We caught up with Alex Franklin to find out about their Edinburgh Fringe show, Mothman: A Romance Musical.
Introduce yourself please.
Hallo! I am Alex, one of the creators of Mothman: A Romance Musical. The other is Nikola McMurtrie, but she’s currently spelunking in a deep and dangerous cave. She’s asked that if she doesn’t make it back we make a poorly animated YouTube video essay explaining what happened to her in her honour.
How would you pitch Mothman: A Romance Musical to someone who doesn’t know anything about the Cryptid?
By the time people have heard the word Mothman, they know the majority of what there is to know about Mothman – half moth, half man, all stone-cold hunk. Rumours of the little guy appeared in the 70s in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and he’s been lurking ever since. And if you don’t like the sound of that, come for the romance! Or the musical! Or the A!
And how would you pitch it to someone who is afraid of the dark?
If you can get through the endless darkness you experience while blinking, you can get through the spooky bits of this show! Imagine those blinks, but there’s a moth guy waiting nearby, and maybe someone dying.
What’s the most remarkable part of audience interaction have you had with this show?
There used to be a whole arc where we had Kamala Harris turn up 45 mins in (played by the O SO FUNNY Emily Bampton), but we had to cut it as frankly it was hard to justify plot wise. We had a few work-in-progress shows with her, but then Emily fell ill last minute, so we just got someone from the audience to fill the roll, and they all took their roles very seriously. One of them did some incredible mime work. It all put us to shame really.
Normally though if the audience get rowdy I give them some treats and a nice pat on the head and they calm down 🙂
Should we ever go into the light?
Yeah please do! Tell me what’s up there! What’s God like? Are the people up there all really young or all really old?
Is this clowning?
I would never allow the cast to do that on stage. Apart from the clown. The clown is allowed to.
What is your favourite part of the show?
The bit where I get to kick Hudson. I enjoy it. I enjoy his suffering.
Why the Edinburgh Fringe?
Better than joining a gang!
What was your inspiration for the show?
Nikola got given a book of fanfic minotaur porn for her birthday and we were reading it in a hotel, and then things just sort of spiralled.
Where else can we see you?
We’ll be taking it on tour after the fringe, and are already booked in to do 10th Sept at Underbelly Boulevard, London! Also come on round to my house! The more the merrier!
ALSO I’m doing a solo show called ‘Alex Franklin: Kiss Me x’ at Underbelly Cowgate, 2:25pm, which is about kissing and romance and being trans and kissing. You better be there! You BETTER!
And finally our cast member Hudson is doing his solo show called ‘Hudson Hughes: At Your Service’ – it is very good! He has also built robots for it!
Bigfoot or Nessie?
Fuck Bigfoot. Marry Nessie. Kill the Abominable Snowman.
Doctor Who or Doctor No?
Fuck Doctor Who. Marry Doctor No. Kill the Abominable Snowman.
Truth or Beauty?
Booty 😉
