Hi - we're Speakbeast!
We're a very small, entirely trans theatre company, formed in 2023 and based between Edinburgh and London. Our first show, The Freemartin, debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024, was shortlisted for the Untapped Award, won the Binge Fringe Queer Performer's Award, and transferred to SPRINT festival at Camden People's Theatre in March 2025. Also, we had an absolute blast. We hope you did too.
But we left with some questions. Those questions have become our next show: Someone Has Got To Be John, which will be at theSpace Triplex Studio from August 11th - 23rd.
Here's some lovely copy for it, if you're curious.
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Paul is telling everyone how to stand. And speak. And hold their hands. George is just about ready to quit. And everyone seems to be ignoring Ringo. But in every incarnation of it all - in an online forum, in an endocrinologist’s virtual waiting room, in a rehearsal room, in a hotel room bathroom - someone is missing. And he keeps trying to put himself back in the band.
Set across the fifty years between the long hot summer of 1969, and record-breakingly hot summer of 2019, SHGTBJ is a theatrical symposium, by three trans people, on medical institutions. On our brief, messy relationship. On how we came to this point. And, fundamentally, on if there is a future in which we can possibly continue to work together.
And, more than anything, it's about John.
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But once again, we are coming to you hat in hand because we're going to need to support to get this beast off the ground. We're a small team, and in a fortunate position to be already based in Edinburgh - but funding opportunities are even more limited than they ever have been, and venues are really, really expensive. We don't have any major financial backers this year, and we all work regular jobs. Unfortunately this means we have once again turned to crowdfunding to cover the remainder of our venue costs.
In total, the remainder we have left to pay is £1469, and anything, no matter how small, towards this would be an immeasurably massive help. As always, anyone who donates will have their name listed in our digital program, and we're cooking up some potential fundraising ideas so stay tuned for those too!
But all we really ask is that you spread the word of us, this show, and this campaign - and thank you, so much, for all your support.
With love,
Speakbeast x