The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest arts festival in the world, with nearly 3,500 shows. This year, Playbill is in Edinburgh for the entire month in August for the festival and we’re taking you with us. Follow along as we cover every single aspect of the Fringe, aka our real-life Brigadoon!

Edinburgh Fringe artists are a dedicated bunch. Not only do many of them self-produce, create, star in, and market their show...they will also go around town dressed like their characters in order to spread word and hopefully sell tickets. They will also sometimes sport a real Hitler mustache. That is the case for actor Peter McCrohon, who is currently starring in a farce called Ay Up, Hitler!.

McCrohon admitted he was concerned that he would be attacked in the streets like the actor (Richard Herring) in a previous version of the show was. But while in Edinburgh, "I have walked around un-attacked, even when sporting this mustache," he tells Playbill. "Funnily enough a gentleman the other day remarked when he saw me in the street, 'Who’s he? Charlie Chaplin?' which was a great relief."

But that may also be the nature of the Fringe, where you can walk around and also see a man dressed up as a big blue elephant. Says the show's playwright-producer David McCulloch, "Everyone is dressed in weird and wonderful getups that perhaps even a man walking around with a 'stache like that can simply go by unnoticed in the streets of Edinburgh during the summer." McCulloch is producing the show through Gamma Ray Theatre, which he co-founded.

On the outset, Ay Up, Hitler! may seem like a rather tasteless show. It posits what if Hitler survived after World War II and is actually hiding out in Yorkshire plotting his return. The company acknowledges that lack of taste in the beginning of the show, telling the audience that they hope everyone's been drinking (heavily) beforehand. 

But besides the potentially offensive concept, and the actors encouraging you to go, "awww" to Hitler, the show is actually a smart farce about Facism. About how it rose in the past and how it can rise again. And it spares no one through its lampooning. A recent performance had audiences groaning at a Prince Andrew joke, as well as caricatures of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump (with teeny tiny hands) walking onstage. And the audiences themselves are called out, with the show ending on a particularly horrifying image.

Ay Up, Hitler! is currently running until August 26 at theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, and it's been well-received—playing to a number of sold-out houses. Below, McCulloch and Gamma Ray co-founder Hannah-Cait Harrison (who plays an exceedingly spot-on Trump in the show) discuss how they made people feel sorry for Hitler—and why that's easier than you might think.

What inspired the show and how long have you all been working on it?
David McCulloch: So, the initial inspiration for the show originated from a joke essentially. Back in 2017, I was in rehearsals for a professional production of the John Godber play Bouncers, which is set in Yorkshire, too. During a break in rehearsal (and I don’t know how this happened) the conversation moved onto Hitler, with someone mentioning a rumor that Hitler had at some point visited the North of England, specifically Liverpool. To which I responded: “Well that’s a shame, because if it had been Yorkshire then people would have greeted him by going, 'Ay up, Hitler!'”

And that throwaway gag is what started this absolute rollercoaster of a journey. After remarking that "Ay up, Hitler!" would be a good title for a play, myself and the rest of the cast would imagine weird and wacky scenarios of Hitler and his associates as stereotypical Yorkshireman (whilst we probably should have been rehearsing for the show we were getting paid for). 

Our director, Chris Hawley, obviously saw some potential in this and encouraged me to actually go off and write down the ideas that we were coming up with ... so naturally I wrote bugger all for a year afterwards. However, nobody told Chris that, as he spent the following year telling everyone that he knew a playwright who had written a show called Ay Up, Hitler! Bear in mind I hadn’t even written a single word.

This obviously created a lot of buzz, with people retorting that with a title like that, this show would be perfect for the Edinburgh Fringe. During Christmas 2018, the revelation that Chris had been talking me up to anyone that would listen fed back to me, so I thought, “Well I guess I’ve got to write this damn thing now,” opened up my laptop and started work on the script.

What followed was a year and a half of research, putting together a script, organizing read-throughs with actors, which led into a research and development period in 2020 (which was cut short—no prizes for guessing why), assembling a cast and crew, more rewrites, more research, leading to the world premiere in 2021, followed by another tour in 2022. And now here we are at the Edinburgh Fringe, after many-a blood, sweat, and tear was shed.

You acknowledge at the top that the show is going to be uncomfortable, how did you settle on the absurdist tone of the work?
McCulloch: With a title like Ay Up, Hitler! and the image of a tweed-clad Führer, the absurdist nature kind of came naturally during the writing process. I took a lot of inspiration from the likes of Mel Brooks, Fawlty Towers, Black Adder and many other classic British Satires and comedies. I always kept in mind that throughout this, even with the absurdity and hilarity of the piece, we had an important message to get across: Be careful who you cheer for, who you vote for, and who you blindly follow, just because they’re funny.

The audience are laughing throughout the show but what are you hoping they take away from the show’s political message?
Hannah-Cait Harrison: We deliberately start off by lulling people in, getting them to laugh at a figure that we all know is a terrible monster, and thus shining a light on populism through pantomime.

We flip the switch part way through, and challenge the audience, asking them, “Did you really just laugh, cheer, go 'awwww' at Adolf Hitler?” It’s here that we hope they start to see the buffoonery can be incredibly disarming. If they cheer or laugh along at Hitler when he’s presented as a pantomime character, who else are they letting squeak by in our current political landscape.

