Amity Theatre on Steaks and Lesbians at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre
After the success of our 2025 Camden Fringe Interviews, we thought it only right to attempt a repeat for 2026. So throughout July we’ll be publishing new interviews each day to give a taste of what to expect from London’s best fringe theatre festival. The festival starts Monday 3 August this year, so we may give ourselves a couple of days off inbetween the end of the interviews and the first shows… then again, we might not.
You can find out more about Camden Fringe, along with details of every show playing this August here. You can also find all of this year’s interviews as they are published here.
What happens when you lock two characters inside a flat for an hour, task them with cooking the perfect dinner, and watch them systematically destroy both a steak and their own emotional composure?
This August, Amity Theatre is bringing Steaks and Lesbians to The Lion and Unicorn Theatre for Camden Fringe 2026. Sourced from an dynamic creative process that whittled a four-person R&D script down to its rawest, funniest essence, the play is a fast-paced, character-driven exploration of friendship, intimacy, and the terror of vulnerability.
We gathered the sprawling collective behind the production; writer/director Kitty June Barker, director Amelia C. Owens, cast members Billie Billington and Ryley Pennycard, and prduction team Kaci Johnson, Cara Marie Harrison and Izzie Stevens to talk about rewriting the rules of fringe intimacy, improvising through kitchen chaos, and the undeniable power of a pride spatula.
If you had to describe the vibe of Steaks and Lesbians in just one sentence, what would it be?
Kitty (Writer/Director): Think the highs and lows of classic British sitcoms, but make it gay. It has the crackling chemistry and emotional variety of a great sitcom, but it’s super, super gay.
Why does 2026 feel like the perfect historical moment to bring this story to the stage?
Amelia (Director/Editor): Personally, it feels right because we’ve been working on this material for so long, and it’s just time it should see the light of day. Generally speaking, queer culture and community support are at a real high right now in London. The sheer amount of organic backing we’ve had has really championed us to step up and put it on.
Kitty, this script has undergone quite a metamorphosis. How did it change from your first draft?
Kitty: This play has changed a million times! It has always followed these two specific characters and their relationship, but the exact way their bond changes and grows has switched completely, alongside the context they are thrown into. Originally, the script had four characters. We ran a dedicated research and development (R&D) stage for that version and quickly realized we just wanted to strip away the noise and focus purely on these two people. The anchor has remained identical since the start: the core friendship of Stevie and River.
How much freedom do the actors have to deviate from the script?
Kitty: Both of my actors are fantastic at improvisation, so I have told them since day one that I want them to actively play with the text. Amelia and I are not precious about the words. I don’t consider myself a traditionally trained or “lecturer-style” writer; I wrote this from a place of pure passion and excitement. So we said from the start: do what feels natural and play with it. Every time we run it, something entirely different happens, which I love. It brings the living tissue of the show together for me.
Billie, what was it that drew you to this project, and what do you enjoy most about playing River?
Billie (River): You literally never see authentic masc lesbian roles advertised, so when I saw the Instagram ad, I was immediately intrigued. Then I checked out Amity’s page, thought the poster looked cool as hell, set up my camera for a self-tape, and the rest is history!
What I love about River is that they are a total flirt. It’s an incredibly fun energy to play with. But at heart, they are a massive softy and a complete romantic who is really hurting inside. Navigating that duality, and seeing how they use constant flirting as a defence mechanism so that Stevie doesn’t see how they are truly feeling, is a beautiful challenge.
Ryley, you play Stevie. How demanding has it been to carry a two-hander like this?
Ryley (Stevie): This role has probably been one of the most challenging parts I’ve had to play. Not because there’s some complex, stylized way of changing how I behave or move, but because there are so many intense familiarities between us. Finding the exact line where Ryley ends and where Stevie begins has been much harder than I thought it would be.
This is also my first two-person show, so the performance stamina changes massively. Previously, I’ve been in casts of five or more actors where you have multiple dynamics to bounce off of. I didn’t expect how challenging it would be to maintain and evolve a single dynamic for a continuous hour. Two people speaking almost non-stop for sixty minutes is intense, and boy, are there a lot of lines to hold!
Fringe theatre requires minimal staging. How does the set design support this pressure-cooker environment?
Izzie (Production Team): Steaks and Lesbians is so heavily character-driven that we’ve really embraced the classic fringe mentality of “less is more.” The story follows Stevie and River attempting to create a perfect evening while slowly destroying both the dinner and their own emotional composure.
We wanted the audience focused entirely on their relationship rather than a dense setting. We’re using a few simple kitchen and living room pieces, allowing the physical props to do the heavy storytelling as the dinner descends into chaos. Because the show mixes high comedy with softer, quiet moments of connection, the stripped-back set helps it feel incredibly intimate, like the audience has been dropped directly into Stevie and River’s flat.
What is the “secret sauce” keeping the Amity Theatre collective together?
Charlotte (Production Team): The pure love of what we do. From the acting choices to the backstage crew handling the details, everyone has an immense passion and drive for their craft. It’s incredibly lush to see everyone enjoying themselves so thoroughly.
Ryley, how does the audience fit into this intimate equation?
Ryley: I absolutely love audience interaction. For me, there is no better reward than being on stage and listening to live, active feedback; a laugh, a gasp, or even a heckle within reason! We are telling a story to a living room of people, and their response changes the temperature of the room. I thrive on that energy.
When an audience is actively participating, it stops becoming a rigid story and starts becoming a live conversation between the actors and the room. I often pick a few people out in the crowd and save one or two lines to deliver directly to people who are giving off great energy. Looking someone dead in the eyes as you deliver a story is the beautiful intimacy of fringe theatre.
What is the weirdest or most unconventional prop we should look out for?
Cara (Production Team): It would have to be our official pride spatula and kitchen tongs. The idea stemmed from a friend of ours owning one in real life. We discovered it, and it quickly became the definitive household tong for the show’s kitchen disasters.
(Though if budget or reality were no object, Kaci would immediately upgrade us to a massive, fully functioning kitchen island with a working hob right in the center of the stage!)
Many thanks to Amelia, Charlotte, Ryley, Billie, Kaci, Cara Marie and Izzie for their time. You will find Steaks and Lesbians at Lion and Unicorn Theatre from Sunday 16 to Thursday 20 August.
