Edinburgh Fringe Chats (#111): Tommy Small, SMALL TOWN BOYS
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 Tommy Small to find out more about Small Town Boys.
1. Can you begin by telling us about your show and what inspired it?
Small Town Boys is a bold and moving dance-theatre experience exploring the vibrant escapism of queer nightlife during the 1980s and early ’90s AIDS crisis.
Told through electrifying dance and spoken word, Small Town Boys follows a young man who leaves his small-town life behind in search of freedom and belonging in the big city. There, he finds joy, love, and liberation within the LGBTQ+ club scene…until the devastating impact of a health crisis, neglected by those in power, begins to unfold around him. I grew up in the 1980s, living under the shadow of the AIDS crisis. I always sensed I was different, even before I had the words to explain it. Everywhere I turned, especially in the newspapers, there was a wave of fear and hysteria aimed at gay men, with cruel headlines dominating the front pages. Now, we’re seeing that same hateful rhetoric targeting trans and non-binary people, which is completely unacceptable. I also remember the harsh impact of Section 28, which banned the so-called "promotion of homosexuality" in schools. In truth, it left a generation of queer young people without support, guidance, or affirmation - leading to a mental health crisis among my peers that still affects us today. It’s a difficult topic to put into words, but the depth and intensity of these emotions are often better expressed through dance and physical theatre than through language alone.
2. What made you want to bring this work to the Fringe this year?
The show is set in a queer nightclub called ‘Paradise,’ inspired by legendary venues like London’s ‘Heaven’ and New York City’s ‘Paradise Garage.’ The nightclub itself becomes a powerful character, one that embodies decades of queer history as a sanctuary where people can finally shed the masks they wear in everyday life. It’s a place to be truly yourself, to find love, whether brief or lifelong, and to dance with wild, uninhibited joy. Often, it’s the first safe space where someone can hold their partner’s hand in public without fear. When you look back at footage of queer clubs from the ’80s, you can feel that same collective joy and liberation pulsing across the dance floor, a lasting thread of defiance, freedom, and connection through time. I wanted to bring the show to the Fringe this year because Fringe audiences are just absolutely up for it and this is the energy that works really well for the beginning of the show where we ask audiences to imagine they are not entering a theatre but rather an 80’s queer nightclub instead. It feels like the perfect match with a Fringe audience!
3. How would you describe your show in three words?
Bold. Joyful. Defiant.
4. What do you hope audiences take away from watching your performance?
It’s vital to remember how the queer community was abandoned by those in power during the AIDS crisis. Our lives, then and still today, are too often treated as political battlegrounds, debated, and devalued, when all we’ve ever asked for is the freedom to live with dignity, safety, and joy. It breaks my heart to reflect on the countless queer lives lost, and the entire generation of artists, thinkers, musicians, writers, and visionaries stolen from us, a loss the world continues to feel. As we face a resurgence of hostility and a rollback of LGBTQ+ rights, it’s clear that history is repeating itself. My hope is that audiences leave the show not just emotionally moved, but galvanised - to be active allies, to speak up, and to stand shoulder to shoulder with our community in defence of equality and human rights.
5. What’s your top tip for surviving the Fringe?
Get loads of sleep before venturing to Edinburgh, don’t forget to enjoy it by meeting pals and catching another show and get hugs from fur-babies as much as possible.
6. Where and when can people see your show?
We are on at Zoo Southside from 1st to 17th August at 7:15pm – please come see it!
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