Roe McDonnell
Roe McDonnell is a contributing writer for our Edinburgh Festival Fringe Coverage. If you’re bringing a show to EdFringe this year, consider investing in their work through our affordable advertising offers, helping you reach 160k+ audience members, and paying all our writers the Living Wage for their work.
This year will be my second year going up to EdFringe and before writing for Binge Fringe last year, it had always been a dream of mine to attend since I was around 15. But there was something about EdFringe’s 2025 season that I didn’t expect. The amount of big professional productions with working West End actors almost off balancing the local shows with pure passion and authentic drive to bring their shows up.
One thing I’ve always enjoyed about EdFringe – as well as Fringe in general – is that it’s always seemed to be about giving the spotlight (or a spare lecture room and function room) to small, local shows with casts and creatives who either at the beginning of their professional journey, have theatre as a creative side-quest alongside their day-to-day job or groups of young people to have their first theatre opportunities.
As someone who is involved in ‘Amateur Theatre’ in my personal life, I watched my childhood theatre go from a community place with countless opportunities and classes grow into a primarily touring house with minimal groups and opportunities within only 5 years. I didn’t expect the Fringe to have that ‘business’ outlook, considering the reason it began in the first place was because working class performers didn’t have a place to perform themselves because of the upper class’ festival not wanting to accept them.
I first noticed this within social media. Platforms such as Instagram and TikTok are the primary places in my personal research that highlight local grassroots productions that are spreading awareness of their own existence. When I would type ‘Fringe 2025’ in, I would get primarily those local groups (due to my algorithm) but very often an ad would pop up for a big production heading up with popular West End performers written and composed by multi award winners. Every time this left me with a bit of a conflicted feeling. Yes, Fringe is always a big part of theatre culture and where most of these big shows first began but on the other hand, should the Fringe be prioritising those who could’ve been found in those performance slots?
There are pros and cons for this situation like everything. They definitely raise ticket sales to their shows and for those who are not from Edinburgh make a few days out of it and see more local and grassroots shows. But doesn’t it feel strange that it’s going the opposite direction to how the Fringe is traditionally functioned? That the Fringe shows turn into West End hits, not the shows that have already had a start in London then head up to Edinburgh.
Fringe and grassroots theatre needs to survive. In an age of the cost of living crisis where artists are having to turn to multiple corporate jobs to survive and at times say goodbye to their creative endeavours. Opportunities like the Fringe need to be available to those performers who want to give it one last chance. To give it their first chance. For local communities and fellow art appreciators who find their new favourite show performed by someone who’s just quit being an electrician to follow their dream.
Yes these West End performers all started somewhere, but that somewhere is only effective when everyone is on the same level.
Photo by Oleksiy Yeshtokyn.
Shay Mace
