Fest 2017 Issue 3 by Fest Magazine

70+ Reviews | Full Listings | Venue Map

WILD BORE GETTHEIR OWN BACK

Shappi Khorsandi Mouthpiece Mia: Daughters of Fortune Fag/Stag Border Tales Calvinball Plus

Your FREE Festival Guide

15– 17 August

festmag.co.uk

Listings by the hour

FROM THE AWARD WINNING CREATORS OF SMOTHER

“STAND-OUT DANCE OF SUMMER 2017”

Director George Sully

Editor Evan Beswick

Additional Design Kyle McPartlin

Deputy Editor Jo Caird

Sales Executive Sebastian Fisher

Artworker Silvia Razakova

Cover Image Kat Gollock

THE GUARDIAN

Production Manager Jess Hardiman

Lead Theatre Critic Matt Trueman

Writing Team Rosie Bannister, Theo Bosanquet, Arnoud Breitbarth, Marissa Burgess, Polly Checkland Harding, Seòras Coxon, Ruby Foster, Eve Green, Si Hawkins, Lauren Hunter, Malcolm Jack, Louise Jones, Katharine Kavanagh, Laura Kressly, Edd McCracken, Alice McGuire, Brett Mills, Daniel Perks, Lewis Porteous, Lucy Ribchester, Jay Richardson, Alice Saville, Claire Sawyers, Matthew Sharpe, John Stansfield, Tom Wicker, Ben Williams, Holly Williams, Kate Wyver, Will Young

Radge Media

★★★★

“TAKING HIP-HOP INTO THRILLINGLY NEW TERRAIN”

THE GUARDIAN ON 201 DANCE COMPANY

★★★★★ ★★★★★ BROADWAY BABY

ED FEST MAGAZINE

Publisher Sophie Kyle Editor in Chief Rosamund West Media Sales Manager Sandy Park Media Sales Executives Issy Patience, Keith Allan Fest Street Dates 2017 8, 11, 15, 18, 22 August Advertising sales@festmag.co.uk 0131 467 4630 Contact festmag.co.uk hello@festmag.co.uk @festmag

8PM, 2 – 28 AUG 0131 556 6550 www.pleasance.co.uk 4

Published by Radge Media Limited., 1.9 Techcube, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall, Edinburgh, Scotland EH9 1PL. Every effort has been made to check the accuracy of the information in this magazine, but we cannot accept liability for information which is inaccurate. Show times and prices are subject to changes – always check with the venue. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without the explicit permission of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the printer or the publisher. Printed by More Ltd., Glasgow. Distributed by doortodoordelivery.co.uk

Contents

Comedy 24 Desiree Burch

Bumming Around

Wild Bores Zoe CoombsMarr, Ursula Martinez and Adrienne Truscott get meta with the interview process.

The American comic doesn’t waste a moment.

Theatre 36 Mouthpiece Female experience, fearlessly told.

The director of Manwatching on the liberating power of anonymity.

Dancing with the Bard

The shows making Shakespeare shake his tail feather.

Dance, Physical Theatre & Circus 48 Border Tales A multicultural cast explores ideas of Brexit Britain in this powerful piece.

Cabaret & Variety 53 Pollyanna Rude and raunchy gender-focused performance with a decidedly political slant.

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Kids 56 Kid Critics The youngest members of the Fest team get in on the reviewing action.

festmag.co.uk

Who's Laughing Now?

Perfect Day Struggling for ideas? Brain overloaded? Sit back and let Fest plan an ideal day at the Fringe

Henderson’s

Buried: A New Musical

94 Hanover Street 10:00am

While you’re soaking up the Fringe, it seems only right to embrace Edinburgh’s other historic charms. That includes brekkie at Henderson’s, a vegetarian and vegan mainstay that’s been knocking about for decades. Cherished for fresh, largely organic veggie-centric food, we recommend setting yourself up properly with the fry up.

C venues – C too 2:45pm - 3:45pm

The Extraordinary Time-Travelling Adventures of Baron Munchausen New Town Theatre

Perfect Day

12:10pm - 1:10pm

The timeless yet fictional German nobleman Baron Munchausen is now providing the premise for a comedy improv hour for kids. Taking suggestions from the audience based on the baron’s many adventures, expect anything from duels and elephants to castles built out of cheese.

Unearth your dark side and revel in this murderous musical set to a traditional folk score. In the wrong hands, this could be camp festival fodder, but for their Fringe debut Sheffield’s Colla Voce steer already strong performances into a beautiful black comedy, and put a sinister serial-killing spin on the classic boy-meetsgirl narrative.

Perfect Day

Desiree Burch Big Howard Little Howard: Man and Boy

Heroes @ Bob’s BlundaBus

Banshee Labyrinth 4:20pm - 5:20pm

Treat yourself to a little late-afternoon silliness courtesy of Perriernominated comedian Howard Read (aka Big Howard) and his mischievous animated alter ego Little Howard, who together make up a delightful multimedia double act that’ll function as the perfect interlude to your day. There are fart jokes, too.

Holyrood 9A 9A Holyrood Rd 7:00pm

By this point, your harmless desire for a casual daytime pint—it is the Fringe, after all—will have morphed into the beginnings of a potentially messy night out. Best get some dinner in you, old pal! With local craft ales (alongside the usual suspects, for those that just want a “normal drink”) and decently priced gourmet burgers, Holyrood 9A’s got your back in both areas.

End the night with some comedy on a bus – specifically, some top qual Desiree Burch standup on Bob’s BlundaBus! Burch’s latest show, Unf*ckable, is a gutsy tour de force that dabbles in her former life as a dominatrix and her experiences as a woman of colour, among much more.

festmag.co.uk

10:00pm

In Wild Bore, Zoe Coombs Marr, Ursula Martinez and Adrienne Truscott have created a glorious piece of theatre that skewers lazy criticism and explores the hierarchies of performance and critical discourse. A traditional interview seemed like just another iteration of that hierarchy, so we decided to turn the tables and print the interviewees’ take instead, plus some nuggets from Fest deputy editor— and reviewer—Jo Caird, to put it all in context. Here goes nothing…

Credit: Kat Gollock

Bumming Around

Left to right: Zoe Coombs Marr, Ursula Martinez and Adrienne Truscott

Cover Feature

th Wild Bore Jo Caird: Interview wild / Review by Wi Bore

artist and critical The relationship between Bore, a show that voice is at the heart of Wild recalls, from “the developed, initially, Truscott artists’ bar: ‘Oh my the kind of chats you have at review, this person god, I got the most amazing g with a “sadistic joy in Alon ” ’ . said such and such though, says Coombs tes”, quo ble terri ng recounti frustration of having er deep a was e ther , Marr ts misunderstood: their work as female artis one of two responsing “There’s this thing of gett at the same time, which es, and sometimes both and too boring— ical polit too re you’ er: eith is and politics—or it’s banging on about feminism crazy that you can’t just so wild and wacky and cott, Coombs Marr even understand it.” So Trus that allows them to and Martinez made a show simultaneously, to be s occupy both those position and in the process so, not just boring, but wildly s about whose voices pose all sorts of question silenced. are heard and whose are

booze to an interview I wouldn’t normally bring b) I thought it might and ge; Frin the is this a) but review. If they didn’t get me a more favourable t they’d enjoy the like my questions, at leas hipster beers.

t not, is shaped by those tha Every interview, like it or and cagnda age an h wit s wer come before them. Intervie trust – n result in a dance of mis ey, tired interviewees ofte inning. beg the in t leas at er, oth h like two cats circling eac eting: ts, predictably, with a gre Jo Caird’s interview star ntless cou , ore bef this n see ’ve “Hello, how are you?” We sic tale clas a up, w players sho times. A meeting is set, the t? nex at wh But s. wee of interviewer and intervie

ω g and, ve of a university buildin We sit in an upstairs alco badly a of re ctu hite strange arc after commenting on the the dirty like ul, awf ly ing baffl y, planned atrium (it is trul dle of but somehow in the mid area under a grandstand, sipping le, tab ee coff low a und an office block) we sit aro open, wine. The setting is slightly beers and plastic cups of they ever? are en wh but w, rvie and not ideal for an inte

ω Eventually we delve deeper into the themes of the show, the larger implications of the work, and what we hope an audience might take away from it. By this point we are all chatty, throwing in the kind of jokes designed to make someone laugh in the moment, but also look good in print. We still have an outside agenda in our minds, but it seems to be going well. Of course years of disappointm ents by great interviews gone awry have left us untrusting, and afraid of misquoting. Too many times have we had those conversations that seemed to go brilliantly and then ended with a piece that seems to have been written by someone else entirely. And what artist can forget what Stacy Merkin did to Jenny Schechter when she reviewed her book in The L Word?

ω Nonetheless, the interview with Jo Caird was enjoya ble, comfortable and the time flew by, leaving us with the impression that it would come out well. But, as always , the proof is in the pudding.

Indeed. I can tell you, for instance, that Martinez, Coombs-Marr and Truscott, who hail from the UK, Australia and the US respectively, have each received critical acclaim (for what it’s worth) for genre-defying solo projects exploring feminism, politics and performance. Truscott won the Edinburgh Comedy Award Panel Prize for her show Asking For It – A One-Lady Rape About Comedy Starring Her Pussy and Little Else! in 2013; Coombs Marr brought Dave, her hilarious misogynist standup alter ego, to the Fringe in 2015 and 2016; and Martinez, as well as producing a body of provocative solo shows, directed Lucy McCormick’s Triple Threat, one of the most talked about shows of last year’s festival. “The show’s not really about criticism, it’s about other stuff. If it was just about critics and artists it would be a really boring show. It’s mostly about bums,” says Coombs Marr. “It’s about expression and freedom and bodies and language and diversity and widening your vision,” continues Martinez. “Widening your arsehole,” rejoins Coombs Marr with a snigger. Ah, the arseholes – the trio spend the first part of the play with their bums perched on a trestle table, talking out of them in the actual words of real life critics who, it’s safe to say without spoiling the show, didn’t particularly enjoy what they saw. Anyone familiar with their work won’t be surprised by the flesh on display—all three are known for getting naked in the name of art—but the nudity here plays a different role. “It purely served a dramaturgical intention and solution initially,” says Truscott. “And then we were like, it’s the least gendered part of our bodies, and what happens when people known for being feminist or naked women put that on stage?”

Unfamiliar with The L Word, I had to look up this scene, in which Merkin “uses her gayness” to get Schechter to open up and then pans her and her book. Schechter, enraged, goes to the offices of the magazine that printed the interview and berates the receptionist. Whatever happens with this piece, I respectfully ask Truscott, Coombs Marr and Martinez not to storm the Fest office.

festmag.co.uk

We’re taken on a rambling journey through questi on and answer: “Where did the idea for the show come from?” and “How did you all meet” warm us up. This is somew hat well worn ground, perhaps, but Jo manages to avoid the drearier old faithfuls, such as “what does the name mean?”. We have always found this question a litmus test of types. If an interviewer is resorting to name questions, chances are they’ve done very little research. Jo, it seems , has. Her questions are a delightful mix of planned and sponta neous. Enough space is allowed for the natural flow of conversation, but with a safety raft of preplanned questi ons, written on a piece of ripped out notepad.

Features

11 Features

Who’s Laughing

ere are a few of questions: do you think you’d hear someone’s words differently, if they were read out loud by someone else? And if they were funny words, might you laugh more or less? And what if those words were written by a nameless woman, but performed by a man? These are issues raised by the Royal Court Theatre’s fascinating show Manwatching, which is at Paines Plough’s Roundabout Theatre at Summerhall. Each day of the Fringe, a different male comedian reads out a sharp, funny and frank monologue about sexual desire by an unnamed female writer. He hasn’t seen it before the moment he goes on stage. The initial idea for Manwatching was brought to the Royal Court Theatre by the female writer, explains associate director Lucy Morrison. “The form of it was already in her head,” she says. When she was younger, the writer, who “has quite a comic voice,” had the urge to try standup comedy. But an open mic night turned out to be “one of the worst nights of her life,” says Morrison. “It was an endless stream of men doing wank jokes. Then she got up and she had completely different material. She felt like a complete alien.” The effect of that experience lasted. It resulted in the writer abandoning the idea of standup as a career, says Morrison, and left her with questions about how women who talk about personal subjects are viewed differently to men. The narrative anonymity so integral to Manwatching arose because “she wanted to write something that was really, searingly honest about

heterosexual desire,” says Morrison, with “some layer of protection”. And it was a chance to interrogate “the series of judgments you go through when you do that as a woman, that you don’t as a man”. Is there a risk that the show’s approach could just affirm the idea that there are some things that women can’t say on stage? That’s not how Morrison sees it. For her, Manwatching’s anonymity liberates the power of the writing, while also making people think. “If a woman stood up to do it, people would go, ‘Oh, that’s one particular woman’s experience – she looks like this, seems like that.’ Judgments are made.” In contrast, when it comes through a man’s voice, “you really ask yourself how you’re listening to it – whether you’re listening to it in a particular way,” says Morrison. “You go: ‘Yeah, maybe I do accept material like that in a different way when a man comes on stage.’” She believes that “the form makes you actively think about all of those things”. From the start—including an earlier run at the Royal Court—it’s been important that the piece is performed by comedians rather than actors. “Having an actor doing it exposed the fact that it wasn’t rehearsed, rather than celebrating that,” reflects Morrison. “The way a comedian attacks it in the moment felt like the right thing.” I’ve seen Manwatching a couple of times and the relationship between script and performer is an engrossingly complex, evolving one. Depending on who’s on stage, it can be joyfully harmonious or almost adversarial – marked by a raised eyebrow or a continues

festmag.co.uk

Manwatching gives an anonymous female writer a voice – via a different male comedian each day. Tom Wicker speaks to director Lucy Morrison about exploring gender expectations on stage

Credit: Kat Gollock

Now?

›

Credit: Kat Gollock

› stumbled delivery. Sometimes there is an obvious, yawning gap between person and text. It’s an exposing experience for the volunteer comedians. At two points, Manwatching’s script asks the audience to consider his performance and appearance. These deliberately thought-provoking moments about how we look at performers can be uncomfortable if that particular hour hasn’t gone well. It adds to the show’s wit-wrapped sharp edges.

Features

“It works best when the comedian opens himself up to the material and just confidently allows it to flow through him”

“It works best when the comedian opens himself up to the material and just confidently allows it to flow through him,” believes Morrison. “That’s when the communication between the writer and the comedian is one of pure trust – him really listening to her.” It’s about the rhythm rather than perfectly landing a punchline. “My favourites are when that happens,” she says. Morrison worked “really hard” with the writer to get Manwatching’s script “as performer-proof as possible,” from extensively workshopping it early on, to only including a couple of lines per page at key stages. “We’re trying to slow him down a bit,” Morrison says. While the show has some beautifully structured jokes, “there are moments where it’s more theatre. It’s darker, deliberately not as funny.”

