JULIUS CAESAR VARIETY SHOW to Make UK Premiere at Edinburgh Fringe
Writer-director Joy Nesbitt will present the multi-award-nominated show at Summerhall's Red Lecture Theatre.
Writer-director Joy Nesbitt will premiere her multi-award-nominated play, JULIUS CAESAR VARIETY SHOW, at Summerhall this August. This bold new play puts on the worst audition you've ever seen, asking: what happens when identity, ambition, and artistic authority collide under pressure? Performances will run 6 - 31 August.
During the 2023 Dublin riot, a Black actor, a woman actor, and a straight white male actor audition for a part in Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. The three auditionees attempt to impress a revered director set on reinventing the play in "unorthodox" styles - and as the audition unfolds, the actors' identities are called into the audition room and exploited for better performances.
What begins as an audition quickly transforms into a battleground. As the director, aided by an ever-present accompanist, pushes the actors to their limits, questions of identity, authorship, and representation come sharply into focus. Performers and audiences alike must confront how their lived experience shapes not only their interpretation of the roles, but also the meaning of the play itself.
Provocative and darkly humorous, JULIUS CAESAR VARIETY SHOW interrogates the evolving role of diversity and inclusion within the theatre industry, and the ever-widening impacts of the rise of the far-right, anti-immigration movement. The infamous Dublin riot serves as a stark and resonant backdrop, embodying the most extreme outcome of a debate the theatre sector continues to confront.
Director and playwright Joy Nesbitt is one of the most acclaimed young theatremakers working in the UK right now. Originally from Dallas, Texas, she has written and directed projects for both stage and screen in the UK, Ireland, and the US, earning nominations for a raft of awards, including Soho Theatre's Verity Bargate Award, The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, Theatre503 International Playwriting Award, and Dublin Fringe Festival's Fishamble New Writing Award. Joy's award-winning play, Blood of my Blood, is premiering at The Royal Court Theatre upstairs in October 2026.
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