From the Arena to the Stage: Interviewing the team behind Gladiatrix: The Musical

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When we think of gladiators, our minds jump to roaring crowds, brutal combat, and the heroes of the Colosseum. But hidden in the shadows of history are the stories of the women who once stepped into the arena—only to be erased when Emperor Septimius Severus banned them from competing in 200 AD. What does it mean when an empire dictates how women may use their bodies? And what echoes of that question still resonate today?

Gladiatrix takes this forgotten history and breathes life into it with electrifying force. Blending soaring, passionate vocals with gripping stage combat, the production refuses to let these stories remain silent. Instead, it explores the strength, sacrifice, and resilience of the women who fought—literally and figuratively—for their place in a world determined to erase them.

Fresh from its run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Gladiatrix has left audiences buzzing with its potent mix of history, power, and spectacle. In this interview, the creators share the journey of bringing this untold story to the stage, the challenges of weaving together fact and imagination, and the urgency of reclaiming voices lost to time.

We spoke to the team during the whirlwind of the Fringe itself – discussing the highs and lows of bringing a brand-new musical to life on one of the world’s toughest stages. Through it all, their message was clear: whatever obstacles stand in your way, Ad Astra, or reach for the stars. It’s a latin philosophy that fuels Gladiatrix and one that resonates far beyond the stage.

TRANSCRIPT

(0:00 - 0:38)

Hello, I'm Ruth and I'm the Arts Business. My next interview is all about Gladiatrix, the musical, and these scenes from the top of Calton Hill seemed incredibly appropriate to introduce them. Unfortunately, I couldn't meet them in real life, but they did record this interview for me, so here we go.

Hi, I'm Paul Bianchi, a writer and lyricist of Gladiatrix, and with me today is... Stella Adonijanaki, an actor in the show. Yeah, she's playing the role of Vita, and Gladiatrix is about 200 AD when the emperor of Rome said that women cannot be gladiators anymore. It is a musical, it has stage combat, and you might just learn something.

(0:40 - 2:20)

Great, I would recommend. The response has been really good so far. We've received some four-star and five-star reviews, we've had some standing ovations, and yeah, we've only had three shows so far, so that's pretty good.

Why did we decide to bring it to Edinburgh Fringe? Why did we decide to do that? Well, we both live in the city, and I think that, you know, when you're surrounded by the Fringe year after year, it makes you want to be a part of it if you're insane, and so we decided to partake this year, and yeah, I think it's mostly been a good thing. A lot of our cast are Edinburgh, or at least Central Belt based. We have a couple of people in Glasgow or around Glasgow.

One of our cast members has come all the way from London, which is exciting. Yeah, and I think, yes, it's don't let the accents fool you. We have two Americans in the cast who are Central Belt, living in Scotland, Stella, Greece originally, but has lived here for quite some time at this point.

A few years, yeah. Yeah. Outside of these roles, I've been working in film in Los Angeles for 15 years before I moved here, and now I am continuing that job working with BBC Scotland on projects like The Chief and Glenhain as of this last year, so working with the comedy unit, and it's a lovely little family.

(2:20 - 3:53)

Yeah, and I am not doing that, because I am about to go back to university to do a research master's in astronomy. It takes all sorts to be part of a friend show, I think. We've been leaning on her astronomy skills for the show.

Absolutely, it's been very relevant. Very relevant, very important. We were very lucky this year to be crowd matched on our crowd funder by Creative Scotland, and we achieved our goal of £12,000, so that really helped offset the personal costs of paying for the location and paying for the out of hand advertisement, which is very well named.

And yeah, our budget has been sitting around the 20k mark, and if my producer slash husband was in the room, he might shout that it's higher than that. He might just. But yeah, I'd say the hardest part in preparing for me is, as someone who has worked in art department and is a writer, I'd say it's just been wearing far too many hats.

I've sewn all seven of the costumes nearly entirely by myself, but definitely some last minute seamstress help helped finish that up, because I was swimming in pleather and jersey knit. It was not a good look. And we are so very grateful, because our costumes look phenomenal.

(3:54 - 4:02)

Yeah, that's been really nice. Don't order your snaps online. They are very, they are too strong.

(4:02 - 4:19)

They are ripping through the costumes when you unsnap the outfit, but they look great, and they definitely hold. It's the opposite of they fall off, which is great. Yes, I think I've broken three snaps in three shows, so take that advice.

(4:21 - 5:17)

Our daily schedule is we get up, I repair costumes, we re-roll little ribbons that are part of our show, come to the show and find out how we use them, and then we head off, we flyer. A producer slash husband definitely has booked us in other opportunities to appear in Variety X, and so we'll show up there. On Friday, we're recording our cast album, so it's just, it's just chaos.

It's organised chaos, and it's up to us to remember what we're doing. Yeah, lots of getting changed in pop-up tents on the street, but... We are grateful for the pop-up tents, though, because other people change behind bins, and yeah, no shade if that's what you're doing. You gotta make it work.