Morrison and the writer have focused on all of the easily overlooked (by the audience) “tiny things that really do have an impact on his performance”, right down to exactly how the script is delivered into the comedian’s hands. It’s interesting how much of the humour survives, sometimes in spite of the delivery. But the risk of things going wrong is wired into Manwatching’s DNA. “I actually find that really energising,” says Morrison. “It highlights that moment where word and act come together – when it doesn’t, it’s really obvious.” There have been a few shows, she adds, “where you think: ‘That wasn’t the right person doing it.’ But I stand by those as part of the form.” Besides, even the script itself could differ between shows. “It’s brilliant and maddening at the same time,” Morrison says with a laugh. “Because the performer doesn’t have to learn it, it means we can change it.” The writer has been in to see the show since it opened in Edinburgh, she reveals. “She’s always working on it. She never really rests.” Morrison relishes this element of “liveness. The form allows us to do that.” Since Manwatching first opened, has Morrison been surprised by how curious people have been about the identity of its writer? That anonymity hasn’t been “to create a kind of mystery around it,” says Morrison. “It was to give her what she needed, to be able to write it in the way she has.” Then she smiles. “But it’s rather delicious, isn’t it, speculating?” VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Roundabout @ Summerhall 7:25pm – 8:20pm, various dates between 4 Aug and 27 Aug £15 – £17

DISCOVER NEW ZEALAND AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE 2017 WHITE FACE CREW - LA DANS UNE MARIONETTE BINGE CULTURE - VIE WHALES GILDED BALLOON AT THE MUSEUM @ 10:30

“A remarkable happening” “Superb…Marvellous…Sublime…So good!…Absolute joy…World class” Theatreview - Theatre Scenes

BINGE CULTURE - WHALES MODERN MAORI QUARTET: THAT’S US! ASSEMBLY SATS & SUNS @ 12:30

“Hilarious and harmonious entertainment at its best” “A remarkable Theatreview happening” - Theatreview

MODERN QUARTET: US! JULIAMĀORI CROFT - POWERTHAT’S BALLAD ASSEMBLY @ 14:25

“More of this please ★ ★ ★ ★” (on 2016’s If There’s Not Dancing at the Revolution,I’m Not Coming) “Hilarious The List and harmonious entertainment at its best”

- Theatreview

TRICK OF THE LIGHT - THE ROAD THAT WASN’T THERE BINGE CULTURE - ANCIENT SHRINES AND HALF TRUTHS

ASSEMBLY “One @ of14:35 the country’s most exciting and original theatre

“a delightfully adventure, engrossing, entertaining and emotionally touching” NZ Herald companies”dark ★ ★ ★ ★ - Broadway Baby ELEANOR - JANE DOE UP (WE NEED TO TALK) BINGEBISHOP CULTURE - BREAK ASSEMBLY @ 15:00 gems and heartbreaking moments” “… comedic

“Breathtaking in its sincerity, groundbreaking in its approach” Theatre Scenes ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - The Theatre Guide, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017

BINGE CULTURE SHRINES AND UNE HALFMARIONETTE TRUTHS WHITE FACE- ANCIENT CREW - LA VIE DANS

SUMMERHALL @ 15:15 & 18:15 “Superb…Marvellous…Sublime…So good!…Absolute joy…World class” “…plenty of fun to be had…” Theatreview ★ ★ ★ ★ - The List

BINGE CULTURE - BREAK UP (WE NEED TO TALK) JUAN VESUVIUS - I AM YOUR DEEJAY

“Bizarre, sexy and very, very funny” Broadway Baby SUMMERHALL MONDAYS @ 18:00

“… ★comedic gems and heartbreaking moments” ★ ★ ★ ★ The Skinny

- Theatre Scenes

TRICK OF- THE LIGHT - THE ROAD THAT WASN’T THERE JULIA CROFT POWER BALLAD

SUMMERHALL @ 19:30 “… the pick of the crop” The Advertiser (Adelaide, Australia) “More of this please ★ ★ ★ ★ ★” - The List

(on 2016’s If There’s Not Dancing at the Revolution, I’m Not Coming)

ELEANOR BISHOP - JANE DOE JUAN VESUVIUS - I AM YOUR DEEJAY

“… insightful, powerful and must not be missed” ASSEMBLY @ 23:00 NZ Herald “Bizarre, sexy and very, very funny” - Broadway Baby

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - The Skinny

Find out more

www.nzatedinburgh.com

Credit: DavidFoulkes Credit: Patrick Moore

Rosalind

Features

Dancing with the Bard

From The Merry Wives of Windsor to Macbeth’s troubled heroine, the Bard is enjoying a renaissance this year when it comes to inspiring dance and physical theatre

Lear

“I

think the way he uses language is to paint pictures, draw characters and scenes. He shows us the story,” says Kally LloydJones, artistic director of Company Chordelia, whose Lady Macbeth: Unsex Me Here runs at Dancebase throughout August. Taking its name from Shakespeare’s enigmatic anti-heroine and one of

“Dance and movement create meaning without always being literal” Words do feature in Lady Macbeth: Unsex Me Here, however not always of the oral kind. The production is a collaboration with Solar Bear, a Glasgow-based company which creates theatre with a focus on the D/deaf community, and British Sign Language (BSL) has formed a starting point for some of the choreography. At times, explains Lloyd-Jones, verbatim phrases from the play have been translated into BSL, at others embedded BSL words inform the

shape of the dance. “Sometimes something would just capture me, like the BSL for ‘funeral’ and I incorporated that into the choreography of the final section to Mozart’s Requiem.” New pathways to Shakespeare have always found traction in music, art and film, but it seems the Bard is enjoying a particular renaissance in dance this year at the Fringe. Also at Dancebase, John Scott Dance’s Lear promises to delve into themes of parental love and transformation. James Cousins Company’s Rosalind at Summerhall gets to the heart of the tangled gender politics of As You Like It. Korean company Chang Moon are presenting The Merry Wives of Windsor in dance form at Greenside, and Gecko’s The Dreamer over at the Pleasance marries A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Shakespeare’s Chinese contemporary Tang Xianzu’s The Peony Pavilion. As Lloyd-Jones knows, sometimes looking at a familiar text from a different angle can illuminate new corners. “Of course, you keep finding new things. I have found myself becoming more and more immersed in the character and story of Lady Macbeth so the rest of the play has sort of receded in my mind – which is the very opposite of what happens in the play.” / Lucy Ribchester

SHOW: VENUE:

TIME: TICKETS:

SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

SHOW: VENUE:

Credit: Yin Xuefeng

TIME: TICKETS:

SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

The Dreamer

The Merry Wives of Windsor Greenside @ Infirmary Street / theSpace on Niddry St times vary, 15–19 Aug £8 Rosalind Summerhall 4:30pm – 5:35pm, 4–26 Aug, not 7, 14, 21 £13 The Dreamer Summerhall 1:30pm – 2:40pm, 2–15 Aug, not 9 £11.50 – £14.50 Lady Macbeth: Unsex Me Here Dance Base 8:00pm – 8:55pm, 4–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21 £12 Lear Dance Base 4:15pm – 5:15pm, 23–27 Aug £10 – £12

festmag.co.uk

her most famous lines, the piece sees Lady Macbeth played by three male performers, addressing the play’s overt and underhand themes of gender and power. “What dance and movement can do is create meaning without always being literal, so there is space for ambiguity or for creating an emotional world which does not exist so easily in words,” says Lloyd-Jones.

Features

LIVE

TRAINSPOTTING

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THE SELL-OUT IMMERSIVE IMMERSIVE HIT RETURNS! RETURNS! HIT The Tunnel at TICKETS £18 Venue 150 £15 CONC 2 - 27 Aug

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PRIOR TO LONDON RUN

“An intoxicating blast of fun” The Daily Telegraph

“A must-see younger

brother to The Book of Mormon” The Daily Express

Pleasance One 10.30pm 2nd - 28th Aug (except 14th) www.pleasance.co.uk 0131 556 6550

Running Time 75mins

16 FebruArY - 18 March 2018

Desiree Burch: Unf*ckable

The American comic doesn't waste a single second in this riotously funny and searingly honest hour HHHH PAGE 24

Comedy Reviews

Comedy

COMEDY CRITIC

Marissa Burgess

It turns out that Angela Barnes’s show Fortitude, set in a nuclear bunker, is even more apt this week as Trump and Kim Jong-un poke metaphorical sticks at each other and try and work out who’s the most batshit of the pair. That said, after Trump’s election last November—the event that inspired much of this show—it was probably only a matter of time before he had us teetering on the brink of a third world war. As Barnes points out, there was something distinctly apocalyptic about the events of 2016. This is a storming hour of standup from the acclaimed comedian. On the very same day that the news came in that Trump had won the US election Barnes turned 40, but despite the chaos in the world at large, she’s feeling pretty together. She’s loved up but maintaining her solitude, is child-free and happy, knows where she is in life and what she likes – including a bloody good bunker. The fact that she came to comedy slightly later than many (in her 30s), having lived a life already—she was a nurse—has been one of the secrets to her success – she won the BBC New Comedy Award in 2011. It’s provided her with a certain directness, a quality that is in full evidence in some deliciously blunt routines, such as one in which she creates a “fuck it list” rather than a bucket list. For any Generation X-ers and older who lived through the chill of the Cold War, much of this will hit a chord. Younger readers, you may have all that to look forward to... Embarking on his debut solo show after winning the prestigious Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year at Leicester Comedy Festival in February is Alasdair Beckett-King. Industry eyes may be on him, but he has nothing to worry about – The Alasdair Beckett-King Mysteries is an assured hour. Like many inaugural shows at the Fringe, Beckett-King’s is a kind of ‘introduction to...’. Unless they’ve got a strong back story, for some acts it can be a touch underwhelming, all “I look a bit like...”, “People always say to me...”, “In the town where I’m from...”. But Beckett-King is already onto a winner as there’s something otherworldly about him, even before he opens his mouth, blessed as he is with beautiful long red hair, skin whiter than a BNP rally and natty, 19th-century dandy dress sense. Even

Angela Barnes: Fortitude «««« Pleasance Courtyard, 7:15pm – 8:15pm, 2–27 Aug, not 14, £7.50 – £10

Alasdair Beckett-King: The Alasdair Beckett-King Mysteries «««« Pleasance Courtyard, 6:00pm – 7:00pm, 2–28 Aug, not 14, £7.50 – £9.50

Ali Brice’s Never-Ending Pencil Don’t Worry They’re Here ««« Heroes @ The Hive, 2:30pm – 3:20pm, 4–26 Aug, not 9, 22, £5

Angela Barnes

Alasdair Beckett-King

Ali Brice

the ginger jokes he makes about himself are more inventive than most. Sensibly he’s incorporated visuals and readings to break up the standup and avoid that notorious 40-minute mark lull, using them to showcase his eclectic and unashamedly highbrow tastes. How many Fringe shows boast readings from poet and painter William Blake, representations of Jesus through the ages, and Romanian communist health and safety posters? It all adds to the delightfully idiosyncratic feel of the show. The kind of hour you’d expect from such a distinctive act. Usually favouring prop and character-heavy shows, Ali Brice is trying a different direction this Fringe following an incident with a Stanley knife creating one of those props back in January – Ali Brice’s Never-Ending Pencil sees him embracing straight standup. Though he’s leaving his eccentric alter ego Eric Meat behind for this year, it’s not actually that straight a show: he drifts onto the stage in a monk’s outfit, anointing all within his reach, then flips back his cowl to reveal his shades, and cranks up the dance beats. Today’s performance is something of a muddle but

thoroughly enjoyable nevertheless. Easily distracted, he uses up some of his time on banter with the audience. It’s easily done, as with a sprinkling of mates down the front, a verbose Canadian in the second row and “easily pleased Louise” on the far side of the room, the crowd provide ample responses to a flurry of nonsensical questions. Everyone plays along goodnaturedly, creating a warm atmosphere in the room. Eventually he manages to explain that the pencil of the title is a particularly posh one, the remaining one of a set bought for him by his parents and embossed in gold with his name. It’s a thread that's importance becomes clear by the close of the show – he’s more on topic than it first appears, it turns out. A little later, a happy pink shower cap perched on his head to diffuse anxiety, he divulges material that’s a touch more frank, and pretty dark. Somehow Brice manages to be silly, heartwarming and moving in one hour. It doesn’t quite gel but he’s got something of note in there. Maybe it’ll come together tomorrow. Or maybe next year. In the meantime, this is an intriguing hour of comedy that’s certainly worth your while.

festmag.co.uk

Credit: Jill Wooster

Reviews

Gimme Five Trygve vs a Baby «««« "The show is a chance for Wakenshaw to roll out another batch of his gloriously silly characters and scenarios, with Phinneas serving as a sort of punchline incarnate" – p. 24

Shappi Khorsandi: Mistress and Misfit ««««

"Charming and heartfelt, Khorsandi candidly tells tales that her usual audience might find shocking" – p. 22

Evelyn Mok: Hymen Manoeuvre ««« "A cake-obsessed, sexually repressed self-deprecator for the Sex in the City generation" - p. 28

Jordan Brookes: Body of Work HHHH VENUE:

Infant Hercules ««

"The show lacks dynamism and however much McGlade tries to propel it on through, shouting louder just makes for an uncomfortable hour" – p. 30

Comedy

Matt Forde: A Show Hastily Written in Light of Recent Events Again! «« "Funny as much of it is, it’s all very measured, and seems to pull its punches when it comes to big, belly laugh punchlines" – p. 31

TIME:

TICKETS:

Laughing Horse @ Finnegan’s Wake 6:15pm – 7:15pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14 FREE

Jordan Brookes’ latest hour signals a minor evolution in Fringe comedy, beyond the sincere dead relative tribute but also the mockery of it. In terms of intent, his stated aim of acknowledging his late grandmother feels heartfelt. But he’s also conveying it quasi-physically, with his lungs, arsehole and eyes rolled right back into his head, this expressive comic delivering a bizarre panegyric that’s as much about exercising control over his body as exorcising the demons within it. Featuring the basest elements of familial, self and animal love, Body of Work is a magnetic display, with

