AN Aussie actress has been forced to recruit several surrogate Scottish dads – after her own father fell ill.
Bronwyn Batten was due to perform Sweet Child of Mine with her father Jim at the Edinburgh Fringe this weekend.
The duo have been performing together since 2011 when their hit show hit the Melbourne Festival.
But unexpectedly, her 65-year-old sidekick fell ill forcing him to pull out of the performance at the last minute.
Following a successful social media campaign, Batten has now found herself with five doting dads to help with her three week festival stint.
And the 32-year-old actress has even managed to recruit stand-ins to prepare for any last minute drop outs.
She said: “Unfortunately, over the past few weeks my dad has become unwell and hence is unable to travel and perform in Edinburgh.
“He didn’t want to let me down, but my first concern is or his health.
“The show’s a large undertaking, but I wanted to go ahead. Our venue has invested a great deal of time and effort in presenting this work.
“Even though my Dad can no longer make it to Edinburgh, these total legends have made it so much easier for me to take the show over on my own.”
One of her new “dads”, Charlie Murphy, is due to join Batten on stage this week after responding to her Facebook appeal.
The 56-year-old from Cessnock, Glasgow said: “I think she has got balls of steel to bring a show from Australia without knowing her cast.”
Archer Lacey, also from Glasgow, has also volunteered to be a surrogate father.
Lacey, 56, said: “I feel quite privileged to do it, but also sorry for Bronwyn’s dad, that he can’t be there. I’m sure she would much rather he be was there, but I’ll do my bit to fill in.”
Not only will the dad be acting from script, they will also have the daunting task of improvising.
Batten added: “I want them to talk about their own fathers and tell a couple of jokes. To all intents and purposes they will be my dad.”
Batten has also launched a fundraising page to try and help with expensive traveling costs.
Her page reads: “It’s rather expensive to take a show to Edinburgh – and you can only live on sandwich lunch deals from Sainsbury’s for so long.
“I also need to employ a producer to help me with wrangling the local Scottish Dads and to cover the extra production costs that this new development has thrown up.”
Sweet Child of Mine is a one hour show featuring the Batten family discussing art, theatre and Bronwyn’s career choices.
