Interview: Craig Manson on ‘Bunny!’ and Murdering the Competition at the Fringe

If you’re active on social media, you might recognise Craig Manson for his wildly popular Instagram videos where he makes fun of the many baffling decisions that arts organisations tend to make, to the detriment of literally everyone in the sector. Many of us working in the arts can relate to the scenarios he alludes to, but it’s Manson’s witty and gloriously snarky observational style that has drawn in viewers from all over the world.

With his practice spanning theatre, live art, dance, and cabaret, Manson is known for making work that is sardonic and joyful, such as 2025’s Selkie: The Wet and Wild Show!, and the energetic GAYBOYS, which was part of the Made in Scotland showcase in 2022.

This year, he returns with Bunny!, a brand new piece of cabaret that follows an aspiring actress, who also happens to be a serial killer. We catch up with Manson to discuss his transformation into Bunny and how, through this character, he is approaching new comedic territory.

Can you tell me a little about your practice? How did Bunny come to be?

I started off doing live art, performance art, and more contemporary performance. I did that for quite a lot of my 20s, and over the last few years, I felt that I lost my spark with it. I did youth theatre and I had always done musical theatre, and devised stuff as well, and I think because my interest started shifting, I started to want to do that again, and reconnect to being an actor. But the problem is, I didn’t train professionally, so it was a bit like how do I begin this? I’m also 30-odd years old, and it feels almost like starting again.

So, actually, I think I created the character of Bunny as a way for me to be able to embrace that, because it was a way of creating a character who was so confident in her talent and her abilities, that even if I was quite terrible, it didn’t really matter.

She became a vehicle to be able to do that. I came up with the idea of the character as a funny little cabaret act thing, and then the more that I started to do it, the more interest it started to gain, and people were like, ‘it’s got a lot of legs, and you could do a lot with it’. And now I’ve randomly decided to do the Fringe!

Tell me about Bunny – who is she and what does she want?

That’s the question on everybody’s lips! Bunny is an aspiring theatre starlet, who decides to become a serial killer to try and streamline the talent pool and up her chances of landing a job. She’s almost quite cartoony the show, and the way that I see her, and the way that she operates through life is just so ridiculous and so unrealistic.

She basically is someone who hasn’t had her big break, and hasn’t had the fame and fortune that she desires and wants. In a way, I made her as a character who could feel indestructible for me as a performer, so that I could have a persona that I could wear where, when I’ve got the wig and the dress on, it’s like I am Bunny, so I can perform to anyone and under any circumstances.

I’d say that what she wants is recognition; she wants acclaim, she wants to be seen for the talent and the skills that she believes she has. She wants to feel like she can mean something and contribute something, but the only way that she’s known that is through this vessel of being a theatre performer.

How has this show progressed since your work-in-progress performance in 2025?

I’d say the biggest thing is that I’ve tried to look at how to make the story feel a bit broader, and I would say more political. I think it was political even back then, but I guess it was because it was so specifically focused on the arts industry. It still is in the show, but I think it’s different because the story has become much wider. Originally it was her telling the story of how she murdered these people, how she killed someone like James McAvoy, for example. Because I’ve only had 10 or 15-minute slots, it all had to be quite quick though, so I think this has been more a case of fleshing those out. I’d say the biggest difference is that the story has gone from looking more inward to looking outward.

How would you describe your relationship with the Fringe as a performer?

When I did the Fringe for the first time in 2022, I was obviously younger than I am now, and I think I had a lot of hope and optimism. At the time, the show had done really well in Glasgow and had a great reception. And then when I did it at the Fringe, it felt much more polarised some people either really loved the show or they really did not like it, and I got quite mixed reviews.

I had never really had my work reviewed before, so that was a bit of a sting, and basically it didn’t go as I planned. So I think I did have a bit of ‘Fringe-related trauma’ as it were, which I think most performers seem to have. But it’s weird, it is like a drug you finish off doing a run, and then you’re like, ‘I’m never ever doing that again, that was awful’.

And then a few months go by, and you say, ‘oh maybe I could give it another go, and we’ll try it again’. So I guess this year as a performer, I’m intending to go into it with a much healthier mindset.

What are your hopes for this year’s Fringe? And what do you hope that people will take away from seeing Bunny?

I think everybody obviously has the top-tier hope of maybe winning loads of awards and getting loads of great reviews and getting a TV deal. I think for me it’s not realistic to have that as a goal or a reason to do the Fringe.

Because I’m trying to establish myself more as an actor or a writer/performer, one of my big goals is to just try and get as many casting directors and agents in to see what I can do. And if some interest came from that, that would be amazing. In terms of what I want people to get from Bunny, I want them to be able to come and really revel in Bunny and revel in the silliness of the story, but also the political side as well.

Something that I’ve been thinking about a lot while writing Bunny is, what happens when a system doesn’t work anymore? And that isn’t necessarily about the arts, that can be anything from capitalism to a venue or the Fringe.

So what happens when that starts to crumble and fall apart? What does that do to the people who are within it, but also what happens when you try to change it? I guess I want people to think about those things, but also to do it in a way that is very irreverent, fun, and silly.

You’ve been posting hilarious videos on Instagram where you take the piss out of arts organisations and the mad shit they do. Did these videos come out of frustration, and what kind of response have you had from organisations and fellow artists?

The first one that I ever made was a parody of a rejection email, and that just came from the fact that I was receiving so many rejection emails. They were all sounding the same, and even the ones that were trying to personalise it, they were always just saying the same things, and I found that quite funny.

I think the first one that really got big-big for the industry that it’s in – was one that was a theatre announcing its new programme. That was just because I was getting so fed up with not being able to go and see anything that I wanted to go and see.

It felt like everywhere, all the organisations and theatres were programming the same kind of shit, and assuming that they know what their audience wants, and not taking risks. If that’s all audiences are going to get, and that’s all you’re exposing them to, then they’re also not going to come and see new work.

In terms of the response, it’s been amazing. I love when people DM me and tell me about their own experiences, or comment funny things, and I love reading their stories. But it’s crazy how worldwide it is – I’ve had people from the States message me, from Australia, from Kenya – it’s wild, but it’s the same everywhere.

What do you think is needed to encourage more people to get involved and actually see theatre as a space in which they belong?

The go-to for me is creating more spaces where people can come together and have a good time that’s really important. Things like cabaret have been a very big part of my practice over the last 10 years, which has mainly come from when I graduated from the Conservatoire in 2016. At the time, a lot of venues had shut down, and there was no support for more experimental work, and I knew I wanted to perform, so I started doing cabaret to keep that alive.

Culturally and politically, all of us are so polarised and so divided that it is really important to have spaces where we can be together and just have a laugh, or be silly, or be disrespectful to the status quo. I think many people don’t think that theatre is for them because they have maybe quite a rigid idea of what a theatre show is.

I feel a bit basic when I say, we just need to have more fun, but it’s because I do genuinely believe there’s something very political about that – I feel like we don’t have enough of it.

Bunny! is at Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Summerhall, 10:15pm, 6th August to 31st August (except 17th and 24th August).

Photo credit: Clem Ogna