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26-31 Aug

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COME TOGETHER

Border Bodies breaks down walls through dance Inside: Elaine C. Smith Eilidh Loan Salty Brine Crybabies Maya Ricote Milo Edwards Angels in America not for glory The Palestinian Circus Stamptown

‘THE BIGGEST NEW MUSICAL OF THE EDINBURGH FRINGE’ WHATSONSTAGE

FROM THE P R OF CABAREODUCERS BENJAMIN T & BUTTON

ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A PRINCESS. WHATEVER THAT MEANS...

PLEASANCE COURTYARD | 1PM 5 - 31 AUGUST 2026 BLISSTHEMUSICAL.COM

BOOK TICKETS

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The Drum’n’Bass Aerobics Experience She/They Aug 13, 14, 15, 22, 23 10:30 Aug 7-23 12:30 Aug 26,29 16:15

13:35

The 40 Year Old Ballerino

The Gas Station at the Edge of the Universe 14:45 13:15

Aug 7-23 17:45

Define Queerness Luscinia

19:45

@venue13fringe U N D E R B E L LY A N D M O S A I C O E R R A N T E P R E S E N T S

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★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ STAGE DOOR JOE

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www.VENUE13.com www. www.VENUE13 VENUE13.com VENUE13

★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

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Aug Shakespeare Dice: 12-29 As You Like It 16:15 Sister Sophia Kicks the Habit Aug 7-21 16:15

Editor Louis Cammell

★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ MIX UP THEATRE

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Published by Radge Media C.I.C, The Melting Pot, 15 Calton Road, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH8 8DL. 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 Think Solutions, Glasgow.

5 Contents

Fest 2026 Issue 3

8 Freedom of Movement T.F. Cia de Dança on Border Bodies: their show questioning social hierarchies through dance

12 Gran Designs Playwright Eilidh Loan and actor Elaine C. Smith discuss Cathy, their play exploring multigenerational grief

20 For the Record NYC cabaret act Salty Brine unpacks his latest work combining popular music and autofiction

Comedy 22 Joseph Morpurgo’s long-awaited Fringe return, Highlander 70, is a comedy masterclass

Theatre 38 Internationaal Theater Amsterdam reimagines Tony Kushner’s contemporary classic Angels in America

Dance, Physical Theatre and Circus 47 Three performers reclaim the traditional dance and music of their childhoods in not for glory

Cabaret 54 Jens Radda’s drag alter-ego Skank Sinatra delivers a cabaret show-turnedself help seminar

59 Listings A comprehensive timetable of the final week of comedy, theatre and kids shows

Image credits (top to bottom, left to right): Andrew Morris Photography; Mihaela Bodlovic; Han Jie; Michael Julings; Fee Golin; Brian Hartley; Fudz Qazi and Ian Georgeson

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Richard Marsh's Perfect Day We asked Richard Marsh for his idea of a perfect day, and he took us, poetically, into the life of a mayfly The mayfly lives for a single day. What that’s like, I couldn’t say, I Don’t speak mayfly. They have just 24 hours, Before their life is done. A fringe audience? One. This mayfly’s made of many people. (Let’s hope it’s many. Sometimes it’s few. Those shows are usually harder to do). But any room, with an act and an audience in it, Can make a mayfly for the next 60 minutes. (A duration sometimes departed from. Do check the listings at edfringe.com). When mayfly members meld together, By heart, and art, all held together – Whatever we were, we’ve now become, Crowding in the darkness – one. Who knows what we’ll see together? What demons we’ll set free together? What wild wonders we’re fated to find While part of this multiple mayfly mind? So join a mayfly. Sit down. Say hi. You may laugh. You may cry. Watch each show like it’s your last – We’re mayflies, our lives pass too fast. From the stage, you can quickly tell If this mayfly is flying well.

Perfect Day

Some are thoughtful. Some are quiet. Sometimes it’s church. Sometimes a riot. Some mayflies go to the loo. (Which actual mayflies cannot do. They hold it in. Let’s all try to). But when the stage lights fire, And the house lights fade – And the mayfly’s there, For the show you made – All of the hype and the flyers and the quotes, All the rehearsal and all of the notes, All of the dreaming, all of the fear, They all disappear – the moment is here For telling the story. Playing the role, From the depths of your heart to the depths of their soul. And yeah, maybe a show doesn’t go as it could, It’s not very good, or it’s misunderstood. It can’t get the laughs that it probably should… Mayfly, Never say die! Your next mayflight, later tonight, Take a wild chance on someone unknown – You may find your mayfly mind is blown. All of the worry and feeling upset, it Gets washed away in the show, if you let it. We’re mayflies now. Real life? Forget it.

7 Perfect Day

I’ve been a mayfly, Since I was yay high, Way back before social media and A.I. And may I say I Hope some of you may buy Tickets. To my show. A big old bumper box-office binge. (This poem’s art, but it’s commercial. Just like the Fringe). Please come. Please come. Help the thing thrive. (Top Gunchained, Gilded, five past five). A new comic play, that gives you Top Gun, Alongside the tale of a father and son. Now, it’s almost time for this mayfly To say bye. Why’s Top Gunchained the show to choose? (Beside my striking resemblance to a young Tom Cruise?). I’m retelling Top Gun as a one-person play, I Promise you planes. I’m hoping they may fly.

SHOW VENUE: TIME:

Top Gunchained Gilded Balloon Teviot until 30 Aug (not 26 Aug), 5.50pm

Photo: Steve Ullathorne

(We die at the end of the hour, but don’t sweat it).

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Border Bodies’ co-creators and dancers Igor Gasparini and Pasha Gorbachev on bringing the show to Edinburgh as part of the São Paulo Showcase Words: Evan Beswick

Cover Feature

Photo: Andrew Morris photography

Freedom of Movement

hings happen in Edinburgh. Ridiculous things continues, nodding towards Gorbachev. “I am (to which we’ll return). And amazing things. not participating in the vogue scene, but he is, Border Bodies is one of the latter: 50 minutes and he can bring the ballroom scene to us and of physical intensity from Brazil and the only teach us some techniques.” dance number in the São Paulo showcase. How’s Igor’s voguing, I ask. “He’s doing Corpos de Fronteira in Portuguese, it’s an alright,” Gorbachev laughs, giving it full shade. incredibly affecting piece in our age of aliena“He’s just shy. They love my class.” tion. Eight bodies come alive on stage, isolated But it’s clear this is about more than but full of restrained energy. They find each technique. “One thing that’s important to us other, connect in ever more inventive ways, in our research is where everybody comes their vital energy less and less bound up by the from, different backgrounds of dance, but also limits of their own frames. different ways of living and where people were “We wanted to research something like our born. So from the peripheries, the borders, inner scream. Something that bothers you, Black people, women, LGBTQ. The difference can something that you don’t like in the world … be collective. So how can we build something escaping through our skins,” says Igor Gaspar- together?” ini, creator of the piece. He’s sitting next to Gorbachev underlines the point. It is, he dancer Pasha Gorbachev (an “artist-creator” says, a “drastic difference culturally in company T.F. Cia de Dança’s terms), both from Russia”. remarkably composed And yet, there’s a for two men who were history in Brazil that dripping in sweat not makes these themes 15 minutes ago. all the more complex “The borders are and relevant. Brazil not just literally the was a colonised nation geographical borders, but also the last in the but our borders. So Americas to abolish what separates us? a system of enslaveHow can we cross ment that existed in[those borders] and digenously long before do things together?” bandeirantes planted Key to the tone of their flags. Border Bodies is the “Oh my god,” melding together of Gasparini starts. “In Igor Gasparini a number of contemBrazil, I think we are porary languages – voguing, body popping, kind of still learning what all of this means. In hip hop – into a single aesthetic. Gasparini and school I just learned the colonisation part, not Gorbachev talk enthusiastically about the way the other side of the history. And now even the their experience and process enables them to language is changing.” draw together these diverse physical gramBorder Bodies has particular relevance for mars. Part of that is born from experience. European audiences given our recent obsesGasparini founded the collective 24 years ago, sions with immigration, but Gasparini describes prompting an impossible piece of maths in my a South American context where divisions are head given his extraordinary vigour. Gorbachev far more internal. “I’m Brazilian, but I’m white, joined in 2017, escaping the scourge of homo- so I have a lot of privileges. In general, people phobia in his native Russia. from the borders don’t have the same oppor“We bring proposals to the rehearsals. Like, tunities. And this is very gendered, very racial, ‘Hey guys, can we try this? Can we try that?’” very social, structured. It’s difficult to dismantle.” says Gasparini. “All of us teach each other,” he

