Interview: Abey Bradbury, ‘Tit Swingers’

Ahead of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024, we’re chatting with a range of creatives who will be heading to the city over August to find out more about their shows. Today we’re chatting with Abey Bradbury about their piece, Tit Swingers.

Can you tell us a bit about you and your career so far..

Hello! My name is Abey - I’m one half of the writing team behind TIT SWINGERS, I’m a Gemini, I have 2cats and I like to write Big Gay Musicals! I started as an obnoxious theatre kid when I was young - I would perform the whole of CATS by myself in a one-person show when I was 10 for my very patient family - and then for the past 10ish years I’ve been working as an actor and musician around the UK. I’ve written shows myself over the past few years - most notably JULIE: The Musical, which was a finalist for Best New Musical at the 2024 Off West End Awards, and am now very excited to be creating a show with my very talented collaborator and unfortunate bestfriend, Sam Kearney- Edwardes.

Sam studied musical theatre at college before moving on to studying musicianship at university. After a break from theatre and being a 9-5 grown up for a while, they’ve worked with me on a number of shows as a performer and general sound board/support animal, until one day we decided the universe was telling us we simply had to write one together. We want to make the shows we’d like to see, and be part of positive change in the musical scene in bringing more celebratory queer representation to the stage!

What is your show about?

Queer. Punk. Pirates.

The show is about real life Queer historical pirates Anne Bonney and Mary Read (and also Calico Jack is here) - they were known as the ‘Hellcats of the Seven Seas’ in the 17th Century, were queer polyamorous pirates, and were famous for terrorising Navy and Merchant ship by fighting with their tits out - as we all know, there’s nothing more terrifying than the female nipple...The show is asking “What would happen if these Pirates decided to write a show about themselves, and perform it on a bunch of stolen guitars in a dirty tavern, what would that be like?” - and of course it’s a punk rock gig musical with plenty of swearing, audience interaction and a Morris Dance in the middle...obviously

What was the inspiration for the show and what’s the development process been to get to this stage?

I’m a massive history nerd and Sam loves sea shanties and punk rock, and we’re both queer too, so when we heard about Bonney and Read it was just the perfect fit for us!

It was actually during rehearsals for JULIE: The Musical that we started messing about with ideas for TIT SWINGERS, in breaks between shows we’d be picking things out on guitars and sending each other late night voice notes of tunes and lyrics.

We’ve been really lucky to have support from theatres as well to help us develop the show - we’ve had support from The Lowry in Salford (big up the North!) and were part of their Musical Theatre Scratch Night, and we also were part of MTFestUK down at The Other Palace earlier this year too, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds now!

What made you want to take this to the Fringe?

The show is so anarchic and wonderfully unique, we always knew it’s the perfect show for the Fringe -we’re really excited to share the show with new audiences, and also it’s a great excuse for a trip to Scotland and to see some cracking new theatre ourselves!

Apart from seeing your show, what’s your top tip for anybody heading for Edinburgh this summer?

Wear comfy shoes - COMFY SHOES I TELL YOU!

Also if you’re performing, being your favourite lemsip of choice, the Fringe Flu is very real and gets us all.

Also also, there’s a wonderful pie shop I can’t remember the name of, but I could walk you to it in the city centre - so if you’re in Edinburgh let me know, I’ll show you where it is!

Why should people book to see your show?

If you like anarchic comedy, if you’re queer, if you like punk rock, if you’re a pirate - there’s something for you in this show. And unfortunately we don’t actually get our tits out during the show....or do we?....maybe.....I dunno, maybe buy a ticket and find out...

When and where can people see the show?

We’re on at Pleasance Two (the one in the Courtyard) from the 31st July - 26th August at 1:40pm...except on Wednesdays, we don’t perform on Wednesdays, don’t come on Wednesdays cos we won’t be there!