EdFringe Talk: ROADKILL

Posted in *EdFestivals 2025, *Written Interviews by

“I’ve worked the last two years as a technician, first with Pleasance and then freelance, so I’m well accustomed to the craziness of the festival.”

WHO: Niamh O Farrell Tyler

WHAT: “On the 31st October 2019, Cosmo was hit by a car in an act of transphobic hate and violence. This show is not about getting hit by a car. This is a show about sex. This is a show about period sex. This is a show about working at Tesco. This is a show about living with your parents. This is a show about the Rocky Horror Picture Show. This is a show about trans euphoria, sexuality and survival.”

WHERE: Space 2 at theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39) 

WHEN: 19:30 (45 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my third Fringe but my first time bringing my own show! I’ve worked the last two years as a technician, first with Pleasance and then freelance, so I’m well accustomed to the craziness of the festival. It’s so exciting to be contributing my own work to the festival though and it’s already such a different experience – there’s such a wonderful supportive atmosphere already. I have never encountered anywhere like Edinburgh Fringe, and the fact that this year is going to be be a totally new experience all over again is really exciting.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2024 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

Since 2024, I’ve continued working as a freelance stage manager, but also taken on a lot more acting gigs in some short films and theatre pieces and started my own queer events and theatre company, DYKEish! This especially was a huge learning curve but a really interesting one, learning what it takes to run your own company, gather an audience, and engage with the queer community in a meaningful way. What I’ve had to learn very quickly as we come up to Fringe is how to seperate being the performer of the piece from being one of the producers – wearing multiple hats can be a bit conflicting, but luckily my wonderful crew are very good at kicking Producer Niamh, as we call them, out of the rehearsal room.

Tell us about your show.

ROADKILL is a rollarcoaster of a show that is NOT about being hit by a car. What it IS about is a young trans person, Cosmo, struggling to reconcile a past transphobic attack with how they want to be viewed in the present. It’s a fast-paced, vulnerable, and oftentimes vulgar exploration of coming of age as a trans person and the pressure that comes alongside that to be the representative of a whole community. ROADKILL was written by myself and is produced by myself and the wonderful Megan Flynn, with a team of incredibly talented creatives behind us that I still can’t believe I convinced to hop on the bandwagon with me! This is the first show we are making this show under the banner of DYKEish, which is headed by myself and Megan. The ROADKILL crew have also been incredibly formative in everything DYKEish has done so far. Edinburgh will be ROADKILL’s premiere, but I’d love to tour it around Ireland afterwards and even take it to London too if possible!

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

I highly encourage punters to try and support as much trans-made and focused theatre as possible. These are scary times for the community, but there is so much incredible art being born out of the struggle, and one of the best ways you can be an ally is to show up and support! In other words – BUMS IN SEATS FOR TRANS RIGHTS! And there’s something there for everyone when it comes to trans made and focused theatre. Kinder by Ryan Stewart will be a really interesting exploration of reactionary politics in light of recent rulings in the UK; Alter by Extraterrestrial’s description of their show as “growing into queerness, or away from it” is something that really echoes our own show; Shallowspace Cryotech Feverdream by Elastic Fantastic combines trans narratives with sci-fi horror, a marriage of ideas we can’t to see on stage; Somebody Has Got to Be John by Speakbeast Theatre will feed both your desire for queer theatre and any intrusive thoughts you’ve ever had about the Beatles; and A Xerox of a Deer by the Horgles, another Irish company, explores queerness specifically in rural Ireland.

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