We intend for our audiences to leave thinking, “Good God, the parallels between early Hitler and our modern day political figured is staggering.” We need, as a society, to be careful, to open our eyes and not let buffoons get away with sexism, homophobia, and hatred just because we think they’re harmless, or make us laugh at how ridiculous they are, and how ruffable their hair is.

Why did you want to present your show at the Edinburgh Fringe?
Harrison: Since the early inception of the show, we’ve had people telling us, "That’s so Edinburgh Fringe.” We’ve always planned on bringing the show here, because we think our show is what the Fringe is all about: Hard-hitting satire, pushing boundaries, and really challenging an audience to ask themselves, “Hold on, did I really just laugh at that?” 

We truly believe that the Edinburgh Fringe is the pinnacle of theatre. Anything can happen here and there is no need to play it safe. We can challenge people, force them to ask themselves some hard-hitting questions, and entertain them at the same time.

What are you hoping to get out of your Fringe experience?
Harrison: We have said from the get-go that this is either the last hurrah for this show, or the first page of the next chapter. We really wanted to see just how far we could go with it. Either this is a fond farewell to the show, or we are able to get it in front of people who really get what we are trying to say and want to help us gain a bigger platform. We’d love to spread the word far and wide and get our message in front of as many people as possible.

McCulloch: I wanted to bring something unique and captivating to the Fringe. I want this show to have an impact on people, regardless of their background or political leaning. I hope as well as making people laugh, it also makes them think, maybe even teaches or opens their eyes to something they would not have expected. Regardless of what people think of the show, I really hope it gets them talking.

What is your road to Fringe? How did you fund your show, get your venue, etc.?
McCulloch: I’d be lying if I said it was an easy road. First of all, despite people saying that a show like Ay Up, Hitler! would be “perfect” for the Fringe, you need to find a venue willing to take a chance with a show like this and not instantly dismiss it just because it has "Hitler" in the title. Fortunately, we have been blessed with an incredible venue in the form of TheSpaceUK, specifically at Surgeons Hall, which very much feels like one of the primary hubs at the Edinburgh Fringe. After sending off the application for The Space UK, within five minutes the venue manager Charles had emailed back asking to call me, and the rest (as they say) is history.

We’ve always had the Fringe in our sights, but we also knew it can be a pretty big gamble. Given the large amount of shows on offer, along with the even larger amount of money needed to bring a show here in the first place, we needed to make sure we had a show that was tried and tested, and actually connected with audiences. 

Cue our tours in 2021 and 2022, visiting venues across the South of England, including Bristol, London, Southampton, and a run at the Brighton Fringe. Following sell-out shows, positive audience reactions, and a few 4-5 star ratings under our belt, once we had the perfect venue booked, it was time to beg, borrow, and steal the funds we needed to actually get the show to Edinburgh. (I mean just beg and borrow. That local bank robbery had nothing to do with us, we swear!!)

Harrison: The road has been a bumpy one, literally, as our poor car that we tour in gave us quite the run for our money these last few months. This year alone, she’s had: five new tires, a clutch assembly, four break pads, four break discs, two calipers, and an oil change—all of which was not cheap, and not in our budget.

We were incredibly lucky that the theatre world on Twitter really rallied around us and helped us fund the repairs necessary to get our little Kia Rio back on the road, and us on our way to the Fringe.

It’s been a real lesson in perseverance and teamwork, and has really cemented just how well David and I work as a team. When one of us gets overwhelmed, the other always steps in, takes the reins and steers the good ship Gamma Ray, and I absolutely love getting to do this with my best friend and fiancé.

Funding was a major punt and a huge risk, as we needed to risk a lot to get to Edinburgh. We would be lost without our director Chris Hawley, who is also an executive producer on the show. He helped us no end with all things funding, and has been there since day one, always believing in us as a company, and pushing us onward with the show. We can’t thank him enough; we would not be here without him. It's an expensive endeavor: Travel, venue hire, accommodation for the entire team, and paying our actors cost us just shy of £15,000, and that’s having cut costs in places.

We are so glad to be here at the Fringe. Our risk is definitely paying off, and we’re so grateful to our amazing audiences, the team at The Space, and everyone who has come to review the show and really understood what it is we’re trying to say, and attempting to share.

What other show(s) would you recommend that people go see and why?
Harrison: First and foremost, I’d have to say Potty the Plant, at the Gilded Balloon Paterhoose. It’s a West End-level musical, with amazing songs and a stellar cast, but with a twist that adds copious amounts of dark comedy. It’s our kind of humour and just wildly entertaining to boot.

We also recently saw Being Sophie Schol, at TheSpace @ Symposium Hall. It’s about a young woman who defied the Gestapo, and Hitler himself, during WWII. It’s incredibly moving and a story that is really important to remember during our current political climate. And it's just a fab piece of theatre with a fantastic cast.

McCulloch: With over 3,000 shows at this years Fringe, it’s almost an impossible task to see everything. I would personally recommend trying to catch shows that may not be the type of thing you would typically go for. You never know what gems you might find. If you see people flyering on the Mile, don’t just take a flyer and shove it in your pocket, never to be seen again.

Talk to the company, find out about their show and their journey. If you happen by a venue, take a punt and go in to whatever the next show is. We’ve been blessed with some truly amazing theatre, exciting new writing, and forged friendships with wonderful people and companies, just by taking the time to talk to as many people as we can.

Ay Up, Hitler! is running at TheSpace @ Surgeons Hall's Fleming Theatre through August 27. For tickets, click here.