Greed, corruption and damnation are rampant in this one-man adaptation of the Elizabethan classic.
Jetty Stars by Noel Kelly follows the life of Stella, a Jetty Star: a local name given to prostitutes who worked the ships of the city.
‘My life is a river.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story The Yellow Wallpaper is an unsettling Gothic tale about a woman driven into madness by the distinguished yellow wallpaper which plasters th…
The Windsor Feminist Theatre’ production of Judith Thompson’s 2014 play about injustice in the Canadian prison system feels timely in an age where atrocities committed against …
Three presenters take you to a world of distrust and alternative facts, where brave Macbeth and his wife plot to kill King Duncan and take the Scottish throne. This fast-paced, stripped-down and intense production of Shakespeare’s famous tale of medieval Scotland speaks directly to our own divided times, where ‘things bad begun make strong themselves by ill’…
As each name of those that perished aboard the Titanic is read aloud, an ice cube is dropped into a metal bucket. Members of the audience come face to face with tragedy, the passing of time and frozen water…
In Bed With My Brother spend the largest portion of this, notably their third Edinburgh show, conducting a kind of aural warfare on their audience.
This all-female production of Macbeth was truly a sight to behold.
Writer Jack Fairey has taken on a huge task in adapting the substance of Homer’s Iliad into a modern story still firmly embedded in the Trojan War with a running time just short …
The Glang Show is the only anarcho-comedy utopia that has travelled back in time from beyond the heat death of the universe. A line-up of incredibly powerful comedians compete for your affection whilst traversing a landscape of interactive challenges and challenging interactions…
Directed by Victoria Beesley. Adapted by Mariem Omari from Euripides. A brand-new, haunting and uplifting adaptation of Euripides’ great anti-war tragedy, The Trojans, written and acted by a cast of Syrian refugees living in Glasgow…
Hell to Play is a bad-taste absurd comedy game show set in Hell. In 2019, it’s you vs Satan – audience teams compete in challenges set by some of the most evil people in history, all hosted by the Lord of the Flies himself…
Just five days into her first career as a high school teacher, Mimi Hayes’ head exploded. On a blind date. Naturally, she became a stand-up comedian. I’ll Be OK explores the inner-workings of Hayes’ damaged brain and her odd desire to make it a punch line…
‘You will acknowledge me. And love me because I am Dionysos. I am the Scream.’ Ritual madness has descended upon Thebes. This retelling of Euripides’ The Bacchae is a radical examination of liberation and oppression…
William Mastrosimone’s one-act play, Bang, Bang, You’re Dead, is a powerful response to the wave of school killings that have erupted in recent times. Mastrosimone wrote the piece for teenagers to perform…
A razor sharp and surreal exploration of mental health and modernity, through the fractured lens of a manic motivational speaker.
DUCT presents a modern-day twist on the classic, inviting its audience into a haphazard and disorderly world, mirroring the turbulence of Hamlet’s madness. The production draws parallels to contemporary mental health issues, illustrating the destructive properties it can have on both relationships and ourselves from the perspective of a female Hamlet…
Henrik Ibsen’s classic tale of Peer Gynt and his journey through life as he struggles and experiences everything to find himself: trolls, power, love, death and a bargain with a Button Molder…
‘I reiterate my request for a full refund and look forward to your theatre’s explanation [for] why you chose to market this show as suitable for 16-year-olds’ (Audience review).
The far future. After 25 years in Spain, Orestes (played by writer and co-director Arif Alfaraz) arrives as a psychoanalyst at a Greek asylum to treat his long-lost sister Electra’s (Marta Ramonet) ‘madness’ that he believes has been misdiagnosed...
Have you ever wondered why you can't speak to the dead? You aren’t drunk enough silly. You need alcohol and a selection of inebriated comedians to really make a seance go pop! Come with an open mind (and low expectations) as Carl Donnelly and his comedy guests try and make contact with those you loved that have passed over...
The Electra Legacy: a modern telling of Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy with a brilliant new music score, this is a tale of revenge, passion and crime. An oracle informs Orestes that he must return to Argos, find his sister Electra, and take rightful, bloody revenge against Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus...
Nature versus nurture? Are villains born or bred? Can they ever find true redemption? Theater OCU explores Shakespeare's most villainous characters – Macbeth, Iago, Aaron, Tamora and Lady Macbeth – and asks the question: what is bad Shakespeare? **** (BroadwayBaby...
Tragedy + time + a desperate need to fill a void in your heart = comedy. Alexander Bennett is an award-nominated comedian and creator of the cult fringe show Hell To Play. He’s emotionally broken and quietly desperate...
Star of FOX’s Showtime at the Apollo, finalist on season eight of NBC Comcast’s knockout television show, Trial By Laughter and runner-up for the woman he loves. ‘He had been making his mark on the New York scene only to come back for love and be dumped soon after the plane hit the runway’ (BeyondTheJoke...
In Oscar Wilde’s timeless twist on the biblical story of John the Baptist’s execution, princess Salome lives luxuriously in a bustling Middle Eastern court with her mother and stepfather, the perpetually inebriated tetrarch Herod Antipas...
All-female Australian group Essential Theatre present their own gender-swapped take on Shakespeare’s classic. An intriguing concept, the production itself shows flashes of brilliance but also plenty of missed opportunities...
