Grace Hatchell here, with something sizzling from the satire circuit…
Darlings, I know the Fringe is full of laughs — musical ones, clownish ones, cabaret ones — but this one? This one stops you mid-cackle and makes you really think.
Let’s talk Rodney Black.
He’s loud. He’s lewd. He’s lobbing verbal hand grenades into the polite parlour of society and calling it comedy. But what happens when the fallout’s real? When one of his so-called “fans” takes his words not as banter — but as a blueprint?
Enter Rodney Black, the play. And no, love, it’s not a comedy. It’s an autopsy. A dissection of the joke. A spotlight turned uncomfortably inward on the ones holding the mic.
Written by the fierce and fearless Sadie Pearson, winner of the Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize 2024 and long-listed for the Ilfeld Prize (we love a double-nominated queen), this show digs deep into the big questions:
🗣️ When does provocation become harm?
🎤 Who takes responsibility for the audience’s reaction?
🚫 And when we laugh at “just a joke” — what (or who) are we really laughing at?
Our leading man Rodney is the poster boy for weaponised wit — think sharp suit, sharper tongue, and a manager who smells opportunity like cheap cologne. He’s on top of the world… until tragedy strikes and someone acts on his words. Then suddenly, the punchlines don’t feel so funny.
It’s smart. It’s shattering. And it’s scarily relevant in a world where algorithms elevate outrage and young men search for identity in all the wrong corners of the internet.
Pearson’s writing has been called “so clever it’s like a man wrote it” — by an actual unnamed industry insider (who may or may not have just revealed the entire problem the play unpacks, darling).
Partnered with Everyone’s Invited, the anti-harassment movement that helped launch Netflix’s Adolescence, this isn’t just a show — it’s a conversation starter. One that centres women, questions male rage, and skewers the myth that comedy can’t be held accountable.
Oh, and it’s already got nods from Fetch Magazine, The Stage, and the good folks at Everything Theatre — so you know it’s causing the right kind of stir.#
Where to catch it:
🗓️ Riverside Studios – July 29th, 7:00pm
🎭 Gilded Balloon – August 18–25, 7:40pm
If you like your theatre daring, difficult, and just a bit dangerous — this is the ticket to book. And if you’re still clinging to the idea that “it’s just a joke,” Rodney might just change your mind.
See you down front. I’ll be the one side-eyeing the lads in the second row.
Grace x
Rodney Black: Who Cares? It’s Working | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
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