LGBTQ+ Voices Bring Their Stories to Edinburgh Festival Fringe

theSpaceUK will see an explosion of colour splashed across its 7 venues as it presents numerous artists with moving, funny and original stories from authentic LGBTQ+ voices.

Featuring an all-new UK cast and production the Space on the Mile welcomes the return of the outrageous 2008 sell-out comedy Adventures of Butt Boy and Tigger plus Bitch, Antigone, a naughty retelling of the Greek classic with a few diversions. Both hilarious plays are from the wicked pen of Australian playwright Steven Dawson, writer of The Importance of Being Earnest as Performed by Three F*cking Queens and a Duck, and from the team that brought 2014, 2015, and 2018 Fringe sell-outs.

At the Space on the Mile, Love/Sick is a play about the kind of love you won't find in fairy tales. John Cariani's collected short plays are dark, funny and heart-breaking in equal measure - happy endings are far from guaranteed. Plus a short run (19-21 August) from USA company NeonBox in the engrossing Dark Play or Stories For Boys in which Nick - an outsider at age 14, discovers the intoxicating pleasures of inventing fake personalities in chat rooms.

Expect politically charged new writing from Stafford Lake Theatre Company's Section 28: The Legacy of a Homophobic Law which will take audiences back to Thatcher's Britain in September, 1988 and explore the story of a young boy's struggle with his sexuality and the law's legacy of freely reigning homophobia in schools.

In theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall The Mannequin is an energetic piece of new writing taking the audience on a journey from the streets of Soho to the drag bars of Montmartre where relationships to the queer body and relationships within the arts industry are explored in a burst of film projection and sensory immersion. Meanwhile, also at theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall, Marrow takes us into the mind of a physically traumatised dancer, with visceral and poetic condemnation of LGBTQ+ violence.

You Have A Match, staged by Two Girls and a Bottle of Savvy, explores online dating and the friendship between two female best friends - one straight and the other gay.

Cabaret fans should head to theSpace @ Symposium Hall where Brother Sun and Sister Moon invites audiences to join Drag Prince Sun and their little sister, Drag Princess Moon, in a fairy tale tent under the stars with sensual storytelling, glittery puppets, and live music.

At theSpace on North Bridge, acclaimed writer and director Stuart Saint brings his autobiographical story Misfit Warrior. Saint explores his experience of HIV and cancer and its domino effect of destruction, leaving survivor-in-crisis Stuart rescuing his mortality. As a writer/director his radical productions (Princess, De Profundis, Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens) have garnered critical praise including 'Immaculate direction' (Stage).

Also at theSpace on North Bridge historical drama Brandy explores the characters of two powerful women, the interpersonal politics waged in the monarch's bedchamber, private backstairs and the corridors of court, and the effect their friendship had on a nation. Brandy was first performed at South London Theatre as part of their new writing programme in 2010. And, between 5th-10th August, Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens brings a musical song cycle with a blues, jazz and rock score inspired by the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. A series of dramatic, powerful and heart-rending monologues celebrating the lives lost from AIDS and also uplifting and poignant songs representing the feelings of the loved-ones left behind.

Last but not least, during weeks two and three, theSpace on North Bridge welcomes the return of The Orange Works' charmingly funny, fast-paced and emotional play Trans Pennine about family disagreements, gender-identity, and caravan holidays.