(5:17 - 7:32)

Oh, yeah. So yeah, when we're handling our flyering, social media, and PR by reaching out to as many people as we can, just, you know, depending on the kindness of strangers, and doing... Oh, that's a nice little reference, because it's Estella, so that's a little on-the-nose theatre jokes. But yeah, we're making it work as best as we can.

We don't really have a PR person for this. Cast member Olivia Blair has taken it upon herself to be the head TikToker, and that's been really great, because I am just old enough to not really quite be on the TikTok waggon. And I have no excuse.

I am not too old for it. I'm just not on it. Yeah.

If you can't tell from our delirium, we are working on managing our burnout and exhaustion. It is... I mean, it's funny to say that after only three shows, but I mean, anyone who's put on a Fringe show this year probably knows that it's more than that. It was weeks of rehearsal leading up to it, and yeah, I think that was pretty much it.

It feels like it's been many more than three shows at this point. Yeah, we're working on making sure that we are resting and sleeping, making sure everyone is fed appropriately, which can be a very easy thing to forget about in the chaos of the days of Fringe, and just making sure that we communicate with each other so that if at one point it's like, oh, I had agreed I would be flyering today, but I'm actually dying, we can talk about that. Yeah, I think, yeah, being open and communicating well is great, and also being aware that we are, as a musical show, we need to be kind to our voices.

So if you see us out there flyering, we will not be shouting. We cannot be shouting. We are smiling and offering flyers kindly and wearing costumes that hopefully draw you to us, and hopefully draw the right people to us, because some people don't always respect boundaries.

(7:33 - 8:27)

Yes. Be nice to the people that fly. I think, it's hard to say one thing that I wish I had known before doing the Fringe, because I think to do the Fringe is, in a way, unknowable.

You can witness it from the outside, and you can receive as much advice as you want, but you don't really know it until you're in it, which feels very exclusionary. But I have experienced that, coming from Los Angeles, where I did put on other theatre shows. It's different.

I had a theatre at my disposal there that I was working with. It's a much smaller scene, and in LA, despite being a gigantic city, doesn't have a great theatre scene. And so anything I was putting up felt really manageable.

(8:27 - 10:34)

And this is also manageable, but I would say, in LA, it was manageable to do entirely by myself. Here, oh my gosh, I need a team. And so I think that would be the advice, that tip being like, if you're attempting to do it by yourself, know it will be so, so hard, and you really need someone in your corner, at the very least.

Preferably someone who's really good at using spreadsheets. Yeah, because as much as, obviously, Paul has been handling so much of the creative behind the scenes of the show, we've been very lucky to have his husband, Callum, doing all of the admin behind the scenes, and all of the marketing, and organising. Basically, all the producer side of things.

And that has been very helpful to not have to think about that also. And yeah, just having other, even within the cast, we've had people take on kind of different roles to help with putting everything together, and that has been really nice. I would expect for you to not have to think about absolutely everything at all times.

Yeah, there's a line from our show, it's, you know, we're doing Roman history here, so we've got some Latin in it. There's a line that's, ad astra per aspera, through hardship you will find your way to the stars. And so that would be maybe relevant in any advice that I could give to someone putting it this next year, is that it is going to be so much hard work, but the more hard work you put in, the higher your chances are that you will land in the stars.

And those stars take form in reviews, starred reviews. Reach out to the media people, the media list that is provided by Fringe, reach out to relevant people who you feel like would enjoy your show, because, you know, if you are a musical like us, don't invite someone who doesn't like musicals. Great, don't do that.

(10:35 - 10:50)

And yeah, and also, stars are, take them in stride. You're gonna hear some things in reviews that you might think like, oh, they don't quite get that. But, you know, that's their perception and their perspective, and you just gotta say chin up.

(10:52 - 11:15)

Yeah, a review is just one person's opinion. Yeah, your Fringe experience in one sentence. Stella, go.

One sentence, on the spot, go. I need to sleep more, but I'm so very happy. I would say, I'm surprised at how few bruises I have, is my Fringe sentence.

(11:15 - 12:27)

Yeah, the ones you do have are strange. Yeah, they're in good spots. So audiences can find us on, via our website, gladiatrixthemusical.co.uk. You can find us on Instagram.

You can find us on Ed Fringe. You can find us on The Space. Just type in the word gladiatrix 2025 Fringe.

Maybe use quotation marks around the word gladiatrix, because it likes to say, did you mean gladiator? And it's like, no, we mean female gladiators. We mean gladiatrixes. Yes, so that's how you'll find us.

We are everywhere. We're on Blue Sky, and we are so inactive on Blue Sky, but we are there. Yes, thanks.

Please come to our show, and I promise it will be, as many people said, not what they expect, but in a good way. And yeah, please come and enjoy the chaos. Come see us at Venue 45, 7.40 until Saturday, and 8.50 next week, Monday to Saturday.

(12:27 - 12:30)

Look at that. You don't need more sleep. You memorised that.

(12:30 - 12:33)

I know everything I need to know. How exciting.