REVIEW: boobytrapped, No Tits Theatre, EdFringe 2026 ★★★★

This is Simon’s first time attending a mens-only event. Not yet believing he passes, Simon assumes Kevin knows he’s a trans man during their dancefloor meet-cute. When Kevin discovers Simon’s gender at birth amidst their stumbling bathroom rendezvous, he feels tricked, and their endearingly awkward yet promising connection turns violent. The collision inexplicably causes the pair to swap bodies; forcing each man to experience the world in each other’s Doc Martens.

boobytrapped gives the familiar body-swap comedy a transgender twist. What is produced is an intimate and surprisingly educational exploration of masculinity, transmasculine desire and the increasingly fluid definitions between gay and queer. 

This familiar comic device is brilliantly manoeuvred into a heartfelt and hilarious exercise in embodied empathy. Filled to the brim with iconic one-liners and soon-to-be cult-classic exchanges, both performers adopt each other’s mannerisms and inflections with tremendous affection.

Kevin and Simon draw adorable physical comedy from their contrasting voices and physiques without ever making either lived-experience the punchline. 

boobytrapped ’s humour is at its best when it is unapologetically specific. The will-they won’t-they dynamic doesn’t shy away from the uncomfortable yet silly conversations our LGBTIQA+ community is currently having about genital preference and the validation we place on one’s sexuality based on their partner’s parts. It breaks through the cisgendered glass ceiling of sexual stereotypes with a pizza analogy that made me giddy.

What if your meatlovers pizza arrived at your doorstep with vegan substitutes? Would you return it? Even if it tasted just as good with modern food science? …Or maybe even better with seven vibrational settings? And why do we assume that trans men can’t be in charge (of the delivery, that is)? 

Yet, boobytrapped delivers with comedy and emotional depth in equal measure. A truly special moment arrives when Kevin, inside Simon’s body, removes his binder. His initial boyish delight at discovering Simon’s chest slowly becomes panic as he begins to grasp that he cannot escape a body that feels intrinsically wrong to him. It is an incredibly precise, cathartic depiction of gender dysphoria.

Trans people are expected to explain themselves and manage other people’s discomfort with their bodies daily; even when that discomfort causes harm. Here, that burden becomes a beautiful display of displaced self-love. Simon offers his own body the patience and tenderness it is so rarely afforded by the outside world.

As a transmasculine person who has only recently ventured into the gay scene, I have never seen this lived experience represented onstage or in any other medium. Simon’s trepidation entering a mens-only space, his negotiation of other men’s misogynistic perceptions of his body, and the possibility of being desired without sanitising his transness all feel like significant advancements in LGBTIQA+ storytelling. Seeing a shirtless, pre-top-surgery transmasculine body presented as sexy, manly, and joyously alive felt particularly powerful.

boobytrapped needs more time, however, to earn the romance growing from its initial violence. It is fighting the clock as it attempts to deliver education, exposition and emotional depth within the confines of the Fringe’s tight turnaround. The cost is that Kevin receives insufficient space to reckon with the harm he causes before romantically reconnecting with Simon. A new perspective does not automatically earn him accountability, forgiveness or the guarantee of safety.

But getting to see Freddie Haberfellner at this stage of his writing career feels historical to stumble upon. I have no doubt that someday I will proudly announce that, “I saw his early work before he became one of the defining queer writers of our time.” 

Hilarious, horny and truly original, boobytrapped gives transmasculine desire the spotlight it deserves. At last.

Recommended Drink: A round of shots in homage to Simon and Kevin’s feral club kid escapades.

You can catch boobtyrapped at theSpace on the Mile from August 15-29 at 21:30 (50mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Box Office.

Please Note: This review features a show where another member of the Binge Fringe writing team is involved in the production. No incentives or promotions have been offered to cover this show, and Conflict of Interest measures have been taken in the editorial process to ensure an impartial, fair review.