“We wanted to research something like our inner scream. Something that bothers you, something that you don’t like in the world”

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Gorbachev brings a diﬀerent lens to this. “There’s so many layers to borders, right? For us when we were creating it was about ‘if I can allow myself to be vulnerable and be the way I want to be, what would I address?’ And escaping Russia was like, I want to invest in that. I feel great in a crop top and heels. So I’m gonna do that, to cross my personal border to a place where I can be vulnerable.” There’s a show-stopper moment I want to ask Gasparini about, when the dancers come together, crashing or oscillating together like waves. Visually it’s mesmerising. “That’s so cool that you mentioned the waves because we literally call this moment water on the stone – água na pedra,” says Gasparini, adding that hip-hop “bounce” is a core part of their research. 10

Cover Feature

Let’s not beat around the bush here: São Paulo is huge. The biggest city in the Americas. The world’s most populous urban area outside of Asia. Edinburgh? Well, Edinburgh is not, and it still feels faintly unbelievable to me that it still holds that creative draw in a global arts movement. “It works really diﬀerent. Like we never performed [more than], what, three days in a row? When we were selected we thought we will perform maybe one, two times. And then it was like 18!” Gasparini gasps. “And not just the amount of performances, but everything because it’s almost 4,000 performances in one month,” Gorbachev adds. “Also, we don’t have a lot of press and we don’t have a lot of critics. Used to be better, but now it’s just social media.”

“The role of public administration is to build solid bridges, enabling our cultural output to engage on equal footing with the rest of the world.” It’s a clear message of solidarity. On this occasion, though, I can’t help but feel the dancers put it better than the diplomats.

SHOW VENUE: TIME:

Border Bodies Assembly @ Dance Base until 30 Aug, 5.15pm

Features

Photo: Andrew Morris Photography

Which brings us back to the ridiculous. I put the same question to Bruno Palma Fernandez, Relationship Manager for the showcase. “I can try to make this question get to our State Secretary for Culture. Would you be interested?” Well, of course I would! So, to ﬁnish in the words of Marilia Marton, São Paulo State Secretary of Culture, Economy, and Creative Industries: “São Paulo impresses with its sheer scale, yet the true value of its cultural sector is measured by the reach of its showcase. The Fringe stands as a premier hub in the international performing arts market... Participating in the festival is not a matter of comparing city sizes; rather, it is a strategic choice regarding internationalisation and public policy for our state.

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Gran Designs Cathy, a new play from Eilidh Loan about her grandmother, has taken the Fringe by storm. We speak to her and its star, Elaine C. Smith Words: Megan Merino

or Edinburgh residents, one of the biggest thrills of festival season is the inﬂux of international talent that washes up on our doorstep for an entire month. With that being said, it’s also true that a focus on Scottish talent can be lost in the chaos of the Fringe. The Traverse Theatre and its focus on new Scottish writing is a welcome incubator for local rising stars, allowing them to showcase their work in front of a captive international audience and reach beyond their established fanbase. With her sophomore play Cathy, actor, director and playwright Eilidh Loan is one the programmed Scottish artists at TravFest 2026. Her critically acclaimed debut Moorcroft, which

“I grew up watching Elaine, somebody like me, who spoke like me, do the thing every girl in Glasgow dreamed of” Eilidh Loan”

Theatre

enjoyed a sold-out run and went on tour with the National Theatre of Scotland, was inspired by her dad’s amateur football team based in Renfrew. Her newest play, which continues the witty yet sentimental, melancholy tone of Moorcroft is similarly inspired by the chronicles of a close family member: Loan’s grandmother. A strict “rule-setter” and staunch Catholic woman from Glasgow, the titular role is played by Scottish comedic acting royalty, Elaine C. Smith. Smith has been a household name since coming to widespread attention through beloved 90s sitcom Rab C. Nesbitt. “I saw Moorcroft, and I thought it was a wonderful piece of writing saying something profound and accurate about working-class life, which has been ignored a great deal of time,” recalls Smith over a group video call, with Loan blushing through the screen. “I was on my feet at the end of it.” After the show, a mutual friend mentioned to Smith that Loan was writing a new play inspired by her grandmother. “She said ‘I want Elaine C. Smith.’ I thought, she’s obviously got no taste whatsoever!” Swallowing her laughter, Loan ﬁnally chimes in. “It’s really a full circle moment. I grew up watching Elaine, somebody like me, who spoke like me, who was from a similar community to

Cathy has three generations of women at its centre, inspired by Loan, her mother and the real-life Cathy. “Me, my mum and my gran, we’re all so similar so sometimes we clash. Tommy was amazing at diﬀusing those arguments. But I wanted to give the formidable women in my family that platform to be ugly. At points we don’t really know if we’re on their side, or we agree with what they’re saying, but amongst all of that is humour. That’s how we deal with it.” Who better, then, to hold these heavy themes with a light comedic touch than Smith? “The trick of comedy is making it look easy. The trick of drama is making it look hard, even when it’s not,” she jokes. “What I love about Cathy is that it’s very funny at times but it’s also incredibly moving. [Loan] is writing lines that a lot of actors would die to say. In this, and in something like Two Doors Down [the sitcom in which Smith starred for seven series, with an upcoming eighth season commissioned], it’s remarkable I’m allowed to be that which women over 60 aren’t allowed to be: a clown.” From chieftain to jester, how does the real Cathy feel about being the centre of this new play? “She was absolutely delighted!” Loan vouches. “She’s been a very active role

Features

Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic

me, do the thing every girl in Glasgow dreamed of. Elaine has dug out those paths for us. But it’s still a struggle for young working-class women like myself to get these kinds of opportunities.” Based on true events, the story begins after the passing of Cathy’s husband Tommy and follows her immediate family as they navigate that loss in their own unique ways. “It’s brilliant to have a family that is so full of crazy characters, they’re all hilarious people,” attests Loan. “Tommy was the figurehead of our family. We’re very full of life but obviously at that time we were going through a lot of grief. The way that we express ourselves as a working-class family is the big gestures, we’re all talking over each other at the dinner table and that in itself is theatrical.” This image inspired the opening scene of the play, which sees its five-member ensemble (with the addition of Michele Gallagher, Chloe Hodgson, Alan Orr and Sally Reid) gathered around for a family dinner discussing Cathy’s first Christmas as a widow. “Through writing Cathy, there were lots of things that came up that I hadn’t quite dealt with myself yet,” admits Loan. “Losing a grandparent, watching somebody lose a parent and their husband. It started to become a real cathartic experience.”

