Crocodile Tears - EdFringe 2025

Aim: Help us get Shark Bait Theatre's new show 'Crocodile Tears' by Jess Ferrier to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2025

Who Are We?

Shark Bait Theatre is an emerging comedy-theatre company based in Edinburgh, Scotland. We aim to make fun, silly and satirical comedies that open conversations on current socio-political topics. In 2024, Shark Bait Theatre was longlisted for Company of the Year at the Scottish Emerging Theatre Awards. 

We are a grassroots company meaning we do not have the backing from producers; this means our funding comes from ourselves and from our patrons... like you! With your help, we will be able to bring a fully-realised version of our newest play Crocodile Tears to the Fringe without the personal financial burden. And you will be supporting new and exciting art, home-brewed here in Scotland and you'll get to feel all good about yourself 'n that.

Praise for Shark Bait Theatre:

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ "Relevant, hilarious, and at times emotional" - North West End UK

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ "An incredibly promising debut" - The Scotsman

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ "A cast of bright young talent" - Lost in Theatreland

What is Crocodile Tears?

Enough about us, what are you actually funding? 

Crocodile Tears is a new satirical comedy play about surveillance, authenticity & the ethics of reality TV. Think everything you love about I'm a Celeb..., Love Island and Big Brother meets everything you hate about I'm a Celeb..., Love Island and Big Brother.

When viewership tanks for the latest season of a survival tv game show, the producers realise they must go to extreme lengths to make sure the show doesn’t get cancelled - no matter the cost. After all, the contestants signed a contract, they can’t back out now... Follow the final five contestants, guided by the show’s eerily vivacious host, as they slowly realise that this reality show just got a whole lot more ‘real’ than they bargained for.

Written by emerging playwright Jess Ferrier, coming off of her 2024 sell-out show 'You Deserve It'.  In 2024 her work was long-listed for WonderFools ‘Positive Stories for Negative Times’ opportunity, and she was shortlisted for the 2025 BBC Voices programme. Ferrier’s work focuses on comedy as a means of social commentary - with a specific interest in themes of class, gender and mental health.

Crocodile Tears will be performing a limited run at Edinburgh Fringe 2025. From 8th-17th August (excl. 10th) at TheSpace@ Venue 45 at 13:20. 

Praise for Jess Ferrier:

“Ferrier’s writing is exquisite, this is a very funny new play, with huge amounts of potential. I’m excited to see where [her writing] goes next.” - Lost In Theatreland (for 'The Rejects')

“The play is - like Ferrier’s previous work - clever and wonderfully structured. The characters [...] backgrounds, relationships, hopes and fears are sketched with real skill and at exactly the right rate” - AllEdinburgh Theatre (for 'You Deserve it')

Why the Edinburgh Fringe?

This will mark Shark Bait Theatre's 3rd year performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. We love it! As emerging, grassroots artists, the Fringe offers us the best opportunity to showcase our work to the widest possible audience and connect with likeminded creatives from around the world. Contrary to the way it might look now, the Fringe is built for scrappy, grassroots artists making small-scale work simply for the love of the game-- that's us. And as an Edinburgh-based company, it means a lot to us to showcase actual Scottish on our own turf -- we're not just here August so when you support us, your money is going back into the community that makes the festival possible.

That said, every year performing at the Fringe gets increasingly more expensive. Even as a local company, costs for venues, marketing, even just getting into the Fringe guide is costly and for many working-class artists, including ourselves, it's not a sustainable model. All money we raise will be put directly into covering the costs of production. Any profit we make is divided evenly among our team to pay them equitably for their time. We firmly believe art should not have financial barriers and artists should see financial compensation for their work. And with your help, we can achieve that. 

So what now?

If you would like to support us in person, on 10th of July 2025, we will be hosting the 4th instalment of our Fish Food scratch night series showcasing other emerging Scottish theatre makers. It will include previews of other upcoming Fringe shows as well as excerpts from new work-in-progress pieces. There will also be an exciting sneak preview of 'Crocodile Tears'. Tickets for this are here

If you can't make it, or you're just feeling extra generous, that's what this crowdfunder is for. Please do leave a donation using the button above. No contribution is too small. We will be forever grateful. 

And be sure to get your tickets to Crocodile Tears at the Edinburgh Fringe. Tickets here.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 16th August 2025 at 1:46pm