Ten years ago, in August 2013, the eyes of the theatre world turned – as they do at this time every year – to Edinburgh for the Festival Fringe. In amongst that year’s programme of almost 2,900 different shows was a new, one-woman play by actor and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge, called Fleabag.

That premiere run in a late-night slot at a sixty-seater space at Underbelly Cowgate marked the start of a journey that would take Fleabag around the world and to international acclaim – including multiple awards, a hit TV adaptation, and legions of devoted fans. In this extract from Fleabag: The Special Edition, Phoebe and director Vicky Jones look back at bringing the original stage play to Edinburgh, and what it was really like introducing Fleabag to the world. 

Phoebe Waller-Bridge: So, where did Fleabag start for you, Jonesy?

Vicky Jones: For me it started with that stand-up night you agreed to [part of the London Storytelling Festival at Leicester Square Theatre, London, in November 2012]. You said you’d written this short piece and it was ‘sort of stand-up comedy, but sort of drama’. We were rehearsing Mydidae by Jack Thorne, and you asked me if we could look at it at lunchtime. I couldn’t believe you wanted to do stand-up of any form and I thought you were mad for putting yourself out there, but once you actually read the piece out to me, the voice of this character just filled me up. She was so funny and acerbic, and flawed and amazingly compelling at the same time. You had written in a rhythm which just totally jumped out. This young woman was in so much pain and so much self-denial, but she was so funny. That was the first time I heard Fleabag’s voice!

Phoebe: I was so excited to show it to you. I wrote it solely to make you laugh. I love the challenge of facing an audience; how much is required to surprise and entertain them. But, really, you were the only audience I cared about… and had. Haha!

Do you remember much of the first Fleabag rehearsals?

Vicky: Some things. You hadn’t written much of it when we started.

Phoebe: I just have blurred memories of pitching stuff to you, feeling sick with panic, you rightly storming out one day because I was being so negative about the scraps I had written, us having to share lunch nonetheless, and that girl at Starbucks giving us two iced coffees even though we could only afford one. That girl. I’ll always love that girl.

Vicky: That girl! She knew! She knew we were doing something special and for a good reason! You had booked another job during rehearsals, and you were panicking. I convinced you to cancel that job, even though you felt awful about letting those people down. But you were so relieved you had, because writing Fleabag in two-and-a-half weeks was about the hardest thing you had ever done. Not just because it’s almost impossible to write a play in that time, but because you knew her. You knew what you wanted her to be, but it was like you were dragging her from the depths of your belly and you were SO hard on yourself. So much incredible material got chucked out, and you nearly threw the whole thing out altogether out of sheer frustration, because you couldn’t quite do justice to what was in your heart. That was why I stormed out! But you came and found me, and we had a little cry. That was when we tried to get coffee and that Starbucks girl gave us a free one because we looked so emotional, and then we went back and you finished writing it. Actually, let’s be honest… you finished it on the train on the way up to Edinburgh. That final line that was eluding you…

Phoebe: Oh god yeah. I knew I didn’t have the cut-to-the-heart-of-the-play line and it was killing me! Then you just said, ‘What do you want the line to be?’ I replied with the line from the end about being completely alone. You looked at me for a beat then said, ‘JUST WRITE THAT THEN!!!’ Haha. Then we couldn’t find a pen. Jesus. Carnage.

Remember the night you locked me in the room ‘until it’s finished!!’?

Vicky: Yes! I hardly ever tell you what to do. But I had to tell you to JUST FINISH IT!!! Remember us recording all the voices [of other characters, which feature in the play] in the cupboard?

Phoebe: Yes, with Iso [Isobel Waller-Bridge, composer and sound designer]! Oh god, making Tube Rodent sex sounds and you recording Boo’s voicemail. I love that you played Boo. It helped me pretend to cry at the end.

Vicky: Hahahaha! You weren’t pretending!

Phoebe: Performing the final speech did get me riled up but, I’m afraid to say, imagining a life without you is what got me to that broken place at the end of the play. Imagining your death. That’s nice, isn’t it? What was the scariest bit of directing Fleabag for you?

Vicky: Arriving in Edinburgh. It was terrifying because we hadn’t really rehearsed it. You’d just been writing it so we had vaguely set what you were gonna do, but we didn’t know it at all. You were learning it, learning it, learning it on the way up and I didn’t know what the venue was going to be like, we had never been to Edinburgh before, we were told we had three hours of tech and it was in the middle of the night, so all of that was pretty scary.

I think the worst moment was when they decided not to tell us that the Guardian and the Telegraph were in on the first night and I found out just before and you did the show and you missed out a chunk and I went backstage after the show and you were like ‘Yeah, I blanked and that’s a shame, but hey we did it, we got through it right?’ and then you were told that the most influential critics had come to see it and therefore would probably never ever see it again and you just sat with your head in your hands. That was the worst moment for me of the whole entire thing by miles. It was horrible. And then it was okay. Like… really, really okay. Haha.

Phoebe: Coming on the first night is harsh, guys. Give us a break!

Do you remember that we rehearsed every day? We went out a lot – because you have to in Edinburgh – but my god we still got up in the morning and worked the play all day too.

Vicky: It was brilliant though because we would have the feedback of a whole audience to base our decisions on, so actually we were honing it with dozens of previews, which is when you really learn about a play. So although we were effectively experimenting on the first Edinburgh audience to come and see it, we made the play way more solid through all of that I think. I remember Steve Coogan was in the audience near the end and we were like ‘Oh my god, Steve Coogan is in the audience’ and he was really laughing! Some really thrilling things happened during that time. I’ll never forget when we got five stars in the Scotsman. We had to celebrate, so we went out for an incredible breakfast. None of us could believe it.

Phoebe: Yes! We shared a cooked breakfast, I remember everything about that breakfast.

Vicky: And I remember the morning you got the Fringe First and we got all dressed up and stood kind of awkward on the platform so chuffed.

Phoebe: Haha, those photos!

Vicky: And then when you got The Stage Best Performer over all of those other ones that had done so unbelievably well and all the big shows that had done brilliantly in Edinburgh had been nominated and we had been nominated and you won. We all said afterwards that when they announced that you won, the world slowed down like ‘Phoeeeebbbbbeeee Walllleeerrrr-Brrrriiidddggge’. It was just like so amazing, it was the penultimate day of the show and it was the best way to end the festival, you won the Best Solo Performer.

Phoebe: God, the whole thing was so thrilling, wasn’t it? Taking Fleabag to Edinburgh with our tiny team felt like true freedom. I always come back to that. It was the first time we did something completely on our own… and that happened.

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This is an edited extract from the introductory material to Fleabag: The Special Edition by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

A celebration of the incredible journey of Fleabag from fringe theatre hit to international cultural phenomenon, the special edition features the original playscript, colour photos, and exclusive bonus content by Phoebe, Vicky, and other key members of the creative team.

See more and save 20% when you order your copy from our website.