Edinburgh Fringe Chats (#67): Alfrun Rose, DEAD AIR

12 Jul

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 Alfrun Rose to chat more about their show, Dead Air.

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

Dead Air is rooted in personal loss. My own. After my dad died, I found myself grasping for traces of him: photos, recordings, scraps of his voice. He was a beloved behind-the-scenes guy in the music industry, always lifting up new talent, and being hilarious whilst doing it. And then he was gone. In the fog of grief, even my memory started to blur. I forgot things I never thought I would; how he looked, how he laughed. All I could remember was him telling me off once for not taking the bins out. He was coming to other people in their dreams and totally ghosting me. My sister sent me a video of a surreal TV advert where he performed a burlesque routine, threatening to strip in public. She found it on an old VHS tape. It was absurd. It was punk. It was Dad, right after his first major heart surgery, 20 years ago. I remembered him asking me about Stanislavski and studying the lines with me when I was 14 and then being teased for it on the bus to school. And it became something I could hold onto.

Around that time I read about new AI services offering simulated conversations with the dead. Some people found comfort. Others found horror. Like the chatbot that hallucinated a loved one was burning in hell. That strange uneasy space where technology, memory, grief and absurdity collide was the spark for Dead Air.

This isn’t a play about my father. But it is for him. I tried to make something that he would relate to and would find funny. A modern ghost story about the glitchy glorious ways we keep the dead alive.

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

I had been thinking about it for a couple of years but I wasn't sure if I was ready, physically and mentally but I saw the deadline for applications about to pass and I took a chance, applied very last minute and got a place.

03. How would you describe your show in three words?

Hilarious, heartfelt, haunted.

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

They're not alone.

05. What’s your top tip for surviving the Fringe?

Stay hydrated. Get inspired. Use condoms.

06. Where and when can people see your show?

Bunker 1, The Pleasance Courtyard, 11:40 AM