Fringe Spotlight: Soft Animal
Pedro Leandro finds the humour in sexuality, ego, and the absurdity of needing to be loved by everyone.
The new show from Pedro Leandro is Soft Animal - a show that finds the humour in sexuality, ego, and the absurdity of needing to be loved by everyone.
Inspired by the ideas in Alan Downs’ book The Velvet Rage, Soft Animal dives into the ways queer people sense their difference and desperately scramble to make up for it. Downs writes that many gay men develop a near-compulsive need to achieve in order to compensate for the rejection they anticipate - something that Pedro relates to.
Aged 10, Pedro was plucked from his choir to record a solo album. Grown adults promised him stardom. He missed school. He rehearsed like mad. He dreamed of solving all his problems through sheer brilliance and a world tour. Then one day, the calls stopped.
Pedro mines this formative memory and the high-achieving impulse it left behind, tying it to his queer identity, his coming out, and his attempts at dating.
“Though this show is deeply personal, I think we all-deep down-believe we’re the shit and that we deserve to be celebrated..." explains Pedro. "Not just by our loved ones but by the masses. And ideally in a 4-star review. In The Guardian. With a photo that makes us look thin.”
- Date: 30th July – 24th August 2025
- Venue: Pleasance Courtyard - Bunker 2, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ
- Box Office: www.edfringe.com
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