“Because you’re performing for a whole month, the show has room to grow and evolve.”
WHO: Ihsan Kerr
WHAT: “Eleanor switches on an AI replica of her late husband but discovers memories that don’t match her own. Mia is young, disillusioned with dating men and in love with an AI chatbot. When secrets surface and the past begins to unravel, both women are forced to question what they thought they knew. Lubna Kerr returns to the Fringe after her five-star Tickbox trilogy, with an electrifying new play featuring a dynamic cast, A dark comic exploration of memory, forgiveness and the human experience with Kathryn Marper and Codge Crawford and co-directed by Ihsan Kerr/Kathryn Marper.”
WHERE: The Green at Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)
WHEN: 18:30 (60 min)
MORE: Click Here!
Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
This is my first Edinburgh Fringe as a playwright, although I’ve performed at the Fringe many times before as an improviser. This will be Lubna Kerr’s (my mum!) fourth show, following her acclaimed Tickbox trilogy. Those were all one-woman shows, so it’s been incredibly exciting to work with a full cast for the first time and collaborate with such talented actors. Especially as the Fringe is tending towards smaller casts and one-person shows, for very understandable reasons.
The Fringe – there’s nowhere else quite like it. You get immediate feedback from audiences every single day, and because you’re performing for a whole month, the show has room to grow and evolve. It’s a really rare opportunity, and we are all doing our part to keep it alive.
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2025 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
One of the biggest things we’ve learned is never to underestimate an audience. Lubna’s previous shows were rooted in her experiences as a Pakistani immigrant, but people from every background saw themselves in those stories. The more personal and specific the writing became, the more universal it felt.
We’ve taken that lesson into A Better Memory. On the surface it’s a play about AI, but we hope audiences leave talking about much bigger questions: grief, memory, forgiveness and what makes us human. You know those conversations you have with your pals after a show, dissecting and retelling it? That’s where we want to be.
Tell us about your show.
A Better Memory is my debut play and is produced by Kerr Arts Collective. It’s co-directed by me and Kathryn Marper, who also plays Mia. It stars Lubna Kerr as Eleanor and Codge Crawford as Harold.
The company has come together over time. My mum and I have always worked creatively together, with me becoming more involved each year. After her Tickbox trilogy, I shared the idea for A Better Memory with her, and she immediately encouraged me to write it. From there, we’ve built a brilliant team around the project, bringing together performers and creatives who could balance the humour, mystery and emotional heart of the story.
The play receives its world premiere at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. We previously toured Tickbox around theatres across the UK, and one of the things we’re really passionate about is encouraging more People of Colour to come and experience live theatre. We’d love the opportunity to do that again with A Better Memory.
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
Kerr Arts Collective is a brand-new theatre company, and we are lucky enough to be producing two other shows at the Fringe! Parkies is a comedy-drama about life as a park ranger in Utah’s national parks, and later in August, we have We Are All Florida Man, an absurdist comedy inspired by real-life “Florida Man” headlines. They’re both completely different from A Better Memory, and we’re really proud to be helping bring them to the Fringe.
Within the Pleasance, you can’t go wrong with anything by Maybe You Like It Theatre, or Jordan Brookes for chaotically genius comedy.
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