and ‘better’.
Can you talk about some of the creative team involved?
Yes, Sad Bride is written and performed by me, Charlotte Merriam, and directed and dramaturged by Charlotte Vickers. I am an actor and writer now pooling her 10 years in the industry and taking my debut solo show to Edinburgh. I am currently part of Soho Theatre’s Edinburgh Lab. Charlotte Vickers is a director and dramaturg, currently in the Royal Court’s assistant directors pool, and who has previously worked at the fringe on Sap (Atticist Productions). We’ve been really excited to pool our individual experience and together collate the learnings from the past year working on Sad Bride. We’ve also got an amazing team of creatives on board with a wealth of fringe experience behind them, bringing together artists from London and Cornwall – Amy Daniels (Gunter) is doing our lighting design, Louis Gulliver King (Mahogany Opera, Wildworks) is on sound, Jen Fletcher is our movement director, independent filmmaker Lucy Vickers is doing our videography, and Kylie Sullivan is our stage manager. The show has been supported by imPOSSIBLE as part of their production ideas generator over the last few months, really enabling me and the team to get Bride at her best, ready for Edinburgh audiences.
Where do you draw inspiration from for your work, both in terms of creation and performance?
The idea for Sad Bride originally came out of my own experience of getting married to my wife and how, even marrying in a queer relationship, we couldn’t really escape from the ‘bridal’ pressures and expectations. The wedding industry continues to grow, and more and more people can and do get married in all sorts of wonderful ways, but the main stories around weddings are still old and traditional. I wanted to look at how compulsory heterosexuality appears in weddings but using character comedy – the form of story telling that comes most naturally to me. All the characters are people we kind of recognise but are all slightly larger than life, possible but slightly beyond the realm of normal. With these people telling Bride’s story we come at weddings and their place in society through a new lens.
Looking at this production, how would you say it links to previous work personally and thematically?
My work usually has a foundation in character, my own flavour of comedy and themes that interest me – queerness, feminism, a neurodiverse experience, allowing audiences to leave feeling more thoughtful and mischievous than they entered. Personally I’m a huge fan of character comedy, I have loved the past Fringe runs of artists like Emma Sidi, Phil Dunning and Lolly Adefope, and we think Sad Bride will resonate with other fans of this type of work. It also has a chaos and clown to it within it’s overarching tale, I love the shows of Figs in Wigs which have a similar flavour. And then it has tones and vibrations like great recent shows such as WEER and Bog Witch (womanhood and the fallacy of a one true love). Charlotte and I are both interested in shows, where audiences leave feeling better and hopeful. We hope together we’ve managed to make something which does this.
Why is this an important story to tell?
Sad Bride is essentially about a queer little girl who is growing up trying to understand this about herself having seen nothing but princes and grooms at the end of aisles. For women in particular, even in a world where they aren’t afraid to call themselves feminists, there remains a pressure to see their wedding as the biggest day of their lives and getting married (usually to a man) as the thing that will fix and complete them. For queer women, imagining a version of this with a woman at the end of that aisle can feel impossible! Unpicking this and the impact of compulsory heterosexuality felt really important. I also wanted to look at the ways that the wedding industry forces people of all sexualities to perform gender in a really specific way. The show digs into the pressures of social media on women and particularly women getting married and our strange and evolving relationship with ‘gaze’ online.
What would you like audiences to take away from seeing this production at the Fringe?
I would love audiences to leave feeling seen, more comfortable in their strangeness, particularity, and/or queerness. Whatever their relationship to or experience with marriage, I’d like them to leave feeling like we’ve un-spun some of the unhelpful ideas around it. I hope they leave having laughed, become delightfully confused, having watched the story of a girl they all know and is possibly inside them, who finally broke free from a curse they know well.
Do you tend to take inspiration from events happening in the world around you in terms of your work? Do you think artists have a responsibility to respond to what’s happening?
