Pleasance Sets 2015 Edinburgh Programme

Often referred to as the beating heart of the Festival, the Pleasance once again presents a programme for this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe this is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Following last year's 30th anniversary celebrations, the Pleasance has set the bar even higher and presents an exceptional programme across a wide range of art forms, topics and cultures. Ranging from physical theatre and dance, political theatre, farce, mime and comedy, to musicals, children's shows, puppetry and magic, the programme will be presented by companies from every corner of the globe, including South Africa, Cuba, USA and even Belgium. There is something for people all ages - it's an entire festival in itself!

THEATRE

Our theatre programme is led by Hollywood star John Hannah (Four Weddings and a Funeral). John Hannah appears in The Titanic Orchestra as a man claiming to be the great Houdini who helps four homeless men perform the most astounding vanishing act of all time.Alan Cox also plays Houdini alongside Phil Jupitus as Arthur Conan-Doyle in The Spontaneity Shop's latest play Impossible, directed byHannah Eidinow (five time Scotsman Fringe First winner). Impossible is written by Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky, writers of previous Edinburgh sell-out hits Coalition, Making News and Kingmaker. The brilliantly amusing Tangram Theatre Company takes on some of the biggest names in the world of science: Darwin, Einstein and Curie-Sklodowska in three shows: The Origin of Species..., Albert Einstein: Relativitively Speaking and The Element in the Room: A Radioactive Musical Comedy about the Death and Life of Marie Curierespectively. All promise to be as entertaining as they are educational! Following their 2013 sell-out Fringe success. Writers' Guild and List Magazine Award for Drama, ex Charlie Hartill fund recipients and Les Enfants Terribles Prize winning theatre company PIT return to the Pleasance this year with Down & Out in Paris and London, a modern satire inspired by George Orwell's famous novel.

Tonight with Donny Stixx the latest work by Philip Ridley, tells the story of Donny who has committed an unspeakable thing but all he wants is his own TV show... This new play is a companion piece to Fringe First winning Dark Vanilla Jungle, a 2013 hit hailed by The Independent as riveting and audacious. Award-winning playwright Jack Thorne (Skins, Shameless, Glue) brings the world première ofThe Solid Life of Sugar Water, an unsettling story of love and loss.

Returning this summer and praised as one of the greatest shows I've ever seen by Ricky Gervais, BLAM! is the 2013 Pleasance hit that transforms an everyday workplace into a world of superheroes and villains. A love story with a twist, Spillikin by Pipeline Theatre Company is both heart-warming and funny - and includes a real robot! Fiction offers an otherworldly audio experience whilst being immersed in total darkness and comes from the makers of acclaimed Ring.

Boxed In by Portmanteau uses childhood toys as a way of retracing one's life journey in order to answer questions of gender. Gonzo Theatre Company presents Pilgrim - an Odysseus-like man's pilgrimage home to Ireland for his son's birth thwarted by outside forces. Another account of life challenges is given in RUN by Engineer Theatre Collective. Inspired by a true story of a 21-year old London City intern who died after working 72 hours straight, this theatre piece unravels the taboos of the promised land.

Rob Haye's new play This Will End Badly invites audiences deep into the heart of a modern man whereas one Granddad is taken Back to Blackbrick in a beautiful adaptation of Sarah Moore Fitzgerald's novel. Caligula's Alibi in Idiots put Dostoyevsky on trial in an existential piece of theatre whereas Adam Long's Dickens Abridged, another literature-inspired show, presents a mayhem of a comedy that brings to the stage Dickens' most-loved characters. Incognito Theatre and the Pleasance present Edinburgh with a new take on Wilde's classicDorian Gray, focusing on the idolisation of youth and beauty omnipresent in the modern world. This satirical and playful piece follows Incognito's sell-out debut in 2014. KPS Productions and The Finishing Touch Company give a touching and remarkable performance remembering one of the greatest comedy duos - Laurel and Hardy in ...And this is my friend Mr Laurel. This 2014 sell-out stars Jeffrey Holland from Hi-De-Hi.

Exploring issues of social prejudice and racism, Labels draws on autobiographical experiences. The play is brought to Edinburgh by Exeter'sWorklight Theatre. The millenia-old tradition of hunting whales is discussed in A Cinema in South Georgia. Presented by The Braw Buoys, it is a heart-warming and bitter play recounting real-life stories from The Antarctic.

