Brewing Laughs for a Decade: The Return of Coffeeshop Girl

Ten years after a scrappy team of twenty-somethings transformed a Toronto theatre into a buzzing coffee shop, Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl returns to the Edinburgh Fringe with its signature blend of comedy, music, and heart. Created and performed by Rebecca Perry, this cult hit has travelled the globe, resonating with audiences across generations thanks to its brutally honest and hilariously relatable take on post-graduation life. We caught up with Perry to chat about the show’s evolution, her favourite characters, and what keeps audiences coming back for another cup.

Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl is celebrating its 10th anniversary -  what does it mean to return to the Fringe a decade later with the show that started it all?

It’s absolutely heart-warning and wonderful to celebrate any show’s 10th anniversary, let alone my favourite one to perform. This show is definitely close to my heart, not only because I wrote it, but because I get to perform a character loosely based on myself after I graduated while I was working in a coffee shop, as well as many characters who came into the shop while I was there.

The show blends comedy, music, and over 20 vivid characters. Do you have a favourite character to perform?

I think my favourite is my rather grumpy boss who I visualize as a gorilla in the coffee shop jungle. There's something cathartic about playing the curmudgeonly boss I put up with in my early twenties because I get to take the narrative back and poke fun at the situation!

You've toured this show around the world. How has it evolved over time?

It’s changed with every single stop. From the first performance at the Storefront Theatre in Toronto to this very run here in Edinburgh, every time I’m in a new city it gives me pause to review what jokes I think are funny, if there’s some commentary I want to add, and so on - it’s a conversation with the audience that’s loosely based on improv, even though there are certain characters and situations that always happen. I think that keeps it fresh and a fun piece to perform and come back to.

Coffee shops are the show’s setting - and almost a character themselves. Why this setting??

That’s an awesome question I don’t think anyone has asked me before! I do think of it as its own character. I think coffee shops will always be a universal meeting place for the general population that never goes out of style - and you can find anyone there from any age in a coffee shop depending on what they’re doing and who they’re meeting. It could be school friends, a young person meeting their grandmother, college friends studying for exams. It’s a place of comfort where something exciting might happen (like meeting your crush like the heroine of the show, Joanie) or just settle down to the long hours of studying you have ahead!

What do you think it is about Coffeeshop Girl that continues to connect with audiences, especially now, in such a different cultural moment?

To be honest, I think that when you tell your story it becomes universal. People really latch onto the fact thatI’m brave enough to tell what happened to me after graduation, how I made lemonade out of lemons, and really tried to see the brighter side of things going through the mess of my early twenties. Whether you’re millennial, Gen Z, or even Gen X or boomer, it’s always interesting to hear someone else’s take on it. I’ve had audience interactions with families of two or three generations who have their own hilarious stories after graduating, and it’s always fun talking to them about what drew them to come to the show.

Do you remember the first time you performed the show?

I do! As I’m answering these questions, I’m sitting across from one of the original crew members! How can I forget? We were a bunch of scrappy early twenty-somethings who wanted to put on a show, banded together, and rented this hip place in Toronto called the Storefront Theatre. We hired carpenters from York University in Toronto to transform the place into a coffee shop. It’s probably the most sophisticated set the show has had since it was a standstill production! It was amazing to have friends stand behind me and see this thing through to its conclusion, and we loved the idea of doing more with it, which is why it went into the Toronto Fringe, and since then it has toured all over the world!

Rebecca Perry’s ‘Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl’ is at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival until 25th August. For tickets and more information, visit: https://tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk/event/14:5373/