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Anger after Fleabag creator changes drunken main character from American to Scottish


Fleabag fans are reeling after one of the show’s main characters was changed into an alcoholic Scots sex pest.

Creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge decided to swap the nationality of Fleabag’s brother-in-law Martin from American to Scottish for her one-woman show at Wyndham’s Theatre in London.

It opened in August and will be performed by Waller-Bridge until September 14. The shows – set to be Fleabag’s last – are sold out.

It is the first time she has played Fleabag live since its debut at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2013.

The show has since been turned into two hit BBC series and won a clutch of awards.

Superfan Lucy Green, a media and cultural studies student at Leeds University, wrote her dissertation on Fleabag and has seen the
live show twice.

Brett Gelman plays Fleabag’s alcoholic sex pest brother-in-law Martin on the hit show

 

She said: “It’s a bit of a surprise Martin is Scottish, but maybe it’s because we are so used to seeing him as American. Is it OK to change a character from a nasty American one to a Scottish one? I don’t really see the reasoning behind that.

“Although, on the other hand, it’s a nice gesture, and very clever if it is deliberate, to have a Scottish touch in the final production, considering Scotland is where the show began.”

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Fans of the Fleabag official Facebook group were also stunned by Martin’s makeover. American Brett Gelman played him on TV, while a Scot, Bill Paterson, played Fleabag’s dad.

An online review said: “It was a shock to discover that she had originally envisaged him, with all his disgusting perversions and damp hands, to be Scottish.”

 

Tickets for the theatre show sold out in half an hour and are now on resale sites for £775.

Fleabag fans will be able to watch a screening of the play at Eastwood Park Theatre in Giffnock, near Glasgow, in October.





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