Queer female theatre company Dreambite Collective make their Fringe debut with the
premiere of Katrina Bennett’s new play Cruising, a sizzling, subversive romcom about
polyamory, protest, and passion in a warming world. We sat down with Katrina to learn
more about the show, and making their Fringe debut this August.
Cruising blends romcom energy with climate protest—how did you balance
intimacy and satire while keeping the politics sharply felt?
It’s definitely been challenging to find the right balance. With everything happening in the
world, too many people are feeling burnt out and disengaging from politics. Storytelling and
theatre have an important role in fighting against political apathy, in connecting people on a
human level with issues that really matter right now. In Cruising, I wanted to use the
romcom genre almost as a Trojan horse to explore the climate crisis. It felt important to
infuse climate catastrophe with love, intimacy and humour because while our lives and our
futures are bound up in the climate crisis, as humans we’ll always look for joy and hope in
everything.
The play centres on a love triangle that becomes ideological warfare—what
interested you in using desire as a site of political conflict?
In Cruising the two characters, Sam and Amelia, realise that while they’ve never met before,
they’re both in an open relationship with the same person. What might initially seem very
divisive and difficult then turns into a journey of self-discovery for them. Sam and Amelia
come to terms with their relative strengths and weaknesses, recognising that they each have
different wonderful things they can offer in their romantic relationships, in the same way
that they have different strengths they can offer the climate movement; their desire and
politics are united by a recognition in the strength of community over individualism.
How does the setting of a luxury cruise ship amplify the themes of environmental
collapse and moral contradiction?
The whole idea for this play stemmed from finding out that cruise ships have a huge impact
on carbon emissions which so many people also don’t know much about. Then in my
research, I found it depressingly hilarious that despite docking in amazing places, lots of
people say they don’t bother leaving the ship because they’re enjoying the on-board
entertainment so much. In this claustrophobic environment, Sam and Amelia’s climate
campaign shatters the illusion of escapism, forcing the crew and passengers to face the
uncertain future they’re ignorantly sailing towards. The cruise ship setting also means we
have a fun Captain character who teeters between comic relief and something more sinister,
highlighting contradictions between our politics and how we live our lives.
As a queer female collective, how does your collaborative, non-hierarchical
process shape the voice and structure of the work?
For this process, Lydia and Clare (the other two thirds of Dreambite) have been involved in
the development process from day dot. Throughout my writing and re-drafting, Lydia, Clare
and Davy (the other cast member) asked tricky questions, guided me to solutions, and
helped clarify the theme and message. It’s also been brilliant working with Clare and Davy as
actors from the start of the process. Amelia and Sam have been developed alongside them,
meaning that the characters have been infused with so much life, charisma and humour.
Writing can often be a lonely pursuit so working in this way has brought so much joy to the
process, while making the script’s voice, world and characters much stronger than I could
have achieved on my own.
When writing characters who move between romance, rivalry and radical action,
how do you keep them emotionally grounded and human?
I think it’s about creating characters who are messy and real. The story of a perfect climate
activist who’s purely ideological motivated, caring and never makes mistakes would be both
boring and unrealistic. Similarly, it would also be dull and unconvincing to watch the story of
ethically non-momogamous people who communicate perfectly, always say exactly how
they feel and are never jealous. As a genre, romcoms often show the ugly sides of flawed
people who are ultimately redeemed by their good intentions and desire to be better.
Cruising embraces the faults, contradictions and ugly sides of these characters, while also
showing their best intentions, love, and care.
Making your Fringe debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, how are you thinking
about this work landing with such a wide, international audience?
Excited! Everyone enjoys a romcom so I think there’s a universality to love and relationships
which people will connect with. We don’t see enough queer romcoms so I’m particularly
excited for queer audiences to see Cruising and its representation of less mainstream
relationships. I hope that the representation of grassroots activism will also create feelings
of hopefulness and empower audiences.
Dreambite Collective make their Edinburgh Fringe debut with Cruising at Pleasance
Courtyard, Bunker Three, 12:50 Wednesday 05 – Monday 31 August 2026 (not 25- Aug).
edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/cruising