We spoke with Lyndon Chapman about his debut play ahead of its run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Is the WiFi Good in Hell? follows 12-year-old Dev growing up in 2008 Margate. Is the WiFi Good in Hell? Is a queer coming-of-age odyssey exploring how seaside gentrification and homophobia push certain people along a relentless current.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what it was like growing up in Margate.
I’m Lyndon – a left-handed Aries, born and bred in Margate (that was my Bebo bio in 2008)… I was a 90’s baby, my mum was born here in the 60s, and my Nan in the 1930s – we go waaay back. Margate was a vibe, until about the 1970s – where plane-travel blossomed and everyone forgot we existed. Less art-house cafes and £12 margaritas, more burnt down rollercoasters and collective depression. It was great.
Growing up queer in Margate was weird. I didn’t “come out” per se, I just bleached my hair and swapped my rucksack for a River Island satchel, and people knew. For Margate, that was basically queer activism.
What inspired you to create this show?
Many things – stuff to get off my chest. Left-handed representation. Gay panic. I wasn’t sure about making a show, but after I was offered a place on the Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab in 2021 – everything I felt about queerness and Margate spewed out into the play. It went on to be commissioned by Brixton House in 2023 for their Housemates Festival, where it transformed into the show we have today.
How much of Margate has changed since you’ve grown up?
Well, Primark has gone for one (RIP). Yet, seriously, it’s unrecognisable – but I can still see through its facade. My relationship with my hometown has changed over the years, especially since writing this play: either I’m bitter, or I go along with it… Equally, a lot of work made in Margate, currently, is made by people who’ve moved here in the last few years. So to make a queer coming-of-age show about Margate that feels really REAL, is exhilarating and terrifying. I hope the people who come can connect to a part of themselves that they may have forgotten about through the show.
You’re performing for the full month, how do you keep the show ‘fresh’?
Many Red Bulls. But also by remembering that every single person who meets Dev, our main character, is meeting him for the first time; and using that novelty to create freshness in every performance. People have a preconceived idea of a “coming-of-age story” – especially a queer version – yet this piece feels incredibly human. It’s distanced from my own life, yet equally alive – and I need to lean into that…
Is there anyone you’re hoping to connect with at Fringe?
A sexily-kilted Scotsman. And Miriam Margolyes. Maybe at the same time?
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