Somewhere between Fawlty Towers and Bates Motel sits Hotel Paradiso, a hilarious black comedy in which everyone has something to hide. Brought to Edinburgh by Berlin-based masters of mask Familie Flöz, the show has been performed 500 times across 20 countries. The Sunset Five is another great comedy served by DugOut Theatre and it follows their previous success at the Fringe with Inheritance Blues. A bunch of misfits from the rundown town of Chipworth comes together in an attempt to pull off something truly extraordinary - an exciting and creative comedy theatre at its best. Fine Mess Theatre brings this year's Les Enfants Terribles Award-winning theatre pieceDivas. Accompanied by a live a cappella trio it tells an uplifting and heartbreaking story of two men who love world-famous divas.

This year's programme offers plenty of shows with a strong female protagonist. Hair Peace tells the story of a wig-user who embarks on a journey to locate the original (biological?) hair owners. Based on true events, the show stars Victoria Melody, an award-winning artist specialising in one-woman shows. Garden, by writer-performer Lucy Grace, follows the story of a city worker who takes home an abused office pot plant one day and her world alters; inside her flat on the 24th floor, she starts to plant, cultivate and nurture her own personal wilderness. The Soaking of Vera Shrimp is a poignant tale of hope and love and one girl's newly discovered extraordinary talent. A disgraced rock star fights for her last chance for immortality in Girl From Nowhere, a heartfelt story directed by Whitney Mosery(Almeida Theatre). Eating Seals and Seagulls' Eggs is Dublin's Fringe sell-out about Ireland's most hated woman. Lost Watch in association with Greenwich Theatre present Goodstock: an intimate story of a young woman living with a cancer-causing genetic mutation. Exploring the everyday of a modern female is Portrait, a candid and playful one-woman debut from Racheal Ofori whereas Sherman Cymru presents a modern take on a classic Greek myth in Iphigenia in Splott. It explores the high price people pay for society's shortcomings. Broken Windows by più serves as a perfect sum-up for this female-driven strand: based on verbatim interviews with female teenagers across the UK this piece explores what it means to be a young female today. The power of verbatim theatre is also explored inTrans Scripts, written by Fringe First and Herald Angel Award-winning producer Paul Lucas and directed by two-time Fringe First Award-winning director Linda Ames Key. Created from actual interviews with transgender women, it is a ground-breaking exploration of gender and identity.

In Shakespeare-inspired To She or Not to She Emma Bentley tackles the troubles of playing Shakespeare's men without a codpiece whereas an award-winning, all-female company Smooth Faced Gentleman revives Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedy Titus Andronicus.

Total Theatre Award-winning, extraordinarily entertaining (The Guardian) Backstage in Biscuit Land returns to the Pleasance. An explosive mix of puppetry, comedy, singing and incredible tics allows the audience into the world of Touretteshero Jess Thom who saysbiscuit 16,000 times per day.

PHYSICAL THEATRE/DANCE

After losing their set in the Battersea Arts Centre fire, Gecko Theatre has risen from the ashes and is back in Edinburgh with their latest breath-taking show Institute, following their great success at the Pleasance with Missing. This very physical piece of theatre explores questions of care - when the time comes, will there be anybody who cares?

Dancing to an incredible mix of Sam Smith, Chopin and Daft Punk, the highly-acclaimed team behind world sensation Ballet Revolucionvisits Edinburgh for the first time with their new show Balletronic, a dance ode to exuberant joy and passion presented by some of the best contemporary dancers in Cuba. In an imaginative blend of physical theatre, mime, illusions and live music, Theatre Re (The Gambler, The Little Soldiers) brings Blind Man's Song - a wordless tale about the power of imagination.

POLITICAL THEATRE

Bungabunga Productions presents When Blair had Bush and Bunga, a farcical comedy written and directed by Patrick Ryecart (King's Speech and Poldark) in which Blair, Bush, Berlusconi and Campbell get together on holiday and a body turns up in the pool. The political theme is also reflected in Tony's Last Tape by Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company starring Philip Bretherton. The story is loosely based on the diaries of Tony Benn, who was an MP for 47 years. This play examines the inability to give away power once gained whereasBoris: World King sees the famous Londoner-inspired character telling his life story. A fictional political intrigue in Electric Dreams by Dumbshow travels from 1950s Canada and illegal experiments on the human brain to Iraq at war. The play is inspired by Naomi Klein's TheShock Doctrine and tells a captivating story of Rose who has forgotten 18 years of her life.

