As we reach the end of our Edinburgh Fringe 2026 coverage, we speak to Greg Winders who is the writer and stars in Henry VIII and His Groom. ”A hilarious and moving new play that explores the unlikely friendship between King Henry VIII and his Groom of the Stool, William Compton. Set in the opulent world of the Tudor court, this play offers a unique perspective on the complexities of power, loyalty and grief. Toilet humour has never been so sophisticated or heartbreaking.”
How would you describe your show to someone discovering it for the first time at the Fringe?
Henry VIII & His Groom is a funny, filthy and ultimately very human two-hander about Henry VIII and the man who knows him better than almost anyone else. William Compton is Henry’s Groom of the Stool, meaning his job is quite literally to attend to the King’s most private bodily needs. But the stool becomes much more than a toilet. It becomes a place where Henry can drop the crown, talk honestly, grieve, seek advice and be himself. Across the years, we watch a friendship develop between a king and the man beneath him, both literally and politically. It starts with poo jokes and gradually becomes a story about grief, masculinity, power, loyalty and what happens when a friendship is tested by the demands of being king. AKA, it’s about Henry VIII and his bottom wiper.
What moment, idea or frustration first sparked this show into existence?
On a very personal level the frustration was that I had lost two children through miscarriage and I probably incorrectly felt the world didn’t even recognise their existence let alone the loss. How could I turn this horror into something people would want to hear. I of course found many answers that can be answered in Jesus but I still had a story within to tell. As a Historian I’ve always been fascinated by Henry VIII and the human beneath. Couple this with the wonderfully ridiculous historical fact of the Groom of the Stool. It is such an extraordinary job, but it also presents an amazing theatrical opportunity. Who would you trust enough to be with you at your most private and vulnerable moments? Creatively, the frustration was perhaps that we know Henry so well as the enormous historical figure, the wives, the executions, the Reformation, the famous portraits but much less about the ordinary human being underneath all of that. The play grew out of wanting to find that man.
How has the show evolved from its earliest idea to what audiences will see now?
It has grown from what could have been a straightforward comedy about an absurd Tudor job into something much more emotionally complex. The humour is still absolutely central, and the stool remains at the heart of the production, but the relationship between Henry and Will has become the real engine of the story. As the play progresses, we see Henry experience loss, particularly the repeated loss of children and his desperate need for a male heir. We also see Will’s own life changing, his marriage, his children, his increasing responsibilities and eventually his loss of favour. The comedy gradually has more weight behind it. Hopefully audiences can laugh one minute and then suddenly realise they’re watching two friends trying to cope with things neither of them can control.
What makes Edinburgh Fringe the right place for this show right now?
The Fringe is the perfect place for a show that doesn’t fit neatly into one box. Is it historical drama? Comedy? Tragedy? A two-hander? A piece of new writing? It’s all of those things. The Fringe audience is adventurous. People come looking for something they haven’t seen before, and hopefully Henry VIII & His Groom offers exactly that: a familiar historical figure seen from a completely unexpected/new angle.
What does bringing this particular show to the Fringe represent for you personally?
I’ve done comedy as an actor, doing lots of characters like in our YouTube show Barmy Nonsense but this is my chance to flex my acting muscles with an incredible part in Henry VIII who goes through seemingly every emotion and situation during the play. Also, I have been told a historical comedy set on a toilet about grief won’t work. This will prove whether that is a correct viewpoint. The Fringe is a chance to find out whether the relationship between Henry and Will can reach people who don’t necessarily come because they’re Tudor historians. At its heart, this is a story about friendship, grief and power, and those things belong to everyone.
What has been the most unexpectedly challenging part of getting this show to Edinburgh?
The affordability of it all. OMF Theatre work on a no budget basis, everything is possible with creativity. That also poses limitations such as paid advertising and the like. However, the biggest challenge is probably balancing the huge historical world with the intimacy of the play. We have kings, queens, wars, succession, politics and enormous personal stakes, but the production itself is deliberately intimate. The stool is essentially the centre of the world. Making that small space feel like a palace, a confessional, a battlefield and sometimes a toilet is part of the fun and part of the challenge.
If you want your audience holding onto one thing, what do you hope it is?
I hope people leave thinking about how well we really know the people closest to us, and how quickly grief, ambition or insecurity can change a relationship. Hopefully they leave having laughed a lot as well.
How do you think performing this show during a Fringe run will shape it?
The audience is going to be a huge part of the process. There is a rhythm to the piece that depends on laughter, silence and tension. Every audience will be slightly different. That will teach us where the comedy lands, where the emotional moments need space and where we can push the relationship between Henry and Will further. A Fringe run should make the show sharper, braver and more confident. It might also put us in touch with men who need to see this show.
Who do you hope this show finds at the Fringe?
I’d love it to find Tudor-history fans, obviously but also people who wouldn’t normally choose a historical play. If you like dark comedy, new writing, complicated friendships or stories where you don’t quite know whether you should be laughing or crying, there’s something here for you. If you’ve ever had a friend who knows far too much about you, you might understand Henry and Will particularly well. An audience that has always wondered what would Shakespeare on a toilet look like.
Finally, if this show came with a warning label, what would it say?
WARNING: Contains royal excrement, inappropriate conversations, questionable advice, emotional damage and one extremely complicated friendship. Also: What is said on the stool stays on the stool. Unless, of course, you’re the audience. On a more serious level it includes characters experiencing multiple infant deaths.
Henry VIII and His Groom runs at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 24th – 30th August 2026.