EDINBURGH 2026: Did You Charge Your Phone For The End Of The World? Q&A

BWW catches up with Fletcher Michael to chat about bringing Did You Charge Your Phone For The End Of The World to the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about Did You Charge Your Phone For The End Of The World?

The year is 2034. A city-demolishing asteroid is heading for Brooklyn. The government refuses to alert the public of the impending catastrophe until a boutique advertising agency can come up with a positive rebrand for the calamitous space rock. Did You Charge Your Phone for the End of the World? is a laugh-out-loud dark comedy featuring elements of satire, detours into surrealism, and original songs. It has been described by critics as "a jagged little masterpiece of contemporary panic." Like much of the work produced by Infinite Monkey Theater Co., it is an absurdist laugh riot with a heart.

What was the inspiration behind writing it?

This show was very much inspired by the shows I saw at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2025. I was interested in creating a show specifically for Fringe audiences -- the show is a tight hour and doesn't fit neatly into any one genre. I'm obsessed with anything that pulls back the curtain on the creative process, and this show does that by setting it's action in an advertising agency of the near future. On a meta level, the show is about a creative collaboration very similar to the creative collaboration necessary to produce and stage a show. 

How do you balance the different creative roles when you're writing, directing and performing as a member of the cast?

Sometimes poorly! But I find that the more preparation I do on the front end of a given show process (booking rehearsal spaces, compiling tech cues, creating a promo schedule, etc.), the more freed up I am to sink into acting and directing once we're in rehearsals and performances. It also helps to work with people you trust -- my castmates, Collin Dennis and Lucy Boisvert, are incredibly talented creative minds and our process is extremely collaborative, which is instrumental in keeping these many plates spinning. 

Do you think you know what to expect from the festival?

We took our sketch comedy show, Chimp Cocktail, to Edinburgh Fringe 2025, so it won't be a completely new experience. However, where that show ran for just a week, this year we are taking two different shows which each run for two weeks. Festivals are always a mad dash, and I expect that trying to pull off two shows a day for an extended run will be a challenge!

What would you like audiences to take away from it?

If they have fun and laugh and feel as though they've seen something unlike anything they've seen before, that would be really gratifying. Bonus points if they're so inspired by the anti-capitalist themes of the show that they quit their jobs and devote their lives to holding corporations accountable. 

Did You Charge Your Phone For The End Of The World comes to Edfringe from 17-29 August and tickets are available here.