The original stage production of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag is one of the truest and funniest depictions of modern feminism
Image by Jonny Birch
Few modern artists have exploded into the zeitgeist like Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Two years removed from its original Beeb broadcast, the trials of the eponymous Fleabag stand out as one of the truest and funniest depictions of modern feminism and femininity in recent memory. Whilst fans await series two, the original stage production from which the series was born hits the road with a huge domestic tour including five nights at Newcastle’s Live Theatre from Tuesday 22nd-Saturday 26th May.
With star and creator Waller-Bridge busy in a galaxy far-far away, leading lady duties are assumed by rising stage star Maddie Rice in a show directed by Vicky Jones based on Pheobe Waller-Bridge’s original award-winning, critically lauded script. At once hilarious and heartbreaking, Fleabag is a story forged in the complexities of modern life; relationships with friends and family are stained and strained by years of wear and tear and romantic relations make for more of a graphic distraction. At the heart of it all is a character – a self-made troublemaker, fundamentally heroic but flawed to the point of troubled, here examined in its original form through one of the most popular one women plays in years. See what the fuss is about.