Jake Mace
Binge Fringe Queer Performer’s Award winners Speakbeast are joining us for a pixelated pint – after the whirlwind success of last year’s show The Freemartin, the trio of theatre-makers are back with what they describe as a fever dream they’ve been having about transmedicalism, that’s also about the Beatles. Join myself, Lowen Hunt, Anya Idrizi, and Isaac Frost as we find out what inspired their upcoming EdFringe show Someone Has Got to Be John.
Catch Someone Has Got to Be John from August 11th to 23rd at Studio at theSpaceTriplex from 18:05 (50mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Jake: Hi Speakbeast team! We last caught up with you after you won our Queer Performer’s Award at EdFringe last year. Tell us about what you’ve been up to since then.
Lowen: Hey Jake! Honestly, we took our Queery out for ramen, we went to bed, we fell asleep for two months and we woke up in a cold sweat thinking about The Beatles for some reason.
Ok and in actuality, we took our agricultural fever-dream The Freemartin down to Camden People’s Theatre for one more performance in March as part of their SPRINT Festival which was an absolute delight, we moved flats (twice), we cornered the Vinted market on black suits, we went to our day jobs, and we filled in an absolute avalanche of applications. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, we made another show!
Jake: Your new show Someone Has Got to Be John is a queered tribute act to the Beatles blended with a feverdream you’ve been having about transmedicalism. Tell us about how you arrived at this concept and how the development has been going so far.
Isaac: SHGTBJ started as one of those research rabbit-holes that you never think is going to turn into anything – and also as a bit of a throwaway joke if I remember correctly. While we were still actively performing the last show we’d discussed in passing how funny it would be if our next show was just a The Beatles tribute act. No funny business, no secret trans agenda, just fifty minutes of genuine, earnest, The Beatles. Which would be ridiculous. We can’t play instruments. We’re not cis men. And there’s only three of us.
But in a weird way that sort of felt like transmedicalism, which was the other thing we’d been thinking about. And one hyperlink led to another hyperlink and eventually I accidentally discovered a massive coincidence. And the two unrelated things became inextricably linked. And the show really exploded out from there.
Development-wise we’ve been incredibly fortunate to have support from Theatre Deli as part of their SHIFT+SPACE programme, and at time of writing we’re headed into previews next week which is incredibly exciting/nerve-wracking. So really we just can’t wait to do it, and drag everyone else down this rabbit-hole with us.
Jake: Tell us about what the audience can expect coming into the show, and what they might not expect about the show.
Anya: Well, based on our previous work (a show about agriculture which was actually about British systems of transphobia and policies which target trans youth), they can rightfully expect that it’s not just about The Beatles. They can expect massive tangents, tonal diversions, some really odd props, and everything getting a bit out of hand. They can expect a tiny bit of audience participation if they fancy it, and they can expect it all to, hopefully, make sense in the end.
They might not expect that it is actually still very much about The Beatles.
Jake: What are you hoping the audience might take away from the experience, if anything?
Lowen: The serious answer is that we hope the show offers a new perspective on transmedicalism, and that the audience comes away questioning the long, complicated relationship between transness and the medical institution. We hope that they come away interrogating the medical model of gender in their own lives. And we hope that in recognising that complicated, messy, and flawed relationship, we can build something better.
The less serious answer is that we have learnt so much obscure Beatles knowledge making this show (most of which completely unwillingly) and I, personally, would like to inflict this knowledge onto someone else.
Jake: With Edinburgh Fringe 2025 just around the corner, what are you most excited for?
Anya: We couldn’t settle on one thing we’re most excited for, so here’s a few:
We’re excited to see some familiar faces from last year, and we’re also excited to see some new faces as well! We’re excited to show off what else we can do, and we’re excited to bring some niche trans history screaming into the present day. We’re excited to not wear wellies in this one. We’re excited to justify spending every morning in Edinburgh breakfast institution Pablo Eggs-go-bao. And we’re excited to do this whole ridiculous, exhausting, brilliant thing again!
Jake: Given the themes of Binge Fringe, if your show was a beverage of any kind (alcoholic, non-alcoholic – be as creative as you like!), what would it be and why?
Isaac: After much deliberation we’ve gone with a Baby Guinness. Convincing enough from a distance, but a surprise when you taste it.
A reminder, you can catch Someone Has Got to Be John from August 11th to 23rd at Studio at theSpaceTriplex from 18:05 (50mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Lamesha Ruddock
Jasmine Silk
