The Brunch Club

A co-production between GRID IRON
and SCOTTISH DRAMA TRAINING NETWORK ENSEMBLE
and PLEASANCE THEATRE TRUST
Part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019

Written & directed by Ben Harrison
Devised with The Network Ensemble

2nd – 24th August 2019
Pleasance Pop-Up: Levels Café and Lounge, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh
Edinburgh Festival Fringe

2nd – 4th September 2019
Ayr Campus, University of the West of Scotland

A site-responsive theatre production set in student cafés.

AWARDS

Winner of the Bright Sparks Award, Scottish Theatre on the Fringe (previously Scottish Arts Club Awards)

Rebel, Geek, Emo, which were you? Or Popular, even if you didn’t want to be?

Scotland’s brightest new talents, The Network Ensemble, take on the cliques in a homage to classic coming-of age movies.

Eight young people gather in a university student union cafe where they form alliances, fall in and out of love, and learn from the friction and energy created between one clique and another.

With a sound-track that will take you right back to the tears and triumphs of finding your place in the world, The Brunch Club challenges expectations and exposes the limitations of judging a book by its cover.

Site-specific masters and seven times Fringe First winning Grid Iron, in co-production with SDTN and Pleasance Futures transform Levels cafe bar during Fringe 2019 before transferring to University of the West of Scotland Ayr for performances as part of their Fresher’s Week activities.

With a cast, design and stage management team drawn from recent theatre graduates from all over Scotland, The Brunch Club is a fanfare from the last years of adolescence and an exploration of the continuing need to categorise ourselves in a increasingly complicated world.

There were BSL interpreted performances on the 9th and 21st Aug, an Audio Described performance on the 22nd Aug and Captioned performances on the 19th and 23rd Aug.

Production photography by Robin Mitchell

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What The Press Said

“The dance sequences are simply fantastic… a very coherent and confident cast who nail each character with style and also heart felt emotion… I love the actors and the acting. It has soul…”

Fringe Review

“Fizzes with energy… Funny, fantastically well observed, witty, sharp and fabulously choreographed.”

The Wee Review

“A play filled with heart, humour and energetic characters.”

The Stage★★★

“The cast members are all drama graduates so should certainly be able to empathise with their characters. So convincing are they that you would think they are playing themselves, but it is only at the curtain call that their masks fall and you realise they are really acting very well indeed… colourful, fast-paced entertainment.”

UK Theatre Network★★★★

“Sends out the message that it’s okay to be whoever you want to be, that nobody can stop you, and that nothing can stand in your way.”

The National Student★★★★★

“At the heart of the show there is a sense of a generation that has been dealt a spectacularly tough hand rediscovering the poser of conviviality, of conversation, and of emotional openness about the issues they face; all achieved with plenty of music and laughter, a touch of poetry, and a series of impressive performances from a memorable young acting company.”

The Scotsman★★★★