Francesca Moody Productions announces two world premieres at Edinburgh Fringe

Francesca Moody Productions have announced two Edinburgh Fringe world premieres at Paines Plough's Roundabout venue in Summerhall this August.

Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! is a hilarious murder mystery musical from the multi award-winning creators behind Fleabag, Baby Reindeer, A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad) and Frisky and Mannish, created by Jon Brittain and Matthew Floyd Jones.

“This is impossible! We’ve got motives. No Suspects. We don’t know anything! Who knew solving a murder would be so hard?”

Murder obsessed BFFs Kathy and Stella host Hull’s least successful true-crime podcast. When their favourite author is killed, they are thrust into a thrilling whodunnit of their own! Can they crack the case (and become global podcast superstars) before the killer strikes again…?

Jon Brittain and Matthew Floyd Jones said: “During the first lockdown we started a musicals club where we did synchronised watches of everything from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Legally Blonde. At the same time we were bingeing every true crime documentary and podcast the internet had to offer. It wasn't long before we decided to mash up our lockdown hobbies - and Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder was born! A heart-warming musical about a cold-blooded killing. Serial or Making a Murder er by way of Victoria Wood, Hairspray and Scooby Doo. It's a story about true crime, the influence storytellers can have on the stories they're telling, and most of all it’s about two misfit best friends, the world's least likely detectives, who set out to find a killer... and along the way find themselves.”

The show runs at Roundabout @ Summerhall from 3 - 28 August (not 4, 9, 16 or 23) at 9.50pm.

The production company are also presenting Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen at the venue on the same dates at 6.50pm.

Tony and Olivier nominated actor Samuel Barnett makes his Edinburgh Fringe debut in this darkly humorous play examining vulnerability, intimacy, ego and truth, written by Marcelo Dos Santos and directed by Matthew Xia.

“I’m 36, I’m a comedian, and I’m about to kill my boyfriend…” 

A permanently single, professionally neurotic stand-up finally meets Mr Right and then does everything wrong. But is Mr Right quite what he seems? And how far will the comedian go to get a laugh? Feeling Afraid… is a sharp and bitingly honest new comedy drama from the Olivier Award-winning producers of Fleabag and Baby Reindeer and Fringe First winning producers of Baby Reindeer, Square Go and Angry Alan. 

Actor Samuel Barnett said: “Having worked with Marcelo Dos Santos before it was the easiest yes when he approached me about collaborating on this brilliant new play. I’m thrilled to be working with such a fantastic team in Marcelo, Matthew Xia and Francesca Moody Productions to bring this funny and dark yet hugely relatable story to Edinburgh. This will be my first time as a performer at the Festival Fringe and there is no greater or scarier challenge than a one-person show, so I’m excited and terrified in equal measure. I'm especially thrilled to be doing the Festival Fringe after what has been such a terrible couple of years for everyone during the pandemic. Theatre is all about connection and community and nowhere does that better and on such a scale than the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.”

For more information and to see the full Summerhall programme, please click here.