PICK ‘N’ MIX: THE SHOWS YOU NEED TO SEE THIS AUGUST The world’s biggest arts Festival is back, bringing over 50,000 performances to more than 300 venues across the capital. Overwhelming? We hear you. Here, our very own arts correspondent, David Pollock, reveals some of this year’s highlights
Iconic: A Brief History of Drag, Photo by Scott Rylander
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or anyone who wants to follow a pretty safe bet in terms of new, relevant and exciting theatre, they’re well advised to go to pretty much any show at the Traverse Theatre or Summerhall. One of the lead shows at the former, for example, is What Girls Are Made Of (Traverse, 03-26 August), in which acclaimed Scottish theatremaker Cora Bissett remembers the days when she left school and became a pop star, while Nigel Slater’s Toast (Traverse, 07 -26 August) is the Lowry’s adaptation of the celebrity chef’s revealing autobiography. Summerhall’s programme, includes First Snow/ Premiere Neige (until 26 August), a Scots-Canadian production about politics and nationalism, which involves the National Theatre of Scotland, and Gary McNair’s play After the Cuts (01 - 26 August), which imagines a future without the NHS. Edinburgh International Festival’s highlights, meanwhile, include a new version of David Greig and Gordon McIntyre’s Edinburgh-set romantic comedy Midsummer (02 - 26 August), and although the premise sounds like heavy-going, It’s True It’s True It’s True (Underbelly, 02-26 August) tells the story through court transcripts of the rape of 17th century Italian baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi through the singularly brilliant lens of the exceptional Breach Theatre.
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