Amy Hanson - Page 4

Terry's partner Luka left him six months ago.  As he sits in his usual cafe, sipping on a cup of tea, a series of unexpected condolence messages ping into his phone.  Luka has died, but has appointed Terry as his digital executor, the person with the power to decide what happens to his online presence after death.  

In Loop, three generations of the same family are all united by their love of the music of their own time, but often struggle to relate to one another. Music is the the way a generation defines itself, but the hits of one decade are so often dismissed as incomprehensible rubbish by those still obsessed by the music of their own heyday, drawing this theatrical compilation album into a metaphor for an inter-generational failure to connect.

Rik Carranza is a devoted Trekkie, but it wasn't always a badge he wore with pride. In Still A Fan, a work that's more storytelling with jokes than a conventional stand-up show, Carranza takes us through his life so far, from growing up mixed-raced in Scotland, through bullying, depression, a suicide attempt and attempts to be 'normal', before finding happiness in being able to be his nerdy self.

The Drowsy Chaperone will speak to any musical theatre fan who finds escapism in showtunes. A charming, heart-warming and frequently hilarious show, it features an ageing, reclusive theatre aficionado, who is dealing with feeling blue by listening to his favourite musical, a typical 1920s romantic comedy, all the while keeping up a wry running commentary to the audience.

Famed British sci-fi writer Arthur C Clarke once coined the adage that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.  It is at this intersection that The Extinction Event resides, one of two Fringe shows from The Sorcerers For The Extinction of Death And Associates, with this show something of a sequel to The Vanishing Man, also at the Pleasance Courtyard.

A rowdy piece of popular theatre written by Morna Pearson and accompanied by an exceptionally catchy original pop-punk score by Jonny Hardie, Let's Inherit The Earth flits between scenes on the theme of climate change, how it is driven by capitalism and how it is further exploited by that very same capitalism.

Adapted from Karel Capek's 1930s sci-fi satire, War With The Newts is set on an oyster trawler, en route to a colony of human survivors after the titular conflict.  Along the way, the show takes in issues of race, refugees, nationalism and animal experimentation.

Max is hiding in the school toilets.  There's only an hour left before he has to face a huge rite of passage in the form of a school gates fight with terrifying teenage tough guy Danny Guthrie.  With best pal Stevie there to pump him up, or, more realistically, warn that he's in for a pounding, the two 13-year-olds explore what it means to be a man.

A monologue by Hannah Mamalis, The Egg Is A Lonely Hunter is a wry, absurd piece that finds humour in both the mundane and the extraordinary, from talking horses to being overly conscious of one's body.

Adapted from the comedy of Aristophanes, The Frogs features the god Dionysus, aghast at the state of theatre, descending into the Underworld on a mission to bring back the greatest playwright of all time in a bid to save civilisation through the arts.

The ancient Greek tragedy Antigone is a hugely versatile piece, lending itself well to adaptations to situations far beyond its original Theban setting.  In this new adaptation by James Beagon, the play is set in the near future, where Brexit has resulted in a hard border with Ireland and consequent return to sectarian violence.  This is a setting that works well with the themes of rebellion, religion and family relationships of Sophocles' original text.

All the way from New Zealand, Javier Jarquin has always wanted to be a ninja.  With martial arts lessons proving disappointing and traditional weapons like nunchaku hard to master, Javier instead dedicated his time and effort to adapting playing cards into deadly shuriken.  In this show, he attempts to pass through a series of trials that proves he has what it takes to be a true ninja.

Here at the world's biggest arts festival, creatives and artists from all over the globe are tackling truly important questions, with surely none more crucial than what the result would be if Shakespeare had written seminal 80s classic Ghostbusters. REDuck Producktions have slapped Shakespearean language, costumes and setting on to the story of disgraced "philosophers" saving the public from the supernatural.

Theatre, we are informed at the outset of the show, is a dying art.  A potentially controversial statement at the Fringe, but luckily for everyone, underappreciated actor Garry Starr is on a mission to save the art form.  Over the course of sixty minutes, he will attempt to perform every single genre of theatre in order to inspire his audience to new-found appreciation and enthusiasm for everything from melodrama to maskwork.

We are all time travellers in our own way.  After all, what else is a to-do list but a message from a past self?  But what would happen if you started getting messages from a future version of you?  That is the intriguing premise of Passionate Machine, a one-woman show written and performed by Dr Rosy Carrick.

Thom Bee is a wrestling fan who wants to share his passion for the art of the squared circle with Edinburgh audiences.  He does this with the aid of comedy tag-team partner Balthazar Dark (Andrew Marsh), whose career failures have led him to something of an existential crisis.

In 1662 Morayshire, Isobel Gowdie works for zealous and ruthless witch-pricker John Dixon, torturing suspected witches into confessing their crimes.  When a ragged man appears, claiming to be the real John Dixon, and that the witch-pricker is a disguised woman named Christian Caddell, Isobel must reconsider the figure in whom she has placed her trust and affection. A dark and unsettling piece based on a true story, Heaven Burns is the 2018 winner of the Assembly Roxy Theatre Award.

Sheer anarchy is about the only way to describe John Robertson's latest stand up effort. Sweaty, Sexy Party Party is a difficult show to summarise, as if there was a theme or set to it, it was quickly discarded in favour of riffing off of audience members to hilarious ends. Luckily, the Australian comedian best known at the Fringe for the perennial cult hit The Dark Room proves just as effective a showman with the lights on.

After jukebox musicals became the latest trend in theatre, it was nearly impossible to listen to any greatest hits compilation without dreaming up how it could be adapted into a West End smash hit. We've Got Each Other takes its cue from these often formulaic musicals, but with its own spin.  It's billed as an "almost entirely imagined Bon Jovi musical" with no band, no costumes, no set or sparkling costumes; simply one man describing the show to you.

Who can you trust? Make the wrong choices and you will end up dead! While Werewolves is in the theatre section of the Fringe brochure, it is better described as an interactive role-playing experience, with the audience involved as participants throughout, striving to survive.