Mere Mortals © Chris Hardy

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MERE MORTALS SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ASZURE BARTON / FLOATING POINTS

EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE 28–30 AUG AD 30 AUG BOOK NOW EIF.CO.UK Supported by Dunard Fund

be. Weeks have since passed, and the play has opened to critical and audience acclaim, cementing Loan as a writer with a deftness for moving family drama/comedies and a knack for getting the most out of her actors. “It’s a great cast, a wonderful writer. And she’s a young working-class woman. That’s all very important to me.”

SHOW VENUE: TIME:

Cathy Traverse Theatre until 30 Aug, various times

Features

Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic

in my life, for the good and the bad, and I think she knows and understands the sort of power that storytelling and theatre can have. But also, while the characters are certainly inspired by real people, working with actors like Elaine, you start to pull out elements that aren’t true to life. As a writer you’re looking after the ensemble. As an actor, you’re looking after your role, and you get to know that role even better than the writer does.” At the time of this interview, this intergenerational collaboration is still finding its final form ahead of August’s debut. “It could be a fucking disaster,” laughs Smith, with a confidence that assures it definitely won’t

★★★★★

“ITʼS AN UNCOMPROMISING PIECE OF THEATRE THAT MAKES VISIBLE WHAT HAS LONG BEEN SHUT AWAY.”* –THE LIST

*PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS DUTCH KILLS PRODUCTIONS

Take the tram to the Festivals this summer, with trams from every 7 minutes between Edinburgh Airport and West End.

Contactless terms and conditions apply.

You must Tap Off to pay the cheapest adult single City Zone fare, otherwise an Airport Zone fare will be charged.

We’re delighted to announce the recipients of this year’s Besties Awards which celebrate the best that Edinburgh’s August Festivals have to oﬀer, now in their third year running Skinny-Fest collab, the winners are handpicked by the magazines’ editorial teams and the prizes proudly presented in partnership with Capital Theatres and Premier Scotland. WEEK 1 WINNERS (SATURDAY 15 AUGUST) The Super Power Agency Award (chosen by the young critics of The Super Power Agency’s summer school) for Stanislavski Can’t Save Me From the Apocalypse at Greenside @ George Street (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) The Radgie Award (for radgeness) for Ethan and Gigi present The Movement at Underbelly, Cowgate (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) Fringe Legends for Xhloe and Natasha (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) The Heart Award for Elf Lyons Is the Woman on the Edge at Pleasance Courtyard (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) The Buzz Award for House Fly at theSpace (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) Emerging Talent Award for Eva Peroni: Jungled at Gilded Balloon Teviot (Edinburgh Festival Fringe)

Photos: Ian Georgeson

WEEK 2 WINNERS (SATURDAY 22 AUG) The No Strings Attached Award (for puppetry) for Dracula: Lucy’s Dream at Pleasance EICC (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) The Debut Award for Tia Rey: Oot Ma Banger at the Gilded Saloon (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) The Visionary Award for The Arrow at Every Instant of Its Flight (Edinburgh International Film Festival) The Outwith Award (for international talent) for Border Bodies at Assembly @ Dance Base (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) The Night Owl Award (for a late night show) for Sam Eley is Basil Crumbwick: Soul Sewage at Monkey Barrel Comedy (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) Collaboration Award for not for glory at Assembly @ Dance Base (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) The Truth to Power Award for The Good Immigrant: 10 Years On (Edinburgh International Book Festival) The ﬁnal awards ceremony will be held on Saturday 29 August and the winners announced online via our website and socials! Awards handmade by Camillo Feuchter from recycled plastic and salvaged wood.

Features

The Besties

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For the Record

Salty Brine returns to the Fringe with a show that ﬁnds humour, heartbreak and humanity in unexpected places Words: Tamara Mathias

ven if you haven’t read Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl (or at least not since it was assigned by your secondary school teacher), you’re likely familiar with it being one of the 20th Century’s most enduring accounts of the Holocaust, penned by a Jewish teenager in hiding. On the surface, Salty Brine’s riotous cabaret which takes inspiration from it might seem a far cry from the haunting original text, but peel the onion further and you’ll realise you’ve signed up for an emotional rollercoaster that will land you in unexpected places. How Strange It Is focuses on the universal experience of young love and has been distilled down from Neutral Milk Hotel’s poetic indie rock album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, remarkably also inspired by Anne Frank. “In my early twenties I fell deeply in love and wrote about it in my diary,” Brine reveals. “I still have those silly, funny, dirty, weird, embarrassing entries. And when you hear my diary, you think of your diary, which perhaps wasn’t very diﬀerent from Anne Frank writing about being a teenage girl in love, despite the horriﬁc circumstances she was living in. And you marvel at how even then, love happened anyway. How is it possible for the world to be what it is, and there to still be love? It’s ugly, gorgeous and complicated – that’s the point I’m making.” The show is the latest instalment of Brine’s The Living Record Collection, where he picks apart an album and stitches it back together, capturing its original spirit but creating some-

Cabaret

thing entirely new with sharp writing, pageantry and live music. It’s a clever format that draws in audiences driven by nostalgia for their favourite yesteryear bangers, as well as the uninitiated, who discover the music by way of the theatre. “Whether I’ve picked Annie Lennox’s Diva or Led Zeppelin’s IV, the show is a means to relive the music that coalesced around your soul when you were young and that will stay with you forever.” Brine’s performances are genre-defying and run the spectrum from extravagant drag numbers to barebones stool-and-microphone solo work. What can we expect this time? “I take a broad view of cabaret,” he smiles. “This show is a really theatrical experience, where I have some tricks up my sleeve with costumes and props to make weird, crazy, magical things happen on stage with very little.” Even so, Brine describes the Fringe as “the most thrilling and exhausting thing” and admits he’s been preparing for his 2026 return as an elite athlete would the Olympics. “The show is very physically and vocally demanding. There’s four musicians, but really it’s just me singing, talking, running and dancing for 90 minutes until I’m drenched in sweat. There’s no break, and then it’s rinse and repeat everyday for a month. So I have a game plan that involves sleeping well, resting my voice and trying my best to avoid amazing Scottish junk food.”

“Let me put it this way,” he says. “I believe that if we genuinely laugh really hard, deep down something in us opens up and we’re more available to feel complicated, diﬃcult emotions.”

SHOW VENUE: TIME:

Salty Brine: HOW STRANGE IT IS (The Neutral Milk Hotel Show) Summerhall until 30 Aug, 9.30pm

Features

Photo: Han Jie

It’s a hefty commitment, but one the self-professed theatre nerd insists on, to keep the Santa Claus magic of the production alive for his audience. The Living Record Collection is an ambitious project by design, and this particular show seems intent on straddling the divide between poetic, intellectually ambitious theatre and crowd-pleasing spectacle. By sharing the deeply personal and weaponising humour, Brine cleverly maintains the gravitas that comes with tackling a Holocaust narrative, while downplaying the inbuilt “heaviness”.

