EDINBURGH 2023: Chloe Radcliffe Q&A

BWW caught up with Chloe Radcliffe to chat about bringing Cheat to the 2023 Edinburgh festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about Cheat.

It’s standup about cheating! Doesn’t that sound FUN! And about so much more…it’s about villain origin stories, maladaptive coping mechanisms, speech & debate, and shagging a FedEx man. I am a serial monogamist who is very bad at one of those words. The show explores why I developed a pattern of cheating, how cheating is even defined, and why people don’t address their frictions with monogamy. (FYI: Coming to the show doesn’t make someone a cheater…actually, avoiding it seems way more suspicious.)

Why did you want to tell this story?

I think art is supposed to make people feel alone. (Or it’s supposed to make people feel dumb for not getting it. At least that’s how I feel watching modern dance.) So by admitting “unclean” feelings and actions on stage, I get to acknowledge struggles that way, way, WAY more people have than we think. In a weird way, I’m proud of being willing to admit that I’ve cheated. I’m not proud of the cheating - I’ve hurt people and done bad things, for sure. But I believe that if we wanted this to stop, we would want people to talk about it. So I’ll go first.

How has your material been received so far?

After every single show, someone whispers “That really spoke to me…” At first I was a little worried that the hurdle of asking people to empathize with a cheater would be too high of a hurdle, but buddy, turns out a lot of you are morally bankrupt just like me!! And for the rest of you good people, I made it my goal to build a show that’s compelling enough and nuanced enough to capture a broad, sometimes nervous audience. I’ve always liked writing jokes where I back people who don’t fully agree with me into the corner of seeing my logic - one of my old favorite bits was about wanting male birth control, and I tried to make it watertight enough to make men laugh who would normally dismiss the idea. If you think about it, I’ve basically just expanded that particular joke-writing fetish into an entire solo show.

Who would you like to come and see it?

My absolute favorite people to hear from after are people close to my age who have lived traditional (even if they’re very progressive!), stable, monogamous lives. Because without fail, I hear those people relate to at least some element of the tensions in my show, and they are usually who feel the least permission to acknowledge their own feelings. So I know that what I’m talking about is super common, even where you wouldn’t assume. (Developing this show across the US has shown me that cheating is e-ve-ry-where.) Honestly, if my argument is “almost everyone tussles with the bounds of monogamy,” then I would like…almost everyone to come see it! 

What would you like audiences to take away from it?

I want people to know that they are not alone in feeling internal conflict about their romantic relationships. How much work is too much work? When is a want something to honor, and when is it a coping mechanism? What patterns need to be “fixed” and what patterns are just imperfect personality traits? Let me make myself perfectly clear: I do NOT have the answers to those accursed questions. If you figure them out, let me know. But at least we can all internally shrug together. Privately internally shrug, since I think most people still don’t want to say this is a thing they relate to. So we can all sit next to each other, very still, very quietly, only saying “Hmm. That was….Interesting.” after my show. And absolutely nothing else.

Chloe Radcliffe’s debut stand-up show ‘Cheat’ is at the Pleasance Courtyard - Bunker III at 7.15pm from 2nd – 28th August (not 14th) for tickets go to www.edfringe.com

Photo credit: Andrew Levy

Sponsored content

To post a comment, you must register and login.