NATASHA TRIPNEY'S FRINGE POEM 2023

Natasha Tripney crafts her annual cut-up poem from the pages of the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme. 

Read her previous poem for the 2022 Festival here.

Beneath the bustling capital. In the London sewers. During the first lockdown. With the world under threat from humans. A year into the zombie apocalypse. A theatre critic. A mermaid. A closet rich kid. A whale specialist. A penniless marquess. Britain's most prolific serial killer. Two lesbian witches. Four retired miners. And a supporting cast of ghosts. Journey through the cosmos. Dangerously out of their depth. Escaping their traumatic past. Navigating a hypersexual world. Navigating ancient myth. Navigating desire, pussy and power. Leaving behind a botched heist. Battling eccentric cishets. Forming an unlikely connection.

Sent into a dark downward spiral. Inner conflicts resurface. Emotions run high. Everything starts to unravel. Time is running out. Who's really saving who?

Decades later. On a desolate planet. In a disabled toilet in Tesco. In an underground recording studio. In the battlefield of the future. In the post-truth age. In an ever-greedy and classist world. A disillusioned student. Who shot to overnight stardom. With two beef steaks hanging from her labia. Fresh from a break-up. Faced with an impossible decision. Stuck in a cycle of failure. On the brink of a life changing moment. Struggling with her hardest role yet. Swimming through drugs. During a self-tape audition. In a play of her own imagination. Her intuition becomes reality. What is the price of truth? Are we all complicit?

A new way to tell stories. A new vision of stagecraft. A self-love adventure. A show without borders. On the threshold of consciousness. In glorious black and white. Through the lens of a sitcom. Cosmically comical. Dazzlingly dark. Ferociously optimistic. Unnervingly nonsensical. Undeniably relevant. Brazenly queer. A ceilidh rave. An immersive joyride. An electrifying roar. A neon daze. A kaleidoscopic odyssey. A sizzling Tudor romp. A steampunk fantasy. An intimate audio sensory journey. A climate chaos wake-up call. Born out of protest. Inspired by real events. Based on verbatim testimony. Based on an actual recorded conversation. Based on the popular YouTube web series. Recommended by a computer algorithm. Co-written by AI. Performed in total darkness. Featuring welding.

Virtuosic acrobatics. Hot, urgent themes. Bedroom hijinks. On-stage fencing. Uncomfortable noises. Sleepover-style honesty. Gut wrenching confessions. Shoebox installations. Vibrant, hand-painted projections. Eldritch infestations. Ethereal melancholia. Ecstatic movement. Gothic thrills. Wearable tech. Part scripted, part improv. Part sermon, part purge. With a dash of dirty bass. With over 400 shadow puppets. With a feminist twist. And a live score of gynaecological instruments. Originally directed by Alan Cumming. Not for the faint hearted. Song sheets will be provided.

Welcome to your hot date. A bloody war is brewing. You too can become a pig.

How do you know when it's the end?

Is anybody really listening?

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