Eve Miller
The title draws you in, doesn’t it? BABYFLEAREINDEERBAG is a focus group to help performer Hannah Maxwell decide on their concept for Edinburgh Fringe 2026, determined to hit on the perfect idea that will pave the way for lasting success. Maxwell’s dissection of artistic success at large, and particularly the culture of success at Edinburgh Fringe, is astounding in its specificity and discernment. It’s also three snippets of genuinely brilliant ideas for future projects, wrapped neatly into a cynically hopeful meta-theatrical parcel.
Maxwell starts the hour by shaking everyone’s hand as they enter, learning our names from the nametags handed out by Summerhall staff. We are given post-its and put into small groups to discuss the extracts that will be presented. It is reminiscent of the first day of a new uni module, and the audience follows Maxwell’s lead in taking the premise seriously, and still laughing at the funny bits.
She introduces the show by taking us through her Spotlight, and recounting her career – her successful 2019 debut piece I AmDram and the critical acclaim that found her at EdFringe 2022 when Phoebe Waller-Bridge was one of a handful of people in the audience of a performance of her next show, Nan, Me & Barbara Pravi. She then tells us about the complete lack of commercial success she has had following what would be seen from the outside as a smash-hit Fringe show. They talk about cancelling shows due to lack of audience, putting themself into debt to take a production to this year’s Adelaide Fringe, and then deciding to give up on theatre as a career option. She then tells us that this is her last ditch attempt to sink her teeth into success at Fringe that can extend out from her time at Edinburgh, and become somewhat of a viable career for the other 11 months of the year.
And so, they begin. The first extract is a piece about her Dad, who also brought a solo-show to EdFringe in his youth. They touch on family heritage and legacy, on the religiosity of devotion (to God and art), and on the juxtaposing tangibility and ephemerality of art – they perform using the same teddy bear puppets used by their Dad decades ago. Lighthearted with a solid core of reverence for their Dad, for art, and for scrappy creativity, this piece left me with a big smile on my face.
The second extract, First Pancake, is an exploration of her love life, of the experience being someone’s first queer relationship, and of the bittersweet beauty of doomed love in hindsight. This piece was performed in the round, with lyrical and poetic storytelling that raised a lump in my throat, capturing the little piece of my heart that always prickles when forced to remember first queer loves, and the pain that comes when looking back on tainted moments that I thought I would remember with joy forever.
The final extract was shocking in its scope, tackling misinformation from the perspective of someone who once worked in government misinformation herself (I told you she was intelligent!). She confronts us with the dire state of the current socio-political climate around the world in a barrage of spoken word that leaves me breathless, before returning to more comedic territory, finishing with a glowing karaoke performance.
Ultimately, this fast-paced and mind-boggling hour of theatre/stand-up/storytelling/karaoke/group discussion is a searing indictment of the state of the world, and the current theatre landscape. Maxwell lays bare the situation of many brilliant creators who are good enough to be critically lauded and access the limited funding that is available to them, but who are constrained by audiences who can’t afford to take a punt on someone who isn’t already famous. They manage to make this complex perspective clear without tearing down their audience who have come to see their show, even while pointing out that they only have so many of us in attendance due to the referential title.
Put bluntly, this production is incredible. I have rarely seen a performer with more eloquence, intelligence, charisma, and raw vulnerability. Whatever Maxwell does next, wherever she does it, I will be sat in the front row.
Recommended Drink: A crisp Diet Coke.
You can catch BABYFLEAREINDEERBAG (WIP) at Former Gents Locker Room at Summerhall from 12th to 25th August at 11:40 (60 mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Jake Mace
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