BWW catches up with the team behind Miss Brexit to chat about bringing the show to the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Tell us a bit about Miss Brexit.
MISS BREXIT is a satirical musical parody of a Miss Universe pageant, showcasing the migrant experience in the UK. Four contestants from different European places will go through several challenges to prove they can fully assimilate, hosted by a flamboyant and unforgiving MC.
It was co-devised using the real stories of all the cast members, combined with satire, multilingual songs and extravagant costumes. Who is involved in the creative team? We have a massive creative team! Directors Amaia Mugica and Alejandro Postigo, Assistant Director Marina Hata & Original music by Harvey Cartlidge and Tom Cagnoni. Costumes by Olga Ntenta and Matilda. The cast of Miss Brexit is Alba Villaitodo, George Berry, Maxence Marmy, Ricardo Ferreira and Shivone Dominguez Blascikova.
How has it been received so far?
The show has been critically acclaimed in our London runs, and on our Europe tour we received two awards, the first one for “Best New work” at ISTF Danail Chirpansky‘ 22 and the second one, the Director Award at the SETKANI/ENCOUNTER’ 23. Thanks to the festivals we went to and the shows we performed in England, we found that the show could resonate deeply with everyone on different levels. “I think this piece is deeply relatable to any person who had to move, doesn’t have to be London even.” Our piece was clearly understood and that the audience could “find there’s a really powerful message in it.” MISS BREXIT is a fun night out bringing laughter and reflection for both international and UK audiences!
Why bring it to Edinburgh?
Edinburgh is one of the biggest theatre festivals in the world and it came naturally to us as the next step for our show. It is the occasion to show our work to a wider audience that we could find in London but also bring our show and our career to the next steps. It will be the first time performing Miss Brexit for a full month with audience attendance varying and we know that it will be challenging but we are ready. Ready to see what will be the next step for our show, for our company but also for us as individuals theatre makers and performers. Edfringe is the perfect platform to not only meet producers, get reviews and perhaps find someone who wants to help us bring our work further but also to see amazing performances, get inspired and meet like-minded artists. We could not imagine a better place and time on earth!
What would you like audiences to take away from it?
We want the audiences to have a great time seeing the show, that’s why we set it as an absurd musical satire. But we want people to feel challenged. We made the show for everyone. It’s about Brexit, almost 9 years after it passed, but its effects are still very present, now more than ever. The cast and the majority of the MISS BREXIT team are immigrants. Us and so many more artists left our homes to come to the UK, where we could pursue our dream career.
We’ve poured our heart and soul, blood, sweat and tears onto this project and we finally landed a slot with Underbelly for the 2025 Edfringe Festival, and we’ve only just graduated! We’re building our future here, but unfortunately, the UK immigration rules are against us, and so many other International Artists. Some of our company members might not meet the criteria to renew when their leave expires. There is a massive rhetoric that immigration is bad, and a new wave of conservative legislation seems to have flooded not just the UK but also the world. USA, European right-wing parties, they want to terminate immigration.
There are people in risk of being deported, and in extreme scenarios, refugees continue to not have safe passages to seek asylum. Both the UK and Europe haven’t managed to find a way to take refugees to safety. It’s our moral duty to help another. No one moves home because they want to. No one jumps on an overcrowded inflatable boat in the mediterranean or the UK border. No one leaves their place if they are happy there. No one stays where they are not accepted. The human race has always been migratory. Doesn’t everybody leave their home to pursue a better future? To escape something? To follow their dream? Hasn’t everyone in the whole world done that at some point in their lives — even if in the same country?
We have all been a stranger somewhere, and we are becoming so individualistic and protective of our own space that we don’t allow space for the other. We are proud of being a migrant led company, and to enrich the UK’s diverse theatre scene. We are proud of representing so many people with our story, and we are proud to be in theatre that makes change. We want people to take this new sense with them, the sense to understand the “other”
Photo credit: Jake Bush
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