THE PIGEON FACTORY to Make UK Premiere at Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Oh!Scare Wilde Productions will present Aaron O'Neill's one-man show at Underbelly Cowgate.
Oh!Scare Wilde Productions will present the UK premiere of The Pigeon Factory, an absurd satire of capitalist productivity following one man's delusion that heads a factory with a workforce of pigeons. Performances will run at Underbelly Cowgate, Jelly Belly, 5 - 30 Aug 2026.
Tracing the descent of an unhinged man into a delusion of 1950s suburban perfection, this darkly absurd one-man drama frames the domestic household as a factory assembly line staffed by pigeons. Attempting to maintain a perfect life with his mannequin wife Marianne and a brood of birds that he keeps in boxes, Walden hosts the audience as guests in his home. The play serves as a biting satire of modern productivity and the lengths we go to justify constant output, with the isolated man surviving solely on his pigeon children's eggs for nourishment. Blending high-energy physicality with voiceovers and video projections that blur imagination with fragmented memory, the show is a visceral, surrealist ride set to a soundtrack of nostalgic Americana. Beneath its facade of industrial efficiency, The Pigeon Factory unpicks the rot of traditional gender roles and the desperation of self-image under capitalism, hiding a sharp exploration of isolation behind a veil of fast-paced comedy.
Writer and performer Aaron O'Neill said, “I'm really thrilled to be bringing this delightfully mad show to Edinburgh Fringe. It's exactly the kind of weirdo-fuelled oddity that people ought to be stumbling upon at a fringe festival, and I'm tremendously excited to be that weirdo. Bonkers though it is, this play has resonated with the unlikeliest of audiences - from the suburban accountant to the rural grandmother, Walden and his pigeons seem to strike a chord in these disconnected times. I look forward to striking that chord further and sharing The Pigeon Factory with the fine audiences of Edinburgh!”
Aaron O'Neill is a playwright and actor from Cork, Ireland. He is artistic director of Oh!Scare Wilde Productions, a Cork-based theatre company specialising in original work. He graduated from University College Cork's Drama & Theatre Studies course in 2017. In 2022 he took part in the Tales of Two Cities artist development programme, run by The Everyman Theatre, Cork Midsummer Festival, and Bristol Old Vic. Plays written by Aaron include The Relatability Engine (2022), The Pigeon Factory (2023), and Bottlenose: A Mystery for Modern Ireland (2025). This is his Edinburgh Fringe debut.
Dee Finn is a director and stage manager from Cork, Ireland. She graduated from University College Cork's Drama & Theatre Studies course in 2018. She has directed Oh!Scare Wilde Productions' plays Bottlenose: A Mystery for Modern Ireland (Cork Midsummer Festival, 2025) and The Pigeon Factory (Cork Midsummer Festival 2023, West Cork Fit Up Festival 2024). As a stage manager, she has worked with The Abbey Theatre on their production of In Real Life (2025), and their 100th anniversary production of The Plough and the Stars (2026).
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