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Photo: Michael Julings

Comedy Reviews Joseph Morpurgo: Highlander 70 HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Pleasance Courtyard until 30 Aug, 7pm

Joseph Morpurgo may not be a household name, but he’s about as big a cult Fringe ﬁgure can get. He arrived with a bang in 2013, followed up his arrival with two separate Edinburgh Comedy Awards nominations in the years that followed, and then promptly disappeared from the spot22

Comedy

light. Though not a total exit – he cofounded and is still a major player in the acclaimed Austentatious, and a writer for various Aardman and BBC projects – he nevertheless has kept a lot of Fringe-goers waiting. In spite of the hype, his comeback does not disappoint. Inspired by a found object, a 1970s American high school yearbook, Highlander 70 is one of the leanest and most tightly crafted hours you’re likely to see all Fringe. Morpurgo mines the yearbook for every slight incongruity, inventing from it a year in the life of one soon-to-graduate student, who he plays: David Moon. For the sake of avoiding

spoilers, the less said about how Morpurgo embodies Moon, the better. Suffice to say, his handbrake turns from wide-eyed enthusiasm to melancholy and back again are not only totally commanding but also strangely moving, evocative of the way John Hughes’ films hit you at age 15. Morpurgo employs every tool in his arsenal – sight gags, a mammoth slideshow, audience participation – to build maximum laughs, but they never feels scattered or unmotivated. This is a quick-fire, precisely rehearsed hour that is as singular as it is silly. It’s far from textbook and yet an undeniable A+. Top class. ✏ Louis Cammell

HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Pleasance Courtyard until 30 Aug, 8pm

Two exorcist-priests – Barrett and Holland – are hunting a demon when things go wrong, taking down Barrett and leaving a lot unsaid between the two. Holland washes up years later as an organiser of immersive stag parties, before

taking on one last job: a haunting at the Lyle Away Hotel. If that could summarise a straight horror show, that’s one of the many delights on oﬀer: though Crybabies are a sketch comedy troupe, there are enough jump scares and genuinely spooky happenings here for the show to entertain even a stony-faced horror fan. For the rest of us, even better news: it’s hilarious, too. Flawless physical comedy, jokes any stand-up would pay top dollar for, a script that rewards repeat viewings, sight gags at every conceivable op-

portunity: The Scaring is Fringe comedy theatre perfected, from the nation’s best sketch troupe. Their third full-length show, The Scaring is Crybabies’ most ambitiously staged yet, with some big surprises. But the trio has shrewdly protected what’s always been the core of their charm: that feeling of schoolkid glee of three pals putting on a show purely for their own amusement. British sketch comedy has long been looking for its next megastars. Look no further. ✏ Samuel Cain

Review

Crybabies: The Scaring

Photo: Rebecca Need-Menear

HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Pleasance Dome until 30 Aug, 9.45pm

It is a cliché to say that those with naturally funny bones could simply read from the phone book and have you roaring with laughter. But the super-expressive Jordan Brookes has no need of such props. Nothing beyond studied control of his limber physicality, his flexible features contorting in paroxysms of suffering and his white knuckle grip on the gnawing terror of everyday existence. Referencing early cinemagoers, who fled terrified at the sight of a train rushing towards them, the former Edinburgh Comedy Award winner is, himself, a juggernaut spectacle of disturbing fascination. Distinctly uncomfortable with his imagination, but hilarious reporting back from it, the quotidian experience of sitting, eating a croissant on a train, while another man stared across him and out the window, sends him into a spiral of agonising self-conscious-

ness in which he questions everything about his mind and body. Goblin mode isn’t available to Brookes, always painfully aware of being in the world and potentially observed, improvising nimbly with his audience. Yet at one point he seems to divest himself of all human restraint, horriﬁcally possessed by something more beast-like and primal. The

kind of memorable, physical set-piece that many wanky clown shows would kill for, it’s nevertheless surrounded by some superb observational stand-up, as he demolishes the idea of adrenalised mothers saving babies trapped under cars and adroitly notes the little strategies that we all employ to surreptitiously clock something in our peripheral vision. ✏ Jay Richardson

Review

Photo: Poppy Hillstead

Jordan Brookes: The Part of You That's Always Screaming

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Photo: Nicholas Elliot photography

Eva Peroni: Jungled HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Gilded Balloon Teviot until 30 Aug, 4.40pm

One thing about Eva Peroni? She’s precocious. At just 22, she’s not only become a buzzy name on the Scottish comedy club circuit, but landed a major venue for her very first Fringe run. Characteristically, she’s approaching this landmark moment in her nascent career with aplomb. Peroni benefits from the gleeful tenacity of youth, probing the audience’s boundaries with dicey punchlines delivered without fear of retribution. (Of her dual Irish Republican and Traveller background, she jokes; “When I see a caravan, I don’t know whether to live in it or blow it up.”) At times, nerves are papered over with overdone bravado and her amped-up persona could be dialled down a notch. Not least because this might give us more time to process the rapid-fire of one-liners delivered throughout the show: balaclavas being described as 26

Comedy

the ultimate neurodivergent masking, various riﬀs slagging oﬀ her West Lothian hometown, and jabs about Bathgate’s “generational munters” Susan Boyle and Lewis Capaldi. The show bills itself as an exploration of the comic’s

coming-of-age in Costa Rica but, really, it’s strongest on home soil: bringing fresh ﬁre to age-old dissections of Scottish identity, from a young, queer, working class, and uncompromisingly leftist perspective. ✏ Megan Wallace

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Maya Ricote: Ay Am! HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Pleasance Courtyard until 30 Aug, 10:40pm

What do Latin American telenovelas and modern clowning have in common? The answer could simply be Maya Ricote, but in her debut hour Ay Am! she exposes a more profound overlap in the two performance worlds her career has straddled over the past dec-

ade. Seeing human emotions heightened and distilled is at the crux of both disciplines and Ricote playfully pulls from her acting arsenal to share a confessional coming-of-age tale under the guise of her chaotic clown. Maya (the character) is an exaggerated, dare we say inﬂated version of a telenovela star; a femme fatale weaponising her femininity to the extreme in the pursuit of a big break and eternal youth. Co-created with modern clown Dan Lees, the physical comedy sensibilities are clear in Ricote’s performance, even when they’re combined

with musical interludes and character work. The show’s original songs work wonders, thanks to their catchy hooks and Ricote’s unwavering commitment to delivering them – wails, grunts, screams and all. Deliberately clumsy stunts, inconsistent accents and loose audience interactions all add to the hectic hilarity of Ay Am! A feral final act sees Ricote figuratively holding up a middle finger to telenovela traditions and fully embracing the absurd clown within her. And tonight’s audience seems to embrace her right back. ✏ Megan Merino Photo: Gala Ricote

Comedy

HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Assembly George Square Studios until 30 Aug, 8pm

Well, this is a really classy hour of standup from Australian Lizzy Hoo. And by classy I don’t mean, like, classy. “You will have to give me eye contact later when I get really ﬁlthy,” she warns the front row. True to her word, it’s not that long before she’s talking about her brother’s big cums.

And yet, how she’s walked us there feels completely reasonable. And, yes, she’s more than able to maintain eye contact throughout. The horror! No, it’s the writing and delivery here that are really top class, and it’s hard to imagine how much eﬀort has gone into polishing every line and beat of Hoo’s Edinburgh debut. Genuinely, she’s covered all of the bases. There’s no waﬄe: The writing is stripped back to essential words only. You can see the way she manipulates pace, pauses, tension, relief, tonal shift. There’s a control here that means she’s able to skirt controversy without ever feel-

ing on thin ice. “OK, lighten up Edinburgh!” she says knowingly as she edges into material on Asian stereotypes. She’s able to balance moments of relatability with ﬂashes of, and there’s no other way of putting this, scorn. It’s all rather exciting. Nor is this a shiny wrapper for second hand goods. Hoo’s takes on the diﬀerent DMs she and her male colleagues get is neat, and she spins her weirdo messengers out into a full imagined relationship. You wouldn’t think you could roast your own father for volunteering in a hospital. Hoo can. Hoo can do it all, really. ✏ Evan Beswick

Review

Photo: Giulia McGauran

Lizzy Hoo – Says Hoo?

