Jonathan Oldfield to Make Edinburgh Fringe Debut With EXQUISITE CORPSE

The award-winning Jonathan Oldfield will make his Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut this August with Exquisite Corpse, a fast-paced, surreal and riotously inventive character comedy inspired by a childhood drawing game.

Exquisite Corpse takes its name from an old game in which participants each draw a different part of a body, legs, torso, head, without seeing the others' contributions. When revealed, the result is a strange, often hilarious composite figure. Oldfield transforms this simple idea into a live comedy theatrical experiment: a multi-character extravaganza where each performance is shaped in collaboration with the audience, creating something entirely new every night. The result is a stream of bizarre creations, from a man determined to visit every Zizzi's in the UK to a Welsh allotment owner who can't stop dancing or a compulsive teenage liar stuck in rural America.

Drawing on the origins of the game itself - first played by Surrealist artists in 1920s Paris as a way to unlock creativity beyond logic and overthinking - Jonathan extends those ideas a century later, alongside Freud's thinking on the unconscious. In a late-night Fringe slot, Exquisite Corpse invites audiences to join the mayhem, switch off slightly and go with it, as characters appear quickly, unpredictably, and often without warning. Jonathan leans into instinct rather than over-explanation, pushing beyond the audience's logical frontal cortex in search of the universal funny bone underneath.

As the only performer on stage, Oldfield uses his body as the canvas for every character, constantly reshaping and reimagining himself throughout the hour. And as a show about bodies, Jonathan is open about the fact that his own relationship with his body hasn't always been straightforward. Having broken his arm seven separate times, had meningitis twice, as well as glandular fever, shingles and more, it's something that's failed him physically in the past. In a loose way, the show becomes an attempt to piece that back together - not in a heavy or serious sense, but through something playful, physical and a bit chaotic.

Oldfield's background as a third culture kid, raised across Mexico, Thailand, South Korea and France, further informs the work. The show playfully 'tries on' different identities, from regionally inspired UK characters to international voices, reflecting a disjointed but richly textured sense of self.

While Exquisite Corpse is, above all, a joyous and ridiculous live comedy experiment, it also quietly echoes the historical origins of the game in the aftermath of World War I, a time when artists grappled with a fractured world around them. When ideas of men and masculinity were shaped by international conflict, a theme that feels equally poignant in 2026. One hundred years on, Oldfield's show channels that same spirit of reinvention, offering audiences the chance to create something unexpected and unrepeatable together.

Jonathan Oldfield is a multi award-winning comedian, actor, writer, and live comedy director. He directed the Best Newcomer at Edinburgh Fringe Comedy Awards 2024: Joe Kent-Waters is Frankie Monroe: LIVE!!! as well as his sell-out sophomore show DEAD!!! (Good Fun Time). He directed his long-time collaborator Lorna Rose Treen in Skin Pigeon, winner of the Dave Best Joke of the Fringe 2023 and 24 Hour Diner People in 2025. He also directed Lucy Pearman: Lunartic and Alice Cockayne: Licenced. Professional. Trained. Qualified - both of which were nominated for Malcolm Hardee Awards 2025.

He plays Joydali in season 2 of Star Wars: Andor on Disney+. He is a BBC New Comedy Award Finalist 2024, Musical Comedy Awards Finalist 2025 and second place winner in the Leicester Square Theatre Sketch Off 2024.

He is co-creator of BBC Radio 4 comedy series Time of the Week starring Sian Clifford, which was dubbed a 'pitch-perfect satire' in The Guardian, winner of the 2024 British Comedy Guide Award for Best Radio Sketch Show, and nominated for ARIAS Best Comedy 2025 and Chortle's Best Audio Show 2025. He co-directed and starred in the play Kanpur: 1857 by Niall Moorjani, which won a Scotsman Fringe First Award and was winner of the Pleasance Charlie Hartill Award at Edinburgh Fringe 2025.

As a performer, his recent credits include: Nick Mohammed's A Christmas Carol-ish in the West End, The Mosinee Project (New Diorama Theatre), The Power (Amazon Prime) and he's due to star in upcoming independent comedy feature film Blueberry Inn alongside Jack Davenport and Sophia di Martino. His online sketches have been viewed millions of times on Instagram and TikTok.

Jonathan Oldfield: Exquisite Corpse performs at Pleasance Courtyard - Below from 5th - 30th August at 9:40pm.

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