Brookes’ limber, often grotesque performance too big for his intimate venue. His proximity to the crowd remains a boon though, as it lets him truly force a connection onto them, even as he’s mouthing obscene vocal warm-ups. The suggestion that any one of us could storm the stage reinforces a sense of risk, regrettably confirmed by a smattering of walkouts. Such self-indulgent strangeness won’t be for everyone. For the most part, Brookes is gamely playful, messing about with the conventions of mime, character and confessional comedy, seemingly with no great intent beyond seeing if he can get away with it. But his animated eyes and, indeed, complicit other body parts are windows into his troubled soul. As in previous years, he raises his mental health without browbeating you with it, his cartoonish delivery keeping it light even as he explores what can only be characterised as some extremely dark and truly fucked up shit. / Jay Richardson

  s T im e

19 19 SHOWS SHOWS 9 9 VENUES VENUES

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EDINBURGH EDINBURGH 2017 2017

E RE BY T H

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KO SA IKO

22-27 AUGUST, 12PM PLEASANCE.CO.UK 0131 556 6550

19 SHOWS 9 VENUES EDINBURGH 2017

8-27 AUGUST, TIMES VARY TRAVERSE.CO.UK 0131 228 1404

  ma n Scots

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19 SHOWS 9 VENUES

Gay T

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HO HAPPY

5.20PM (6.20PM)

03 - 27 AUGUST 2017

Shappi Khorsandi: Mistress and Misfit HHHH VENUE:

TIME:

TICKETS:

Assembly George Square Studios 6:40pm – 7:40pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14 £13 – £14

Tragic yet uplifting, Shappi Khorsandi’s love letter to Emma, Lady Hamilton in her new hour Mistress and Misfit is a subtle and touching hour of comedy from a standup

who knows her craft inside and out. Much like all the men that seemed to cross her path during the 18th century, there is a genuine love and affection from Khorsandi for her chosen subject and no great deal of pity for a woman probably most famously known as Admiral Nelson’s mistress. A woman disregarded by many on account of her perceived lack of virtue, Khorsandi seeks to find common ground with a woman who served as scullery maid, prostitute and muse. Paralleling her life with that of Emma, Khorsandi is able to look at the impossible standards and strictures that kept women ‘in their place’, and the emotional

blackmail that imprisoned Emma for long periods of time. Something that Khorsandi herself has had to endure, not just as a comedian in a male-dominated landscape but in her romantic endeavours too. Charming and heartfelt, Khorsandi candidly tells tales that her usual audience might find shocking – and a pretty impressive recitation of Stormzy’s ‘Shut Up’ that really didn’t catch the ear of the mostly over fifties crowd at this performance. They make for a refreshing show, however, about what it is to be a woman in today’s world, acknowledging that while it could be so much worse, it should be so much better. / John Stansfield

in their instinctive interaction and unthreatening ribbing. Their songs take trivial ideas—such as imagining the life of a panda—and turn them into fizzing celebrations of language, leavened with laid-back tunes. So central is their friendship to their appeal that a song about a potential cause of conflict between them generates genuine gasps of concern from the audience. A small piece of improv doesn’t fly as it should, but this is the only

misstep in a tight set that is impressive in its relaxed casualness. The final song offers a simple worldview that is uplifting in its honesty, just perfect for returning to the outside chaos. They note that while this show is numbered ‘2’, it’s their first in the comedy section as they previously performed under the category of ‘spoken word’. The audience reaction here suggests they’ve made the right move. / Brett Mills

The Harry and Chris Show 2 HHHH VENUE:

TIME:

Comedy

TICKETS:

Just the Tonic at The Mash House 2:20pm – 3:20pm, 3–26 Aug, not 14 £5

It’s not damning with faint praise to say that some shows sit perfectly in their mid-afternoon time slot. This sweet show is the perfect tonic for anyone wanting to escape the lunacy of the madcap Fringe, for it’s a charming and uplifting hour of good tunes, sharp lyrics, and endearing performers. Harry Baker is a performance poet and Chris Read is a jazz musician, and together they form a duet whose witty wordplay enlightens the soul. It’s a stripped-back show, with just the two of them, a couple of microphones and a guitar. But what they also bring is their lifelong friendship, which reveals itself

Desiree Burch: Unf*ckable HHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Heroes @ Bob’s BlundaBus 10:00pm – 11:00pm, 3–27 Aug, not 15, 22 £5

Desiree Burch is an old-school standup. The kind you’d have at a fantasy dinner party. Barely a moment is wasted in the riotously fun Unf*ckable, an hour that fully justifies why, for her, a bright future surely lies in wait. Seemingly wound up by a mech-

of colour, and her plight against the preconceptions assigned to her. Burch sure knows how to work a room, and the chaotic result is an enjoyable blend of style and substance. It’s comedy from the gut, and the cramped top deck of the Blundabus consolidates the intimacy of her debauched tales. Here Seinfeld’s “no hugging, no learning” mantra is stretched to its logical limit, unless you’re a 275lb sex worker who’s now going to quit their job in search of greener pastures. If you can stomach the gory details, it’s well worth your time.

anised key before being unleashed on stage, she unfurls a neverending barrage of energy, operating on a breathless stream of gags and barely pausing to take stock. Once she hits her stride, you never want her to break it, and her audience can’t help but will her on as she descends deeper into the tales of depravity. She’s a master of the extended routine (each plot point is structured expertly and every detail is squeezed for all its worth), here telling the story of her former life as a dominatrix, and then as a plaything for rich pervert bosses. She touches on her identity as a woman

/ Matthew Sharpe

of whatever gag Wakenshaw Sr. has been building or, as is more often the case, triggers an even funnier sequence in which Papa Wakenshaw cajoles his offspring into ending the scene as planned. Not all of Wakenshaw’s skits hit the mark in conceptual terms, but you can’t fault his performance – such precision is rare to see. Writing about a father ‘using’ his son to get laughs, it’s hard not

to make this caper sound a touch exploitative. But rest assured, it’s nothing of the kind – despite having eschewed an afternoon snooze today (there aren’t that many shows this Fringe that open with a nap disclaimer), Phinneas is a happy little soul and clearly enjoying both hanging out with his daddy, and the adulation of a whole theatre full of people. Warning: the joyful ending might just make you cry. / Jo Caird

Trygve vs a Baby HHHH VENUE: TIME:

Comedy

TICKETS:

Assembly Roxy 3:00pm – 4:00pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14, 21 £11 – £12.50

Thirteen months ago, the award-winning New Zealand mime artist Trygve Wakenshaw and his wife Lisa had a baby. They called him Phinneas and now he’s a star, performing opposite—and endlessly upstaging—his father in a hilarious and heart-warming show that explores, ever so gently, ideas of performance, comedy and stagecraft. Trygve vs a Baby is a chance for Wakenshaw to roll out another batch of his gloriously silly characters and scenarios, with Phinneas serving as a sort of punchline incarnate. Toddling into scenes in a succession of adorable costumes—baby boxing gloves, a lion’s mane and tail—his presence either enables a neat tying up

VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 7:00pm – 8:00pm, 2–27 Aug, not 14 £10 – £12

Phil Wang is, he states, a “child of Empire”. With a Malaysian father and a mother from Stoke-on-Trent, his British Asian-ness functions as a key driver in much of his set. This has potency, because it enables him to explore geopolitics and history in ways that would doubtless be rendered problematic coming out of someone else’s mouth. He revels in that licence, arguing for some of the positive outcomes of Empire and mocking liberal Brits whose right-on politics are not supported by his experiences. But what’s interesting about this set is that it engages with these

Stephen Bailey: Can’t Think Straight HHH VENUE:

TIME:

TICKETS:

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters 5:15pm – 6:15pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14 FREE

Camp, effeminate, flamboyant. These are the words Stephen Bailey doesn’t want me to use to describe his show. Or, more accurately, he insists on them being starting points for an understanding of him, not the sum. A

clear concern arises here of being pigeonholed as another camp comic, just the next in a long line of representations of homosexuality deemed acceptable by a mainstream straight audience. Towards the end of the show he therefore delivers his message of self-realisation and tolerance. He notes he’s come to terms with who he is, and doesn’t care what others think. And he encourages the audience to do the same, seeing self-identity as something inescapable. Unsurprisingly, the audience cheers this exhortation for tolerance. That said, there’s no denying that the comedy here is powered by the camp, effeminate and flamboyant persona he presents. Gags often

Reviews

HHH

ideas only from the midway point, as if rebutting the idea that Wang is only allowed to talk about identity politics. Which is good, as opening sequences about scary movies and the embarrassment of buying particular items in supermarkets demonstrate skill in spinning out comic yarns from unspectacular experiences. It’s odd, then, that this ‘everyman’ material is delivered in a comic style that negates that commonality. Everything is a bit too slick, and I was reminded of the polished performance styles of big name American standups. While this indicates a skilful professionalism, it also serves to render everything as comedy alone, rather than as lived experiences. What could be communal observational comedy somehow doesn’t offer recognition as one of its pleasures. So there’s craft here, but a lack of those guttural, collective moments that bring audience and performer together. / Brett Mills

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Phil Wang: Kinabalu

hinge on his superficiality, and he flirts with male members of the audience, bitchily dismissing their female partners. This is not to deny there’s skill in doing this effectively, and one of the problems of the long history of camp comedians is to undercut the talent of those who do it well. Stirling adds a class inflection—often referring to himself as “council”—that supplies an edge to the worldview he presents. So there are tales of working in supermarkets and all-inclusive family holidays that complicate the persona he’s concerned about being trapped within. In a culture energised by debates about identity politics, his exploration of comic identity has considerable heft.

/ Brett Mills

Winner Fringe World 2017

Winner Adelaide Fringe 2017

Winner Adelaide Fringe 2016

Winner Brighton Fringe 2014

Twonkey’s Christmas in the Jungle HHH

TIME: TICKETS:

Heroes @ Dragonfly 7:20pm – 8:20pm, 3–27 Aug, not 15 £5

“Now I’ll attempt my special dance, during which I may or may not throttle myself.” Such is onstage life for Mr Twonkey, aka Paul Vickers, now something of a Fringe stalwart having graced Edinburgh with his fantasy islands and freakish DIY puppets since 2010. Thankfully those years of toil haven’t led to the Twonkey brand becoming offputtingly polished, as yet. Then again, it’s hard to know exactly how much of this heroic mayhem is actually planned. One splendid concept early on: due to this year’s labyrinthine plot Mr Twonkey offers the audience an actual narrative thread, a big red rope we can pull on if we get too confused. Unfortunately, while thrusting it forth (to yours truly) it gets caught up in his mic lead and trapped around his neck, so he gives up and carries on, dragging this twin tether around like some archaic prisoner harness. It adds a hint of jeopardy to that dance, and as Twonkey wades into the audience to stroke someone with the lollypop of a Christmas pudding spider or make us sniff cheese garnished with a whiff of Taylor Swift, there’s as much hilarity about the rope-based carnage being wrought behind him. By crikey, it’s funny though. Vickers is an interesting character offstage and on: he was formerly the man behind the credible indie rock band Dawn of the Replicants, and backing the bedlam here there’s a clever soundtrack burbling away, while Mr Twonkey can certainly belt out a tune. Las Vegas may still be a little way off though. / Si Hawkins

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VENUE:

Reviews

Evelyn Mok: Hymen Manoeuvre HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 6:00pm – 7:00pm, 2–27 Aug, not 14 £7 – £9

Evelyn Mok is an Eastern girl with some simple, Western ambitions – “Cake over dick any day, that’s my motto”. Ethnicity, food and sex form the building blocks for a solid debut Fringe hour in Hymen Manoeuvre, as she recounts in excruciating detail the experiences that have come to define her. Born in Sweden to Chinese

parents—with a touch of Indian heritage thrown in for good measure—Mok is a modern paradigm of multiculturalism, although she hasn’t necessarily felt the benefits herself. A confusing childhood left her with a muddled sense of identity, but now she’s reaping the rewards in terms of authentic material if nothing else. Actively eschewing the “naïve damsel in distress” tag people have pegged her with because of her Asian background, she now represents a sort of female answer to the schlubby Judd Apatow archetype. A cake-obsessed, sexually repressed self-deprecator for the Sex in the City generation. It’s more interesting than it is funny, but her lethargic, rambling

delivery does contain enough payoffs to merit the pedestrian pace. She specialises in withering sass, although she does take the time to explain the emotional and physical fallout of her first sexual encounter. Generally it feels organic and homegrown, which anchors the show in a comfortingly honest vibe. Anecdotal humour works best when it’s paired with humble sincerity, and that’s mostly what she offers (an extended tale about adult virginity wouldn’t really work were it not tethered to some kind of earnest reflection). Perhaps the running time stretches her material a little too thin, but she’s bound to fulfil the hype surrounding her soon. / Matthew Sharpe

eternal six-year-old, a figment of Big Howard’s imagination brought to life via a projected animation with whom BH interacts, bickers, fights and by whom he is consistently undermined. It’s a double act in all but the fact that only one of the parties is alive. And it’s a lovely dynamic. BH is bumbling, well intentioned, apologetic. LH is an assured idiot, consistently tactless without a second thought. Given the technical constraints, LH has to have ‘lines’, and the contrast with BH’s halting, more unsteady delivery is good fun.

There’s a not-entirely-wholehearted attempt to inject some weightier themes in here – politics and diversity for instance. But one suspects these are just handy hooks to hang the silliness on. This is the first adult show the experienced kids entertainer has put together involving Little Howard in years, and he hasn’t attempted to change his modus operandi for the sake of some stupid adults. Read is strongest when he is silliest. And this show is delightfully silly.

Big Howard Little Howard: Man and Boy HHH

TIME:

Banshee Labyrinth 4:20pm – 5:20pm, 5–27 Aug, not 10, 11

TICKETS:

FREE

Comedy

VENUE:

If you don’t like a well-worked fart gag, then this isn’t the show for you. There are other issues for you, too, but the main point here is that Howard Read (Big Howard) and his cartoon companion (Little Howard) have constructed an excellent and lengthy fart joke, which sets the tone for a fun and polished hour of technical wizardry and good-natured gags. And some farts. The setup is as follows: Big Howard is a real man (genuinely, he’s quite big and 100 per cent real). Little Howard is not. He’s an

/ Evan Beswick

29 OFF THE KERB PRODUCTIONS IN ASSOCIATION WITH UNIVERSAL PICTURES (UK) LTD PRESENTS

www.offthekerb.co.uk

THE BIGGEST AND FUNNIEST SHOW AT THE FRINGE!

