THE JOLLY FISHERMAN Will Premiere at Edinburgh Festival Fringe's Underbelly
Alex Hill and Olivier-nominated Jonny Khan star in John Dinneen's new work at Underbelly George Square
From the Multi Award-winning duo behind London's smash-hit Brixton Calling (Southwark Playhouse), the OFFIE's most awarded show of the season (Best Production, Best Sound & Music and Best Design 2026), WhatsOnStage-nominated Best Studio Production, and 9x Fringe Award nominated production company, comes a stunning new story The Jolly Fisherman, which premieres at Edinburgh Festival Fringe's Underbelly George Square this summer from 5 - 31 August.
The Jolly Fisherman is the story of Alan, Amir and England. We meet thirteen-year-old Alan who takes us on a tour of his entire world. It's a tour that starts and ends inside the walls of The Jolly Fisherman: a red-brick, much-loved pub ten minutes north of Barking town centre, the raw heart of East London. Alan's sheltered life is soon interrupted by the arrival of Amir. With his dark curly hair and Light Brown skin, Amir arrives as part of a wave of second-generation British-Pakistani immigrants new to the area. Naive to the noises around them, the boys strike up an unlikely friendship which deepens as their school years tick by. But when events close to home take a surprising but inevitable turn, the boys must come face to face with each other and the change they see all around them. This is a story of enduring friendship from one of the faultlines of our shape-shifting national identity.
The production stars a tour-de-force pairing of two exceptional actors - OFFIE-Award-winner Alex Hill, the writer and performer behind Edinburgh Fringe Festival and global Fringe phenomenon Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Arse For England and Jonny Khan making his Fringe debut after starring in Olivier-nominated The Shitheads at The Royal Court Theatre and the RSC's Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Writer John Dinneen, who was inspired by true events to create this fictional drama says: “As the Right prepares for its biggest march in history and the Left begins to march in the other direction, I wanted to tell a story from the vanishing middle ground. A story that's unflinching, honest and compassionate. The Jolly Fisherman is the story of two boys loving each other's company, but it's also a political story of our shape-shifting national identity. It's ultimately a story about two teenagers in East London who are asking the same questions about community and identity as people in cities and towns up and down the country right now.”
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