FAG/STAG Wins Scotsman Fringe First Award

FAG/STAG, presented by Underbelly and The Last Great Hunt, has won a prestigious Scotsman Fringe First Award. Heartfelt, funny and direct, FAG/STAG asks what it means to be a best mate when you're stuck being your worst self.

Written and performed by two of Australia's sharpest young writers, Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Chris Isaacs command the stage as unreliable narrators telling the same story from different points of view. FAG/STAG is a truthful and comic insight into the mind of the modern man.

Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Chris Isaacs comment, There was only a short window of our lives in which we could have written FAG/STAG. We put the jigsaw together from pieces of our own experience and the experiences of the people around us. We wanted to capture the end of our twenties, as well as a true to life picture of friendship, masculinity and sexuality. Coming to Edinburgh Fringe was such a dream for us and the show, but a very daunting dream. We're honoured that the play has been received so well here outside its home context- showing that the faults and follies of masculinity are the same the world across. To take a home a Fringe First award from a festival that is so loaded with talent is almost hard to believe. We're so grateful to Marina Dixon and Underbelly for having us, The Scotsman, our audiences, the wonderful production team at The Last Great Hunt, Chloé, Tilly and the team at CNC, The Blue Room theatre in Perth, and everyone that makes this incredible crazy festival happen. Thank you so much.

Since 1973, The Scotsman's world famous Fringe First awards have been recognising outstanding new writing premiered at the festival. In their review of FAG/STAG The Scotsman wrote, Fowler and Isaacs' script - along with their understated performances and fluent rapport - capture the oblique way men interact with one another: very rarely saying exactly what's on their minds, instead encoding messages to each other in rolled-up cigarettes, shared beers and Donkey Kong sessions.

FAG/STAG is at Underbelly Cowgate (Belly Button) every day until Sunday 27th August at 16:00.

Photo courtesy of Jamie Breen