COMEDY

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HOSTED BY

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7.30PM FRI 18 AUG EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE

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a new comedy revue by Richard Sparks

‘Will enthral and enchant all who venture through this theatricum botanicum’ 2PM (3PM)

02-28 AUGUST Until 28 August2017 2017

Infant Hercules HH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Just the Tonic at The Caves 11:00pm – 12:00am, 3–27 Aug, not 14, 21 £5

The Fringe is bloated with middleclass drama students and is more expensive for those performing than it is for those coming to watch the shows. This squeezes out less well-off artists and creates an imbalance of voices on the comedy circuit. That’s a pretty succinct way of expressing what Chris McGlade sets out to argue with his hour-long show Infant Hercules, only without the 60 minutes of invective and misplaced rage that goes along with it. Chris McGlade is a proud working class man from the ‘boro (Middlesborough that is, the Infant Hercules of the title, which refers to the town’s strong industrial past) who laments his place as an ‘inbetweener’ in the comedy world: too working class for the “liberal

Patrick Turpin: Itty Bitty Little Titty Piece HH VENUE: TIME:

Comedy

TICKETS:

Underbelly, Cowgate 10:40pm – 11:40pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14 £9 – £10

Patrick Turpin spends much of this show labouring under the notion that tedious, puerile schtick will accrue greater comic value the longer he persists with it. The hour sees him wag dildo after dildo in our faces, while making constant refer-

London comedy circuit” and too intelligent for the “Northern working men’s club circuit”. He has several legitimate beefs but never quite manages to legitimise them, instead spouting boringly offensive Jimmy Saville references and a misguided fat-shaming diatribe that comes only 20 minutes after defending the health problems of the working class and the conglomerates making them obese.

The show lacks dynamism and however much McGlade tries to propel it on through, shouting louder just makes for an uncomfortable hour that he may interpret as people being scared of the truth, but in reality is just an audience waiting for it to be over. He claims to be fighting for change, but his views on race, sexuality and class divides show a man unwilling to embrace it. / John Stansfield

ence to dicks – mostly his own, but also ours. The first appearance of a sex toy on stage is met with only a few generous chuckles and this reaction diminishes over the course of the gig. His persistence achieves nothing other than to make the set’s non-dick-related highlights seem like moments of sheer luck. The root of Itty Bitty Little Titty Piece’s problems is that Turpin is a peculiarly charmless performer, over-familiar when he strives to be confrontationally weird. Lou Sanders, the show’s director, has form for testing audiences’ patience thresholds, but almost always gets away with self-indulgence because

her own incredulous amusement is so infectious. Her protege comes across as entitled by contrast, taking liberties with our time before we’ve even established a rapport. The act’s ambition and determination to produce work which is decidedly offbeat is to be applauded, while the strength of some ideas buried beneath the dick material suggests that this may just be a misfire. Any enjoyment to be had from his more inventive moments is tempered by the repeated promise that he’ll soon get back to the penis humour, and we’re left wondering if this is what he thinks we really want.

/ Lewis Porteous

31 Reviews

Athena Kugblenu: KMT HH

TIME:

TICKETS:

Underbelly Med Quad 5:50pm – 6:50pm, 2–27 Aug, not 14 £10 – £11

While it would be an exaggeration to describe this afternoon’s incredibly subdued performance of KMT as a failure, neither is it anything approaching a success. Athena Kugblenu is an intelligent, purposeful comedian who takes her inability to set the room alight in good stead. Smiling comfortably even as her material is met with silence, she is evidently less interested in pandering to our tastes and sensibilities than in being honest and true to herself. This isn’t a confrontational hour of standup, but one which is warm, passionate and, unfortunately, flat. The comedian addresses issues as pertinent as diminishing public services, British imperialism and white privilege, making points with

Matt Forde: A Show Hastily Written in Light of Recent Events - Again! HH VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 8:30pm – 9:30pm, 2–27 Aug £12 – £14

The right and left are brought in for mild bashings in this satirical standup show, although the comedy stays mostly in the middle

display here, but it the performer has to rethink her priorities if she’s to harness it effectively. KMT— which stands for Kiss My Teeth, a Jamaican expression—is too literal an hour of progressive thought. Were Kugblenu to experiment more with form, her material could really start to soar, or at least surprise us.

which the largely left wing Fringe audience already seems to agree. In the context of a mixed bill circuit gig, these routines could doubtless seem brave, challenging and insightful. Here, Kugblenu is preaching to the largely unimpressed choir, her words reduced to little more than a soothing balm. There’s a lot of potential on

/ Lewis Porteous

of the road. Forde, host of Dave’s topical comedy show Unspun and presenter of his own podcast The Political Party, is an excellent mimic. He brings out a very bumbly Boris Johnson, a jolly-raging Nicola Sturgeon and a metal-loving Ed Miliband (he’s been sitting in for Jeremy Vine on his Radio 2 show recently, Forde explains). Presumably conscious of how hard to swallow his pro-Blair stance has been for some in the past, he’s added a bit about Tony dodging questions on war crimes. Saving the best for last, his manbaby impression of Donald Trump

gets the most laughs. The man once poetically described as “a mangled apricot hellbeast” by Scottish people on Twitter is imagined here, in a cream puff after not being invited to a children’s party. Leadership problems within UKIP and the DUP (“more UVF than IVF”) all get a pasting here too. Funny as much of it is, it’s all very measured, and seems to pull its punches when it comes to big, belly laugh punchlines. Attempts at audience banter fall flat once or twice too, but the lukewarm bits are carried along by Forde’s smooth style. / Claire Sawers

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VENUE:

Assembly Festival presents

‘Transit evokes the spirit of

JOIE DE VIVRE’ The Circus Diaries

Created by Directed by Alexandre Fecteau

THERE IS NOTHING THESE RISING CIRCUS STARS FROM QUEBEC DON’T DARE TO DO Following the success of the 2016 Fringe Hit Attrape Moi, Flip Fabrique returns with a new show.

TV Bomb

ThreeWeeks

Theatre Weekly

18:00

3 - 28 AUG

‘Tr ue cir cu s AT ITS BE ST ’ Edinburgh Guide

‘If you see one show at the Fringe

MA KE IT TH IS ON E ’ EdFringe Review

Mouthpiece Fearless performances and phenomenal choreography exploring bereavement and womanhood HHHHH

Credit: Brooke Wedlock

PAGE 36

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Reviews

Un Poyo Rojo

Around the world, he’s rallying by torchlight in the state of Virginia. He’s pushing women in front of buses on Putney Bridge. He’s picking up his paycheck at BBC Towers, penning anti-diversity memos to his fellow Google bros, tweeting his way to nuclear armogeddon. What about that guy? Won’t someone think about him? Argentine duo Luciano Rosso and Alfonso Barón find him—where else?—down the gym in Un Poyo Rojo. This is what you might call Locker Room Dance. Dressed in vests and short shorts, the two men trot through a compendium of male movement. They mime phones and down pints, drop press ups and shadow box. It’s a face-off, a play fight; two skaters swapping tricks. Their dances swing from masc to femme, manly to camp. Dick swinging hip-hop drops to hair-flicking drag; Brazilian capoeira gives way to muscular ballet; Beyoncé to MJ to shake, rattle and roll. Even here there’s a spectrum. It’s brilliantly witty – like banter in dance. Towel flicking contests twist into bullfights. Suspicion and brickmanship reign supreme, but beneath, there’s a sadness – the silence within. The two of them stop, and slip into sighs. Rosso toys with a cigarette or 10, fashioning a mask for himself out of fags. You sense, if not a death wish, then depression setting in. Live radio provides the soundtrack – from Front Row to club anthems. As they vie for control of the tuning dial, male voices talk Venezuela, then Razorlight kicks in. Barón wants talk radio; Rosso wants bass beats. Serious man versus partyboy who just wants to get fucked. Out of that comes a tussle that provides the main thrust. Homoeroticism wrestles with homophobia throughout – not prejudice exactly, but fear of what might lurk within. Again and again, the two inch together. Again and again, they push each other away. It’s steamy as hell; sometimes tender, then uptight. It’s as if men are themselves lockers: steely on the outside, secrets within. Onstage, real men are salesman – from Willy Loman to the sharks of Glengarry Glen Ross. The pair in Different Party, not so much. Grareth Krubb and Dennis Chang—aka Ruck’s Leather Interiors—are the bumbling creations of Kiwi comics Trygve Wakenshaw and Barnie Duncan. One’s squeezed into his blazer.

Trygve Wakenshaw & Barnie Duncan: Different Party

«««« Dance Base, 7:15pm – 8:15pm, various dates between 4 Aug and 27 Aug, £12

«« Assembly Roxy, 8:30pm – 9:30pm, 2–27 Aug, not 14, £10.50 – £12

Jelly Beans ««« Pleasance Courtyard, 3:15pm – 4:15pm, 2–28 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8 – £10

Credit: Ishka Michocka

LEAD THEATRE CRITIC

Matt Trueman Reviews

What a piece of work is a man? If this year’s Fringe has been big on binning old binaries—and rightly so—where does that leave the once great white male?

Un Poyo Rojo

festmag.co.uk

Credit: Sarah Walker

Theatre

Trygve Wakenshaw and Barnie Duncan - Different Party

Jelly Beans

The other’s swamped by his. It’s a staple situation: the banality of carpet tiles and flip charts juxtaposed with absurd flights of fancy. It’s an expression of the emptiness of nine-to-five life, as sales speak becomes babble and briefcases become pets. Different Party’s best when it commits to that world—there’s a neat running gag about endless cups of coffee—but too often, Wakenshaw and Duncan resort to stock tricks. Good as their animal acts and jelly legs are, they never add up to a theory of man. The Fringe has seen this before and, frankly, seen it done better. Unemployment’s not the answer, mind – that goes without saying. In Dan Pick’s debut play Jelly Beans a young bloke from Port Glasgow with too much time on his hands wallows in his bedroom, wanking himself silly. Webcams by choice – he likes the authenticity. Young girls with braces. Fannies with flaws. This is a guy who sees through the fakery of contemporary consumerism, but still buys into it. He knows Pop Tarts are synthetic shite, but they’re still his breakfast of choice. He counts jelly beans

in amongst his five a day. And he spots the bullshit of movie men a million miles off: Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, cool as a cuke; Bruce Willis in Die Hard, chiselled as fuck; every suave-ass, wise-cracking, black-tied James Bond. Only the image still soaks into his subconscious. How could it not? It’s why he feels so wasted, “so full of potential”. It’s why obesity disgusts him when it mobility scoots by. It’s why he snaps in the supermarket and fucks in pub loos. It’s why he keeps all his hurt to himself. Strong and silent, like. Strong and stable. Adam Harley’s anything but. With his trousers rolled up and his check shirt tucked in, he seems kind of sweet. Goofy even. Less so with his face and clothes coated in blood. His eyes glaze over. Joylessness kicks in. Pick writes in high definition, zooming in on every sweat gland and semen stain in sight. It takes you right inside his protagonist’s head but (and it’s a big but) to exactly what end? The effect is a cartoon masculinity, Martin Amis stylee, that gets its kicks from the very thing it sets out to condemn.

Gimme Five Mouthpiece «««««

Wild Bore ««««

Credit: Joel Clifton

"What makes Mouthpiece extraordinary is how much is contained within it" – p. 36

"They fight against critical arrogance by creating a show which descends into exhilarating, but tightly-planned chaos" – p. 41

Mouthpiece

Lula del Ray by Manuel Cinema ««« "They create a cinematic world right before our eyes; technically, this is an extraordinary endeavour" – p. 42

Staging Wittgenstein «« "There are similarities to improv exercises, but it largely feels like the performers are mucking about" – p. 45

No Miracles Here «« Theatre

"This is an irritatingly cloying and upbeat exploration of mental health which only hints at the extreme sickness many have to endure" – p. 45

tained within it. The pairing of two people is used to achieve a myriad HHHHH of different effects, through which daughterly bereavement becomes a conduit for the dissection of VENUE: CanadaHub @ King’s Hall in association with Summerhall womanhood itself. Inner conflict is cleverly staged as Sadava parodies TIME: 3:30pm – 4:30pm, various Nostbakken’s dilemmas about what dates between 3 Aug and to wear to the funeral – capturing 27 Aug how simultaneously crucial and TICKETS: £10 crass this decision feels. ReflecMouthpiece centres around a tions on her mother’s restricted writer who, after the death of her diet are counterpointed with a mother, cannot speak – but must sales pitch on restrictive garments give a eulogy at the funeral. It is – and, at one point, Sadava adopts also—ironically—a show in full, an external voice to critique the formidable voice: the two perprivilege contained in the piece. The sheer weight of oppression formers, Norah Sadava and Amy on female experience is brilliantly Nostbakken, together deliver one accumulated, as the script cites woman’s private, grieving tirade adverts, magazines, jokes, films, through dialogue, song, ululation insults – and even the science of and screams. Mouthpiece looks at how important and inconceivable it tone, around which contradictofeels to represent the life of anoth- ry things are expected (low for er; a lone microphone, the symbolic power, high for feminine). By being rooted in the story of the piece, site of the eulogy, acts as a kind this doesn’t feel moralising – but of vacillating magnet – a lure one make no mistake, this is an angry, minute, repellent the next. What makes Mouthpiece extraor- punishing piece; exhausting even. It is also relevant, vital, and may dinary, aside from the utterly fearless performances and phenomenal leave you, too, speechless. choreography, is how much is con/ Polly Checkland Harding

HHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Summerhall 1:10pm – 2:10pm, 2–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21 £15

“Proposition, dilemma, response.” That’s theatre, according to Anthony Nicholl, the worldrenowned actor who’s giving a masterclass today. So, what do we have here then? Proposition: Nicholl gives a focused lesson in acting to enthusiastic student, Promise. He encourages her to dig into her history, to mine it for drama. Robert Goodale is spot on as the the avuncular, respected expert, bumbling

The Man on the Moor HHHH VENUE: TIME:

Theatre

TICKETS:

Underbelly, Cowgate 3:00pm – 4:00pm, 3–27 Aug £9.50 – £10.50

On 12 December 2015, a body was found on Saddleworth Moor in the Peak District. The man, in his 60s, wasn’t identified for more than a year. In Britain, someone goes missing every eight minutes. Of those, 2,000 people a year never come back. In his one-man show, author and performer Max Dickins is inspired by the story of the man on the moor to look at the reasons someone goes missing and the effects on their loved ones. Dickins is captivating as

but assured. Jade Ogugua excels as the nervous (at first), compliant Promise. Both give the necessary spontenaity to Graham Eatough’s script. Dilemma: Nicholl is white, male, of means. Promise is black, female. She was born in Nigeria but fled with her mother to England in the hope of escaping their corrupt, exploited, polluted home. Nicholl is in charge and pushes Promise into uncomfortable territory. Promise goes along with it, at first willingly and, increasingly, reluctantly. It’s uncomfortable, sure. But theatre is about having the space to explore this stuff, right? It’s an egalitarian platform for finding the truth, right? The same sort of truth that Nicholl found all those years ago on a field trip to Africa. There, in a circle in the bush, they

experienced real theatre, a ritual unsullied by the chaos of Western life, and the artifice of our theatre. Response: fireworks. Central to How to Act are issues of ownership and power. Who owns the territory and the resources – the stage being both of those things? Through whose lens is truth seen? If this all sounds laid on thick, it’s not, and that’s the strength here. Eatough’s production leads us through wideeyed enthusiasm at the start of the masterclass. Cracks start to appear, but we brush them off, until Promise’s discomfort becomes untenable and things fall apart. There’s a slighty off ending – symbolic where all else has been naturalistic. But it’s just a way of pulling the escape chord. By that point, the train has been wrecked. Transformative. / Evan Beswick

Credit: Martin Hodgkiss

How to Act

Matthew, a fictional character based on another real-life disappearance, whose father vanished more than 20 years ago. He sees an article about the man on the moor, and believes it’s his dad. He’s one of 40 people who contacted the police after seeing footage of the man on the moor— eventually discovered to be David Lytton—believing him to be their missing relative. This highlights the tricks the brain can play to make you see what you want to see. The results of a DNA test come in, and Matthew goes through his

dad’s belongings, trying to find clues he may have missed before. He realised that he didn’t really know him at all— “There’s a core of us all that’s unreachable”—and in that knowledge, finds catharsis. The writing is where the play shines. The language is intricate and lyrical, drawing you into the story. There are some wonderfully poetic lines, and Dickins interweaves fact and fiction, looking into the minds of those left behind. To be missing, says Matthew, you have to be missed. You’d be a fool to miss this. / Rosie Bannister

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A deadly contagion. A society segregated. A forbidden love...

