+3 Interview: Margaret Thatcher Queen of Game Shows

Posted in EdFestivals 2017, Plus 3 2017 - Features, Written Interviews by

“I was directing traffic dressed as Thatcher. As they drove off they shouted ‘we love you Maggie'”

WHO:  Matthew Tedford, Co-creator/Writer and plays Margaret Thatcher

WHAT: “Ding dong the witch is back! Multi award-winning Fringe sensation Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho returns with the most fabulous game show of all! Join the Iron Lady for songs, games and catchphrases as audience members compete for their golden giro cheque!”

WHERE: Assembly George Square Gardens (Venue 3)

WHEN: 21:00 (70 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

No actually, this is the fourth Edinburgh fringe that I’ve done. I was up for two years with Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho – my comedy musical about how the Iron Lady went from being Prime Minister to a cabaret superstar after getting lost in the gay bars of Soho. This is my second year doing the sequel Margaret Thatcher Queen of Game Shows – in which Maggie has become a game show host and is making people compete for their job seekers allowance.

I love the Fringe, we had a great every year and we’ve been very lucky in that people really respond to the shows. We have a little Maggie fan club and a lot of people come back again and again. Maybe that’s the reason Ruth Davidson has been able to become so popular… I still have to walk around the cobbled streets all day in heels but it’s worth it to meet all the lovely people. Sometimes I’m even able to provide a public service: I saw someone drive the wrong way down a one way street and ran into the road to stop them – I was directing traffic dressed as Thatcher. As they drove off they shouted “we love you Maggie”. Like I said Ruth Davidson has a lot to thank me for.

Tell us about your show.

I wrote the show with Olivier Award-winning playwright Jon Brittain, who also co-directs the show with Ant Cule; Ed Yelland and Paul Heath play Maggie’s backing dancers Strong and Stable; and Aine Flanagan produces the show with Off the Kerb. We all started working together on a fifteen minute version of Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho at Theatre503 in London for their Thatcherwrite.

I had gone to a Halloween party at Jon’s house dressed as Maggie so when they told him about the festival he gave me a ring. We took the show to the Fringe a year later and we’ve been here every year ever since. This is the second year of the game show but we have updated it to include references to Trump, the General Election and the new Doctor Who. Next up, I’m working on a few other shows, and if all else fails we’ll be back next year with Margaret Thatcher Queen of Cash Ins.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

Well, you should absolutely check out the other shows by my co-writer and director Jon Brittain and my producer Aine Flanagan. He’s written a lovely little musical called A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad) which is about depression and has songs by Matthew Floyd Jones from Frisky and Mannish; and she’s also producing a wonderful new musical called Prom Kween by Rebecca Humphries, about a non-binary prom queen.

Aside from that you have to get tickets to double Fosters award-winner (and my university flatmate) John Kearns, the hugely funny and very silly Kat Bond in Loo Roll, head Weirdo Adam Larter in his brilliantly stupid show L’Art Nouveau, the play Gypsy Queen by Rob Ward and two of my favourite comedians Suzi Ruffell and Joz Norris.

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