EDINBURGH 2025: WAITING FOR TEXTO Q&A

BWW catches up with Aideen McQueen to chat about bringing Waiting for Texto to the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about Waiting for Texto

Described as “Bridget Jones meets Baby Reindeer” Waiting For Texto is a one-woman comedy play with a gripping storyline and an unexpected ending 

It’s about love, loss, and trying to spiritually awaken in a world that just wants you to stay logged in. It follows Lucy, a woman who’s juggling dating, personal demons , and her crumbling mental health — mostly through WhatsApp, self-help podcasts, and Googling “signs he actually likes you.” It’s a dark comedy about emotional chaos, desperate hope, and trying to heal while still checking if your ex has watched your Instagram story. 

What was the inspiration behind writing it?

It started, like all good comedy, from a breakdown…. I mean a “soiritual awakening” 

I was spending the evening with my sister but her eyes were glued to her phone like a security gard’s on an abandoned backpack. She said “You know when you’re mad about someone, you text them, they see the text, but they don’t text you back?, wouldnt it be amazing if there was a play or a movie just about that?” and so we started to write 

We have all had these feelings but now instead of screaming into a pillow, we do it into an algorithm. I noticed how often women are told to be positive, productive, spiritual and “hot” — at the same time as being heartbroken — and how absurd that is. So I wanted to write something funny and honest about the way we cope now: with crystals, CBD oil, and long voice notes that sound like therapy but are really just cries for help with a mountain scene and a yoga pose. 

Why do you think audiences will relate to it?

For sure - I have never had so many good reactions to something I have written, everybody has been in pain waiting for someone to reach out to them … but the play digs deeper as well into other issues, I won’t go into that now but come and see for yourself, it's a really relatable play with great jokes and a strong narrative that will leave you enthralled I am really proud of it as it's a combination of myself and my sisters work, as well as the lived experiences of so many women that I have met … I was surprised how many straight men could really relate as well - we are not as different as the internet tells us! 

As this is your full length debut at the Fringe, do you think you know what to expect from the festival?

 This is my first solo show, but not my first rodeo — I’ve done compilation shows and stand-up here before, so I know the Fringe is a beautiful, mad, exhausting vortex. You arrive with dreams and leave with 40 tote bags and a vitamin D deficiency. So yes, I think I know what to expect — but the Fringe always surprises you. One day you’re performing to a packed room, the next you're handing flyers to a man dressed as a pigeon who says he’s “not ready for narrative.”

What would you like audiences to take away from it? 

I want them to laugh. But I also want them to feel a bit less alone in the mess. Waiting For Texto is about how chaotic and ridiculous we can be when we’re in pain — and how healing doesn’t always look like crystals and cold-pressed juice. Healing is about stopping negative patterns and looking for other types of connection - This is now super vague! More will be revealed !! come along to the show 

'Waiting For Texto' will be at the Gilded Balloon Patter House Nip at 2.20pm for the entire Fringe for tickets go to www.edfringe.com

Photo credit: Steve Ullathorne

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