MUSIC/OPERA

Naughty Nickers, one of 1977 alternative drag theatre company Bloolips, sings the stories of the company's USA debut, his life, romances and living with AIDS in Ecce Homo. Love Birds is a musical brought to the Fringe by Robert J. Sherman who is closely following the steps of his father and uncle (The Sherman Brothers who won an Oscar for Mary Poppins' score in 1965). In this new piece he depicts a crime story of a missing macaw set within a vaudeville for birds. Tubular Bells for Two sees two crazy Australians on stage trying to tackle 20 instruments in order to re-produce Mike Oldfield's timeless debut album whereas Parisien maniacs Fills Monkey: Incredible Drum Show will have you beating every pot and pan in your home. Bad Habit Theatre makes the audiences rethink their preconceptions of an opera in China Doll - A Neuropera in Four Seasons: If your lover birthed a China Doll, would you believe it to be real? A witty, dark and unexpected piece of opera at its best.

Two Fringe heavy-weight regulars are coming back this year: Showstopper! The Improvised Musical has been entertaining Fringe audiences for the past eight years with its hilarious, improvised musicals. Instant Sunshine has been with the Pleasance since its very first year and now they are stepping up the game and coming back with a new timeless musical comedy to brighten the dullest of days.Sleeping Trees: Mafia?/Western? teams up with The Physics House Band to answer the question of what happens when comedy meets jazz whilst they attempt to de-construct the gangster and western film genre. A 2013 and 2014 sell-out, Beardyman is back with One Album Per Hour - an exceptional music and comedy show in which the audiences witness the creation of an album based on their suggestions. A perfect feel-good show of stunning singing, wit and celebrity impressions visits Pleasance Dome thanks to Jess Robinson: The Rise of Mighty Voice. A 2014 five-star sell-out, Jess - the star of Newzoids, Dead Ringers and Little Voice - presents a showstopping mash up, different every night!

COMEDY

With the likes of Stewart Lee, Michael McIntyre, Peter Kay, Lee Evans, Miranda Hart and Graham Norton making their first steps into the world of comedy on one of the Pleasance's stages, the programming team is dedicated to finding the best new talent and providing them once again with that cobbled stepping stone.

35 comedy shows will make their Pleasance debut this year, including Darren Walsh The Pun Champion, Jack Barry, Emma Sidi, Tez Ilyas, Sarah Callaghan, Bucket, Lolly, Daphne, Harriet Kemsley and winner of Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival Best Debut 2015, Phil Jerrod (to name but a few). The Pleasance is still the place to find the best new comedy talent!

The Pleasance also welcomes back established comedian and ventriloquist Nina Conti (British Comedy Award winner), the unstoppable Reg D Hunter (Writer's Guild Award for Comedy), actor, comedian and former MP Gyles Brandreth, Live at the Apollo usual Jo Lycett andHal Cruttenden from Have I Got News for You. Alex Horne returns with his 2014 Edinburgh Comedy Award nominated show Monsieur Butterfly, a DIY comedy. James Acaster (Best Comedy Award nominee in 2012, 2013 and 2014) returns to Pleasance Courtyard andFelicity Ward presents What If There Is No Toilet?, a stand-up comedy show about mental illness and a search for the nearest restroom. The comedy continues with Ian Smith (BBC1's The Ark, BBC3's Sweat The Small Stuff) with Whereabouts and Edinburgh-born Iain Stirling(two-times BAFTA nominee) follows up on his three successive sell-out shows with Touchy Feely. Intelligent, inventive and thought-provoking (Time Out) Nish Kumar, host of BBC Radio 4 Extra Newsjack, visits the Pleasance Courtyard with his show Long Word... Long Word... Blah Blah Blah... I'm So Clever.

As well as the upcoming stars and the household names, there's a welcome return to the Pleasance for a whole host of talent that made a splash last year. Gein's Family Giftshop, Dane Baptiste and Lazy Susan all received Best Newcomer nominations at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, as well as the winner Alex Edelman, the King of Twitter Rhys James, musical Comedy Awards winner David Elms and sketch group Massive Dad are all back with new shows for 2015. Other sketch and character acts spending their August at the Pleasance include Comedy Award winner Adam Riches in his new incarnation Coach Coach, Beasts, who are trying to film their live DVD, Joseph Morpurgo, and double acts Max & Ivan and The Pin.

