In Conversation with The Defectors
January in London can be bleak, but at The Bread & Roses Theatre, things are starting to bloom. Rosebuds 2026 is officially back, bringing a week of high-concept, low-budget, and brilliantly weird alternative comedy to the stage. Curated by The Defectors (Harrison Cole, Daniel Hemsley, and James Darby), this year’s festival features a dizzying array of talent, from Will Spence’s Coldplay-inspired conspiracy theories to Hamish Lloyd Barnes’ Victorian hauntings. We spoke to the trio about the evolution of Rosebuds and why the fringe needs more spaces for ‘distinctive work’ to take root.
You describe last year’s inaugural line-up as the “seeds of something great” that eventually blossomed at other festivals. How has the transition from your first year to second changed your approach to curation and supporting emerging talent?
Following last year’s festival, we have learned a lot about how best to communicate with and support the performers, from how we advertise the shows to how we structure and schedule them. For example, this year we have created a physical programme to display all the amazing acts and give a little more information about each one than a simple poster or flyer could. You can find one of these beauties at the Bread & Roses Theatre, or dotted around Clapham’s other fine establishments! When curating the line-up, we looked at the kind of shows that sat well in last year’s festival. This aided us in selecting a variety of shows that all fit the fresh, alternative comic slant we are aiming for this year.
Rosebuds is produced in partnership with The Bread & Roses Theatre, a fringe gem. How does the specific intimacy and history of this Clapham venue influence the atmosphere and the types of distinctive work you choose to showcase?
The venue and its team are an absolute stalwart for the arts and comedy in South London, with their performer-led approach providing a platform for companies and performers to bring new work and try bold ideas in a low-risk environment. The theatre space is perfect for a mini-festival like ours, with its community-driven ethos and understanding of the crucial roles that comedy and theatre both play in society. It’s worth noting the space has just been redone, so do come along to check it out, whether it’s your first time or a repeat visit!
A significant portion of your 2026 lineup consists of WIP shows, from Tom Whiston’s Night Mail to Hamish Lloyd Barnes’ The Curse of Billy Buckles. What role do you believe Rosebuds plays in the lifecycle of a fringe show before it hits the major summer festivals?
As a January festival, Rosebuds isn’t just a way for audiences to shake off those late-winter blues – it’s the first outing for many shows before they get developed and performed across the many subsequent festivals throughout the year. There’s no upfront costs for artists as Rosebuds takes no registration or hire fee, so this is a huge opportunity for artists to take big creative leaps and start developing work they may have otherwise felt wasn’t possible.
Your line-up features a wide array of styles, including clown-conspiracy-thrillers, immersive experiences, and even a comedy show about cardboard boxes. How do you ensure such a diverse range of formats remains cohesive for your audience?
We want audiences to come in with open-minds, ready to see a broad range of styles and topics that may lead into uncharted comedic territory – even to the performers – and we are proud of the assortment we’ve assembled. Many of the acts have performed at our Scratch ‘n’ Sniff comedy night, so we can vouch for their talent, and those who haven’t are already more established fringe comic performers looking to try out their exciting new work. In the space of one hour, you could see a show about a wannabe influencer vicar (JoJo Maberly) followed by a masked clown playing The Moon (Lucy Ellis), but no matter how out there it gets you can be sure what you are watching is the exciting, freshly developed, alternative comedy our audiences have come to expect.
You have several 21:00 split-bill slots, such as the one featuring Joel Walker and Fred Newnes. What are the benefits of this format for both the performers and the festival’s overall accessibility?
For the performers, a half-hour slot can be a much more attainable goal for a piece of work in its early stages, and is a great way to test your material before developing it into a full hour. Alternatively, for a gigging comedian, it’s a great way to test out many ideas in a longer slot than you’d normally get on a traditional comedy bill. For the audience, it means you are guaranteed variety even within one hour – and though you may have come to see just one of the acts, you could come away with a new favourite!
As performers yourselves (with Defective Inspector and Scratch ‘n’ Sniff), how does your own background as alternative comedians inform the way you support and produce other artists in the Rosebuds programme?
Over the years of working with venues and festivals when performing our own work, the positive and negative experiences have really informed how we navigate running Rosebuds. We pride ourselves on communicating with and supporting the acts to a level that makes them feel welcome and safe while also knowing when to be more hands-off and let them flourish! We know how gutting it can be when an organisation makes you feel like a problem, or even forgotten about entirely, which is the last thing you need when making and performing your own work. Keeping this festival to a week means we can still focus on every act while looking after the festival as a whole.
Your programme mentions a “rumour” that The Defectors are conspiring to put on a brand new show in 2026. Can you give us any “theories” or hints about what this new project might entail?
We’ve loved performing our Defective Inspector shows, and they’re definitely not entirely off our roster. That said, we’ve recently started work on a new piece of writing that’s tapping into the sense of paranoia that’s been steadily growing over the last few years, and are having a blast doing so! Rest assured, our unique brand of anarchic comedy remains intact, but we’ll leave it at that – you can never be sure who’s listening…
You have a dedicated mascot, “Sniffy,” and a clear visual identity designed by Jack Darian Savage. How important is “branding” and creating a recognisable community identity for a boutique fringe festival like Rosebuds?
We’re so grateful to Jack for his work on Scratch ‘n’ Sniff and Rosebuds, along with Jase of J’MOE DESIGNS for bringing Sniffy to life. With so many festivals and nights out there, it’s crucial to have a unique, eye-catching, recognisable look – no one’s going to pick up a boring programme! It’s also important for securing return customers. If you came to Rosebuds last year and loved what you saw, it’s an easy sell to come back again when the branding remains consistent; it stands to reason the acts must be just as good as last year too!
With The Bread & Roses team also running the much larger Lambeth Fringe, where does Rosebuds sit within the wider London fringe ecosystem, and where do you hope to see it in five years’ time?
Five years ago we had no idea we’d be running a comedy night at all, let alone a festival, so it’s hard to say where we’ll be five years from now! What we do know is that we love the community we’ve developed, and we want to keep growing it to give a platform and testing ground to as many exciting alternative acts as possible. The Lambeth Fringe started as The Clapham Fringe, and has grown considerably since its original outing. With the support of the wonderful team at The Bread & Roses, and the seemingly endless supply of comedic talent on offer, we’re sure that Rosebuds is here to stay!
Thanks to The Defectors team of Harrison, Daniel and James for taking a break from all the planning to sit down and chat with us.
Rosebuds Comedy Festival plays at The Bread and Roses Theatre from Monday 26 to Sunday 1 February. The full programme of shows can be found via the below link.
