Edinburgh Fringe Chats (#46): Dan Bishop, BRAINSLUTS

1 Jul

Conducted by Emmie for Theatre and Tonic

As anticipation builds for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025, we’re catching up with a range of exciting creatives preparing to bring their work to the world’s largest arts festival this August. In this series, we delve into the stories behind the shows, the inspiration driving the artists, and what audiences can expect.

Today, we’re joined by Dan Bishop to chat about Brainsluts.

Can you begin by telling us about your show and what inspired it?

Sure. Brainsluts is a comedy play set in a clinical drugs trial: across five Sundays, five strangers swap stories about what made them sign up to the study, divulge bizarre details about their personal lives and do pretty much anything they can to fill the silence. Something the participants have in common is that they’re all struggling to gain full time employment and they think society needs radical change. However, despite their strong convictions that something must be done, they are unfortunately deeply clueless about what exactly they must do.

I wrote this play because I wanted to write about work, its bleakness and its absurdity. For years now, I’ve found myself moving from one short-term contract to the next, often working multiple jobs at the same time, and feeling like the work I’m doing is either meaningless, boring or evil. So, I wanted to write about that feeling of stress and hopelessness, but I also wanted to make it really funny. I ended up asking lots of my comedian friends to act in the play and thankfully they said yes. Lots of them are doing their own solo shows up at the Fringe as well, and the fact that they’re working two jobs simultaneously throughout the month feels cruelly in keeping with the show’s themes.

What made you want to bring this work to the Fringe this year?

My short term contract ends in July.

How would you describe your show in three words?

One word: Brainsluts.

What do you hope audiences take away from watching your performance?

Well, I think patchwork careers are quite common at the moment, but maybe even more so for those working in the arts, so I think Fringe audiences will get what these characters are going through. But what I really want the audience to do is laugh laugh laugh!!

What’s your top tip for surviving the Fringe?

Everyone knows the Fringe is getting more expensive each August, so this year to alleviate some of the financial pressure, the cast and I have all decided to marry tobacco tycoons. I actually got that tip from a street performer friend of mine who funded their show last year by marrying an oil heiress. I caught a preview of their new show the other day actually - it’s a dramatic retelling of the BP oil spill from the oil’s perspective. It’s really terrible.

Where and when can people see your show?

2.45pm Pleasance 10 Dome, 30th July - 25th Aug (Not the 13th)