Would you mind giving us an insight into what your show/event/performance is?
Sad Bride is a queer solo dark comedy show telling the story of Bride Thompson, a woman who has always been convinced that if she gets married she’ll fix everything that’s wrong with her. We watch Bride’s journey to the end of the aisle through the voices of the strange and beautiful characters in her life. We see her become an internet troll- taking down Brides to improve her own self image, we see her furiously enact all of the tasks often assigned to women approaching their weddings (in a fashion only Bride could), then eventually we see her retreat to a cupboard on the hour of her nuptials.
The show explores compulsory heterosexuality, the wedding industrial complex, and the insidious world of self-creation on the internet, through character comedy.
Tell us about the creative team and the process involved?
I (Charlotte Merriam) began writing the show in 2024 and performed a 10 minute extract of it to a scratch night to test the style and content, a tone poem if you will. This had a great reception so I sought out a director to work with me on it in early 2025. I met Charlotte Vickers who read the existing script (and was forced to watch me perform a little over coffee in east London) thankfully- she was keen and then we proceeded to work together with Vickers’ dramaturgy and direction on the show. We did an initial stage and 2 previews, followed by revisions. We wanted to find the right relationship between the story we were telling and the way we were telling it. We did two further super helpful previews at CPT in May last year. Then the show found it’s way to Cornwall through the imPOSSIBLE ideas generator scheme. I’ve worked in the Cornish theatre world lots and bringing her there for another preview as part of their FIA fest was full of excellent learning and collaboration. We’re now working with several Cornish artists on the project and are excited to test Bride before our last preview at the GLITCH and run in Edinburgh.
Our amazing creative team includes, Amy Daniels who is doing our lighting design, Louis Gulliver King is on sound, Jen Fletcher is our movement director, Lucy Vickers is doing our videography, and Kylie Sullivan is our stage manager.
How does it feel coming to (back to) the Fringe?
Thrilling! I’m feel like Sad Bride is ‘coming out’ (thematically appropriate) to the greatest international melting pot of exciting work. I’m really glad to be debuting with a show which I really believe in and I can’t wait to help her find her audience. It’s no mean feat getting to Edinburgh, and although you can’t predict the journey, she’s really ready for the ride.
With shows from all over the world at the Fringe, what sets yours apart?
Sad Bride has it’s own distinctive sense of humour and energy. It’s also a real blend of forms: it bridges theatre and comedy, it uses multimedia, it has the energy of a strange fairytale. The show looks at the insidious world of self-creation on the internet, and at points might feel like you’re watching a show someone has made for their own funeral and is forcing you to watch while they’re still alive, an experiment in self-perception! The show tackles themes we care deeply about in new way – compulsory heterosexuality and the relationship between queerness and wedding, the effects of the pressure to be perfect on brains today (which we’re investigating here in an online space and a Bridal one) and the storytelling around finding your perfect match being the ‘answer’ and ‘fix’.
I think Bride sets herself apart because she is so very specific and of her own world, a world that the show totally commits to.
On that, is there anything in the production or production team’s backgrounds which influences the way the show is performed or told?
Absolutely. The idea for Sad Bride originally came from my own experience of getting married to my wife and how, even marrying in a queer relationship – we couldn’t really escape from the ‘Bridal’ pressures and expectations. Every extremely gendered moment or old fashioned idea I found often very funny and really sad- which is very much the tone of the show.
We also have an almost entirely queer team which has certainly influenced and guided the process. Sad Bride at its core is about a queer little girl who is trying to understand that about herself, when the only love stories she’s ever been told have princes and grooms waiting at the end of aisles, she is a theatrical conclusion to the curse of compulsory heterosexuality.
The story is also performed through character comedy – the form that comes most naturally to me and which as an actor and writer I have a lot of background in. Charlotte Vickers has a lot of experience and knowledge in gender in theatre and work that experiments in form.
Is there anything specific you’re hoping the audience will take away?
I would love audiences to leave feeling seen, more comfortable in their strangeness, particularity, and/or queerness. Whatever their relationship to or experience with marriage, I’d like them to leave feeling like we’ve un-spun some of the unhelpful ideas around it. I hope they leave having laughed, become delightfully confused, having watched the story of a girl they all know and is possibly inside them, who finally broke free from a curse they know well.
Your Ideal audience is in attendance, who’s watching? Or more importantly – who isn’t…?
I’m keen to see everyone in our audience, but DEFINITELY people with an interest in weddings (their own, others, the concept in general). I’d love those who’ve just been flung into the strange stage of their 30s where the sky is full of confetti to come, or maybe it’s their friends’ kids they’re watching get married, maybe they’re a queer person wanting to laugh a bit at compulsory heterosexuality through comedy or they’re a fan of dark comedy and have actually never heard the word wedding – yes please to all. We’d love you all to attend! (But not if you’re horrible.)
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?
I’m actually planning to be extremely boring and calm around the edges of flyering and performing and seeing shows. I’d love to build some structure and routine into the month so my chaotic little brain can cope – I love long phonecalls and exercise and tidying. I am extremely excited to see a lot of brilliant theatre!
The shows of my fellow Sohotheatre Edinburgh Lab Programme, Dog Complex’s- ‘Nuns’, Emma Davies – ‘You are all resources’, Lila Multipass – ‘Woman 33’, Timberlina’s ‘FFS!!’, ‘Jellyfish’ by Jess Coppen-Gardner, ‘Succubus’ by Halfway Productions (check out anything with a soholabs logo they all sound incred!) I’m also v excited to see ‘Operotica’ ft the amazing Dan Wye, stars like Elf Lyons and Temi Wilkey, ‘As Far as We Know’ and ‘HAM’ at summerhall, ‘Acid Reign’ at pleasance and Sh!t Theatre’s ‘EVITA TOO’.
Sad Bride will run at Venue 33, Bunker Two at Pleasance Courtyard
Runs: August 5th – August 31st at 14.45pm
Photo credit: Holly Revell
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