Bright Side Productions bring a double dose of comedy to Fringe World

Perth’s Bright Side Productions are bringing a double dose of comedy to Fringe World 2025. Golden Age cabaret Another One Bit the Dust will take over Air Nightclub on Friday, January 24, and Saturday, February 1, while Coded Comedy hilariously blends AI with improvisation and live music at The Red Room at The Leederville Precinct on select dates from Thursday, January 23, to Sunday, February 2—with tickets on sale now. BEC WELDON sat down with Amy Fortnum from Bright Side Productions to find out what we can look forward to at the shows.

Hi Amy, thank you for joining us! Bright Side Productions are Fringe World veterans. How are you feeling about coming back for 2025?

Thanks for having me! We’re incredibly excited to be bringing some new and returning favourites to Perth Fringe this year. Fringe is such a fun time for artists and audiences, and we just can’t wait to make people laugh and bring them some fun classic theatre alongside some modern experiments with a really strong team of local creatives.

Let’s start with Another One Bit the Dust. You’re presenting a two-hander infused with 1950s glamour, vocals, and comedy—tell us about the show!

The 55-minute cabaret follows Ruth and Irene, two very big divas who have been in competition their whole lives and are currently fighting to become the most booked performers for the over 55s community. But they slowly realise their key target demographic are increasingly attending funerals instead of live performances, so they pivot and open a funeral business performing inappropriate hits like Another One Bit the Dust and Final Countdown for their biggest fans.

I’ll let your imagination run wild as to the lengths they’ll go to sustain the business as demand begins to dry up…But it’s a very fast-paced show filled with scandalous comedy, incredible vocals, and even some impressive tap dancing.  

The show is a makeover of your award-winning duo, Golden Age Girls, with Jess Clancy. What new surprises do you have in store for audiences?

Every time we’ve re-written or performed this show over the past five years, we’ve always played with how far we could push the dark humour and ridiculousness of the plot. And every time we think we’ve gone too far, we get the biggest gasps and laughs we’ve ever gotten…So we’re pushing even further this time!

We’re also used to performing in the more glamorous venues of Perth, like His Majesty’s Theatre, so we’re really excited to explore how the atmosphere of a nightclub brings out different elements of the show and impacts the audience. Air Nightclub is kitted out with some really cool elements like an LED screen and even a flame thrower! We can’t wait to strut up and down on the catwalk stage.

What was it about the 1950s and its Golden Age that inspired you?

Honestly, Jess and I are a little obsessed with the glamour of the Golden Age, and we just love the works that were being created back then. As a trained opera singer, the music is such a joy to sing. There aren’t many musicals around these days that call for the specific vocal style and range that Jess and I sit comfortably in, so we decided to write a modern cabaret that incorporated the best bits of those Golden Age musicals—think Singin’ in the Rain’ and Get Happy—with quick-witted dark humour and the absolute radio bangers from the 80s to now.

You and Jess Clancy are an award-winning duo! How did this partnership come about?

Funnily enough, we actually started writing together during our last show at WAAPA. We had relatively small roles, so we were backstage together with some time to spare, and we thought, ‘Why not give this writing thing a go?’ So we did, and then went on to win a cabaret competition we entered with another WAAPA grad, Mav Newman.

We started to realise writing together was an absolute joy, but our works seemed to be well received and bring a lot of laughter to audiences and ourselves, so we applied for Fringe in 2019, and the rest is history!

It’s always exciting to see Western Australian production companies at the Fringe World festival. How did Bright Side Productions come to be?

When I graduated with a performance degree and entered the terrifying audition circuit over east, I really struggled with the feeling that my career was in someone else’s hands. I also felt like the industry puts people into boxes and that established producers have decided what the recipe for musical theatre is and aren’t interested in exploring anything else.

Bright Side is on a constant mission to reshape that template and attempt to bring audiences—no matter their level of experience with theatre, brand new or obsessed—more intimately into the space. We want to break down the barrier between audience and artist and create works that turn theatre newbies into regular patrons by expanding what theatre means.

