Vote: The Musical
This is the fire that ignites when women are pushed to the Edge
Vote: The Musical
This is the fire that ignites when women are pushed to the Edge
EDINBURGH FRINGE
Date 17th - 23rd August 2026
Time 4:15pm
Venue theSpaceTriplex (Venue 38)
19 Hill Place, EH8 9DP
Running time 1h20m
(no interval)
NOTES FROM the creators
LYRICIST, WRITER, DIRECTOR & PRODUCER PHOEBE PERRY
VOTE the musical began when I was thirteen, during lockdown. The theatres were closed, and everything felt uncertain. I remember watching the arts freeze, so instead of waiting, I started writing.
What began as frustration quickly became fuel when I discovered the Suffragette movement. The more I researched, the more I realized how much of their courage and brutality had been softened over time. I felt compelled to bring their fire back, not as distant history but as living, breathing women.
I had never formally learned how to write songs or scripts, but I refused to let that stop me. I learned through trying, guided by my determination to get my story heard. VOTE has grown with me, and this show has been built through resilience and relentless belief.
Last summer, we took VOTE the musical to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and had a sold-out, five-star run. It was the most incredible experience of my life. This summer, we return with a longer, braver, and freshly developed production, which is stronger and more urgent than ever.
I believe musical theatre makes history human. It turns facts into feeling. Singing and dancing are not distractions from heavy times; they are acts of hope. In divided times, theatre allows us to gather, listen, and smile together.
As both a creator and an educator, I feel a deep responsibility to draw these stories out of the shadows. Turn their silence into song, and ensure that these voices are not only heard but honoured.
COMPOSER & MUSICAL DIRECTOR Cyrus Dean
One of the greatest privileges of teaching is witnessing your students grow beyond the ambitions they once held within the walls of a classroom and step fully into the possibilities of their own creative futures. To see that growth is profoundly rewarding; to be invited into the realization of that dream is rarer still. Supporting Phoebe Perry in bringing her work to life has been exactly that privilege.
I studied Music at Royal Holloway, University of London, specializing in composition, before completing an MMus in Composition at the University of Southampton, where I wrote my first musical. Since then, I have continued composing and arranging alongside my work in teaching and directing, which eventually led me to collaborate with Phoebe.
Over the past few years, the material and ideas Phoebe has developed have grown in depth, confidence, and individuality, culminating in our project, "Vote: The Musical," a testament to that journey. It is tremendously exciting to help shape this piece, especially as we prepare to share it at the Edinburgh Fringe. While I have composed much of the score independently, drawing inspiration from musical theatre heroes such as Frank Wildhorn, Alan Menken, and Jason Robert Brown, the collaboration itself has been wholly organic. Expanding Phoebe’s inventive melodic instincts and setting her powerful, heartfelt lyrics has been a genuine joy.
Though still evolving, this piece is built from intimate moments: reflections, relationships, and personal awakenings set against the vast and urgent backdrop of the suffragette movement.
