As Georgie Wedge brings her Edinburgh Fringe Festival show Per-Verse to London’s Riverside Studios, she tells The Theatre Playbook about the origins of the show, its roots in her own dating experiences and its unique storytelling structure.
Following its debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2024, Georgie Wedge now brings her one-woman show Per-Verse to London’s Riverside Studios.
Through a blend of stand-up comedy, spoken word, storytelling and physical performance, Wedge takes audiences through the world of modern dating, sex and love – from the bar to an Uber and her date’s flat. Yet at each stage of the show, which is directed by Threepenny Collective’s Ilya Wray, she is reminded of her own past encounters and the highs and horrors of romance in the digital age.
From acting at school and university, Wedge began experimenting with writing and comedy when she was completing a Masters degree. “It was a way for me to get back into acting, in a way,” she explains, “just to write my own material. And it’s been going from there.”
She took part in her first poetry night around two-and-a-half years ago, and then headed to the Edinburgh Fringe last summer where she performed Per-Verse for the first time.
The show emerged from some of the comedy poetry Wedge had been writing – standalone five-minute pieces she would perform at events in London. She then began to explore the idea of turning them into the longer, 35-minute performance she took to the Scottish capital.
New material has now been added for performances at Riverside Studios, but what remains is the unique structure of the show, which sees Wedge take audiences through the various elements of a date by playing on her own experiences and the numerous quirks of modern dating.
“It’s funny because I never really set out to make a show specifically on dating,” the London-based performer admits. “I didn’t have some sort of big point I was trying to make about modern dating. It was more that over the years, I’ve just had quite funny dating experiences where I feel like I’ve learned a lot about myself along the way.
“When we were developing the show, I was a bit stuck on how to blend the different dating stories into like a cohesive journey. I didn’t want it just to be like, ‘Here was one date and here’s another,’ because that wouldn’t be like that exciting for an audience. So it was actually Ilya that came up with the idea of moving through the different phases of the date. So it’s quite a simple structure in that way but that actually works a lot better. It’s easy to follow the journey of a date. It’s something that I think people can find quite relatable.”
Wedge also recognised that a lot of her show focused on the senses, and how dating can be “this weirdly intense sensory experience.” With segments on bad kissing and strange things she’s heard, she decided to relate each phase of the dating experience featured in her show to a different sense.
That then served to enhance the structure of the show – and also give her an organic way to call back to moments later on. The show also contains elements of audio and soundscapes to help her move through the performance.
But through it all, Wedge never wanted to play a character in Per-Verse, preferring to keep the content of the show “pretty true” to the real experiences she portrays.
“Obviously I’m an exaggerated version of myself, so I can still be a little bit vulnerable in that way,” she says. “I’m not completely oblivious to the audience. I can see their reactions and I feed off that energy quite a lot. So I think that [authenticity] definitely helps.
That the show is so personal hasn’t put off one person from seeing Per-Verse more than once – Wedge’s mother. “I was quite nervous about her seeing it,” she laughs, “because it is quite open about dating and sex to a certain extent. So that was quite strange. But I feel quite comfortable doing it. I forget that it’s about myself because it feels quite performative while still maintaining the truth of the story. That’s made it easier for me to put more of myself in it because I get to play with a different physicality and some physical comedy moments.”
Ahead of Per-Verse launching at the Riverside Studios, Wedge promises audiences “definitely something new” with her unique take on the world of dating through her own blend of poetry, stand-up and physical comedy.
“But I’m not making a big commentary on the woes of modern dating. It’s more touching on the little woes,” she says, “but celebrating it and celebrate how we tell our dating stories. Hopefully the audience will enjoy that aspect so it will feel a little bit different to some of the stuff we read about and talk about with dating.”
Per-Verse plays at the Riverside Studios from April 3-19, 2025. Tickets: Per-Verse
Top image: Per-Verse. Credit Thomas Sandler (all images supplied)