9 AUG-12 SEP

BOOK

NOW

PITLOCHRYFESTIVALTHEATRE.COM

Scottish Charity No. SC013055

Make

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A PITLOCHRY FESTIVAL THEATRE PRODUCTION OF

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HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Pleasance Courtyard until 30 Aug, 6.50pm

For an hour about generational trauma and inheritance, Kemah Bob’s Love Child never feels bleak. It’s a buoyant and upbeat set which makes life feel like opportunities desperate to be seized and plays to the Texan comic’s strengths. Compared to her debut hour (2024’s Miss Fortunate), which saw the comic in a dark, dark place, Love Child is breezy even when talking about child poverty and absent parents. With tongue-in-cheek lines about drug use and sharing sex toys, skanking along to her granddad’s music and an easy rapport with her audience, it’s a joy to be in Bob’s company. The overarching theme of ﬁnally learning how to grow up, but keeping hold of

childlike wonder and a sense of adventure, hits even harder when Bob shares her grandma’s wise words. The ﬁrst in her family allowed to indulge in spreading her wings, the sentiment will surely resonate

with audiences and artists from global majority and other marginalised backgrounds at this festival and beyond, being here without ever thinking they’d get the chance. ✏ Polly Glynn

Review

Photo: Corinne Cumming

Kemah Bob: Love Child

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Photo: Rosen Stanley Greengrass

Roger Prick: Sexopolis

and aviator frames popular amongst perverts and non-binary people, Han Whyte’s drag persona Roger Prick meets HHHHH us inside his erotic bookshop, where he’s about to launch VENUE: Underbelly Cowgate his tell-all memoir. There’s a TIME: until 30 Aug, 6.55pm gag a minute – Roger would approve – as Whyte’s terriﬁcally fun writing charts our ‘70s Roger Prick is a feminist. Roger pornographer’s journey from Prick loves women. Why else precocious leery youngin to would his bestselling, 1970s sleazy Soho entrepreneur, all erotic Guy Blokeman novels while bearing the burden of feature thoughtful lines such having a massive penis. Yet, a as, “Twelve gorgeous vixens true role model for other aging hunger for his cock”? Twelve! men accused of misogyny, You could call him many things: Roger knows that times have a horny bastard, a Casanova, a changed. Reading Judith Butler sex pest banned from coming has taught him that “women within a 500-mile-radius of can be butlers” – and he also Gloucestershire, but you understands the Bechdel test couldn’t say he’s not generous. so well now that he’ll gladly Wearing Sharpied-on sideinterrupt a woman in the audiburns, a half-untucked shirt, ence to explain what it is. 32

Comedy

Hilariously performed with drawings that strike a perfect balance between smutty and silly, Whyte’s immaculately penned hour feels like a graphic novel in motion; Roger becomes a 3D character making his seedy way through a sexual revolution rendered in simple, gloriously evocative marker pen. With plenty of opportunity to get interactive with Whyte’s illustrations, it’s like we’ve stepped inside a pop-up book – just watch that aforementioned long penis doesn’t poke you in the eye. Roger Prick: Sexopolis is an irresistible invitation to get down and dirty with this lovable, literary lech – and like the many women with humongous breasts he’s pleased in his time, we can’t get enough of Prick. ✏ Xuanlin Tham

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Photo: Ed Moore

Dan Kelly: How I Went to Every Supermarket in the World HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Just the Tonic at the Mash House until 30 Aug, 7.30pm

Mundane for most, exciting for some, a trip to the supermarket is hardly the major highlight of your week. (And if it is, reassess your life. Please!) However, if you pretend to be a secret agent on a mission to ﬁnd the rare collectable everyone wonders about, you are in for a true thrill. Dan Kelly has made an enjoyable profession out of it. Working as a data collector left him with few transferable skills and even more peculiar experiences. All with one purpose: helping the big companies know how much to pay their employees around the world. Feels a bit more responsible, doesn’t it? His show provokes genuine curiosity about how the world operates, making your mind wander down memory lane to 34

Comedy

your own holiday escapades. It gives an eﬀective introduction to the country’s society and way of life without sounding pedagogical or dull. Kelly teaches you to rely on the familiar in times of uncertainty and never give up, even if the task you are facing – like ﬁnding the price of a bra in Iran as a man – seems rather impossible. Now extinct, his job is a tale

for travel lovers. So, if one day you see a tanned man walking around a supermarket and speaking into a dictaphone, don’t scare him off – he is a nostalgic soul. Dan Kelly’s stand-up is a funny, travel-obsessed affair worth checking out if you are ready to develop a new obsession: is it really that hard to find tofu in Greenland? ✏ Katerina Godunoff

could turn out to be a triumph. This is a truly sensational hour of standup, so much goodness packed in, the major hook being a candid look at his parents’ love life. Still HHHHH processing their departures, living in their old house, he VENUE: Monkey Barrel Comedy reconnects by reading a box (O’Neill’s, The Tron), of their often-lurid letters. That TIME: until 30 Aug, 5.15pm leads Edwards on a memorable quest to rediscover the other characters involved, Milo Edwards has endured a notably one charismatic, remarkably grim Fringe career, catamaran-boasting business losing parents at two of them, partner. His calls to surviving 2019 and 2022, with a show acquaintances are hilarious, about his dad’s death in bewhile oﬀering further tween. It’s a wonder he returns home truths. at all, but let’s be thankful: 2026 And there’s lots more

besides. Milo bonded with his mum during Covid, mourning dad by binge-listening to Radio 2, particularly the midday misery king Jeremy Vine. That takes us on a fabulous detour about Jeremy versus jauntier colleagues, splenetic callers, Edwards’ unhappy TV history and a thorough synopsis of US anti-communist interventions in Southeast Asia. This sumptuous feast is garnished with some spot-on voices - a very ﬁne Vine - while a huge late revelation almost slips by in the previous laugh trail. It’s magniﬁcent. Milo Edwards has come of age; comedically, at least. ✏ Si Hawkins

Review

Milo Edwards: Catamaran

Photo: Rebecca Need-Menear

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Photo: Fee Golin

Theatre Reviews

Angels in America HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

King’s Theatre run ended

What a sadly but seamlessly relevant play Tony Kushner’s two-part, Pulitzer Prize-winning epic Angels in America continues to be, 35 years after it was premiered in San Francisco. Produced when the memory of the HIV crisis was still fresh, raw and ongoing, it’s brought to life here with palpable, captivating power and quality in this new ﬁve-hour 38

Theatre

version at Edinburgh International Festival by director Ivo Van Hove and Internationaal Theater Amsterdam. Presented in Dutch with English supertitles against Jan Versweyveld’s stark, almost factory-like background, with the music of David Bowie either tinnily crackling in the background like a shop radio or blasting out at full volume (both are dissociating stylistic choices), the sprawling production focuses on a real-life American despot. The domineering, thoroughly conservative New York lawyer Roy Cohn (brilliantly played by Hans Kesting) acts like he can shape reality through willpower and lawsuits alone,

declaring himself not gay but merely a straight man who has sex with men. Coming into Cohn’s orbit are functionary Joe, a committed Mormon and Republican, and his wife Harper, who go on their own respective sexual and spiritual journeys, and sometime drag queen Prior Walter and his boyfriend Louis, the former with AIDS and the latter in denial. As the disease takes hold of both Roy and Prior against a backdrop of personal and societal uncertainty, all the good and bad of the American Dream is demonstrated here, from fear and selﬁshness to a resounding sense of hope and compassion. ✏ David Pollock

HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Traverse Theatre until 30 Aug, various times

Writer/performer and Sex Idiot (she’s reprising her 2010 comedy show over at Shedinburgh) Bryony Kimmings made a vow in 2021 to only make work that supports the planet. So after co-writing Last Christmas with Emma Thompson and collaborating on projects including the wonderful Show Pony, we find Kimmings playing herself, an anxiously attached, cigarette-craving, 40-something woman on an eco farm against her will, because of her Will (her new partner). The posh, gilet-wearing locals, the Union Jacks flying above East Sussex doors, the mud, the nature; she hates it all. But it’s increasingly jarring for her mind and soul to ignore climate collapse, not to mention the feelings she is developing for a magnificent oak tree outside. There are echoes of The Change, Bridget Christie’s brilliant feminist paeon to paganism and rural England, with extra songs. The Essex vowels of comedy drag songstress Diane Chorley sometimes

come to mind too, as Kimmings recoils at outdoorsy life, feeling the creep of capitalist self-loathing, then sinking into escapism to cope. Kimmings dances the line between batshit cat lady and sage witch, using bursts of Eu-

ro-dance music to oﬀset the pious vibes she knows can become dangerously entangled with eco-activism. Skilful, fun, moving and, like a hallucinogenic forest mushroom, subtly laced with surreal, healing messages. ✏ Claire Sawers

Review

Photo: Rosie Powell

Bog Witch

festmag.com

Photo: T. Petrich

(top)spin on the tried while Gus, head in the clouds Chip and Gus: andPutting tested buddy dynamic with Socrates or Heraclitus, between Chip, a high-strung, barely makes an effort and A Comedy crabby guy, and Gus, his wins anyway. There’s somewith Balls affable, too-talkative, clueless thing immediately cosy about friend (à la Planes, Trains, and Automobiles), two-hander Chip and Gus: A Comedy with Balls VENUE: theSpace @ Venue 45 is rapid-fire right off the batTIME: until 29 Aug, 6.20pm sorry, racket. Actors, writers, and directors John Ahlin and Christopher Patrick Mullen pull off the incredible feat Every third Tuesday, down-onof playing table tennis while his-luck musician Chip and exchanging quips, word play, college philosophy profesgrammatical and philosophical sor Gus have a sanctified quandaries faster than Chip appointment: in the back room can retrieve errant balls under of their local sports bar, they the audience’s seats. If a great meet to play table tennis. It’s rally feels like a great converan important routine: as Chip sation, why not have both? mutters, vibrating with anxious The clever, tightly-packed frustration after getting off script’s joke per minute rate is the phone with a wife who’s emphasised by great physical just divorced him, “I need to comedy: laser-focused Chip play ping pong.” hits every ball with aplomb,

HHHHH

Theatre

Chip and Gus’ fast-talking style, and the premise that sports is a pretence for intimacy between men – that friendship, parallel life disappointments, and identity crises could only be held and mediated by a little orange ball once a month. The conversational table tennis and the actual table tennis can sometimes feel like painting with the same colours – a lack of contrast, or negative space, that perhaps undermines the more grounded character drama Chip and Gus wants to become in its ﬁnal moments. But it’s sweet, it’s funny, and it’s pretty damn good ping pong. ✏ Xuanlin Tham

HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Summerhall until 31 Aug, 5.50pm

With an opening disclaimer that some of what follows is true, some isn’t and “the rest is none of your fucking business”, the sexy, silly, thrilling ROLEPLAY neatly and knowingly gyrates away from the controversy experienced by its producer Francesca Moody with Baby Reindeer and indulges artistic licence to explore a multitude of tricky issues. Written and performed solo by the audacious Hannah Reilly, the show asks whether female sexual empowerment can survive commercialisation and intimate sharing with all and sundry. A small-time podcaster with a show about sex and relationships, Danielle is suddenly propelled into the big leagues when a bigshot American producer shows an interest in her, offering her the backing of a major platform if she can extend her tongue-in-cheek, slutty brand to a no holdsbarred, sexual safari that will wrest young women away from their true crime listening. Danielle’s initial efforts to find racy content aren’t universally successful as she comically

breaks a dungeon master. But she feels emboldened by stripping. And despite projecting an image of being an uninhibited girl-about-town, has a clandestine, boundary-pushing relationship with a new squeeze and a strained bond with a disapproving mother to push. With Reilly committing to the erotic spectacle, the upfront

ROLEPLAY proceeds at pace and doesn’t truly resolve who’s exploiting who, or simply advocate for sex work, leaving itself admirably open-ended even as it ventures into grim #MeToo territory. She’s dynamite as Danni, by turns wittily vivacious and maddeningly lacking in self-awareness, high on her own sex appeal. ✏ Jay Richardson

Review

Photo: Gracie Steindl

ROLEPLAY

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Cathy HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Traverse Theatre until 30 Aug, 6.30pm

Cathy is a newly-widowed Glaswegian matriarch of oldschool character, a stoic, relentlessly stubborn, emotionally unmovable elderly Scots Catholic, whose faith is only matched by her prodigious ability to curse and swear. At the wake after her husband Tommy’s funeral everything angers her; her Protestant son-in-law Colin’s (Alan Orr)

choice of the wrong Chinese takeaway for their meal, her granddaughter Amy’s (Chloe Hodgson) imminent single motherhood and her daughter Flo (Michele Gallagher). The latter, just because ﬁghting’s what she and Flo have always done. A tender exploration of grief and fractured female relationships (it’s a nice change that Colin and Tommy are portrayed as dopey but dependable background presences, rather than malign inﬂuences), writer/ director Eilidh Loan’s play is beautifully calibrated to make its way through gorgeously observed emotional beats while revelling in relentlessly

sharp-tongued and hilarious Glaswegian Scots humour. This is accentuated by a great cast who hit all the right notes, especially Elaine C. Smith in the starring role, the deadpan comic timing which made her considerable name in Scottish arts through Rab C. Nesbitt and Two Doors Down perfect for this character and this situation. Also wonderful is Sally Reid as Lizzie, the bubbly charity shop owner whose own grief helps Cathy recognise hers. It’s one of those rare Fringe plays you’d recommend to absolutely anyone, especially someone who wouldn’t normally go to the Fringe. ✏ David Pollock

Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic

Theatre

HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Summerhall until 30 Aug, 1.45pm

Named after the TikTok trend, asking whether you’d rather be alone in the woods with a man or bear, Sarah Hehir’s play explores emotional abuse, coercion and control. Lesley Ewen, Katie Hurley and Amaia Naima Aguinaga play three generations of women expe-

riencing harmful behaviour from men. Paige is mum to Angel, and moved away from Sam because she couldn’t stomach his jealous, ﬁnancially abusive behaviour. Teenager Angel clams up after seeing a friend sexually assaulted at a party and Connie, albeit the strong, protective matriarch, isn’t immune to homophobic comments and prejudice from her church. Bright bursts of Doja Cat and UK garage duo DJ Luck and MC Neat lighten the increasingly dark tone, and a drunken kitchen disco breaks the

tension, temporarily. Directed by Ursula Martinez, it shows the sometimes very casual creep of danger; mind games and minimising, then guilt about speaking out, if the abuse is not violent. The Domestic Abuse Scotland Act came into force in 2019, with England following in 2021; progress, but not a magic wand when systemic misogyny persists and lawmakers and educators struggle to catch up with the complexities of this often hidden, age-old yet new crime. Smart, powerful kitchen sink storytelling. ✏ Claire Sawers

