Edinburgh Fringe 2026
atticwife
RnL Productions
Genre: Dark Comedy, Dramedy, Feminist Theatre, New Writing, Theatre
Venue: theSpace @ Niddry St
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
This show strikes the rare balance of being fun AND topical. Come with your friends for a laugh, and leave ready to have a long discussion.
Review
atticwife is making its Edinburgh Fringe debut after a successful trial run in New York. Writer and performer Laura Clare Browne tackles the recent social media sensation of ‘tradwife’ influencers and brings into question whether a woman is truly exercising her right to choose if she is choosing to no longer have that right, and whether we as parasocial observers have the right to question that.
The venue features a small thrust stage, which is level with the seating. The seating goes right up to the edge of the performance area, which adds an apt sense of claustrophobia for a play about a trad wife being trapped in an attic. Browne, who stars as trad wife Astrid Fisher, gives an excellent physical performance, as she paces and rolls around the stage area, giving the impression of a caged animal. Her and co-star Jen Clark give compelling emotional performances. Their back and forth flows perfectly.
Browne’s writing excellently tackled the nuance of the trad wife phenomenon. Through Clark’s character, she acknowledges the toxic online culture of ‘fundie-snarks’ (people who hate-watch conservative/fundamentalist Christian content), and the fact that even well-meaning people can become a bit delusional when they form parasocial bonds with online figures. Through Browne’s own character, Astrid, she highlights the hypocrisy of telling other women to stay home and not work, while they go on podcasts and make brand deals, often being the real bread-winners of their own families. Astrid also exhibits a sharp contrast between her online persona and the way she actually acts off-camera. Though the latter serves as a timely commentary on the concept of the ‘right wing grifter,’ the contrast could have been pushed a bit further.
On her live videos, Astrid puts on a typical, heightened ‘influencer’ voice, and uses words like ‘girlies.’ Though this style of speaking might feel out of place to those used to the original soft-spoken, Michelle Duggar-type of trad wife influencer, this affected west-coast influencer dialect harkens to more modern trad wives, like in Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. However, Astrid’s character says ‘OMG’ and ‘Oh my God’ quite frequently on her live streams, which does feel out of place, especially since Astrid says that her ‘hubby’ is quite religious. This may seem like a small detail, but to a character who claims she loses followers just for posting her gay sister, and to the right-wing Christians following these types of accounts in real life, it is a detail that would matter to them a lot.
Astrid’s off-camera persona, on the other hand, was perfect for the point Browne makes. As Astrid’s backstory comes to light, it brings to mind the discourse around some of the most famous real-life trad wives: talented, promising young women who used to live a completely different, independent lives, now living by the doctrine of their husbands at home. Does they really want to live this way, or are they just in too deep?
It was obvious from the immediate, frenzied buzz as the audience left that this show left an impact which extended beyond the stage, and likely carried on into pub discussions later that night. This is exactly what art is for. Between its hot topic and precise execution, atticwife deserves to have a very successful Fringe run. Be a part of it and support this up-and-coming playwright.
