Articles by Alec Martin

The Fifth Step

With a smartly self-referential script from David Ireland, which is packed with engaging, funny, and irreverent dialogue, The Fifth Step proves to be a powerful and darkly comedic …

After the Silence

Very early in After the Silence, Juliana França’s character relates her experience of being taught about Brazil’s history in school.

Circa: Humans 2.0

There’s a minimum of physical stage dressing, stripped-back costumery, and only a couple of pieces of equipment in Circa’s Humans 2.

Weather Girl

Emotional, environmental, and existential crises collide in the whirlwind hour or so of the Brian Watkins-penned Weather Girl.

Apricity

There’s a great deal to admire in Apricity, the blend of contemporary circus and dance from Australian outfit Casus Creations.

James Rowland Dies at the End of the Show

There’s an irony in James Rowland Dies at the End of the Show being performed in what was once an anatomy lecture theatre.

Bill's 44th

Brought to expressive life by the puppeteering skills of Andy Manjuck and Dorothy James, Bill is set to celebrate his 44th birthday by making some of the punchiest punch ever mixed…

Nation

A nation, according to the political theorist and historian Benedict Arnold, is an imagined community.

Through the Mud

Resistance, resilience, and the development of revolutionary consciousness lie at the heart of Apphia Campbell’s Through the Mud.

Bellringers

There’s less Quasimodo and more Quasi-oh-no in Daisy Hall’s somewhat uneven belltower-based exploration of climate catastrophe in England’s green and pleasant back garden.

Rebels and Patriots

Physical storytelling, singing, and full-blooded performances combine to strong effect in Rebels and Patriots, introducing one of the less-explored areas of the bloodshed of Israel…

ARCADE

Darkfield are back at the Fringe with Arcade, their latest shipping container based adventure in the dark.

Bluebeard's Castle

Director Daisy Evans draws the audience not only into the dark corridors of a mysterious castle in her revival of the Bela Bartok opera Bluebeard’s Castle.

Life is a Dream

There’s a great, restless energy in Director Declan Donnellan’s production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s seventeenth century Spanish classic Life is a Dream.

Phaedra / Minotaur

With Phaedra/Minotaur, director Deborah Warner and Choreographer Kim Brandstrup present a couple of easily digestible slices of re-interpreted Greek mythology.

Dimanche

In an era where anthropogenic climate change is not only an abstract global concern, but also becoming a lived reality for countless people, the joint production of Belgian puppetr…

Peer Gynt: A Jazz Revival

Peer Gynt: A Jazz Revival by Cambridge company Phonofiddle! comes with an intriguing proposition: taking Ibsen's complex work and transmuting it into an hour of jazz-infused th…

FOOD

A grand dining spectacle awaits as Geoff Sobelle serves up Food to the Edinburgh International Festival.

Nabil Abdulrashid: The Purple Pill

With Purple Pill, Nabil Abdulrashid takes to the stage, promising an intriguing dive into comedy through the multifaceted lens of the comedian himself.

Drew Michael: Drew's Adventures

Drew Michael's one-man show is a poignant yet probably divisive performance that promises a unique experience but will leave its audience grappling with a combination of innova…

Gillian Cosgriff: Actually, Good

The premise of Gillian Cosgriff's show Actually, Good is both simple and elegant, revolving around celebrating life's small pleasures.

Christopher Macarthur-Boyd: Scary Times

In the blurb for his latest show Scary Times, Christopher Macarthur-Boyd promises to cover topics including going for a walk.

Samsara

Early in Samsara two hooded figures from different cultures meet in a desolate landscape, only sparsely populated by stricken metallic figurines being slowly consumed by gathering …

Medea – Main Hall

Liz Lochhead’s slick modern take on a sadly relevant ancient tale is brought to life with intelligent staging and a ferociously powerful central performance from Adura Onashile.

Simon Munnery: Trials and Tribulations

Fringe veteran Simon Munnery once more brings his eclectic mix of props, jokes, sketches, songs, poetry, and storytelling to the stage of The Stand with Trials and Tribulations.

Black is the Color of My Voice

The power and poise of a 20th century cultural icon is brought to brilliant life by Apphia Campbell in Black is the Color of My Voice, a deeply moving mix of music and theatre.

Alasdair Beckett-King: Nevermore

Looking like an ethereally pale, and bearded, pre-Raphaelite muse, Alasdair Beckett-King cuts a striking onstage figure.

