Blame, Bawdy Jokes, and a Mic Drop in the Dark: Marty Breen’s BITCH Takes Centre Stage

A biting, bold, and original piece of cabaret-theatre, BITCH is a raw reckoning with blame culture, complicity, and identity, told through stand-up, original music, and theatrical fireworks. Performed and written by Irish actor and theatremaker Marty Breen, the show sees two characters – the slick Stand Up Guy and the volatile, unfiltered Bitch – battle it out in an open-mic showdown that spirals into something much darker. Following its award-winning debut at Dublin Fringe, BITCH arrives at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the 2025 Culture Ireland Showcase.

We caught up with Marty to find out more about the play ahead of its run.

How would you describe BITCH to someone who’s never heard of it in just one sentence?

A bold, brash, ballsy tragicomedy about complicity.

What made you want to tell this story right now, especially through comedy and cabaret?

I had had the idea for years of playing with these forms to tell a frustratingly prevalent narrative (which is told in every area but comedy mostly, bar some of the inspirations for the show: Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, Natalie Palamides’ NATE and Daniel Sloss’s X), but recent reckonings in the Irish comedy and theatre scenes around power, gender and when is a joke not funny anymore made it feel timely to tell it this way.

You play both characters in the show — how do you switch between them, and do you have a favourite?

Both characters are opposite sides of the same story, so the switch feels easy. Our brilliant movement director Charlotte O’Reilly and I have also worked these physicalities to create authentic, real people, so hopefully they’re as slick and clear as they’re supposed to be. Also, spoiler, but the show doesn’t just have two characters - you’ll have to come see to meet the rest! Also both our main characters get to have a lot of fun with the audience, but his journey is a little easier for me. Our Jeda de Brí is a wizard at directing stand up and also shares my dark sense of humour, so is both the best audience, and the best collaborator for making it. So treading the line of going too far while really holding the audience in the palm of your hand is a fun

challenge.

The show deals with some heavy themes like blame and complicity. How do you balance that with humour and music?

You’ll have to come and see it to find out - it was the inspiration, and it is the challenge! BITCH is, above all else, playing with the boundaries of comedy. We have to laugh, or we might die, as the opening says. And I really hope we do laugh - it’s a wild ride, that takes the audience to unexpected places, but hopefully the form of comedy and cabaret being laced with dark undertones

gives them the warnings they need.

What’s something you hope audience members take away from seeing BITCH?

You’d really have to ask the audience, but I hope they feel they’ve gone on an identifiable journey and they’ve come out the other side the way the main character does. I also hope they have a cracking time for most of it.

How do you prepare yourself before performing such an intense and emotional show?

BITCH is an incredibly fun show, both for myself as the performer and the audience, for most of its journey, so I focus on the fun, and let the rest of the show arrive as it unfolds. I try not to anticipate the journey. Myself and my gorgeous SM Jude Barriscale tend to have a dance party (we’ll see if the wild west-ness of EdFringe allow us time for that!), and then I have the ritual of doing the show makeup to get into the zone, which is a key part of the design. You’ll have to come see the show to know why!

BITCH is at the Pleasance Dome, Jack Dome (Venue 23), 30 July – 25 August (not 4, 11 & 18), 14.45(15.50). For tickets go to https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/bitch