INTERVIEW | 'RuneSical' Gigglemug Comedy, Edinburgh Fringe

The biggest arts festival Edinburgh Festival Fringe is back for 2022 (and it's also the 75th anniversary!) The Fringe runs for three weeks, ending on the August bank holiday weekend. This year it starts on Friday 5 to Monday 29 August. 

The last few years show the importance of celebrating the diverse selection of work on display at the Fringe. There is theatre, dance, circus, physical theatre, comedy, music, musicals, opera, cabaret, variety, children's shows, spoken words, exhibitions, and events. There is literally something for everyone in that vast range of work you can enjoy. The 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe features 3,171 shows from 58 countries! There's a full programme available here.

In preparation for the festival, I have some great interviews coming up on Theatre & Tonic to showcase just *some* of the exciting work which is heading up to Edinburgh in August. Starting us off is Gigglemug Comedy who will be heading back to Edinburgh this year with RuneSical. 

Hi guys! Thanks for giving your time to chat about RuneSical, a comedy parody musical which is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August. 

Can you begin by sharing the journey of Gigglemug Theatre for those who know little about you?

Hey Emmie! So Gigglemug Theatre began at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018 where we staged our debut show ‘Timpson: The Musical’, based on and sponsored by everyone’s favourite high street shop ‘Timpson’. We were lucky enough to win The Stage Award and receive some cracking reviews over the month, so shortly after we embarked on a UK tour which culminated with the production being filmed and uploaded to YouTube where it now has over 33,000 views! 

We’re currently developing ‘Scouts! The Musical’ with the Scouts themselves (which was selected for BEAM 2021) and are touring ‘The Bean Spillers: The Improvised Musical’ which recently won an OffComm.

As you say, you recently toured ‘The Bean Spillers: The Improvised Musical’ and now you are bringing RuneSical to the Edinburgh Fringe this summer after being away for 4 years. Tell us a little bit about the show..

RuneSical is an interactive parody musical of the game RuneScape, though you don’t need any knowledge of the video game to enjoy the show (that said, there aregets a few Easter Eggs for any players out there!) The show follows Lance_054 (the first fifty-three were taken) and a band of brave adventurers as they journey across the world of Gielinor to slay the mighty Mirror Dragon. As the audience gets to choose which paths the characters take, every show is different!

Unlike your recent production this one is for families, what attracted you to build something which is for this market audience as opposed to something which is entirely for adults?

Despite there being a lot of musicals at the Fringe, properly family-friendly comedy musicals are comparatively rare. Much like with ‘Timpson: The Musical’, we loved the challenge of creating a show which can be enjoyed by people of all ages. 

You have based your RuneSical on the online game RuneScape, what was the creative process for this besides probably playing it for hours?

It was really cool to have this hugely complex world of RuneScape that we could draw inspiration from before adding our sense of humour and taste into the final show. Jagex (the creators of the game) even invited us on a research trip to RuneFest (RuneScape’s fan convention) back in 2019!

Your work is largely about involving the audience - what do you enjoy about this style of work? 

We really like the idea of allowing the audience to help us create the show they want to see and, because every show is different, it’s all the more special that an audience gets to experience a scripted musical for the first and last time each night. We had the added benefit of practising audience involvement throughout our tour of ‘The Bean Spillers: The Improvised Musical’, an approach which is baked into the fabric of RuneSical.

Was it difficult to build a piece of work that will develop largely on what the audience chooses?

At times it was tricky for us to keep track of scenes when we were writing, especially as we had to create around 2 hours worth of content even though an audience would only see 70 mins. But we know the end result is totally worth it and hope it’ll encourage audiences to come back and see how the show changes from night to night.

Besides RuneScape - which other online games do you think would make for interesting development into a musical?

Sam: Snake… I feel like that character has a lot to say (or sing). 

Alex: I wanna hear from Pacman. 

How do you feel about performing in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year - especially since the last few years slashed a lot of plans?

We’re itching to get back, especially as we initially started writing RuneSical back in 2019 so we’ve been desperate to get the show on its feet since then. It’s a little daunting of course, but having performed there as a company before, we feel like we know a bit more about what we’re doing this time around!

Why is this festival important for people to see and support during August?

It’s particularly tricky staging new work at the moment and taking any show to the Fringe is a big undertaking (especially for the month!), so we really need audience members to buy tickets to ensure the Fringe can keep going in the future! It’s the biggest arts festival in the world but can only continue to be such with audience support.

Besides your show, are there any that you’d recommend that families should go and watch during the festival?

Our friends at Showstopper! The Improvised Musical & Mischief Theatre are always a good bet - catch one of their shows and you’re definitely in for a laugh.

Where can people come and see you during the festival?

We’re performing 3rd-28th August (not 15th) at Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose on Chambers St, which is right next to the Mile! 

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