The Welsh comedy that has taken the Edinburgh Festival by storm

David Owens

A madcap comedy from a Welsh theatre group has quickly become a smash hit at Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

‘Stiff’ by Merthyr playwright Anthony Bunko and his Gurnwah Theatre Company has played to sold-out audiences, received incredible reviews and been shortlisted for a prestigious festival award.

Not bad then considering the lengths the writer and cast had to go to raise the money to perform at the fringe.

Thankfully, thanks to a well known actor and the local community in the Valleys the play raised enough funds to get the show on the road to the Scottish capital.

“The biggest struggle we had to get it to Edinburgh was not getting any funding but in the spirit of 1977, we decided to still go and hopefully make Merthyr and Wales proud of our efforts,” says Bunko. “We decided to ask for sponsors to help out and the response was incredible. But I must give a special mention to Keith Allen – the actor – who gave us a massive amount of money within 5 minutes of us putting a post up on FB. Cheers Mister A!

“Also lots of individuals and business in Merthyr and beyond donated raffle prizes which also chipped away at the £8k it costs to go to the fringe,” he adds. “It’s not cheap paying for accommodation, venues, travel, props, flyers, registration, insurance. Then we played three sell out shows at the Scala in Merthyr before we departed and the feedback was brilliant. We had a feeling we were onto a winner.”

The prolific playwright responsible for such acclaimed theatre productions as ‘The Wizard of Gurnwah’, ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ and ‘Knuckles’, describes his latest creation as “a good old -fashioned British comedy farce with a smidgeon of murder and a splash of sex.”

“The log line is – ‘Who would have thought some harmless rumpy pumpy could be so dead…ly!’ Basically it’s a laugh out loud play about a man who does something that he shouldn’t and it doesn’t turn out as he expects and then his day just gets worse and worse and even ‘worseter’ than that!”

The cast consists of seasoned Gurnwah actors Shelly Morgan, Rob Murphy, Julian Richards, Emma Hickey and Cameron Jones, who have been part of the theatre troupe for the last nine years – and this year another original member Sharon James-Evans decided to step up to become the director of the show.

“To be fair how the cast and Sharon took my madness and created something quite special is such a privilege for a writer like me,” says Bunko. “It’s so, so good to have such a talented, creative and wonderful bunch of human beings around me. I will be forever in their debt.”

The show started its limited run on Monday 12th and took a standing ovation at its final performance last night at the Thistle Theatre in Riddles Court.

“It’s a great theatre on top of the Royal Mile,” says the writer. “We took another comedy ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ with the same cast two years ago and again played to sell out audiences and received rave reviews plus a 4 star review from the Ed Fringe.”

If Bunko and his cast had any nerves about how ‘Stiff’ would be received, they needn’t have worried. It was a hit from the off.

“The reaction to Stiff has been unbelievable,” says Bunko. “One of the fears when you come to a place which has got over 3000 plus acts and everyone competing is that for all your hard work and efforts, you don’t attract an audience. But we sold out every day and the comments and reaction has been astonishing. We couldn’t have wished for better. We have had people stopping us in the street or coming up to us in the pub after and raving about the play.”

These are some of the comments the play received from audience members…
“One of the funniest plays I have ever seen. Very cleverly written””
“What a fantastic show. I haven’t laughed like that for ages”
“I always knew the Welsh sense of humour was special…this just proved it”
“Stiff was hilariously funny from start to finish. Best comedy I’ve seen at the Fringe.”
“Fantastic time watching Stiff performed to a full house”
“Well, ‘Stiff’ was brilliant, proper laugh out loud! You must be so proud”

And here are the comments from the audience immediately after a performance…

You can tell the cast are very close having known each for so long. There’s a mutual respect and a tight camaraderie amongst the actors and the writer.

“One of the best things for me is when you get a group of talented people who work well together and party well together and enjoy each other’s company, it is something special,” says Bunko.

“We have all had a ball, but it’s not all a bed of roses, its hard work and we have got to be focused from the minute we wake up until the end of the show. Then we can let our hair down a little. It’s about being professional but enjoying it.”

The production had the best possible start to its run when the team found they had been shortlisted for an award after the very first show.

“Well the morning after our first show, we went back to the venue to pick some stuff up and a guy approached us to tell us he saw our show last night and it was brilliant and he apparently runs ‘The Derek Awards’ at the fringe and he told us we have been nominated for the ‘The best comedy show at the Fringe 2024′.

“He told us that different judges would come every night and we would find out if we won when the fringe is over. Win or not, it was such a boost to be nominated after the first show. We have been told the “Derek Awards’ are quite a big thing.”

Despite running for just one week, the play has been a huge success and it’s buoyed Bunko and his team of talented actors to do it again next year – and put Wales on the theatrical map while they’re at it.

“The fringe is such a fantastic event, everyone should come and experience it, either putting on a show or just being a punter,” he says. “Its such a great city anyway even without the fringe but the fringe really brings it to life even more.

“I hope we can do it every year,” he adds. “I have already got something special in mind for 2025. There are great acts from all over the world here. So, it’s important that us Welsh get as many acts as possible up here – maybe with a bit more funding(!)

“We want to show the world what we are made of. Our wonderful sense of humour. It’s been great for us that not only have we had people watching it from all over the UK, but we have had lots of Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and people from countries in Europe and they have all loved it, so our humour does travel and we should be bloody proud of it.”

A day in the life of Stiff in Edinburgh according to Bunko
The day starts about 9am with us meeting in the communal kitchen. We are staying in students accommodations, so it’s a bit like The Young Ones to be honest). Then it’s a cup of tea, toast, then we sit around altering the times of our show on our flyers because I got the bloody times wrong on the 2500 flyers I had printed. The cast ain’t happy with me but I said I did it on purpose and its all team building ha ha. After that the cast have a quick 45 minute line-run of the script, then a bit of brekkie and then we are all out flyering. then the show starts at 17.15 for an hour. We put the set away and then off for a beer or three and then we pick a nice restaurant to go to and chill. The Thai at the top of the Royal Mile is our favourite. Following that we normally go and see some other shows. The Silence of the Lambs – The Musical has been our favourite so far. It was brilliantly funny.

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