Review

Photo: Arsalan Sattari-Hicks

Man or Bear

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Photo: Myla Faith

SUCCUBUS HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Underbelly Bristo Square run ended

Georgina Collins brings her debut Fringe play, exploring the mix of shame and desire that one 25-year-old feels, with a demonic twinkle in her eye. Also a burlesque artist going by the name Strawberry Duvall, writer/actor Collins begins her subtly twisted horror show in specs and a 44

Theatre

prim cardigan. Before long the demure layers are peeled oﬀ, and she is navigating her own queer liberation, giving ﬂashbacks of Janet Weiss’s sexual awakening in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Inspiration came when Collins experienced extreme hormonal changes that were diagnosed eventually as premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and she decided to distil that painful, confusing experience into a lighthearted, yet dark piece of fantasy storytelling. She takes the myth of succubus, skewering it together with a man-eater metaphor,

and writes a character so overpowered by lust and hungry for human ﬂesh, she begins lying to her butcher about the ravenous huskies she’s feeding at home. SUCCUBUS follows in the footsteps of classic werewolf and vampire plots where puberty and physical changes bring uncontrollable urges and dangerous consequences. Collins is a conﬁdent and magnetic performer, devouring meat and dripping in fake blood as her play touches on the more serious issues of medical gaslighting and misogyny. ✏ Claire Sawers

Experience live performance, your way. #MixItUp Book tickets on edfringe.com or the EdFringe app

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Photo: Clem Ogna

Bunny! HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Summerhall until 31 Aug, 10.15pm

One thing about Bunny Manson? Her body count is high. No, we’re not talking about that, get your mind out of the gutter! Rather, the would-be starlet’s list of victims is longer than the waitlist for Creative Scotland funding (as in: very long). Following drama school, the artiste enters into a career wasteland: putting on shows in the corner of her local Glasgow oﬀ-licence and stomaching rejection after rejection. One fateful evening, the artistic director of an AI-themed theatre company dares to give her a pitying look and she responds with violence. From there, her murders become more high proﬁle. Firstly, she does in national treasure James McAvoy during an ill-fated hook-up. Then, after doing a durational performance in a near-empty gallery, she winds up shooting Marina 46

Theatre

Abramović in the head. Throughout, Bunny delivers her own takes on musical theatre classics – from Chicago, to The Little Mermaid – changing the words to reﬂect her hyper-niche experiences in the wringer of Scottish regional arts. The show is an obvious skewering of the arts world, yes, but it reaches further.

Naturally, there’s the parody of the cottage industry of ‘PoV: I’m an unreliable narrator / serial killer’ shows like Killing Eve, Sweatpea and You. But there’s also a tongue-in-cheek dialogue with girlbossery, and arch reﬂections on the meaning of fame and art. Valerie Solanas, move over: it’s time to make way for Bunny. ✏ Megan Wallace

Review

Photo: Brian Hartley

Dance, Physical Theatre & Circus Reviews not for glory

not for glory is a thoughtful dissection of heritage and all its complexities. HHHHH Music glitches and remixes itself, while the dancing – VENUE: Assembly @ Dance Base strong, precise – likewise splinTIME: Run ended ters across the stage. Each work is brilliantly accomplished and it’s a joy to witness the Striking and bold, not for glory performers watch each other’s sees three performers reclaim solos with the understandable the traditional dance and visible awe. Throughout dances music of their childhoods. The and songs, the performers dance-theatre gig asks both share their experiences of how tradition shapes us and traditional Irish and Scottish how we shape it – from histor- culture; their reﬂections are ical violence, to queerness, to honest, insightful. Humour is familial bonds. Vibrantly honest, interwoven into such speech,

bringing a warmth and levity that further endears us to the performers and their art. This welcome continues, with shortbread and Irn Bru ﬁnding its way into keen audience hands. not for glory isn’t afraid to strip it back, refusing to lean into a grandeur which is all too often aligned with the traditions it is attempting to unravel. We’re admittedly left wanting after a more climatic ﬁnish, however, the show’s gentle conclusion again signals its empowered disregard of tradition for tradition’s sake. ✏ Eilidh Akilade

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CLASSIC FILM SCRIPTS RUN THROUGH AN ONLINE TRANSLATOR A DOZEN TIMES AND READ LIVE ON STAGE IN CHARACTER

21:00

5 - 30 AUG (NOT 17, 24)

HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Greenside @ George Street until 29 Aug, 4.05pm

Inspired by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story The Yellow Wallpaper, this ‘dance thriller’ adaptation combines the traditional sensibilities of a straight play with contemporary dance and experimental soundscapes. Set in the Gilded Age of America, the protagonist is brought to a

grand estate for the summer, conﬁned to a room where she is prescribed ‘rest cure’ to treat her ‘female hysteria and nervousness’. Performed by an ensemble of six, its three principle roles (the unnamed lead, her controlling doctor husband and his menacing sister) are accompanied by a trio of phantom-like dancers who come alive with our narrator’s increased solitude-induced mania. Their constant presence on stage, punctuated by frenetic movements and intense stares, provide a sinister hum in the background of all the action, like the indistinguishable but bone-chilling

score of a horror ﬁlm. While the expertly executed choreography is the show’s most interesting creative choice, the acted portions are delivered beautifully too, with our principal navigating a complex emotional journey with impressive restraint and power. Distorted bass sounds and electronic synths feature prominently in the soundtrack, adding to the jarring juxtaposition between the period costume and dialogue with modern sonic and physical languages. It’s this contemporary twist that successfully makes Perkins Gilman’s haunting tale from 1892 resonate in the present day. ✏ Megan Merino

Review

Photo: Corey Bryant

The Yellow Wallpaper

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Photo: Hemispheres Photography

The Palestinian Circus: Step and a Half HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows until 29 Aug 2.05pm

Given that even the word ‘Palestinian’ is now politically loaded, the most trenchant line comes in this production from a recorded voice: ‘joy is a form of resistance’. The show gestures towards representing elements of Palestinian culture, not least through the pounding soundtrack but remains a celebration of human physicality, the ability of trained bodies to ﬂy in space, to ascend the pole and ropes and silks and frighten the audience with a sudden controlled and perfectly executed fall. The voice-overs that emerge between the routines make broad, even abstract points that, of course, speak to the violence being enacted on 50

Palestine and the dance interludes revel in shared community. It is the aerial sequences that hit the hardest: moments may take on a darker resonance as when a body simply hangs above the stage but the impact comes from the acrobatic excellence and an almost old-fashioned variety-style sheer entertainment.

