Photography by James Ireland
My Lover Was a Salmon in the Climate Apocalypse
London Irish Centre, July 2022
Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Fringe 2022
Winner of the STAGING CHANGE x VAULT award for environmentally-conscious development
★★★★ - Everything Theatre
★★★★ - Fringebiscuit
Photography by Rory Gradon and Kate Bauer
About the Play
A gig theatre call to arms.
Humanity ruined the ecosystem. But humanity’s just a dodgy side branch of fish evolution. Solution’s clear. Join us, and return to being a fish.
Fin's deep empathy for nature culminates in him thinking he's a salmon, onstage, whilst the band looks on in fishy horror. But could this kickstart a climate revolution?
With live trad-influenced music and audience interaction, we use salmon to investigate global industrial food production, colonialism, ecological destruction, and our own place in this overwhelming timeline.
Creative team
Produced by James Ireland and Bradán
Directed by Kate Bauer
Written by James Ireland
Performed by Rory Gradon (Fin), Elinor Peregrin (Fiona), and Elisabeth Flett (Sam)
Music composed collaboratively by the performers and company
About Bradán
Bradán is an eco-theatre company specialising in gig theatre, and winner of the Staging Change x VAULT award in 2022 for ecologically-conscious theatremaking. Bradán was founded by Kate Bauer and James Ireland, who met in Dublin on a theatre undergrad in 2012.
We are Queer theatremakers from a generation young enough to know that capitalism and the climate catastrophe has taken our futures. We have a vision for creating art that laughs at power, and focuses on audience experience - bringing them along for the journey (often as participants). We believe the only reason left to create work is to change the world before it’s too late.
Follow our journey as we create the show!
Instagram @bradantheatre
Twitter @bradantheatre
Teaser Trailer - edited by James Ireland
Photography by Rory Gradon and Kate Bauer
Praise for My Lover Was a Salmon in the Climate Apocalypse
"The way this show traverses different forms and keeps you absorbed is a masterclass of gig theatre [...]
Pitch-perfect gig theatre for our time"
- Everything Theatre
"Bradán theatre company is onto something significant with their intimate, confessional style of presentation"
- The Spy in the Stalls
"Musically the three are outstanding. Peregrin's voice is sublime and Flett seems to be able to play all of the instruments ever [...] worth watching for the music alone"
- Lost in Theatreland
"Informative, energetic, divinely absurd [...] the music is sublime throughout"
- Fringebiscuit
"A ridiculously talented team of musicians take you on a warm but all too real scary story of the climate crisis. The best gig theatre I've seen - 100% recommend"
- Rosie Bowden
"A show with brilliant music and a massive heart"
- Middle Child gig theatre company
"Bradán theatre has produced my favourite show of the Fringe. So funny and clever and well-written and wonderfully surreal. I loved everything about it."
- Audience testimony
"Absolutely bloody brilliant. A wonderful mix of magic realism and (horrifyingly?) recognisable overwhelming climate anxiety. Absolutely not to be missed."
- Audience testimony
"Some of the most exciting gig theatre we have seen in a while - hilarious and also powerful, will be thinking about that closing monologue for days"
- Audience testimony
"Bizarre and amazing stuff. Eco-political theatre at its best"
- Audience testimony