1988. One boy is growing up in myth and magic unaware that Section 28, prohibiting the ‘promotion of homosexuality’, is moving to silence his tale and those of anyone like him.
Combining traditional fairy tales and original poetry, storyteller James Stedman (helped by a grumpy frog) guides you through a heartfelt, slightly irreverent look at our history.
LGBTQIA+ people have always joyfully existed, in story as in life, and the fabulous do eventually win out.
Would you mind giving us a brief insight into what your show is?
Joyfully Grimm: Reimagining a Queer Adolescence – It’s 1988. One boy is growing up in myth and magic unaware that Section 28, prohibiting the “promotion of homosexuality”, is moving to silence his tale and those of anyone like him. LGBTQIA+ people have always joyfully existed, in story as in life, and the fabulous do eventually win out. With echoes of these times resurfacing, storyteller James Stedman (helped by a grumpy frog) combines traditional fairy tales and original poetry, to guide you through a heartfelt, slightly irreverent look at our history and towards a hopeful future.
Tell us about the creative team and the process involved?
Writer and performer James Stedman is a Leith-based storyteller, poet and playwright who has been making heartfelt theatre with a gently comic queer edge for 10 years.
Joyfully Grimm was originally inspired by James being asked to put together some queer-friendly children’s folk tales and finding that he didn’t have to reinvent stories, some already existed. With this year also marking the 21st anniversary of the repeal of Section 28 (in England and Wales, Scotland got there 3 years earlier), and with eerily familiar rhetoric drifting back into the mainstream, it felt like these pockets of joy needed celebrating.
Taking James’s lived experience of Section 28 as a throughline, we then had enormous fun going back through myriad traditional fairy tales to rediscover the little queer elements that get forgotten about or purposefully left out and selecting those with the strongest echoes to weave throughout the finished show.
Joyfully Grimm was originally commissioned for the Scottish International Storytelling Festival in 2023, where it was deftly directed by the awesome award-winning writer, poet and performer Molly Naylor. It’s wonderful to be back performing it at its home in the Scottish Storytelling Centre.
How does it feel coming to the Fringe?
I have been attending the Fringe as a punter for over a decade and I absolutely adore it. The energy, the atmosphere, the intensity, the people, the creativity, the sheer artistic genius of folk is like nothing else. It’s an awfully overworn cliché, but to be able to bring my own solo show to the festival is an absolute dream come true. On top of this, to be performing at the beautiful Scottish Storytelling Centre, that wee gem of a theatre right in the heart of the action there on the Royal Mile is a total gift. I feel like it’s my second home here in the city as their programme of events throughout the year is amazing. Also, Joyfully Grimm debuted there at the Scottish International Storytelling Festival, so it feels just right to be bringing it back there again for this longer run. To be on their bill of shows for the Fringe festival amongst so much other talent is very special. I couldn’t be happier.
There are over 3,000 shows at the Fringe. So, what sets your show apart?
It’s the only show at the Fringe with Riccy the scene-stealing frog. Unless he’s picked up a side gig that’s he’s not told me about. I wouldn’t put it past him, to be honest, he can be a bit of a diva sometimes. But when you’re working with talent like his, you have to make some allowances, you know? His take on our history is unique and it’s a real joy to share tales with him. He makes every show shine.
Is there anything specific you’re hoping the audience will take away?
Hope. And laughter. It’s a bit of an understatement that these are quite tricky times at the moment, not least for the queer community and, whilst Joyfully Grimm does touch on some difficult issues, there’s a lot of fun to be had along the way and much reason to be hopeful for the future.
Your ideal audience is in attendance, who’s watching? Or more importantly – who isn’t there…
I think with any show, you want it to have broad appeal, especially when you’re talking about stories, or angles on stories, that are perhaps lesser known. And also, without overegging the pudding, when you want to show that even when things feel like fixed inevitabilities, there is always hope for change. So I guess our ideal audience would be a lovely mix. Joyfully Grimm will appeal to anyone who enjoys heartfelt stories, well told with a good dash of humour, especially queer folk and their friends who lived through Section 28, younger folk (14+) and their families looking to find out what resonances it has with today – oh, and obviously anyone who’s a fan of Riccy the grumpy frog.
I think we’re unlikely to be attracting the ‘heavy-drinking-lads-on-tour-after-some-“edgy”-stand-up’ crowd. But you never know, if they fancy a little uplifting and enlightening, palette-cleansing joy, everyone’s welcome – that’s kind of the point of the show!
It’s an intense month, so where you’re able, how do you plan to relax, and are there any other shows you intend to see or want to recommend?
My friend and I are proper Fringe nerds and he comes up every year for a couple of full-on Fringe binge days. We’ll be poring over the programme in the next couple of weeks to put together a spreadsheet for then – yep, we do a spreadsheet. I was lucky enough to catch Hannah Gadsby’s Nannette when it was here and we’re already booked in to see their new show. Other than that, we absolutely adore clown and physical theatre, so will be stocking up on those. I’ll be checking out where to get my spoken word fix with Loud Poets: Best of Fringe, and obviously catching everything we can at our lovely home, the Scottish Storytelling Centre – it’s such a gorgeous venue and always with such phenomenal performers. Yeah, basically everything, I want to see everything!
I am very lucky to live in Leith, so when it all gets a bit intense, I’ll be sneaking off down the hill to chill out on the Links, or maybe even hopping on the 49 bus for a breath of sea air in beautiful Porty.
In your ideal world, how can we improve the Fringe, of performance, and the industry?
To reiterate what other folks have said here, I think the buzzword increasingly over the past couple of years has been affordability – to make the Fringe as accessible and diverse as possible. Costs are going up for everyone. I’m comparatively lucky, but I still think it’s highly unlikely I’d be able to bring a show to the Fringe if I didn’t live in Edinburgh. It’s such an incredible festival, but it’s getting increasingly difficult for punters to be able to afford to see all the shows they would like to and for artists to bring those shows. Without wanting to be too twee, art is for everyone, but when bottom lines get involved, voices and audiences from more marginalised communities inevitably feel the squeeze the hardest, and we’re in danger of losing those stories. In an ideal world, cost would be no barrier to telling your tale and hearing and seeing yourself represented.
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