It all started here: one woman, on stage, telling a story. In 2013, Fleabag opened in a small, dank fringe space in Edinburgh, before Phoebe Waller-Bridge turned it into a beloved, era-defining TV comedy, the show that launched her career – and a thousand think pieces.
Continue reading “Review: Fleabag, Wyndham’s Theatre: It’s still brilliant”Baby Reindeer ★★★★☆ / Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum with Expats ★★★★★ / Lucy McCormick: Post Popular ★★★★☆
Some acts defy whatever section of the fringe programme you put them in. Theatre? Comedy? Performance art? Who cares? This year, several performers who have long straddled such boundaries return to the fringe. And however you define them, they’ve got something serious to say.
Continue reading “Edinburgh Fringe 2019 review round-up”When playwright Gary McNair was asked who should provide the music for his new play Square Go, there was only one answer: Frightened Rabbit. He’d been friends with the Scottish indie rock band for years – as well as being a huge fan – and had been waiting for a chance to work with them on the right show. Continue reading “‘It was therapeutic’: How Frightened Rabbit found solace making music for a new play, following the death of Scott Hutchison”
There’s a scene in Doglife, one of this year’s most talked-about plays at the Edinburgh Fringe, where the wife of a Glaswegian gangland enforcer, confronting him about his job, suddenly writhes onstage as if experiencing the violence he inflicts on others. Continue reading “Meet Thomas McCrudden, the violent criminal squaring up to his past on stage”
It’s midnight, and I’m lying on a massage table on stage in front of a room full of people. I’m gripping a cucumber between my thighs, which a tall Australian man is demonstrating his hand-job technique on. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Edinburgh Fringe. Continue reading “I went to the maddest interactive shows on the Fringe so you don’t have to”
What’s the noise you keep hearing while watching Irvine Welsh’s play? Laughter? Not so much. It’s more likely the terrible creaking of a woefully old-fashioned script, co-written with Dean Cavanagh. Continue reading “Review: Performers, Assembly Rooms”
They say you have to suffer for your art. But whoever “they” are presumably aren’t talking about binge-drinking cider in public on a daily basis for a month. Mind you, that’s not stopping actor David William Bryan from doing exactly that at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe festival, all in the name of theatre. Whether theatre will thank him is another matter altogether.
Continue reading “I’m drinking eight cans of cider onstage every day for a month”
Artist Martin Creed’s show defies easy categorisation. He shares some thoughts, from the problem with trousers to the inadequacies of language to explanations of his sculptures. He plays some songs: some illustrate his musings, some are aural non-sequiturs. Continue reading “Review: Martin Creed’s Words and Music, EIF”
Two Man Show is, in fact, performed by two women, Abbi Greenland and Helen Goalen, aka RashDash. It’s billed as a look at masculinity and patriarchy, and begins with the sort of bonkers stridency that RashDash’s high-energy shows are known for. Continue reading “Review: Two Man Show, Edinburgh”
You know what the New Testament really lacks? Strong roles for women. And anal fingering. Luckily, Lucy McCormick is here to remedy both those problems. Continue reading “Review: Lucy McCormick, Triple Threat, Edinbrugh”