Dance, Physical Theatre & Circus

Another voice hints that words are not enough, and the circus embraces the power of bodies moving together or demonstrating exceptional skills. Life-aﬃrming and aimed at all ages, Step and a Half is a triumph of traditional routines, wowing and seducing the audience with remarkable feats. ✏ Gareth K Vile

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America is NOT a racist country

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AUGUST

PAUL OATES

THO AS OES HG

No performance August 10 t h , 17 t h , 24 t h

HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Summerhall until 30 Aug, 9.10pm

Xhloe and Natasha are the names on everyone’s lips this August. With a string of Fringe First awards already under their belts, the New York-based clown duo have swept the festival away for several years running. Their sold-out, all-new show, Bigfoot Ripped My Dog

In Half I Saw It follows two teenagers’ escapades as they wreak havoc in an Appalachian town by faking bigfoot sightings. Bursting onto the stage, Xhloe and Natasha jolt the audience to attention with their unparalleled charisma and chemistry. The pair combine clowning and simple acrobatics to tell the story of a community recovering from the trauma of a devastating ﬂood, and how its collective vulnerability creates a breeding ground for a conspiracy theory as wild as the existence of an 8-foot humanoid creature that hunts pet dogs. While the narrative is initially disjointed and diﬃcult to follow, we’re soon fully brought

up to speed and invested in a Twin Peaks-style mystery. Distrust in power emerges as a prominent theme, as Xhloe and Natasha embody a line-up of characters, from a bitchy shop assistant to the Mayor’s robotic crisis PR representative, demonstrating both perception and range. But best of all, they make for a convincing pair of misguided and scheming teenagers, whose spiralling lies turn a small town upside down. Undoubtedly, Xhloe and Natasha will go down in Fringe history. It’s unsurprising that this high-energy, supremely choreographed work is transferring to London’s Soho Theatre in September. ✏ Rachel Ashenden

Review

Photo: Morgan McDowell

Bigfoot Ripped My Dog in Half I Saw It

Photo: Fudz Qazi

Cabaret Reviews Skank Sinatra: How to Succeed in Show Business Without Really Trying HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Assembly George Square Studios until 30 Aug 6.30pm

Skank Sinatra is the drag creation of Danish-South African-Australian “trilingual diva” 54

Cabaret

Jens Radda. Self-described as an “international icon and occasional soprano”, Sinatra’s here to deliver a cabaret show-turned-self help seminar on how to become a performing icon. That seminar structure is a thin veneer, quickly abandoned, over the familiar solo cabaret show structure: modiﬁed show tunes and original songs strung together with cheeky quips, nods to the great divas, and hints of social commentary. And there’s no doubt that Sinatra is very good at all that – highlights include an interpolation of My Favourite Things that lists “bright copper buttplugs

and red latex mittens”; a tune skewering South African NIMBYism; and a rousing multilingual closing rendition of Don't Cry for Me Argentina. While it may be churlish to criticise the show for the ﬂimsiness of a premise it doesn’t hold onto too strongly anyway, How to Succeed never really takes us beyond what we’ve come to expect from a solo cabaret show – in fact, with numbers and features centred around, say, Liza Minnelli and Kylie Minogue, it can feel like it’s trying to hit all the essential notes. Radda is a talented enough performer to hope for something fresher in the future. ✏ Samuel Cain

HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

Assembly Roxy until 30 Aug, 9.50pm

Delivered from the gutter but looking at the stars, Fanny Bleach’s Fringe bow is a sublime freak show spectacle, like The Greatest Showman on hallucinogens. A riotous, character comedy carousel of grotesque body horror and proud, feminist expression, Emma Crowley-Bennett’s wild-eyed, multimedia hour is a once seen, never forgotten cabaret of the depraved. Compered by Daniel, a worried-looking, bowl-cutted work experience lad thrust front of house, Crowley-Bennett’s other creations make conﬁdent, spectacular entrances, not least the bin princess who opens the show by emerging from garbage. Then there’s One Tit Wonder, a gargling-with-gravel, leopardskin-garbed, mono-breasted black widow of a woman, ﬂeeing from the police after the suspicious deaths of her countless husbands. Hairy Mary is similarly intimidating but draws the crowd together in a life drawing class for her naked splendour, splayed across a variety of revealing poses.

Inbetween the outlandish costume changes, videos introduce further oddballs, including a sexy prawn cavorting in the bath for her webcam. Best and worst of all is a demonically insistent charity cold caller, out to harvest spare kidneys, her terrible, sing-song persistence betrayed by the

spittle-flecked salivation of her close-up mouth. Throughout, Crowley-Bennett flashes downtrodden defiance from her endearing mutant identities. And they ultimately wrest control of their own destiny, an uplifting conclusion to a nightmarish vision. ✏ Jay Richardson

Review

Photo: Ray Malone

Fanny Bleach: The Nearly Naked Show

Photo: Van Corona

Stamptown-

Olympic ﬁgure skater, and the deadpan sincerity of a small HHHHH child. It perfectly sets the tone for Stamptown’s brand of VENUE: Assembly perfectly calibrated weirdGeorge Square Gardens ness; now in its tenth year, the TIME: until 29 Aug, 9.50pm cult variety show has excelled thanks to its signature juxtaposition of the very impressive It is probably a good sign that and the very stupid. even on a rain-soaked Monday Led by Zach Zucker in the night in the third week of the guise of his alter ego, the Fringe, a show makes you start extremely shit male comedibeaming the moment you walk an Jack Tucker, Stamptown in. Damp, jaded, exhausted… unfolds with delightfully none of that matters in the engineered anarchy. Zucker face of a man in a purple drops obscene asides at the muscle vest dancing on rollaudience whenever a joke fails erskates with the agility of an to land, his compering is con56

Cabaret

stantly interrupted by sound eﬀects from director Jonny Wooley, and a self-professed billionaire keeps appearing to try and buy the show. And this is before the acts themselves: Kemah Bob killing a stand-up set, burlesque performer David Pereira going all out with an acrobatics-cum-live shaving routine, French clown Mr Cardboard doing…things with cardboard. It’s near impossible to sum up just how much is happening in mere language: manic, horny and completely bizarre, Stamptown needs to be seen to be maybe understood. ✏ Anahit Behrooz

Review

Photo: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Music Reviews The Singer

(Dylan Wood) ends up back at Joe’s for beers. The two bond HHHHH over music, but the production’s many moving parts VENUE: Traverse Theatre elevate this far higher than a TIME: until 30 August, twee story of wannabe stars, various times and their beautiful, unlikely bromance. A short ﬁlm made by Cora Bissett explores ableism Bissett gets ampliﬁed into this and the divide between the moving piece of musical thed/Deaf and “hearie” commuatre, exploring BSL and modes nity. Signing is seen as “poor of listening. Joe (the excellent, man’s English”, and parallels expressive Jamie Rea) makes are drawn with the way Scots bedroom beats; he is deaf and language is misunderstood, uses powerful speakers and a or met with patronising SubPac to feel the vibrations, responses. A protest against silently signing his lyrics. Pen- the closure of the deaf centre niless Glasgow busker Andy makes a subtle political point

about reduced funding for deaf services. In a singalong section, we learn BSL lyrics. BSL is not signed English; it is its own language, where shapes and emotions are drawn in the air, body language and facial expression carry meaning. Set designer Jenny Booth ensures the subtitled and signed play, with songs by KT Tunstall (who grew up with a profoundly deaf brother, and is herself hard of hearing) is accessible for hearing and d/Deaf audiences. An uplifting story about visibility and the invisible, and what it means to really be heard. ✏ Claire Sawers

festmag.com

Kids Critics Glob Alvie, ﬁve, enjoys the new circus adventure from Les Foutoukours Photo: Andre Chevrier

What happens in the show? Two fluffy white cavemen guys climb up a ladder. The small one slided down and he did a noise like a fire engine. They were funny. They kept having an argue. They spoke zero languages, they just said like ‘woooow!’ They could stand on one hand! What did you like most about the show? My favourite was the small one because he was silly and he kept going [gibberish noise]. He kept making me laugh. The lights kept changing from blue to orange and pink like my night light. Was there anything you didn’t like? No. What did your grown-up think about the show? It was very serene; gentle music, gentle lighting. With only two performers there 58

Kids

was more focus on their tricks; hand balancing and gymnastics, tap dancing, juggling, diabolo. A beautiful breather from festival insanity. Would you tell your friends to go to the show? Yes, particularly kids who like slapstick, or adults who like their circus more chilled and minimal.

SHOW VENUE: TIME:

Glob Underbelly Bristo Square until 30 Aug, 3pm