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The Old Vic, Edinburgh International Festival and Karl Sydow production

HHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Traverse Theatre times vary, 8–27 Aug, not 14, 21 £21.50

If you ever feel that theatre critics are just talking out of their arses, this show’s for you. Three female comedians—Adrienne Truscott, Ursula Martinez and Zoe Coombs Marr—let out a stream of quotes from theatre reviews, their bums perched in front of microphones. The three performers have surprisingly expressive rear ends,

Fag/Stag HHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Underbelly, Cowgate 4:00pm – 5:00pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14 £11.50 – £12.50

We’re probably not lacking plays about how tough it is to be a straight, white male. But that’s technically only half of Australian theatre company The Last Great Hunt’s Fag/Stag – and, besides, this is actually an astute, knottily funny exploration of identity and friendship. Jimmy and Corgan became friends through Corgan’s ex-girlfriend. Now, as her wedding approaches, Jimmy has just broken up with his boyfriend and Corgan is lost. Together, they have Donkey Kong, but that might not be enough. Fag/Stag is written and performed by Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Chris Isaacs. As Jimmy and Corgan, they sit side by side, perched on stools,

which bounce or vibrate with rage, or swallow pens in bafflement. But this is no incontinent flow of verbal diarrhoea: the joy of Wild Bore is the craft that’s gone into repurposing these reviews, patterning them and burrowing into their meaning. The critical voices that get the biggest laughs are the old farts, puffed up with fury at the very idea that theatre they don’t like should have been allowed to come into being. But Wild Bore shows that all theatre criticism deserves to be criticised and satirised, whether it’s vitriolic or dripping with well-meaning sympathy. The artists focus on the phrase “for no apparent reason”, showing

talking to us and each other. One’s narrative mirrors the other’s as they let slip telling details. The play drills insightfully into the misunderstanding, resentment and affection fuelling Jimmy and Corgan’s odd-couple friendship. Their wildly differing interpretations of the same events switch from spikily amusing to sad in a beat. Fowler and Isaacs make each falter interesting. As Jimmy, Fowler is a rapid-talking bundle of quick wit, defensiveness and vulnerability. Isaacs wears Corgan’s smile like a mask. In subtle ways, their script catches the complexity and pitilessness of that lurking feeling that you’re not quite fulfilling your ‘role’, whether as a gay man or a ‘bloke’. The result is a comedy that builds on its ‘bromance’ foundations into a satisfyingly unforced portrait of trying to work out who you are and where you fit. It unfolds with all the messy awkwardness, edges and humour of real life.

/ Tom Wicker

how theatre critics assume that anything they don’t understand is either sloppiness or random whimsy. They fight against this tide of critical arrogance by creating a show which descends into exhilarating, but tightly planned chaos: each shitting, prancing, penis nose-wearing moment of insanity is a meta-theatrical callback to their critics’ words. Predictably, Wild Bore does periodically disappear up its own arse, muddying its power with pettiness or tightly-wound, inward-looking analysis of what it all means. But it’s still so much hilarious, filthy fun: you come out feeling slightly soiled, gasping for air. / Alice Saville

festmag.co.uk

Wild Bore

Reviews

Mia: Daughters of Fortune HHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Summerhall 2:45pm – 3:45pm, 8–27 Aug, not 14, 21 £10

This show from the terrific Mind the Gap theatre company sets out to explore “the truths and myths about learning difficulties and parenthood in today’s society”. It’s a failure if taken entirely on these terms. The vast majority of its audience

will enter the room aware that many people with learning difficulties are sexually active and in possession of fully functioning reproductive organs. The conflict between an individual’s right to autonomy over their own body and the availability of public resources required to ensure parents and children receive the care and support they need is a stark case of idealism versus pragmatism, an ethical debate in which concepts of truth and myth are rendered almost redundant. Mia: Daughters of Fortune is wholly successful if approached as a provocative exercise in hu-

manising an issue that many prefer to look at coldly from a position of detachment. It’s refreshing and important to see charismatic marginalised people celebrate their stories, their dreams and their very existence, as they do here. The cast members are comfortable breaking from their script to engage in improvisation, and the distinct personalities of all four come across throughout bold and imaginative set pieces. Each is clearly aware of their own limitations and of the responsibility to plan and take ownership of significant life decisions.

/ Lewis Porteous

Lula del Ray by Manual Cinema VENUE: TIME:

Theatre

TICKETS:

Underbelly Med Quad 4:30pm – 5:35pm, 2–28 Aug, not 14 £12.50 – £14

For all the praise that has already been heaped on Manual Cinema for the novelty, creativity and sheer imaginative chutzpah of what they do, it’s not enough. For those who didn’t catch last year’s hit Ada/ Ava, Manual Cinema’s USP is to create, well, a cinema experience, manually. Using a combination of overhead projections, colour slides and human actors in silhouette—as well as a live band—they create a cinematic world right before our eyes. Technically, this is an extraordinary endeavour. It’s also a delightful aesthetic, the clunky lo-fi feel easily spanning the sweetness of young Lula’s caravan home, to the meanness of the big city; from the bright stars of

Courtesy of Jerry Shulman

HHH

the night sky to the bright lights of a starry concert. It’s here Lula runs to, having become infatuated with crooners “The Baden Brothers”. The manner of production undoubtedly influences the style, but that’s not too much of an issue. There’s enough variety to keep this a visual feast. But, perhaps, it’s all a bit too much like the silver screen the team so ably usurp: all superficial sheen, but no real heart. That’s not to say that there isn’t pathos: Lula is a likeable, sweet character. But

somewhere the story gets lost in the telling. Her motivations aren’t believable. There’s a slightly clunky point made which paints lovely Lula in contrast with the 2D pop stars she idolises. The conceit that some 2D projections are more equal than others isn’t the epiphany maybe it thinks it is – a weak denouement looking for a route to an ending. And Lula’s final transformation into an astronaut feels like a go-girl message which has neither been fought for nor won over the course of the show. / Evan Beswick

Offside HHH VENUE: TIME:

In the fight for female equality, sport is a significant battleground. Sabrina Mahfouz and Hollie McNish’s Offside shines a spotlight on football, intercutting three years spanning more than a century—1892, 1921 and 2017—to explore the struggles and sheer determination of women players in the UK. In 2017, Mickey (Tanya-Loretta Dee) and Keeley (Jessica Butcher) are about to embark on training for England’s women’s national football team. As they pursue their dream, they remember—and Dee and Butcher play—their real-life heroes: Emma Clarke, the first black professional player in the 1800s, and Lilly Parr, who had to face the FA’s 1920s ban on women using FA pitches after the war. Offside throws up some illuminating details about an important part of the women’s movement, including Parr’s open relationship with another woman. There’s also a well-handled, dispiriting connection between the infuriated men who invade the pitch to expose the legs of Clarke’s team, and the patronising, prying fascination of today’s media with Mickey and Keeley’s bodies and private lives. Dee and Butcher breathe life and energy into the pair, capturing their defiance and uncertainty, while switching seamlessly to Clarke and Parr. Caroline Bryant’s production sometimes hammers home the inspirational theme a little too hard, while audience-facing monologues cumulatively slow down the pace, leaving the show feeling choppy. But there are moments of real poetry and passion in this tribute to the women who have fought to play the beautiful game. / Tom Wicker

festmag.co.uk

Credit: Lidia Crisafulli

TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 3:40pm – 4:40pm, 2–28 Aug, not 14, 21 £9 – £12

Reviews

Hear Me Raw HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Underbelly, George Square 2:40pm – 3:40pm, 2–27 Aug, not 14 £9 – £10

It is, of course, tricky territory to stomp around on, writing about how a performer looks. Especially when reviewing a show which focuses on self-perception and its connection to anxiety and eating disorders. Especially when the performer in question is writing and performing autobiographically, and painfully honestly. Especially when that’s so tied up with how women are made to feel in a society where ‘wellness’ presents an ideal not necessarily of women's own design. But, as oafish as it sounds, Daniella Isaacs glows throughout this performance. That’s only important as it’s central to why this piece is so unsettling – this is definitely theatre and not straight confessional, and

Last Resort HH VENUE: TIME:

Theatre

TICKETS:

Summerhall times vary, 2–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21 £10

We are greeted with a cocktail, a Cuba libre; “communist rum and American capitalist Coca-Cola.” Deckchairs in a particular shade of orange are arranged in rows, with bags of sand (“your own private beach”) at their feet. Inescapably, however, the basement space has a penal, bunker feel... because this, in an imagined future, is the Guantanamo Bay private holiday resort.

one can assume that the look is part of the design. Daniella Isaacs is a wellness blogger. Anxiety issues led her into the glossy maze of wellness and clean eating, where she became thoroughly lost. But it’s not entirely clear that she’s found her way out. Voices talk to her from pots of matcha and tubs of almond butter – voices that it’s unlikely have been silenced just yet. Letters from her doctors are shown – presumably as part of an ongoing conversation. She looks great and exudes wellness – which gets to the heart of why this illness

is so pernicious and destructive. What’s healthy, and what’s sick? It’s a clever staging, which treads a line between what’s inside and outside of her head. It’s not all smart choices. There’s a slightly coddish section on the link between “control” and eating disorders that spells out issues more powerfully shown in previous scenes, and a few bum jokes (quinoa has been thoroughly milled for comic potential). But, overall, this is a powerful and personal piece, with nuanced theatrical telling. / Evan Beswick

Late checkout is standard, early checkout is “subject to availability”. Drawing on research with MOD-trained interrogators and the human rights charity Reprieve, Last Resort highlights the abominations faced by Gitmo detainees by distorting typically innocent leisure activities. In a 'stretching' session, the audience adopts what is actually a stress position, and is told to hold it for “one, two, three, four... hours” – the maximum time legally. Bingo becomes a sprightly roll call of appalling facts; number 20 – the hour limit for a continuous interrogation. Horror, then, is in no shortage here – but the gravity of the show’s subject and intent is let down by

the two performers, or resort 'reps'. Menace is diffused by flat delivery, with awkward, drawn-out interactions such as a discussion over banned books sapping tension. During the show, the audience shifts from the position of detainee, rather grimly induced to imagine being waterboarded in a 'meditation' session, to a far more complicit position. Watching one of the performers choking as he is force-fed a jerry can of mixed alcohol—which we have had a hand in adding to—no one moves. The brutal culpability entailed in this experience is the most powerful sequence in an otherwise oddly sluggish piece of theatre.

/ Polly Checkland Harding

45 Reviews

Staging Wittgenstein

TIME:

TICKETS:

C venues – C 7:40pm – 8:25pm, 2–28 Aug, not 9, 16, 23 £9.50 – £11.50

For 45 minutes, two people try to get themselves inside giant, human-sized balloons while speaking gibberish and disordered language. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes the balloons burst. That’s it. According to its programme listing, the point of this piece is to “explore and celebrate” language. Re-ordering the words in the balloons’ instructions for inflation only barely does this. People making noises at each other while fighting to wrap themselves in broken balloons certainly does not. The production is improvisational at its core due to the constant potential for explosions, though there are two clear sections of the show. Within these sections, anything can happen, but due to the lack of comprehensible language, the stakes

No Miracles Here HH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Northern Stage at Summerhall 11:00am – 12:00pm, 5–26 Aug, not 9, 16, 23 £12

The thing about life, yeah, is it’s a bit like a dance marathon.The kind that was popular in America during the Great Depression, specifically. Like, there’s so much pressure on us, the ‘participants’, to keep on dancing, yeah? But what if various factors

are low for the performers – it’s impossible for the audience to tell if they are making mistakes or getting it spot on. There are similarities to improv exercises in the second part, but it largely feels like the performers are mucking about. An on-stage assistant supplies additional balloons as needed and helps with the hoover required to inflate these monstrosities. She is cold and functional, though her occasional laughter betrays an

inconsistent professionalism. Despite the baffling lack of purpose to this work, there are moments that are genuinely funny. The performers are physically adept and create some good physical comedy along the way. And someone bouncing around the stage, with only their silver, swimming-capped head showing, is a hilarious image. But there’s little else of merit in this performance art piece.

prevent us from doing so? Don’t want be knocked out the running of this crazy dance marathon known, quite simply, as life. The Letter Room are here to tell us it’s okay to do our own thing on this metaphorical dance floor – a noble sentiment, but one which would perhaps be better expressed in a less chirpy manner.This is an irritatingly cloying and upbeat exploration of mental health which only hints at the extreme sickness many have to endure. No sooner have we been introduced to our house band and its

frontman Ray do we learn that the reluctant star is feeling down.The circumstances of his depression are never satisfactorily explored, nor is his present frame of mind.The character goes on to reveal that he has been having suicidal thoughts, but without having first earned our emotional investment from a dramatic point of view. His redemption is soundtracked by tight and versatile, if ultimately unconvincing, musicianship.The performers of No Miracles Here seem to aim for wide-eyed, soulful conviction, but instead offer up sterile affectation. / Lewis Porteous

/ Laura Kressly

festmag.co.uk

VENUE:

Credit: Ella Barnes

Credit: Kat Gollock

Tomàs Ford's Crap Music Rave Party Next page (clockwise from top left): Reuben Kaye, Sage Francis & B. Dolan, Crap Music Rave Party, MANE, Tom Thum (of Jamie MacDowell & Tom Thum), Gingzilla, Mother's Ruin, Joren & Jascha, Hot Brown Honey

Fest Launch Party 2017 A

s is customary, we launched Fest for the 2017 festivals with a BIG FAT PARTY. Huge shouts to La Belle Angèle for hosting the evening, serving up fine bevs courtesy of Black Cow Vodka and Porter’s Gin – both consumed and enjoyed by the gallon. Thanks also to Swish for our très stylish Fest tote bags and, of course, to our very good pals at The Skinny for DJing in between acts. All absolute babes. Our first half was kicked off ably by Made in Adelaide star MANE (aka Paige Renee Court), who was followed by cabaret act Mother’s Ruin and 201 Dance Company’s dazzling SKIN – all bound together by our wonderful flamehaired compere Gingzilla, one of our issue 1 cover stars and an all-round Fest fave. We were all kept amused during the interval by some

unique entertainment involving that old classic combo of nudity and jelly from circus artists Joren and Jascha, before the fabulous Reuben Kaye took to the stage to host round two, spicing things up with some deliciously savage, acid-tongued chat. Jamie MacDowell and Tom Thum’s looping and beatboxing wizardry impressed us all – not least their successors, Sage Francis and B Dolan, who called Thum back on stage to backbeat some freestyle rap to close their set. The always amazing Hot Brown Honey then stormed the stage with a spirited rendition of ‘Don’t Touch My Hair’, before things concluded with the very-full-of-beans Tomàs Ford, whose Crap Music Rave Party kept us dancing into the wee hours... much to our delight the next day, as we ploughed through the issue 2 print deadline. No regrets! Thanks all!

