Episode 282: Edinburgh Festival Series - BearGirl

It’s the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2026 series Elaine chats with pervious guest and friend of the pod - writer Emery Schaffer about her new play BearGirl. BEARGIRL Assembly Roxy, Roxy Boxy Dates: Wednesday 5th - Monday 31st August 2026 Time: 4:20pm (60 mins) BearGirl Bear suits, bereavement, and big scary feelings...oh my. Premiering at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe is BearGirl - an empowering drama about animal costumes, grief and feminist rage, written by Emery Schaffer (We Used to be Girl Scouts, MONUMENTAL) and directed by Kate Stamoulis. Inspired by Anton Checkhov’s The Bear, Bear Girl is a new play about love and hate, desire and guilt, reclaiming yourself when it’s all been stripped away, and attempting to make peace with the beast within. Struggling to cope with the death of her husband, a grief-stricken widow unexpectedly finds comfort whilst wearing an oddly sentimental bear suit that reminds her of her lost love. From that day, Bear Girl is born: an unfeeling, thick-skinned beast of a woman who doesn’t care that you’re staring at her, because she’s not really there. Meshing a complicated love affair with the shock of sudden loss, Schaffer’s play explores the complex web of weighty emotions that lay within every human going through the worst moment of their life- and what happens when we lose all control of how we ‘should’ behave… and start giving into our primal instincts. TICKET LINK emeryschaffer.com heythankstheatrecollective.com OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk IPA GUIDES: HIPA GUIDES Equity Toolkit: Link Stellar Quines: Link Persistent Pal & Nasty Hero - Pals and Hero Membership Email – [email protected] Instagram - @persistentandnasty Twitter - @PersistentNasty Coffee Morning Eventbrite - Coffee Morning Tickets LINKTREE - LINKTR.EE Resources Samaritans - Rape Crisis Scotland - Rape Crisis UK ArtsMinds - BAPAM Freelancers Make Theatre Work Stonewall UK - Trevor Project - Mermaids UK Switchboard LGBT+ - GATE PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE - DONATE ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK - ASN.COM- DONATE