Joz Norris: Blink

If Joz Norris is no longer a comedian, then why is he still very good at making people laugh? You see, at some point in recent history, after an unfortunate experience with a non-s…

Bilal Zafar – Care

There’s inherent absurdity in an industry which charges elderly people and their families countless thousands of pounds for care but pays a pittance to the often-underqualified s…

Eulogy

Theatrical innovators Darkfield are back at Summerhall, inviting Fringe-goers to once more step into absolute darkness for Eulogy, their latest immersive narrative experience conju…

Age Is a Feeling

The ephemeral beauty of a flower in bloom carries the unspoken narrative of decay and death.

Tarot: Cautionary Tales

Bounding onto the stage with red smeared eyes and billowing white nighties, the three performers of Tarot kick off their show Cautionary Tales bursting with enthusiastic energy and…

Business Casual: FERAL

No imaginary babies are safe in Business Casual: FERAL, a slice of enjoyably daft sketch comedy from American trio Jeremy Elder, Hunter Saling, and Corey Peter Lane.

Speed Dial

It’s finals week on an unnamed university campus and a professor in English literature is having a bad time of it.

Fata Morgana

Most often seen at sea, in that area that rests just above the horizon, a Fata Morgana is a type of complex mirage superstitiously named after the Arthurian sorceress Morgan le Fay…

Christopher Macarthur-Boyd: Oh No

Early on in Oh No! Christopher Macarthur-Boyd suggests lockdown came at a good time for him, putting the brakes on life when he was in his late twenties as opposed to an earlier, p…

Two Guys, Three Drams: The Ultimate Live Blues and Whisky Experience

Is there a more intoxicating combination than blues music and good whisky? There is – blues music and multiple good whiskies.

Garry Starr Conquers Troy

Selfless to a fault, Garry Starr is ready to share the lessons he’s learned about the actors’ craft, the art of pretending.

Tarot

Will the Fool ascend the tower to dwell in the chambers of the moon? Will the Hermit jump in a chariot and spin the wheel of fortune? You might discover the answers by checking out…

The Living Room

What’s more mundane than death? What’s more absurd? In a slice of often brave, often very funny, and occasionally extremely poignant clowning, Amritha Dhaliwal and Gemma Soldat…

Phil Wang: Philly Philly Wang Wang

Phil Wang needs this more than us, or so he tells the packed Pleasance venue he’s playing this year.

Spencer Jones: The Things We Leave Behind

Spencer Jones took last year’s Edinburgh Fringe off, but did he waste his time idling? Not a chance.

Simon Munnery: The Wreath

On any given afternoon in the Fringe, you’re likely to find Simon Munnery gracing the stage of The Stand comedy club.

Silence

Bandolier-clad gladiators on stilts rampage through the performance space, brandishing burning wheels and wreaking havoc on the lives of terrified refugees.

Loki, the Scottish Rapper: Poverty Safari Live

Like stereotypes, labels generally become meaningless upon scrutiny.

Garry Starr Performs Everything

Starr is a bag of nervous insecurity, wrapped up in a paper thin façade of theatrical overconfidence.

The Fishermen

Two brothers meet by the banks of a river in Nigeria, the same river which saw them turn from children into fishermen many years before.

Jamali Maddix: Vape Lord

Jamali Maddix strides on the stage and immediately takes some shots at the easier targets in the front of the audience.

Lazy Susan: Forgive Me, Mother!

Freya Parker and Celeste Dring are back at the Fringe with a refreshingly light-hearted slice of sketch show comedy.

Jayde Adams: The Divine Ms Jayde

As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons you make lemonade.

Scott Gibson: Anywhere but Here

Humans are storytellers.

Henning Wehn: Westphalia is Not an Option

You know you’ve made it as a comedian when you can include an interval and encore in your Edinburgh Fringe show.

Darius Davies: Road to Wrestlemania

By all accounts Darius Davies has had a few interesting experiences this Fringe.

Chris Turner: What a Time to Be Alive

Chris Turner has moved to the good old US of A and he’s back in Edinburgh to tell the festival audiences about it.

Dane Baptiste: G.O.D. (Gold. Oil. Drugs.)

The world is too insane right now to claim the traditional gods are dead but our modern culture has definitely found a few new idols to worship.

Mark Thomas: A Show That Gambles on the Future

Early in his Fringe show Mark Thomas reveals the impressively religious character of his upbringing.

Damien Power – Utopia: Now in 3D!

