As Fringe comedy endorsements go, ‘she’s the funniest person I’ve ever met’ is a good start. Especially when the recommendation comes from Kate Nash, Brit Award-winning singer-songwriter, comic actress and now producer of Fringe show The Retreat.

Nash is referring to comedian Rebekka Johnson, her co-star in much-loved Netflix comedy-drama series GLOW, set in the Californian women’s wrestling circuit of the 1980s. ‘It was so much fun to be part of that world,’ says Nash. ‘We really liked the physicality of what we were able to do. Our trainer, Chavo Guerrero, told us to do the opposite of what you’ve been told as women your whole life: be larger, be louder, be more insane. I can’t overstate the impact it had on us as humans. We wanted to carry on down that weird and wonderful route.’

During the pandemic, GLOW was cancelled after three seasons, with Nash and Johnson going on to make two twisted horror-comedy shorts, Wild Bitch and Bad Rabbit. Johnson, meanwhile, developed a stage show, The Retreat, with Parks And Recreation actress Anne Gregory in which they play the She-E-Os of failing company Men-ses Period Panties. The audience are invited to join them on a corporate retreat: chaos ensues.
Nash saw the show in Los Angeles, where she now lives, and immediately recognised an out-there energy that would go down well at the Fringe. ‘Rebekka is from the New York comedy improv scene. She’s so cutthroat, so quick, not afraid to play any card with her humour, such a professional improviser, and Anne has got the same vein of unhinged that Rebekka and I really enjoy. They’re so free with their bodies, and their characters are so crazy.’

Nash is now on board as the show’s producer and will also appear on stage when she’s not elsewhere playing music festivals. She’s had her own damaging brushes with corporate culture over the years but is now a fully independent artist with a new album slated for release next year, a horror novel sitting on her hard drive and, thanks to GLOW, a new creative lease of life which has brought her full circle back to the acting she studied as a teenager.

Last autumn, she wrote the music for and starred in an off-Broadway show Only Gold. But she appreciates that the Fringe is a different beast, having experienced full Fringe immersion back in 2005 when, straight out of the BRIT School, she came to Edinburgh to flyer a show.
‘It’s such an amazing atmosphere and such a cool experience for performers,’ she enthuses. ‘Theatre in that Fringe setting is really exciting because it’s very raw. It’s people with ideas, throwing shit at the wall and having fun. There’s no way you can’t have a good night at our show. I hope people come and have a laugh with some pals and be very, very entertained by some unhinged corporate women . . . I can’t believe we’re actually taking it to Edinburgh.’

The Retreat, Underbelly Cowgate, 3–27 August, 8pm.