I also wanted to create a safe space for emerging artists where they can refine their craft through developments and mentorship programs to try to keep talent local through new opportunities—we need to create more reasons for talented people to stay here instead of heading over east!

You’re also bringing a second show, Coded Comedy, to the festival! This has a very different flavour, combining live musical improvisation with AI technology. Tell us more about the show.

Coded Comedy is an experiment that aims to prove that whilst AI is an incredible tool, it will never overtake the capacity of the creative human brain. Basically, we have five improvisers on stage that change with each show—four actors and singers and a ridiculously talented pianist and composer.

On stage there’s a piano, a cajón, a laptop, a TV screen facing the actors, and a projector screen facing the audience. We get a show title from the audience and one from our ChatGPT-inspired text generator, which our text generator—for some reason I’ve decided she’s female, so refer to her as ‘she’—produces synopses for. The audience votes on which show they want to see, and from there it’s a crazy 45 minutes of human improvisation mixed with AI-generated text.

She writes song lyrics, character descriptions, and rap battles and gets the improvisers out of sticky situations if they need a hand!

What inspired you to develop this combination and show format?

There’s a lot of fear and intrigue around AI, not just in the arts but all around the world in every industry. I’m a big believer in working with what you’ve got instead of changing what you can’t, and that’s why we decided to team up with AI instead of fearing it. In terms of the improvisation element, ChatGPT is ultimately an improviser. She takes a prompt, however bizarre it may be, and makes something up on the spot inspired by it.

That’s what we do as improvisers. But it’s really fun to expose her flaws and limitations on stage in front of an audience, who end up laughing along with us as we fumble, terrified, through each show and take on or reject the crazy suggestions Chat throws at us.

What goes into preparing a show with live musical improvisation? How much does it vary to prepare a more traditional theatre show?

Rehearsals are a little different than a traditional show, but they’re equally as important and probably even more fun. Good improv is all about the actors knowing each other really well and being comfortable on stage as a team. So we play a few improv games, practice making up lyrics and harmonies within different song structures—not sure if you’ve ever tried making up rhymes on the spot, but it’s quite hard—and then we often run a 50-minute improvised show to see where we’re at.

There’s always a lot of discussion and debriefing at the end. It’s also tricky because our wider team is made up of ten different actors, but we only perform with four at a time, so it’s a big ongoing experiment to see who works best with who. My favourite part of rehearsing is making up song after song; it’s so freeing and silly.

Your show uses AI in a novel way to push the boundaries of traditional theatre; however, digital technology, including AI systems, are rapidly changing the face of art, including theatre. How have you witnessed and experienced these changes as a practitioner and professional?

It’s been quite interesting to see the shift of how professional productions use technology to enhance a show. I remember the first time I saw a production with screens as a backdrop; I was so distracted by them, and it really took me out of it. Nowadays, it’s quite rare to see a live show that doesn’t incorporate some form of screen or other technology—although some manage to do it better than others.

It’s tricky because theatre is a live art form, and some shows almost cross over into the film world with their tech elements. For us, Coded Comedy literally emerged from a curiosity about modern technology. We’re excited by the everchanging challenge of it and love to experiment with new tech as it is released.

I think because Coded Comedy as a concept is so different and is based around improvisation, we can change the show as we need to stay relevant and innovative. Luckily, our actors are so flexible that nothing can throw them off!

What are you hoping audiences will take from the show?

The modern world we live in is pretty complicated and hard to fathom sometimes—we just want people to have a break from that, enjoy a memorable, slightly crazy experience with a group of good people, and laugh until their cheeks are sore.

At Bright Side, our motto is that ‘if we can’t make you laugh, we’ll give you your money back’. That’s how strongly I believe in the hilarity of what we do. We hope that audiences new to theatre walk away with a new interest, that everyone’s minds are expanded slightly, new conversations are had, and that we all just have a great, lighthearted night out.

Another One Bit the Dust hits Air Nightclub on Friday, January 24, and Saturday, February 1, 2025. Tickets are on sale now from fringeworld.com.au Coded Comedy hits The Red Room at The Leederville Precinct on select dates from Thursday, January 23, to Sunday, February 2, 2025. Tickets are on sale now from fringeworld.com.au