I definitely take inspiration from the world around me, both macro and micro. Stories of the domestic and about relationships are the ciphers for understanding the rest of the world for me. Our central character is a pretty clear cipher for the construct and curse of the pressures on women to be perfect brides from birth. The fact that we watch this come out to a ridiculous level through the character of Bride, and be enacted through the very specific tale of an obsessive, not-always-kind individual from a small town in the Midlands allows us to really get into the issues inherent within this pressure – and makes more sense of it all.. We’re seeing a weird backward movement in the gender equality movement and in terms of LGBTQ+ rights and acceptance within the UK and the world at large at the moment. It’s specific in focus, but Sad Bride does feel of this moment because of that, and like we’re pushing against the tradwife trend and insistence that women be reduced to plus ones of their husbands. I think artists do have a responsibility to not ignore the world around them, and all art will in some ways be responding to the world around us – whether directly or indirectly.
What do you do to relax in August?
I’m hoping to build some routine into the madness of the month! Maybe some YouTube yoga (Adrienne – sure), long phone calls with beloveds. I can’t wait to see as much theatre as possible. If anyone tries to get me up Arthur’s Seat I’ll politely decline due to being allergic to an uphill.
How do you feel about the current arts landscape in your country and your part in it? Does it excite you and inspire you to keep pushing the boat out?
It’s a bleak picture in the UK currently where theatre and the arts are an afterthought. It’s a nonsensical attitude as theatre is worth billions to the economy and so much more to the bigger picture of arts in our culture. The magnificent Ed Fest has become increasingly unaffordable due to this landscape year on year (particularly post-Covid) and this is reflected in the rest of the sector, long-term without investment in infrastructure, artists and ideas – theatre will only become less and less available and inclusive and therefore less excellent and valuable. However! I believe in artists better than I believe in anyone. They will push to make work, and to make work that makes things better – and being part of this community excites me wholeheartedly.
Why are arts festivals such as the Fringe so important for international exchange?
The Edinburgh Fringe is the vastest international theatre melting pot and a huge source and resource of new work and ideas. It’s really crucial that people can share work across borders at this stage of the work’s growth to foster new innovation and more diverse collaboration. To not only platform new work to extended communities but for artists to practice and test work in a wider spectrum of colleagues. It’s like nothing else and I wish it was more accessible for more people who’d love it and thrive there.
What can the wider arts community do to get more people involved in their specific disciplines?
I think that’s another of the great beauties of the fringe, the fabric of it allows you to experience other disciplines with ease, which you wouldn’t normally seek out. Artists are inspired by other forms and moved by totally different practices constantly which will inform their own art in unexpected ways! I think generally although social media is truly the death of us all, it’s good for allowing artists to keep up with makers they’ve seen and give them an enhanced chance of cross collaboration and awareness. With all of this in mind I’d love it if more radical art was able to tour more easily to widen it’s reach and increase it’s accessibility. This also goes hand in hand with other things essential for access to the arts, cheaper ticket prices, and a greater community arts focus. Getting more people involved in arts disciplines also involves reducing barriers to training ( ie removing expensive drama school audition fees), which brilliant companies like Open Door are doing – but these companies and initiatives need more support to survive and allow theatre makers to find the arts.
Have you got your eye on any other shows that are part of the programme?
Yes! I can’t wait to see the shows of my fellow Soho Theatre Edinburgh Lab Programme, Dog Complex’s Nuns!, Emma Davies’ You Are All Resources, Lila Multipass’ Woman (33), Timberlina’s FFS!!, Jellyfish by Jess Coppen-Gardner, SUCCUBUS by Halfway Productions. I’m also v excited to see As Far as We Know and HAM at Summerhall, Acid Reign at Pleasance and Sh!t Theatre’s EVITA TOO.
What’s next for you and how are you feeling about the future in general?
We’re excited about the future! Myself and director Charlotte Vickers have been working on Sad Bride for over a year and are really ready to give her a final preview and debut her. We really believe in her and can’t wait to have audiences respond. Hopefully she’ll have another life after Edinburgh and reach even more people – our ultimate goal for the run!
How can Edinburgh audiences keep up with you beyond the festival?
Sad Bride actually has her own snazzy page all for herself @sadbrideplay. But I (Charlotte Merriam) can be found at @charlottemerriam on insta and Charlotte Vickers at @charlotteellenvickers.