INTERVIEW: A Digital Pint with… Merlin Stevens, on Horatio, Hamlet, and Greek and Roman Gay References

Merlin Stevens from Achy Bits Productions is the writer-performer of EdFringe show Horatio, in Thy Heart. Stevens story tells Horatio’s side of the story of Hamlet. Wry, pensive, and dodging the spotlight, Horatio is haunted (literally) by the ghosts of his past. He never expected so much of his life to revolve around the prince of Denmark. We caught up with Merlin for a pixelated pint to find out more about the show.

You can catch Horatio, in Thy Heart until August 9th at Snug at Paradise in Augustines from 21:50 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.

Kat: Tell us about your show’s journey from creation to ending up at the EdFringe stage.

Merlin: I wrote the first draft of Horatio, in Thy Heart in 2021 when I was waiting for the very large file of the version of my show Through Bush, Through Briar, that we filmed in the woods that year, to upload to the Fringe Player. I ended up holed up in a café in Tower Hamlets on the basis of the speed of its WiFi and ended up hammering out the first draft in a few hours. I had spent a lot of time wandering around graveyards and thinking about Hamlet because a) it was lockdown and b) I was in my first year of drama school at the time. The idea for the play came about because I had been researching differences between the folio and quarto texts of Hamlet regarding the relationship between Horatio and Hamlet.

The initial draft was half prose-poem, half essay on classical Greek and Roman gay references used by Hamlet and Horatio. In the years that followed, as more of my friends started putting on one-person plays, I honed in on the fact that the difference between a play and an essay that someone has put onstage (a frequently represented genre at the Fringe, and that’s great, I love essays <3) is that the events of a play are active and happening in the moment. In seeking to activate the play, I had the revelation that Horatio knows a huge amount about ghosts. He knows way too much about ghosts. What if the ghost of King Hamlet isn’t the first ghost Horatio has encountered?

Kat: Tell us about the inspiration behind your show and why you think its themes are relevant to an audience in 2025. Think – why am I telling this story now? Who will it connect with?

Merlin: There have been a few adaptations of Hamlet that have zeroed in on the doomed and deeply romantic relationship between Hamlet and Horatio but very rarely have these adaptations been put onstage and there is a clear an appetite for more. As a transgender writer, I have gotten very interested in how gender identity and expectations of masculinity are woven into the tragedy of Hamlet. Although Horatio is not burdened with the mountainous expectations and misogyny that afflict Hamlet, he is not able to save Hamlet from himself. The current moment is one of great grief and heaviness and the catharsis of tragedy is timeless—but this play isn’t just a retelling of Hamlet, it’s also about the courage of setting boundaries, recognizing the ways people you love have hurt you, and the complexity of mourning people who may have been bad for you.

Kat: Tell us about how the show has ended up being performed at Paradise Green and about your relationships with the other creatives involved.

You: I have a long-standing relationship with Paradise Green, having performed or directed shows there the past several years. The volunteers there are always lovely and I have found the running of the venue almost miraculously painless. I met my director, Shannon Stuart (they/them) at a fairly disastrous play reading in London involving major electrical problems and other issues (nothing to do with us). Emerging from the wreckage of that project they have provided invaluable insight and ideas for staging Horatio, in Thy Heart. I have worked with our lighting and sound designer, Hector Laszlo Cosmetatos (he/him) on a number of theatre and film projects. I met Annie Sheppard (she/her) and Megan Thomson (she/her) who voice Guildenstern and Rosencrantz doing children’s theatre in London, and I met Katie Corner (she/her) who voices Hamlet shooting a film in Devon. Ingrid Swinson (she/her) who voices Ophelia and Atrix Cragnotti (he/him) who voices Horatio’s father are both founding members of Achy Bits Productions.

Kat: Now that we’re in the midst of Fringe season, what are you most excited for?

You: I’m very much looking forward to performing this play in front of an audience, I think it’s potent stuff and that people are going to come away with a lot to talk about and I think people are going to cry. I think I’m going to cry too. I’m also looking forward to seeing what other shows are on offer and what emerging trends are showing up this year. The third week of the festival I’m also going to be in Kestrel Eye Production’s No Room At The Inn and anyone missing Good Omens should check it out for a dose of sacred and profane absurdist comedy.

Kat: 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?

You: The previous theatre group I ran, the Classical Entertainment Society at the University of Chicago, had a tradition of serving mead at every cast party and as Horatio, in Thy Heart is set in Denmark, Dansk Mjød seems appropriate. At the end of the day, it’s a play as sweet as it is mythic, and as maudlin as it is spicy.

A reminder, you can catch Horatio, in Thy Heart until August 9th at Snug at Paradise in Augustines from 21:50 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.