DANCE CRITIC

Luocha Land from the National Theatre of China is set in the fictional country of its title. Maji (Miao Zhao) washes up after a plane crash and finds himself surrounded by demons, some of who want to befriend him, others to imprison him. While incarcerated he discovers there are other humans here, hiding as demons, and that the laws of good and evil are reversed. The land itself is beautifully evoked, with echoes of traditional pageantry and battle dances with long bamboo poles, all backed by a rowdy soundtrack. Multi-eyed masks representing the demons are held inches from the face to uncanny effect. As a theatrical experience it’s beguiling, and the theme of hostility towards otherness comes through. The only drawback is that it feels like the Mandarin dialogue cannot be done justice by the small snippet summaries projected onto the backcloth. However, this mythical tale conjures up the awe-inspiring spirit of traditional storytelling. The Dance Double Bill in the Arab Arts Focus programme had the aim of showcasing artists from Egypt and Palestine and exploring identity in the context of their homelands. However when we arrive at Summerhall’s Demonstration Room, choreographer Shaymaa Shoukry has an announcement. The UK Home Office has denied visas to Nagham Saleh and Hamza Damra. Saleh applied twice but was turned down on the grounds that she did not have enough money to support herself, despite the festival providing evidence of their financial support, and in Damra’s case the UK did not believe he was a student. The denial of visas to artists from the Middle East is a troubling and increasing practice, brought to the headlines earlier in the year when Iranian illustrator Ehsan Abdollahi was only granted a visa to appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival after festival director Nick Barley led a public campaign for his case. More recently Conchita Wurst’s Syrian band members were also denied visas. Shoukry has arranged for video excerpts of each scheduled piece to be shown as well as another of her own pieces, performed by Mahmoud el Haddad, a tribute to endurance that sees him running in circles to the

Luocha Land ««« C venues – C, run ended

Arab Arts Focus: Dance Double Bill Summerhall, 1:35pm – 2:20pm, 2–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £12

Border Tales ««««« Summerhall, 2:40pm – 4:00pm, 4–26 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £13

The Crossing Place Romantika « Upper Church @ Summerhall hosted by RBC, 10:30pm – 11:25pm, 4–27 Aug, not 14, 21, £7

Credit: Jane Hobson

Dance, Physical Theatre & Circus

Lucy Ribchester

While stories of unfamiliar places can broaden our understanding, tales of home are also useful to make us see it in a new light. Dance might not be the obvious choice for painting a map of the world, but with its sensory textures and visual details, it’s a medium that can strongly evoke a sense of place.

Border Tales

The Crossing Place

Luocha Land

point of exhaustion, while he states phrases that begin, "I will keep running until..." Though on video Shoukry’s piece danced by Saleh looks particularly interesting—textured movements based around shaking—it’s impossible to gain the same perspective on the work as a live performance would give. The absence of the artists makes for a bleak 45 minutes, and it doesn't feel appropriate to give a star rating in the circumstances. In light of this, Border Tales, also at Summerhall, feels an even more necessary piece of theatre. The production was created several years ago by Luca Silvestrini’s Protein in collaboration with London’s The Place, but has been updated to explore Brexit Britain via the experiences of its multicultural cast of seven. The action centres around a party Northerner Andy is throwing to try and prove his integration credentials. But his blundering attempts to virtue signal expose a petri dish of underlying bigotries. He doesn’t care about the correct pronunciation of names, he infantilises his guests, and while he loves to celebrate diverse foods and dances, he would prefer it if people from backgrounds different to his own stayed in the small boxes he has allocated for them. In the midst of all this, the cast members introduce themselves in dance-theatre solos. Temitope Ajose Cutting confronts us with the gestural stereotypes pro-

jected onto black women, the sassy finger snap and the booty-shaking dance. In a monologue she talks about her conflict between the Nigerian culture of her parents and the way she is bringing up her own children. Salah El Brogy sends up confused assumptions about Egyptian customs—”I eat humous five times a day”—while a harrowing passage sees him interrogated with personal questions while being kicked about by an unseen force. Always frank and unflinching, the tone veers between playful and sombre, and feels similar to the equally brilliant Nikesh Shukla-edited book, The Good Immigrant. Taking a demoralising, frightening issue and fighting it with wit and poetry cannot be an easy thing to do, but that is what Protein has achieved. Late night The Crossing Place takes us back into fictional territory, but it is a landscape inhabited only by the minds of its three performers, members of the collective Romantika. The piece has been devised around the poetry of Tomas Tranströmer, but unfortunately the young troupe has not created enough of a framework to illuminate their insights or share their connections. There is nothing here we might be able to latch onto: just random recitations accompanied by dance, and theatrical confections such as chucking flour around. The place it speaks of most is one of artistic privilege given free rein.

festmag.co.uk

Credit: Martin Bohm

Reviews

Attached HHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Underbelly, George Square 3:15pm – 4:15pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14, 21 £12 – £14

With all the charm and energy of street entertainment, Tiger Circus (in association with UK-based Lost in Translation) have combined the adrenaline factor of high risk acrobatics with playful scientific exploration to create a nearly wordless experiential lesson in practical physics. It is delightfully funny, while giving room for deeper reflections on force and effort too.

Company co-founder Manu Tiger is joined by Massimiliano Rossetti, who fills the role previously created by Magnus Bjøru perfectly. The pair are a living demonstration of action and reaction, gradually introducing parts to build increasingly complex Rube Goldberg constructions until every object in the room is utilised, including us—the audience—as essential components. My body is flooded with natural thrill hormones again and again until withdrawal symptoms begin to hit during the slower sections, where anticipation for the next experiment is coaxed out through the intrigue of preparation, accompanied by electric sound and silly jingles. Equal and opposite reactions

are displayed without ostentation through a range of teeterboard-based acrobatics, which include tiny scaled models that flip juggling balls in fascinating patterns, and a large curved metal bowl that adds extra frission to the exchanges between small wiry Tiger and massive Rossetti. Sports stadium floodlights and a training gym aesthetic are a neat reminder of the athletic edge that circus performers carry with them, while the open responsiveness of the two men connects us on a human level. Attachment, in this show, goes beyond the literal velcro suits, and reveals the natural laws that govern our physical existence.

/ Katharine Kavanagh

Arm – Mireille & Mathieu VENUE: TIME:

Dance, Physical Theatre & Circus

TICKETS:

Summerhall 4:20pm – 5:20pm, 4–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21 £10

Tattered dolls and cuddly toys are scattered around the room, inanimate until they grab the hungry attention of double act Mireille and Mathieu. Performing in a mixture of English, French and garbled nonsense, these riotous performers are just big kids. Their attention spins from one toy to the next, inventing stories that rip the objects from their original context. Babies box; Barbie and Ken get mixed up in a futuristic, Biblical fable; and mischievous rabbits play Knock-Down-Ginger. Aside from a misplaced phallic joke, the childish delight the pair

Credit: Wouter de Groot

HHH

instill ripples across the audience. The speed with which they change story, power structure and character keeps the energy high throughout. Mireille and Mathieu don’t hide their bodies like many puppeteers. They are as flexible, malleable and prone to manipulation as the toys they control. The pair race to catch up with each other and make us laugh even more. Mireille turns the ironing board into a horse—entirely believably—until Mathieu gets distracted

by a bin lid and the horse is discarded, its former use redundant. They communicate through their puppetry rather than directly in coversation, their domestics turning into childish tiffs. The duo aren’t afraid to be brutal with each other either, thumping and rolling their way across the stage. Top-notch tech isn’t needed to transport the audience in Arm, only a leap of imagination. At the end of this unruly performance, it seems appropriate that the toys get a round of applause too. / Kate Wyver

HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 2:30pm – 3:25pm, 2–28 Aug, not 14, 21 £10.50 – £13.50

As a strange school punishment in the 1960s, my mother was once made to write an essay on The Inside Of A Ping Pong Ball. Russian circus troupe Upsala have taken the abstract possibilities inherent in this concept further, and translated them to the stage. Huge kudos to director Larisa Afanasieva, not just for creating a well-rounded visual and sonic cohesion to the show, but also for her part in co-founding the 17-year-old social enterprise from which the 10 performers are drawn. Strands of the company’s work include

training street children, disabled youngsters and young offenders, and those selected for this project are experiencing international exchange for the first time. In the UK, certain preconceptions are often attached to youth performance, but the acrobatic skills of this troupe are unquestionable. Some of the cast have more stage presence and technical ability than others, but the sophistication of the musical accompaniment raises the show to a higher level. Composer Dmitry Maximachev (who also performs live with cellist Natalia Nazarova) builds a beautiful soundscape of

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interactive looping and electronic manipulation while onstage. Round white objects are manipulated more physically. A cyr wheel. Hula hoops. Drums. A giant crashmat and scores of the eponymous pingpong balls magically appearing and disappearing. Ensemble physical theatre choreographies are still basic, but concepts of scene segments are lovely and well executed with delightful use of lo-fi special effects that even garner their own applause. The Circus Hub is not the only place to see interesting international circus theatre explorations this month. / Katharine Kavanagh

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“determinedly confrontational and challenging” The Scotsman

“ Your imagination tingles: this is bold, breath-taking stuff.” The Herald

“a high-octane celebration of youthful optimism and desire” The List

TUTUMUCKY

PROCESS DAY

ZOO Southside Venue 82

by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar

VELVET PETAL: BEDROOM

ZOO Southside Venue 82 Tue 22 - Sat 26 August, 7:00pm £12/£10 concessions

Summerhall Venue 26

Thu 17- Sun 27 August (not 21, 22) 1:15pm, £10/£8 concessions

Book: 0131 662 6892 | zoofestival.co.uk

Book: 0131 560 1581 | summerhall.co.uk

by Botis Seva

Wed 16 - Sun 20 August, 7:00pm £12/£10 concessions

Book: 0131 662 6892 | zoofestival.co.uk

by Fleur Darkin

Part of British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2017

ZOO southside

scottishdancetheatre.com

festmag.co.uk

Reviews

The Ping-Pong Ball Effect

WINNER BARET ES B T CAng e 20 17 Ad ela ide Fri

e Fritz Magazin

er The Advertis

NOMINATED ET ABAR17 BESTFriC ng e Wo rld 20 Per th

Glam Adelaide

D O F LI ZA LOVE CH IL Y’ ‘T H E EV IL D JIM CARE AN LI EL N MIN Gu ide Brit ish The atre

Upside News

VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Paradise Palms 11:00pm – 3:00am, various dates between 2 Aug and 24 Aug FREE

A parade of the raunchiest and filthiest of drag artists might not be everyone’s cup of tea. But host Pollyfilla, the personification of mess and chaos, collects an impressive lineup of mostly bearded, torn-panties-wearing queens for this late night show nonetheless. All of them play with perceptions of gender and try to shock by leaving little to the imagination when it comes to the exact location of their genitals. They show butt cracks and pull bloodied items out of imaginary vaginas. More interestingly, all of them have political messages. The prime minister features an awful

Seven Crazy Bitches ««« VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Assembly Hall 7:00pm – 8:00pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14, 24 £9 – £11

Entering the stage in full Madonna garb, tinfoil wrapped around halo, Holly Morgan lives up to her selfstyled moniker, “Diva on a budget”. The Holy Virgin marks birth, as Morgan sets out to establish the seven stages of woman inspired by Shakespeare. So certain is she in her defiance of the Bard that she’s dragged him onto the stage (Morgan’s partner Tom Moores, trying on

a broad Brummie accent). It’s a bold and engaging hour of “standing cabaret” and self-love, rich in singing if not a complex exploration of the themes within. For every stage of woman there’s an anthem for Morgan to knock out of the park. Impersonations are exaggerated but impressive, parodying a range of styles from Britney to Shirley Bassey to Cher. Of course Morgan portrays Cher— she’s far too legendary a diva to leave out—and Morgan does not disappoint. Morgan and Moores share a

delightfully catty dynamic on stage, enhancing the subtext of whether capable women are celebrated as such or dismissed as “crazy bitches”. The discourse is teased at but never fully addressed. Morgan’s points are clever and she gleefully subverts ideas of mansplaining, but there’s not enough time to get into the real meat of women portrayed in the public eye. The spotlight on Stevie Nicks comes frustratingly close but errs more on self-indulgence so Morgan can live a fantasy on stage. More power to her: this eighth diva is a joy to behold. / Louise Jones

festmag.co.uk

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lot, as does Nicola Sturgeon. Sometimes it gets a bit too predictable: the Tories are bad, Corbyn is good. And some London-based artists still don’t know what to make of the call for Scottish independence. But hey, we’re in Scotland so it has to be mentioned. Over the course of just of a few minutes, drag artist The Night Bus effortlessly challenges Trump’s hypocrisy, Islamophobia and radicalisation, while fiercly lipsyncing and wooing the crowds. It’s performers like these who make a trip to Pollyanna worth while. Because, frankly, the execution of the cabaret could be improved upon: the show starts too late (“We’re on drag time!”) and what was announced as one-minute breaks between acts last 20 minutes. Some people walk out, but the majority of the crowd doesn’t mind it that much: they’re here to drink with their friends and be entertained. Once the show gets going, Pollyanna certainly succeeds in that. / Arnoud Breitbarth

