Shay Mace
John Dinneen of Kick it Anywhere Productions is the writer of upcoming Edinburgh Festival Fringe play The Jolly Fisherman. Inspired by true events, the story centres on the decade-long friendship between two East London teenagers, Alan, a white working-class boy, and Amir, a second-generation British-Pakistani boy. As their lives develop, the atmosphere around them begins to change, Dinneen describes the play as a story of enduring friendship from one of the faultlines of our shape-shifting national identity. We caught up with John for a pixelated pint to find out why he’s bringing the story to the stage now.
You can catch The Jolly Fisherman at Underbelly, George Square on August 5-31 from 12.45pm. Tickets are Available Through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Shay: Hi John, tell us about The Jolly Fisherman and why you have decided to bring this to the stage now?
John: It all started with a news article. The article was about a derelict building in East London, The Jolly Fisherman, becoming a Muslim place of worship. On the surface, it’s a story about the redevelopment of a disused building, but it also feels like so much more than that. Nowadays, it seems like everyone wants you to feel one way or another about almost every possible issue. No middle ground. Especially online. I just kept coming back to the story, and the huge range of emotions I was feeling when reading about it and thinking about it. As for why now? It took a long time to get here.
Working two jobs means lots of early mornings and late nights writing, building the script and the story – then finding the right collaborators and creatives to bring onto the project. We knew we needed to build a team that was representative of the story we were trying to tell and so it took six months to find the best people to help tell the story. The discourse about faith especially Islam is so divisive at the moment in the UK. We wanted (and have tried our best) to build a story about friendship that is much more sensitive, human, nuanced and real.
Shay: How has the creative process been of putting the show together? Give us an idea of the journey you’ve been on with it so far.
John: As I mentioned, the first was reading the article. Then I wanted to do the research and reading around the subject I was thinking about writing. I found writers like Ed Hussain’s Among The Mosques and Sarfraz Manzoor’s THEY: What Muslims and Non-Muslims Get Wrong about Each Other incredibly helpful. Also the writing of poets and educators like Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan and Elif Shafak really guided my thinking at this early stage. I also did a lot of thinking about traditional concepts of English identity. I found Jeremy Paxman’s The English: A Portrait of a People became a book I returned to again and again.
I also went to the site of The Jolly Fisherman and spoke to the residents of North Street – both people who knew the pub and had stories about it, and people who never knew the pub and wanted the building to be used again. In 2025, when the mosque opened, I went again to the site, and the imam of the mosque gave me a tour inside the building. To be inside a building I had spent so much time thinking about was an amazing experience. But, just to be clear, while it’s a true building, all of the characters are completely fictional. The building is real, the story and the characters are all fictional.
Shay: What will be the first thing the audience sees, feels, and hears as they enter the space?
John: They step right into the heart of The Jolly Fisherman, as we’ve imagined it in 2015. Without giving away too much, the audience meet the characters of the pub, and also the characters that will take them through the journey of the next ten years. They meet thirteen year old Alan who will lead them through the story. They don’t meet his soon-to-be best friend Amir, he arrives in the next scene. For now, it’s just Alan and the people in The Jolly Fisherman he grew up around.
Shay: What are you hoping the audience might take away from the experience, if anything?
John: At the heart of this show and this story is an unlikely friendship of two boys: Alan, a white working-class boy from East London, and Amir, a British-Pakistani boy from the same street but a totally different community. The boys learn to love each other and their differences. They learn to see each other as individuals, as friends, totally separate from cliches and stereotypes of their respective communities. Alan is played by Alex Hill, Amir is played by Jonny Khan. Just like the characters, the actors are getting on so well. They are learning from each other, and it’s really beautiful to watch their friendship blossom. If anything, we’d like people to come away with a sense of a much broader, collective sense of a shared community in England. But not one without challenges. That’s what we’re all trying to create, so hopefully that’s what audiences take away from it.
Shay: What journey has the show been on to find itself at EdFringe 2026?
John: I’m part of a writing-producing duo called Kick It Anywhere Productions. We had success with our show Brixton Calling last year that won three OFFIES and basically made taking a show up to EdFringe possible financially. Then it was about finding the right team. As the story is about a white British boy and a British-Pakistani boy we knew that equal representation in the creative team was vital. In Layla Madanat, we have one of the most exciting young directors out there. So too in our lighting designer carey chomsoonthorn and our costume and set designer Maariyah Sharjil all creatives from different backgrounds giving their craft and expertise to the show so generously. That’s been the best part creatives trusting the story and bringing their craft to it.
Shay: With EdFringe now just around the corner, what are you most excited for?
John: Shows! I’m going to see so much. When you bring a show to Underbelly you get a free pass to see any Underbelly show. That makes seeing so many shows financially possible. We’ve all put in so much work to get here. I can’t wait. Bringing a show to Edinburgh has always been on my bucket list but I wanted to do it with a show that I really cared about and this is definitely that show. I’m terrified, but very, very excited.
Shay: 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?
John: A blue-sky day and a beer garden pint (probably a Fosters) resting in a Tupperware ice bath to keep it cold. About four other pints in the ice bath jacuzzi too.
A reminder, you can catch The Jolly Fisherman at Underbelly, George Square on August 5-31 from 12.45pm. Tickets are Available Through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Lucy Best
