Hannah Maxwell would dearly like a bad review. What could a good review do for her? Briefly boost her ego, yes; shift a few seats, perhaps; make some more noise amid the festival cacophony, for sure. But would it have any value beyond that? She cannot live on acclaim.
Maxwell speaks from experience. Hers was the show that went from flop to phenomenon in 2023 after Phoebe Waller-Bridge saw it as part of an audience of two. But the subsequent fringe success for Nan, Me and Barbara Pravi did not translate to bumper sales year round. Nor did Maxwell particularly want it to.
Cancelling shows leads to existential despair and she does not want that, but what the performer likes best is to connect with small groups in intimate spaces. Should it not be possible, she wonders, to do her job without going to either extreme of hype or obscurity?
But if she were to devise a formula for success, what would it look like? Hence, Babyfleareindeerbag – its name a reference to Waller-Bridge’s breakout hit Fleabag and Richard Gadd’s fringe-to-Netflix drama Baby Reindeer. It is not so much a show as the blueprint for three shows, each created with an eye for the market and each presented to us – focus-group style – for our feedback.
Should she come back to Edinburgh next year with a cutesy show about her dad or does the idea lack a tragic undertow? Maybe a poetic drama about falling in love with a singer who wrote a song reflecting on their relationship? If that sounds too schmaltzy, would an angry polemic about conspiracy theories pull in the crowds? In this funny, delightfully meta show, we get to sample all three and to share our opinions.
Ironically, the best marketing tool turns out to be a catchy title. Thanks to the name, Babyfleareindeerbag is a hit whether she likes it or not.
• At Summerhall, Edinburgh, until 25 August
• All our Edinburgh festival reviews
