Pride and Joy

Tabby Lamb and James Ireland talk about unwrapping joy in their theatre shows

Interviews: Katie Goh

“Let’s be honest, the last three years have been fucking awful,” says the writer Tabby Lamb, half laughing, half sighing. “Every day there’s another transphobic article and a new tweet from awful people, and it all feels inescapable. But when you go into a theatre, you have to turn your phone off. If I can offer an hour’s respite from the world, I will be very, very happy.”

Theatre as a joyous escape is something on several LGBTQ+ playwrights’ minds this year at the Fringe. While shows about traumatic, and often painful, subject matters have always had their place at the festival, they often overshadow the need for a diverse range of queer storytelling, particularly shows which celebrate queer happiness over queer suffering.

“Happy Meal is all about joy,” Lamb explains firmly about their show. “I wanted to create a trans show that trans people could watch and not be triggered by, and one that depicts the reality of our lives but focuses on the joy, happiness, romance, and gives us a happy ending.”

A nostalgic rom-com, Happy Meal is about two teenagers who meet online and, via MySpace, MSN and chatrooms, figure out who they want to be. Rather than focus on the negatives of our current online world, Happy Meal is about the power of the internet to bring communities together. “My life was spent using the internet to find out who I am and who I could be,” says Lamb. “I think that’s a very trans thing. For example, a lot of trans people play The Sims because you get to build the person you want to be.”

Another show at the Fringe unapologetically centring queer joy is Rajesh and Naresh. “We wanted to make something that was a positive story that didn’t subscribe to the 'bury your gays' trope or punish people for daring to be queer,” explains the show’s writer, James Ireland. “We wanted to put something positive out into the world, particularly given the lack of queer and South Asian theatre in the UK.”

Originally written as a 10-minute script in 2019 by Arjun Singh, Rajesh and Naresh is a collaborative work, comprising numerous perspectives. Ireland came on board to help develop the short script into a 60-minute show, as Singh, the show’s director, Sophie Cairns, and performers, Brahmdeo Ramana and Madhav Vasantha, each brought their own experiences to the rom-com.

“A fundamental part of the process was bringing as many people as possible into the room,” explains Ireland. “We invited many research participants to see the original play and give us feedback. You’ve got to get the balance right, and not write something that’s detached from reality, but balancing the happiness with the grim which feels more true to our research participants’ experiences.”

Ireland and Rajesh and Naresh’s creative team sought to create a rom-com that also subverted expectations. “When he first came up with the 10 minute concept, Arjun was reacting against a perception that the UK is the liberated west where everyone can be queer no problem, and India is repressed,” says Ireland. “We flipped that perception on its head because it’s not true to many queer people of colour’s experiences in the UK. The Rajasthani character, Naresh, is comfortable being out to his friends, whereas the British character, Rajesh, is very emotionally locked down. For Arjun, that was a radical statement.”

Like Lamb, Ireland hopes that Rajesh and Naresh can also offer a safe space for LGBTQ+ audiences at the Fringe. “There’s just something really powerful about being able to put a happy story on stage. The kind of stories that tend to be written for theatre in the UK are often very difficult and very painful to sit through. We wanted to create a story that centred queer joy, so that an audience member could see that, despite there being some difficult parts in any journey, there are happy endings for them.”

SHOW Happy Meal

VENUE: Traverse Theatre

TIME: times vary, 4–28 Aug, not 8, 15, 22

SHOW Rajesh and Naresh

VENUE: Summerhall

TIME: 2:45pm – 3:45pm, 3–14 Aug