Credit: Rod Penn

Pollyanna

Reviews

HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Sweet Grassmarket 5:55pm – 7:00pm, 3–27 Aug, not 15 £10

Divorced beheaded died, divorced beheaded survived. If you know the old rhyme then you almost know the plot to this refreshingly original new musical, performed by an all-female crew of Cambridge University students. Almost, because in the hands of writer Lucy Moss and co-writer/ composer Toby Marlow these wives are also popstars, battling it out in song. Forget deep psychological insights or feminist revisionist history – you’d be better off watching Lucy Worsley’s excellent BBC4 documentary series for that. This is an excuse to unleash pitchperfect pastiches of 21st century

Don Giovanni HH VENUE: TIME:

Musicals & Opera

TICKETS:

Festival Theatre 7:00pm – 10:20pm, 9 Aug, 11 Aug, 12 Aug £20

Iván Fischer’s 2015 outing at the EIF—of The Marriage of Figaro— was a whizzy, busy whirlwind of a performance. It’s difficult to escape the impression tonight that he’s trying his best to draw a contrast with that success. The stripped back staging (a “staged concert”, we’re told) is sparse and moody. The leads’ own evening dress is casual, nonspecific. Actually, that all works

Credit: Ruari Paterson-Achenbach

SiX

female-fronted pop, right down to the endless key changes and millennial whoops. Moss and Marlow revel in the ironic contrast between 16thcentury courtship and modern day X-Factor narratives of strength and girl power, and the cast have plenty of fun with their gleefully anachronistic lyrics. Anne of Cleves’ flattering portrait is the work of the Kraftwerk-tinged ‘Haus of Holbein’, and she’s keen to let us know that Henry’s codpiece was equally misleading. But alack-aday, this treatment doesn’t quite

work for the wives whose stories are sadder, or duller. Catherine Parr’s anti-love anthem is a weird choice for a woman famous for having had four husbands. And Catherine Howard’s number is just tasteless, turning the sexual abuse she suffered as a 13-year-old into a coquettish number which calls her a “little piece of ass”. Still, although parts of it could have done with the chop, this is a promisingly ambitious work from a young company who are more than ready to divorce musical theatre from its past. / Alice Saville

fine. But, oh, the pace. This is a plodding Don Giovanni that comes alive too seldom to engage. The odd staging is probably the best success here. Grey statuesque actors stand in for any discernable set, and the near-naked bodies drive home the hedonism of the hell Don Giovanni creates. They also provide for some fantastic imagistic moments, Leporello turning them like the pages of a book as he relates his master’s conquests. Strikingly, in the Commendatore’s terrifying scene, the statues move from largely passive to active, dragging the philanderer to hell. To which, Christopher Maltman is a solid lead, his sinuous lines and muscular presence proving thoroughly sinister.

But Fischer seems to aggressively clamp the brakes on the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Sometimes this works: Don Giovanni’s attempt to undermine Donna Elvira (‘Non ti fidar, o misera’) is glacial and excrutiating. It feels like Fischer has tried to apply this theory to the whole piece, though, slowly pouring any potentially exciteable babies out with the bathwater. It’s utterly disengaging, leaving us thoroughly unconcerned for the characters. The destruction that Don Giovanni leaves in his wake, the violence which drives much of the action, feels fake. There’s one moment in the finale of act I where Fischer releases his tight leash. It’s a peek at what this Don Giovanni might have been. / Evan Beswick

WEDNESDAY 16 AUGUST · 7.30pm A CHARITY GALA FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY IN AID OF SYRIA RELIEF

CREATOR & COMPOSER CHOREOGRAPHY

DAVID CAZALET

JASON MABANA

‘PASSAGES OF BEAUTY AND LAMENTATION’ THE STAGE

‘HAUNTING TO WATCH’ THE INDEPENDENT

‘THIS IS A POWERFUL STATEMENT OF INTENT’ THE TIMES

PLEASANCE AT EICC PLEASANCE.CO.UK · 0131 556 6550

#requeimforaleppo www.requiemforaleppo.com

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Credit: Mark Dawson Photography

KID CRITICS

Lauren & Seòras Kids

The Dark Room for Kids Lauren Hunter, aged 11, thought she’d be scared at this kids’ version of the hit game show, but ended up in stitches What happens in the show? “You find yourself in a dark, dark room!” Audience members are given options to try and escape, like you would in a video game, but can anyone succeed? Or will everyone just die, die, die?

What didn’t you like about the show? The projector could have been better but I think that was to do with the room.

Describe the show in five words Very, very, very, very dark.

What did you think of the music? The intro music was the famous song, ‘They’re Coming to Take me Away, HaHaaa!’ I don’t know if I love or hate this song! But I can see why John chose it.

Who was your favourite character and why? John Robertson made the whole thing flow perfectly. When I heard about the show I knew it was comedy, but I was expecting it to be scary with a few laughs – but it turned out to be much funnier than it was scary.

What did your grown-up think of the show? My mum enjoyed it but I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t put her hand up when he asked all of the parents in the room to put their hands up. She says she didn’t want to be told what to do!

What did you like most about the show? Disruptive things, because John could always use it to his advantage. When people came in late and opened the door the show could have been ruined by the light (because then the room wasn’t dark) – but John made it hilarious.

Would you tell your friends to come and see the show? Yes. But not if they are afraid of the dark.

VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Just the Tonic at The Community Project 4:30pm – 5:30pm, 4–27 Aug, not 14 £8 – £10

Credit: Pamela Raith Photography

The Giant Jam Sandwich Seòras Coxon, aged five, finds this show about a battle with a bunch of wasps very tasty indeed What happens in the show? The people sing a song called ‘Thump It, Bump It, Bang It About’, and go “shooo, shooo, shooo”. There’s a baker and a man that’s dressed like a pirate. There’s a lady that’s dressed as a farmer. They live in a town. One hundred million wasps come to that town and they kill them with a giant jam sandwich. Describe the show in five words Loud, colourful, bright, long, tuneful. Who was your favourite character and why? The man dressed like a pirate – because he was dressed up like a pirate and his voice was funny (Mum says this man is the town mayor). Were there any characters you didn’t like? The wasps and I didn’t like them because I didn’t like their stings. What did you like most about the show? Trapping the wasps was the best bit. I loved that the birds would have picked up the whole sandwich and dropped it in the sea.

What didn’t you like? I did not like the wasps being killed but I liked them being trapped. What did you think of the music? They were like a band of hyenas – funniest and great! What did your grown-up think of the show? My mum liked the bits where we all got to join in and sing or shout. Her favourite characters were definitely the wasps as they were really funny and there were bits that she laughed at. She said that it was a great show version of the book. (My brother who’s three also really liked the show – it was his first ever show and it wasn’t too scary for him, just good fun.) Would you tell your friends to come and see it? Yes I would.

VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 10:20am – 11:20am, 2–28 Aug, not 14 £9.50 – £11.50

Calvinball HHHH VENUE:

TIME:

TICKETS:

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – John Hope Gateway times vary, 5–27 Aug, not 8, 15, 22 £5

Who needs rules anyway? Certainly not Rhubard and Custard, the irrespressible hosts of Calvinball, Ipdip Theatre’s glorious show at the Royal Botanic Garden. And certainly not this audience of excited nought to five-year-olds, seated on blue tarpaulins in the dappled light under the trees. Inspired by the game played by cartoon duo Calvin and Harris, in which you make up the rules as you go along, the show is essentially an opportunity to lark about in the sunshine (or otherwise, as the case may be – this is Scotland after all). This deceptively simple concept gives the three-strong cast the flexibility to be responsive to the particular needs of each audience, ensuring that Calvinball appeals to

The Polar Bears Go Up HHH VENUE: TIME:

Kids

TICKETS:

Pleasance at EICC times vary, 10–27 Aug, not 14, 21, 23 £8

From their cosy flat to deep space, The Polar Bears Go Up stages a small-scale odyssey to rescue a balloon, switching from everyday routine to a full-blown chase sequence across any and every form of transport. The polar bears are a physically-

a broad range of ages and interests. Games with props, songs and dances, hide and seek – even deciding on the physical boundaries of the game is an excuse for fun. There’s novelty here, in the shape of original songs and plot devices, but enough familiar elements to ensure the experience is never overwhelming for even the youngest audience members. There’s too much faff getting started – Ipdip do their best to make checking tickets and giving out wristbands a cheery process, but that extra five-10 minutes before it all actually begins feels like an age for impatient under-fives. Once we get going though, the pace is fast without feeling rushed. If a particular game isn’t to your taste, don’t worry; there will be another one along in a minute. The three-strong cast keep a firm grip on proceedings—impressive given that there’s no additional stage managerial support here—while still managing to engage directly with individual children and their parents. This game may have no rules, but it’s got a whole lot of winners. / Jo Caird

minded pair: powered by their senses, they sniff and snack their way around the stage. Affecting a big bear/little bear dynamic, Eilidh MacAskill and Fiona Manson create a cosy chemistry that makes for a real charmer of a show. Lee Lyford’s direction is largely choreographed to an immersive score by Greg Sinclair. With dialogue kept to a minimum, the music is communicative and invokes a playfulness as the bears go about their daily business, before taking on a dream-like quality on their discovery of the balloon. The show as a result is easily accessible to all ages, although on occasion

younger audience members may be confused as to what exactly is going on. Once the bears are in pursuit of the runaway balloon is where the show really comes into its own. Props are used simply but effectively to show them scaling trees and taking cable cars to make their way higher into the sky (detailed on a height chart to map their progress). Despite the excitement of the chase, the play still feels very gentle, but MacAskill and Manson’s stage presence is cheery and silly enough to keep the audience on board no matter where they go.

/ Louise Jones

For all our sins...

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4-26 August @ 6.05pm

adapted by GLENN CHANDLER the creator of Taggart

from the novel by MICHAEL CAMPBELL PRODUCTIONS

04 - 28 August 2017 | Tickets available at edfringe.com

70 YEARS OF DEFYING THE NORM

‘SPECTACULAR & JAW-DROPPING!’ Top 25 Shows – The List

‘HIGHLY ENTERTAINING!’ Shanghai Daily

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AVAILABLE ON APPLE AND ANDROID

00:00

00:25

01:20

The Love of Stationery HHHH Just the Tonic at The Caves, 4–28 Aug, not 15, £3—£5

How Not to Pull: Confessions of a Trainee Pickup Artist – Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 4–28 Aug, not 22, £free

Trevor Feelgood: Sold Out (But Tickets Still Available) Just the Tonic at The Caves, 5–28 Aug, not 15, £free

00:30

01:30

Pure Dying Laughing Horse @ Southside Social, 4–28 Aug, £free

Comedy Lock-In Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 4 Aug–1 Sep, not 16 Aug, £free

The Improverts Bedlam Theatre, 4–30 Aug, £7—£8

02:00

Best of the Fest Assembly Hall, Various dates from 5 Aug to 28 Aug, £12—£15 Rob Kemp: The Elvis Dead Heroes @ Monkey Barrel, 4–28 Aug, not 16, 17, 23, 24, £5 Rahul Kohli’s Late Night Comedy Compilation Show: Kohl and the Gang Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 5–28 Aug, not 15, £free Arna Spek: Museum Piece Just the Tonic at The Caves, 4–27 Aug, not 15, £3—£5 Spank! Underbelly, Cowgate, 5–28 Aug, £13.50—£15.50 McCann and Omobitan Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 4–21 Aug, not 15, £5 Will Seaward’s Spooky Midnight Ghost Stories IV Gilded Balloon Teviot, 3–29 Aug, not 10, 15, 22, £6—£10

00:10 America vs Sweden Laughing Horse @ 48 Below, 4–28 Aug, £free William Rees: The Splash Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 5 Aug–1 Sep, £free

00:15 Inheritance Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, Various dates from 4 Aug to 26 Aug, £free

Comedy

Spank!tacular Pleasance Courtyard, 13 Aug, 20 Aug, 27 Aug, £15.50

00:20 Haver Just the Tonic at The Caves, 4–28 Aug, not 15, 24, £5

Sensitive Bricks and the Cement of Time Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 4–28 Aug, not 17, £free Naked Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 4–17 Aug, £free Boycotted: Comedy from Israel Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 18–28 Aug, not 19, 26, £free BlundaBuskers Fringe After-Party & Piano Bar Heroes @ Bob’s BlundaBus, 2–28 Aug, £free

00:45 Kit Sullivan in Digital Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 4–28 Aug, not 17, £free Nazi Jihadi Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 4–27 Aug, £free

01:00 Bare Jokes Laughing Horse @ Cabaret Voltaire, 4–27 Aug, £free Manic Pixie Dream Girls Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 14–28 Aug, not 26, £free Late’n’Live Gilded Balloon Teviot, 5–29 Aug, £10—£16

01:15 BlundaBuskers Fringe After-Party & Piano Bar Heroes @ Bob’s BlundaBus, 2–28 Aug, £free Sameer Katz: Can Fish Drown? Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 4–28 Aug, £free

Present and Correct Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 3–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £free

11:00 Too Soon: Jokes from the Future Laughing Horse @ The Pear Tree, 3–19 Aug, not 14, £free John Porter – Five Years’ Time Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 14–19 Aug, £free

BlundaBuskers Fringe After-Party & Piano Bar Heroes @ Bob’s BlundaBus, 2–28 Aug, £free

About Comedy: Stand-Up Comedy Courses Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, Various dates from 5 Aug to 26 Aug, £99

09:00

Digital Fart from the Neo-Archaic Futureland (Russia) Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £free

BBC at George Heriot’s School BBC, 4–25 Aug, £free

10:00 Phill Jupitus: Sketch Comic Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 18–24 Aug, £free Taking the Biscuit Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 4–27 Aug, £free Phill Jupitus: Sketch Comic Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 11–17 Aug, £free BBC: The Janice Forsyth Show BBC, 7–24 Aug, not 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, £free Ready, Aim, Pray, Fire! Lemon Creek Baptist Church Handgun Training Course Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 3–27 Aug, not 9, 16, 23, £free

10:40 Super Cally Fragile Lipstick Just the Tonic at The Caves, 22–25 Aug, £5 The Obscurist Just the Tonic at The Caves, 17–18 Aug, £6.50

10:45 A Comedy Brunch Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £5

Franks and Skinner Present: MindfulMess Just the Tonic at The Tron, 3–19 Aug, not 14, £4—£6 The Full Irish Whistlebinkies, 5–27 Aug, £free

11:20 Spirit of the Dane Greenside @ Infirmary Street, 14–19 Aug, £8

11:30 A Monk’s Tale: Relics, Revolt and Reformation Gilded Balloon Teviot, 5–23 Aug, £8—£9 Hivemind Presents: Playlight Robbery Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 5–27 Aug, £free

