Fleabag

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s darkly comedic Fleabag began as a 10-minute comedy piece about a cynical, grief-stricken woman. Waller-Bridge turned that piece into a one-woman show for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where it won the Fringe First Award. Fleabag’s titular character is an emotionally dysfunctional, hypersexual millennial interviewing for a job she desperately needs because her cafe is on the verge of bankruptcy. Through a series of jaw-droppingly honest monologues, Fleabag describes the events of the past week with the sort of explicit details normally reserved only for one’s very closest confidante. As she does, we hear the voices of the various characters in her life: her cranky sister, her deceased best friend, her sometimes boyfriend, and a colorful Cockney man who frequents her cafe. Fleabag is an unconventional character and a comedic powerhouse of a role. In 2016, Waller-Bridge adapted the play into a widely acclaimed TV series, which critics have cited as a cultural phenomenon and one of the best series of all time.