Following their triumphant UK debut in 2023, Australian cabaret collective The Hairy Godmothers return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with their award winning, internationally travelled flagship show Dizney in Drag: Once Upon a Parody and the brand new sinful sequel: VILLAINS: A Dizney in Drag Parody.
Q&A with The Hairy Godmothers
How does it feel to be returning to Edinburgh Fringe?
It’s always a fairytale to come to Edinburgh from Australia. It’s a long journey but it’s always worth the trip. As a group if we reflect on the last couple of years it’s been a rollercoaster ride. We quit our 9-5 Monday-Friday jobs 2 years ago to go on the road and commit solely to our performances, so coming back to Edinburgh is a nice reminder of how far we’ve come. We’re trying to catch up on as much sleep as possible before the crazy month ahead!
What can you tell us about your show and its inspiration?
We have two shows in Edinburgh Fringe this year, our flagship show which was performed here last year, Dizney in Drag: Once Upon a Parody, and our brand new show VILLAINS: A Dizney in Drag Parody.
Both are nostalgic feel-good shows that will make you laugh, smile and contemplate love, life and the fairy tales we grow up on. We sing everything live so you’ll be singing and humming away to yourself after the shows too!
We take storytelling narrative structures, like the hero’s journey, to guide audiences through topical themes and ideologies in a comedic and light-hearted way. We base a lot of the content of our shows around things we experience or observe in our modern day life, so the inspiration for our shows is our modern day lifestyle and the fairy tales and stories that we’re told as children that have influenced the way we see the world.
Both shows are great fun so can’t recommend one more than the other, you may just have to come experience them both for yourself!
How do you think audiences will react to the show?
If it’s anything like last year, they’ll love it! We’ve had a lot of people in South Australia see both the original show (Dizney in Drag: Once Upon a Parody) and then new show VILLAINS and say they love the new one even more than the first one. I think the Villains have a certain edgy flare to them that makes them particularly interesting, so we’re excited to see how the Edinburgh audiences respond.
One of the reoccuring comments we get from patrons is that it’s not what they were expecting. We aren’t traditional drag, we’re a flavour of drag that interweaves live singing, pantomime interaction elements, big costumes, story-telling, and a lot of comedy. So expect the unexpected!
How have you been preparing for the festival?
We’ve been lucky enough to have had 3 festivals in the UK before coming to Edinburgh: Brighton Fringe Festival, summer series at Underbelly in London and Durham Fringe, so our preparation has been on the road performing! Being in the UK for a couple of months beforehand has many benefits. We’ve been able to meet people and convince them to come up to Edinbrugh, we have been getting used to the weather and there’s no jet-lag now! With Australia being 7 hrs ahead of the UK, it can be a bit rough getting straight off the plane and into performing.
Thankfully after 5yrs of doing the show we know it well, VILLAINS (the new show), is the one that we’ve been focusing our time and energy on. We also have 2 new cast members for Edinburgh which is very exciting. Training them has been an essential part of preparing and refining the show in preparation for Edi!
Will you get a chance to enjoy the rest of the festival?
Yes, this year we’re only doing one show a night which is very luxurious for a performer! You’ll likely see us doing spots and performances in other shows around the festival as promotion, but otherwise we’ll be out and about watching shows and enjoying the festivities. Probably also drinking a lot of coffee! There’s such a buzz in the city this time of year so it’s hard not to get involved.
The Hairy Godmothers Dizney in Drag: Once Upon a Parody and VILLAINS: A Dizney in Drag Parody is at Assembly Gordon Aikman Theatre from Tuesday to Sunday throughout August