The translation of the word utopia, if my Ancient Greek (and Wikipedia) haven’t let me down, is “no-place”.

Woody Allen(ish)

How to review something like Woody Allen(ish)? The comedy equivalent of a tribute act, it’s a show which sees English comic Simon Schatzberger adopt the material and persona of t…

Alice Marshall: Vicious

People are vicious.

Spencer Jones Presents The Herbert in Eggy Bagel

Spencer Jones is once more going full tilt in the surrealism stakes, and the result is a fantastically strange success.

Glenn Moore: Glengarry Glen Glenn

To borrow from one of Glenn Moore’s own references, this show is a tale of two cities.

Milo McCabe: The Unflappable Troy Hawke

Milo McCabe steps onto the stage as Troy Hawke with the swagger of an assured performer.

Marny Godden: Where's John's Porridge Bowl?

Something’s happened to John’s porridge bowl and Marny Godden has crafted an hour of surreal, very physical comedy to find out exactly what.

Darius Davies – Road to Wrestlemania

I remember the World Wrestling Federation Attitude Era well.

Will Duggan: A Man Gathering Fish

Will Duggan is an angry man and it’s not entirely clear why.

Phil Dunning: The People's Prince

As his simple but extremely catchy theme tune states at the outset of The People’s Prince, his name is Phil.

Dominic Frisby: Let's Talk About Tax

Comedy can be incredibly effective as a vehicle for delivering a message.

Tom Ward: Sex, Snails and Cassette Tapes

Bigmouth Strikes Again by The Smiths is playing loudly when Tom Ward ambles into his Pleasance performance space, setting an informal tone which persists throughout this enjoyably …

Yeti's – Demon Dive Bar

There’s a warm and weird welcome upon arrival at Yeti’s - Demon Dive Bar.

The Thinking Drinkers: Around the World in 80 Drinks

The Thinking Drinkers are back at the Fringe and this year they’re serving up a whistle stop tour of the world’s boozy traditions, mixing up a cocktail of historical facts, fil…

Tom Binns is Ian D Montfort: How to Touch Dead People

Part TED talk, part psychic extravaganza, Tom Binns’ extrasensory expert Ian D Montfort is back at the festival and he’s determined to convince the sceptics the dead are among …

Chris Turner: Observational Tragedy

Last year Chris Turner brought a show about his physical wellbeing to the Edinburgh stage, blending stand-up and rapping to explore his brushes with mortality.

Lucie Pohl: Apohlcalypse Now!

With last year’s Cry me a Liver Lucy Pohl proved herself to be an exceptional actor, throwing herself into each of her characters with impressive resolve.

Juliette Burton: Decision Time

Attacking her material with a mixture of nervous energy and enthusiasm Juliette Burton launches into her act by describing her difficulties in making decisions, then tracing the bi…

Clare Plested: The Essential Collection

Some of the best comic characters out there are likeable but misguided individuals, chronically lacking in self-awareness.

The Old Fella

He’s a true-blue, straight-talking Aussie and he’s in town for some old fashioned stand-up, knock-em down comedy.

Pajama Men: 2 Man 3 Musketeers

Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez have once again brought their surreal blend of comedy and physical theatre to Edinburgh, and this time they’re taking on a classic of world literatu…

Goose: Kablamo

In Goose: Kablamo, comedian Adam Drake has created a comedy show that doesn’t so much defy description, it just stuffs so much in that it is very difficult to do the act justice …

Sy Thomas: Jumper

How difficult is comedy when you’re a nice guy who’s had a nice life? What well can you draw from for your material? It’s a problem that Sy Thomas has grappled with, and one …

Ari Shaffir: This is Not Happening

Years ago Ari Shaffir and some of his comedian buddies were sitting around in LA telling stories.

Gay Furnish Flirt Coach

Outrageously over-the-top characters, a raucous Edinburgh Fringe audience and lashings of inappropriate advice from a self-styled flirt coach, sexologist and dating guru.

Jim Smallman: My Girls

There’s something refreshing about seeing a stand-up show with a title that accurately reflects the content of the act.

Spencer Jones Presents: The Herbert in Proper Job

On any given night during the Edinburgh Fringe there are dozens of funny comics standing on stage talking about the life and loves of a performer.

Marny Godden: Flap ‘em on the Gate

From the moment Marny Godden’s first character walks onto the stage to a decidedly creepy soundtrack it’s clear that the comedian will be leading the audience down an unusual p…