Edinburgh Festival

It’s dreamlike and nightmarish. Confusing and alarming. The piece works on a subliminal space, has a few jump scares, and it is, frankly, quite weird. While in earlier productions the concept was clear and definite, this instance sees a puzzling storyline that doesn’t entirely make sense.

Amongst a raft of anonymous Air BnBs in Edinburgh, thirty-something Zara is running her own business and trying to make her way in the world. A new client has just arrived, but her colleague is running late. Tensions are high

Desperate to shake her insomnia, Faye enlists the help of her brother, Naoise, to try a form of exposure therapy. But Naoise has a devastating secret that's about to explode.

When shy Aaron joins the hotel’s ramshackle team he’s faced with emotionally volatile guests, apathetic staff and inept management. Not to mention the rumour of a pair of singing ghosts haunting the corridors.

Ben Target is a critically-acclaimed performance artist and multi-award-winning comedian (yawn), but in 2020 he gave this up to become the live-in carer for an irascible octogenarian prankster. A life-affirming story about death, conveyed through the popular mediums of storytelling, servitude to the audience and live carpentry, a combination not seen on the world stage since Nazareth (circa 30AD).

My salad days were spent growing up as a teen in the Blair era. My life has been shaped by Cool Britannia, The War on Terror and Sexed Up Documents. It's in my blood and created the outline of my now fully-formed Millennial Angst. Therefore, of course I wanted to review a show, examining and laughing at the very first Pop Prime Minister. I'm just not sure I enjoyed it.

If you have a couple of hours to spare and you want to try smoky, deep, fruity, warming, delicious whiskies, while also listening to folk tales, tasting notes that will blow your mind, and live singing that will haunt your heart and soul - look no further and make sure you get a ticket to Whisky & Witches. 

If you enjoy RENT then go and see this. If you, like me, hadn't seen it and would like to, go and see this. It's not Broadway, but it's pretty close. 

“How much time do you spend worrying about your decisions?” This is a show for anxious people. Theatre-director-who-was-nearly-a-doctor Adam Lenson steps on stage directed by Hannah Moss and delivers a life-affirming piece about the what-ifs we all come across.

Tipping into the contemporary interest in murders, Chasing Butterflies is a compelling, engrossing play that will have you hooked until the very end. While the suspicions of the farsighted may be correct from the start, a riveting origin story and an extensive list of gory details keep them on their toes. While the actor is slightly too young to come off as the weathered veteran of the law, he gives an impressively intense performance. As his character slips into compulsion, he amps up the pace of his delivery to a machine-gun speed before morbid moments of silence break up the horror he hears on the news.

The town where Anna and Eireni are studying has been hit by a number of racially provoked murders. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern, except that the victims are all immigrants. While a non-existing strand of organised crime is being blamed, the two women meet after a shocking event and decide to infiltrate a far-right festival to find out what’s going on.

All in all, the production feels like it’s only at the beginning of its life, as is the company, so there’s plenty of scope to grow and become the big feminist project it strives to be. A stronger script, more decisive vision, and an external eye will make all the difference.

An audience of two steps into a small black box. They’re separated by a wall and can only hear each other through headphones when they talk into a microphone. Without Sin is an intriguing project that tugs at our contemporary need to feel.

There’s loads of theatre at the Fringe. Some is excellent, some is average, some is… questionable. Polish company Song of the Goat present a retelling of Shakeseare’s Titus Andronicus in what could simply be described as a gothic, choral, impenetrable behemoth of a production. It’s transfixing for all the wrong reasons.

How do you deal with self-hatred? Do you go to therapy? Do you talk to your friends about it? Or do you create a one-hour comedy show and put it up at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? For Alexander Bennett, the third option was the way to go.

What’s the worst gig you’ve ever had? I bet that Ollie Horn has had one much, much worse than you.

Some shows make you smile instinctively, and Jingle Street is one of them. Jingles, with their strong potential for catchy nonsense, lend themselves well to the world of musical theatre. The concept is funny and well executed, with overall silliness giving way at times to surprising emotion.

With rolling around on the floor, confetti, a paddling pool, and a toothbrush, The Last Show Before We Die is one of the most bizarre shows of this year’s festival. At the same time however, it’s one of the most moving. At its core, this is a show about endings. Last Show is formed around interviews with people from palliative care nurses to the cast’s grandparents about their experiences of all the endings we experience, from death to running out of toilet paper.

In Sophie Swithinbank's award-winning Bacon, friendship and love are inextricable from danger, anger, and hurt. It's a play that lives on the boundaries, the scales constantly tipping - literally, as the set takes the form of an oversized seesaw. 

Gunter is an energetic, subtle, genuinely amusing, hard-hitting piece that ties the effects of violence and suspicion to the patriarchal structure and all its demands. Julia Grogan, Norah Lopez-Holden, and Hannah Jarrett-Scott materialise the story while Higman narrates it and contextualises it sitting at her drums, electric guitar in hand. Titles introduce the characters and set the scene, streamlining the process and maintaining a beckoning pace freed from the need of any lengthy explanation. Unshackled from the constraints of historical accuracy but rooted in the factual events, the show is feminist fringe theatre at its best.

Epic scale stunts and mind-blowing magic in a spectacle that swings from edge-of-your-seat astonishment to belly laughs. Illusionist and inventor Kevin was trained by Penn & Teller, has had sell-outs at Edinburgh Fringe and reached the final stages of Britain's Got Talent with his death defying, stunning magic.

After thrilling the world, with more than 500,000 spectators and astonishing appearances at the Royal Variety Performance and Montecarlo Circus Festival, 'best circus show 2022' (TheatreWeekly.com) returns to Edinburgh... on a mission to entertain! Joining the energy of Africa with a rhythm 'n' blues sound, five unleashed acrobats perform their comedy tribute to cult movie The Blues Brothers.

Madeleine Hamilton blows. Her pipes. She blows her pipes and she blows them well. But this is not your average bagpipe show. Through the medium of Scotland's most famous instrument, Hamilton demonstrates with deft and witty imagination that these noise tubes are actually just like men, and falling in (and out) of love and lust. 

The smash-hit, gig-theatre show returns, charting the true story of Cora Bissett's rollercoaster journey from 90s indie-kid to wised-up woman. Touring with Radiohead, partying with Blur, she was living the dream. Until she wasn't. With a live band, Cora celebrates life's euphoric highs and epic lows, asking what wisdom we should pass to the next generation, and which glorious mistakes we should let them make.

Why would a woman leave her career as the lead singer of a multi-platinum band? Was it fate, family, or something else? When she hears a compelling voice within her closet, urging her to leave her marriage, Oskar must make a choice, stay and continue as is or take a bold step to find her voice and make a new beginning for herself and her children.