If stand up is your thing then we have the best of the fest to offer: from Mock the Week and BBC Radio 4's News Quiz Angela Barns makes a return. Star of Derek, Uncle and a new film SuperBob, Brett Goldstein talks about his time at Burning Man. Mouth of the South Rob Beckett and - for once making a welcome performance on stage - prankster Lee Nelson. Helping support the up and coming acts, the Pleasance is launching a brand new showcase show called HUB Fresh. A festival edition of their sell-out London show HUB, this will be a weekly free show in the famous Cabaret Bar where acts making their Pleasance debuts get the chance to be seen by a wider audience. Along with the Comedy podcast and Pleasance TV, the acts making their first steps into Edinburgh get as many opportunities to be seen as possible. And if that wasn't enough for one month, Edinburgh Comedy Award winning show The Wrestling is back! No teams, no captains, no allies - it's all against all, as 20 wrestlers and comedians go to war in an over-the-top-rope Battle Royale to crown the first ever Champion.

Plus, Jonny Pelham, Loren O'Brien, Sean McLoughlin, Damien Slash, Yve Blake and Fin Taylor might not be names that you have heard of, but they will be by the end of August.

CABARET

Spiegelworld, producers of Empire and long-running comedy circus hit Absinthe, presents Edinburgh with Vegas Nocturne, a controversial physical comedy that has US critics raving. What happens in Vegas comes to Edinburgh! Singing trio The Martini Encounterhosts a show featuring different special guests nightly and presenting the naughtiest cabaret and variety on the Fringe. Late Night Variety with The Martini Encounter is a must-see cacophony of cocktails and repertoire, described as The Muppets meet Blur.

PUPPETRY

Blind Summit Theatre, makers of the Fringe First-winning The Table, return to Edinburgh with Citizen Puppet, a story of greed and murder loosely based on Jack and the Beanstalk. Burton-esque tragic story of The Girl Who Fell in Love with the Moon is brought to Edinburgh by the award-winning The Human Zoo Theatre Company. I Am Beast by Sparkle and Dark uses puppetry and live music to convey the powerful message about grief and childish imagination, all set in a visually stunning world of the future.

MAGIC

Magic, not only for the younger ones, holds its place very firmly in the Pleasance programme. The highlights include Pete Firman who returns to the Edinburgh Fringe as one of the best comedian-magicians, blending crowd-pleasing comedy with eye-popping magic. Detecting all your secrets, predicting your next move and probably getting away with murder is Colin Cloud, the master of deduction - it's a must-see. Also, Neil Henry's Magical Mindsquirm aims to make the audience's mind actually squirm with his unique, astonishing style of magic. This is not pulling a rabbit from a hat but more pulling a rabbit from himself.

PLEASANCE FUTURES

This summer the Pleasance Theatre Trust is proud to unveil Pleasance Futures, the development umbrella of the Trust that unites the Charlie Hartill Fund and The Young Pleasance but also sees the launch of a new associate artist and theatre company programme

CHARLIE HARTILL SPECIAL RESERVE FUND

This special fund was established in 2004 in memory of Charlie Hartill, a writer, performer and eight years a Festival Fringe director. As of 2014, the Fund has gifted a total of £130,000 into theatre and comedy shows that would otherwise not have been able to perform at the Fringe. It enables four comedy acts and one theatre show to be presented in Edinburgh in August. This year's beneficiaries are: Molly bySquint, produced in association with Etch and the Pleasance Theatre Trust - an extraordinary journey through the mind of a sociopath.The Pleasance Comedy Reserve returns for its 11th year with four brand new stand ups. The scheme that pays, houses and looks after the comics, who this year are Malcolm Head, Tom Little, Jamali Maddix and Joe Sutherland, has become an important part of the Edinburgh comedy landscape. With 12 shows as part of the main Pleasance programme borne from Comedy Reserve alumni. The list of previous participants also includes Jack Whitehall, Holly Walsh, Doc Brown, Roisin Conaty and Daniel Rigby.

YOUNG PLEASANCE

Celebrating 20 years of Young Pleasance, since its inception in 1995 this prolific producing arm of the Pleasance has seen over 600 young people involved. Designed to create exciting and inclusive opportunities for everyone, Young Pleasance gives young people a chance to experience theatre at a professional level through workshops, projects and large-scale productions. The outcome, an annualYoung Pleasance production that visits the Edinburgh Fringe with a brand new piece and a brand new ensemble. The 2015 piece is The Hampstead Murder Mystery!, a tongue-in-cheek take on a 1920's American crime thriller. A cast and crew of 30 present an exceptionally inventive and fresh look at modern theatre and skilfully play with its formula. Makes many of the adult ensembles at the Fringe squirm with envy (The Skinny).