Quick-witted new comedy play Brainsluts is a sharp and hilarious look at the gig economy, drug trials and desperate times from “gleefully weird and universally charming” (Fringe Biscuit) comedian Dan Bishop. Named after a slang term for participants in clinical drug trials and inspired by Bishop’s own experiences, the show follows five strangers across five Sundays, each of whom has signed up for a study in the hope of making some quick cash in a frantic search for stability.
As the five participants sit in a windowless room week after week and the side-effects start to kick in, they slowly reveal the bizarre reasons that brought them together – from nepotism to political activism to haphazard DIY gone wrong. This fast-paced production uses silliness to delve into a reality faced by many today: the struggle to find stable work, constant financial uncertainty and the extreme lengths people must go to stay afloat.
Forced to fill the silence, polite smiles give way to oversharing as secrets emerge, and their financially precarious lives are laid bare. Within this highly clinical environment, Bishop presents the conditions for deep human connection – for those willing to listen to one another.
Having spent years juggling part-time jobs, Bishop knows first-hand the feelings of exhaustion and anxiety that come with trying to survive in an economy that no longer works for the people in it. “As someone who has gained and lost employment in the gig economy (and who found it an incredibly stressful experience) and as someone interested in the complex and often absurd practice of modern work, I knew I wanted to write a play about financial precarity. But I also knew that I wanted to make it really funny.”
Dan is one half of sketch comedy double act Mudfish (“immensely fruitful…smart writing” – Chortle; “clever, fast and funny” – Beyond the Joke), and is joined by comedy writer, performer and director Emmeline Downie (former double act partner of HBO’s Leo Reich) and comedian Rob Preston (shortlisted for 2024’s BBC New Comedian of the Year Award and Pleasance Reserve 2025). Also on the team is Gina Donnelly, a multi-award-winning producer and co-artistic director of SkelpieLimmer Productions.
Brainsluts explores the necessity of patching different sources of income together to construct a liveable life. Using humour, it chases stability within a highly unstable economic world, and shows how even the most conflicting characters can connect through shared lived experiences.