11:40 David Callaghan: Let’s Get This Party Startled Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 3–27 Aug, not 14, 17, £5 Alice Devlin: Extra-Curricular Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £3—£5 Orwell that Ends Well Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–27 Aug, not 13, 14, £free—£5

11:50

Siân Docksey’s Totally Casual and Freewheeling Mystic Comedy: Lemon Torpedo Laughing Horse @ 48 Below, 3–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £free Aaaaaaaaaaargh! It’s the One-Liner Show – Free Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 3–27 Aug, £free Anders Lee Here Laughing Horse @ The Golf Tavern, 3–27 Aug, not 15, 16, 17, 19, £free Tony Law: Absurdity for the Common People

HHHH

The Stand Comedy Club, 3–28 Aug, not 14, £10—£12.50

David Ephgrave: Now Who’s a Comedian? Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £3—£5 Generation Hummus Laughing Horse @ Southside Social, 13–19 Aug, £free Joby Mageean and Edy Hurst: Dead Nice Boys Laughing Horse @ Southside Social, 21–25 Aug, £free

Stateless Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 17 Aug, 18 Aug, 21 Aug, 24 Aug, 25 Aug, £free

Two Dunnit theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 14–26 Aug, not 20, £7—£8.50

Too Old to Be a Power Ranger Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 3–27 Aug, £free

Edy Hurst: Theme Show Just the Tonic at The Tron, 20–27 Aug, £5

11:55

Aaaand Now For Something Completely Improvised Pleasance Dome, 2–28 Aug, not 16, £6—£10

11:05 Cheetah Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 3–27 Aug, £free

11:10 Mary Flanigan Is a Pisces, Obviously Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 17–27 Aug, £free Phi and Me Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 3–16 Aug, £free

11:15 Pam Ford: Pants and Pantsability Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 3–27 Aug, not 15, £free

Shaken Not Stirred: The Improvised James Bond Film Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–26 Aug, not 14, £4—£7.50

12:00 Nathan Willcock: State of the Nathan Laughing Horse @ Moriarty’s, 7–27 Aug, £free

Funny Women Fest Gilded Balloon Teviot, 2–28 Aug, £6—£9 Alex Love: How to Win a Pub Quiz The Stand Comedy Club 5 & 6, 4–27 Aug, not 14, 22, £9

UCL Graters: Smashing Underbelly, Cowgate, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £6.50—£10

Conor O’Toole and Ruth Hunter Are Fine With This Laughing Horse @ Cabaret Voltaire, 3–27 Aug, £free

Afternoon Delight Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–26 Aug, not 14, £3—£5

Karoshi Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 4–27 Aug, not 14, £5—£7

Struan Logan: Mingalabar Laughing Horse @ Cabaret Voltaire, 3–27 Aug, £free

Scott Barnett: Quantumly Entangled With a Blobfish Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–26 Aug, not 14, £5

Green Bananas Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 3–27 Aug, not 9, 16, 23, £free

Carabet Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 3–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £free

CtheFestival Gedi Production (South Australia)

C presents

Megan Gogerty (Iowa, USA)

MAC Company (Korea)

2 – 28 Aug 19:00 C royale

4 – 27 Aug 23:45 C primo

2 – 28 Aug 19:45 C

2 – 28 Aug 16:45 C royale

Donut Productions

National Theatre of China

Pop Filter (NY, USA)

2 – 28 Aug 13:35 C

2– 12 Aug 17:50 C

2– 28 Aug 22:15 C

3 – 28 Aug 17:50 C too

C theatre

Love Lee Production

C theatre

ThreeWoods Playwright (Hong Kong)

13 – 28 Aug 16:35 C primo

2 – 28 Aug 13:30 C

2 – 15 Aug 13:40 C royale

Nikola and His Travelling Lux Concordia

The Dame Dolly Donut Show

Shakespeare in the Garden: The Tempest 3 – 28 Aug 18:30 C south

Electric Cabaret

Luocha Land

Ursula, Queen of the Jungle

Lady Macbeth and Her Pal, Megan

Fauxchella Music Festival

Dickens for Dinner

Binari

Tramp

The Sweet Science

Smoking with Grandma

With more than 200 shows and events across our venues in the heart of Edinburgh, we celebrate our 26th Fringe with an inspiring international programme of cabaret, comedy, circus, dance, musicals, theatre and family shows. See it all with C venues.

David O’Doherty: Big Time Assembly George Square Theatre, 24 Aug, 28 Aug, £16

Jacob Hawley: Fruit Machine Laughing Horse @ The Pear Tree, 3–27 Aug, not 16, £free

12:05

Amy Annette: What Women Want Underbelly Med Quad, 16–20 Aug, £6

Breaking Black by Njambi McGrath

HHH

Revill’s Selection – Free Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 3–27 Aug, not 9, 16, 23, £free

Fern Brady: Suffer, Fools! The Stand Comedy Club 2, 2–27 Aug, not 3, 14, 15, £9—£10

Richard Pulsford: Phrases Ready Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 4–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £free

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 3–26 Aug, £free

Eleanor Morton: Angry Young Woman The Stand Comedy Club 3 & 4, 2–27 Aug, not 3, 14, 21, £7—£8 Be Prepared! theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 21–26 Aug, £10 Wretched Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–26 Aug, not 14, £7 Joe Wells: I Hope I Die Before I Start Voting Conservative Sneaky Pete’s, 5–27 Aug, £free Daisy Earl / Kirsty Mann Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 15–27 Aug, £6—£8

12:10 Tom Crosbie: You Can’t Polish a Nerd Voodoo Rooms, 5–27 Aug, £free The Red Emerald: A Farce for the Colourblind theSpace on Niddry St, 14–19 Aug, £7—£10

12:15 The Family Friendly(ish) Stand-Up Show Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 3–27 Aug, £free

Comedy

Frank Carson: If I Didn’t Laugh, I’d Cry Gilded Balloon Teviot, 2–28 Aug, £6—£10

Andrew Ryan’s Pick of the Fringe Laughing Horse @ Cabaret Voltaire, 3–27 Aug, £free The Silly Iles Laughing Horse @ Finnegan’s Wake, 3–27 Aug, not 19, 20, £free

The Rat Pack Presents... Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 13–27 Aug, £free Men With Coconuts La Belle Angèle, 5–27 Aug, £free

12:20 A Digital Legacy Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 4–27 Aug, not 14, £7 Dan Attfield: Google Drive Underbelly Med Quad, 2–28 Aug, not 14, £6.50—£10 Wake Up and Deirdrealize Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £5

12:30 Spirit of the Dane Greenside @ Infirmary Street, 4–26 Aug, not 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, £8 Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe Pleasance Courtyard, 5–27 Aug, not 17, 24, £11—£12 Gráinne Maguire: What Has the News Ever Done for Me? Laughing Horse @ Cabaret Voltaire, 3–27 Aug, not 15, £free Alistair Green: The Nan Tapes Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £free Lucy Pearman: Maid of Cabbage Heroes @ Monkey Barrel, 3–27 Aug, not 14, 15, £5 The Lunchtime Special Just the Tonic at The Tron, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £3—£6

12:45 Idi-chums – A Stand-Up Comedy Showcase Paradise in The Vault, 21–27 Aug, £free Tom Toal in Better Than Before Laughing Horse @ Cabaret Voltaire, 3–27 Aug, £free Albrecht Dürer: Renaissance Dude C venues – C cubed, 3–28 Aug, not 15, £7.50—£9.50 Mutiny! An Improvised Pirate Adventure Paradise in The Vault, 14–19 Aug, £5 Lauren Bok: Is That a Burrito in Your Pocket or Are You Just Happy You Have a Burrito Gilded Balloon Teviot, 2–28 Aug, £5—£10 Mr Danger’s Really Safe Show Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 31 Jul–27 Aug, not 14 Aug, £free The Edinburgh Revue’s 2017 Stand-Up Show Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 4–28 Aug, not 14, £free

12:50 Peter Brush: A Worm’s Guide to Immortality Banshee Labyrinth, 5–27 Aug, £free

13:00 Ivan Brackenbury’s 10 Year Anniversary Party with Tom Binns, Ian D Montfort and Friends Assembly George Square Studios, 3–28 Aug, £8—£12.50 Good Girl Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £4—£8 Richard Todd: Monsters Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £free Wow! Underbelly, Cowgate, 3–27 Aug, £6.50—£10 Rahul Kohli: Newcastle Brown Tales Laughing Horse @ Cabaret Voltaire, 4–27 Aug, not 14, £free Adam Larter: L’Art Nouveau HHH Heroes @ The Hive, 4–26 Aug, not 12, £5

Cold Hard Cache Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £free—£5

How to Suffer Better Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 3–27 Aug, not 14, 21, £free

Unfinished Business Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 4–24 Aug, not 14, £5—£7

Angel Comedy Showcase Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 4–27 Aug, not 9, 16, 23, £free

Normal Boy Presents: Normal Boy Sweet Holyrood, 3–27 Aug, not 24, 25, £5

Lost Voice Guy: Inspiration Porn The Stand Comedy Club 5 & 6, 2–27 Aug, not 3, 7, 14, 21, £8—£9

Briony Redman: Theory of Positivity Pleasance Courtyard, 2–28 Aug, not 16, £6—£9 Off the Top: Neuroscience With Attitude Ciao Roma, 5–27 Aug, not 14, £free

13:05 Cow Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 3–27 Aug, not 15, £free

13:10 Rik Carranza Presents: Star Trek vs Star Wars Heroes @ Monkey Barrel, 3–27 Aug, not 16, £5 Andy Onions – PowerPointless Banshee Labyrinth, 5–27 Aug, not 14, 21, £free Amused Moose Comedy Award: Grand Final theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 20 Aug, £12.50

13:15 Aaaaaaaaaahhh. It’s 101 Clean Jokes in 30 Minutes – Free Laughing Horse @ Dropkick Murphys, 3–27 Aug, £free Candy Gigi Presents: Becky Rimmer’s Bat Mitzvah! Heroes @ The Hive, 4–27 Aug, not 13, 14, 22, £5 Cambridge Impronauts: Improv Actually Gilded Balloon Teviot, 2–28 Aug, £6—£10 On the Edge Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 3–15 Aug, £free Arielle Dundas: Vulva Cupcake Laughing Horse @ 48 Below, 3–27 Aug, not 9, 16, 23, £free

Paul ‘Silky’ White’s Food Fight! The Stand Comedy Club 3 & 4, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £7—£8 Being Hueman Being Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–26 Aug, not 14, £6—£9 A Comedy Tapas Opium, 5–26 Aug, £free Robin Boot’s Rockomedy: Puns of AnyKey Sneaky Pete’s, 5–26 Aug, not 21, £free Girl in da Corner – Free Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 3–27 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free Harriet Braine: Total Eclipse of the Art Laughing Horse @ The Golf Tavern, 4–27 Aug, not 14, £free

Michael Legge: Jerk The Stand Comedy Club 2, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £8—£9 The Durham Revue: Laugh Actually Underbelly, Cowgate, 3–27 Aug, not 15, £6.50—£10.50

13:25 The Game of His Life Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 21–27 Aug, £5 Super Cally Fragile Lipstick Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 5–20 Aug, not 14, £5 The Daddy and Beeje Chat Show Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–26 Aug, not 14, £7 Wisebowm: The Struggle Is Real Opium, 5–27 Aug, not 20, £free

13:30 The House Sweet Grassmarket, 4–27 Aug, not 9, 16, 23, £7.50 Old Jewish Jokes Laughing Horse @ Finnegan’s Wake, 3–27 Aug, not 8, 15, 22, £free

Gareth Mutch: Mutch Ado About Nothing The Stand Comedy Club 5 & 6, 7 Aug, 21 Aug, £9

Kevin McAleer: Saying Yes to Yes New Town Theatre, 3–27 Aug, not 15, £9—£10

Zinus Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 16–27 Aug, £free

13:20

Katharine Ferns is in Stitches Laughing Horse @ Cabaret Voltaire, 3–27 Aug, not 8, 15, 22, £free

The Science of Cringe Underbelly, George Square, 2–28 Aug, not 14, £6.50—£10.50

The Stuntman Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 16–27 Aug, £free

Muriel: Bad Master Underbelly, Cowgate, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £6.50—£10

Maddy Anholt – Herselves HHH Underbelly Med Quad, 2–27 Aug, £6.50—£10.50

Daniel Cook: For Money Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £5 Sandra Hale: Self Helpless! Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–26 Aug, not 14, £3—£6 Best of Edinburgh Showcase Show Pleasance Courtyard, 3–27 Aug, £6—£12 Lou Conran: I Love Lou C Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £5

Seymour Mace’s Magical Shitcakes from Heaven The Stand Comedy Club 3 & 4, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £10—£12 Fred MacAulay in Conversation Gilded Balloon at the Museum, 14–27 Aug, not 17, 18, 19, £13—£14 The Oxford Imps: Improvised Comedy Gilded Balloon Teviot, 2–28 Aug, £6—£10

www.tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/mary-queen-of-scots

Bad Habits Just the Tonic at The Caves, 15–26 Aug, £3.50—£8

Mark Watson: This Is Not A Show Yet The Stand Comedy Club, 15–27 Aug, £12

Sketch Thieves Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 3–27 Aug, not 15, £free

Gareth Waugh: Honestly? Gilded Balloon Teviot, 2–28 Aug, not 15, £6—£9

13:40

Sue Perkins Live! in Spectacles Pleasance Courtyard, 23–27 Aug, £15.50

Guns ‘n’ Rosé With Peter E Davidson / Free Festival Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 3–27 Aug, £free Afternoon Tea With Ray Fordyce and Other Thoroughly Pleasant People Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 3–26 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free Austentatious Underbelly, George Square, 3–28 Aug, not 15, £9—£14.50 Trolley Girls Laughing Horse @ The Pear Tree, 17–27 Aug, £free

Comedy

Coates and Cooper Present: Kidnap Laughing Horse @ The Mockingbird, 13–27 Aug, £free

It’s No Job For A Nice Jewish Girl Black Market, 6–25 Aug, not 12, 19, £free Mike Newall: Desert Boot-Leg Island Discs Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £6

13:50

Panilla Ice Ice Baby Underbelly Med Quad, 2–28 Aug, not 15, £6.50—£10

Vicki Sargent: One Woman Army – Free Laughing Horse @ The Cuckoo’s Nest, 3–27 Aug, not 6, 14, 20, £free

Ari Eldjárn: Pardon My Icelandic Heroes @ Monkey Barrel, 3–27 Aug, not 9, 14, 15, 23, £5

Richard Herring’s Edinburgh Fringe Podcast New Town Theatre, 4 Aug, 11 Aug, 18 Aug, £12

Matt Hutchinson: Mixtape Just the Tonic at The Caves, 3–27 Aug, not 14, £4—£5

The Bugle Live Podcast New Town Theatre, 27 Aug, £14