Divine punishment. Guilt. Bloodshed. The story of the House of Atreus is the most haunting of Greek mythology. Meet a family descended from the Gods, where the borders between cruelty and desire, loyalty and betrayal are painfully blurred...
For anyone unfamiliar with Sarah Kane’s work, the first reaction is often shock. This is understandable in many ways; her plays are as much an attack on the senses as they are on the sensibilities of her audiences...
Sweetmeat is about the consented cannibalism between two men who are also lovers. It discusses the boundaries of love and pain. How far can the two be taken? Where is the line?The acting style is very minimalistic and at first it seemed too small, but as the dialogue got more and more intense it became utterly appropriate for the piece...
Erich and Ada are separated by one of history’s most famous man-made divisions: the Berlin Wall. They both live in times of great global and personal shifts that throw their futures into disillusionment...
Tom Mayhew’s charmingly awkward persona hides a fantastic alternative comic mind. This show is a 40-minute work in progress, working through the sadness of a dead relationship. The humour has a strong and unrelenting undercurrent of tragedy and rather than self-deprecating, the material appears to veer into the realm of self-loathing...
The premise of Caridad Svich’s Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart (A Rave Fable), here performed by Clumsy Bodies Theatre, is truly exciting. The play is a female reclaiming of the Iphigenia myth translated into the contemporary rave scene amidst political turmoil and horrific femicide...
Based on the actor Ahmed Tobasi’s personal coming of age story; an epic voyage of identity and self-discovery. Combining fact and fantasy, tragedy and comedy, spanning both the first Palestinian intifada and the second, we follow him through his transformation from armed resistance fighter to artist, his journey as a refugee in the West Bank to Norway and then back again...
A true story, this dramatic two-hander is a fascinating exploration of 17th century life in the city of Rome filled with drama, conflict and art.Set 33 years after the tragic rape of Artemisia, her friend Tuzia returns to her to find some resolution to her own guilt...
We all know Edinburgh Festival Fringe is filled with bizarre acts and Idea. This is one. Have you ever wondered if eggs have feelings? No me neither. Yet here it is the emotional story of one egg trying to fit into man’s world...
Electra has been exiled and married off to a peasant. Secretly, she seeks to avenge her father Agamemnon’s death after a brief reunion with her long lost-brother Orestes. This retelling of Euripides’ Electra from Aristeia Theatre Company gives you the basic lowdown on what happens in this ancient Greek tale, throwing in a few painful monologues charting how mentally ill the starring character is...
Two halves of a long-dead acting duo meet again for a sarcastic and witty reunion. You will be left laughing and crying in equal measure before the curtains close on this true tragic comedy.
Turpy – star of Climaxed (BBC Three) and Pop Sludge (4Music) – returns with a stand-up show/hour of performance art/arse flapping gently in the wind, which rodgers the system quite firmly in the poo-poo place...
A cult hit comedy game show set in Hell, hosted by the Devil. Every night, Satan tests audiences and guest comedians in games set by the souls of the damned. A brand-new show for 2017...
In under thirty minutes Collapse presents a hauntingly hypnotic exploration of Cassandra' agony as she prophetically laments the collapse of her city. Ignored by the people, their denial of her claims induces her own fall into a a state of mental derangement...
We’ve all been to a gallery and not paid much attention to the invigilators there to watch over the gallery. They’re often quietly sat in the corner, or observing us from afar...
Summer in the south is aggressively hot and stiflingly humid. There is no escape from it. It dominates life and determines its pace. Creating that heavy air is essential to the successful staging of any Williams' text and Fox and Hounds Theatre Company has created a triumph in Tennessee Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton by doing just that from the outset...
Written by Williams in the period before his death, Fox and Hound take on two of his most difficult one act plays. Using their understanding of Williams’ intentions and writing style, the company select a traditional approach to reconstructing the harsh realities their characters are presented with, mostly retaining the audience’s attention in doing so, although occasionally making the meaning behind certain actions unclear...
It is with a plethora of “well”s with which this show must be described: well written, well performed, well timed and very well done. Phaedra, or “Fey” as she prefers to be known, entered the stage in a slinky, bright red dress, with a waterfall of curls, accompanied only by her jazz guitarist and a trolley full of spirits for cocktails...
Verdi’s operatic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello is brought to us by Kent Opera. Their Pros and Cons project aims to make music and theatre accessible to those incarcerated in prison and it was a pleasure to watch this very special performance directed by Stephen Tiller...
The Ahhgee Crow-Barred in Material Emporium Extravaganza.org Just over two years ago this troublesome threesome were banished to online chokey. Since then they have tried to cope the best they can, helped around the place, snitched on inmates and podcasted weekly...
'Daddy Day' is a perfectly pitched, meticulously performed work that stretches the limits of theatre and leaves one reeling. A family slideshow with a bloodcurdling ending... Daddy Day won the Dioraphte Amsterdam Fringe Award 2009...
A year ago he inherited his father’s crumbling fast food shop. The sale of the shop now looms but Riccardo isn’t ready to leave as he's just discovered a compelling oddity in the family business records...
Richard III. An audience. Anything can happen. All the world is a stage. What part will you play? Pushing the boundaries of Shakespearean Performance, Brite Theater have re-imagined Richard III as a bold and engaging one-woman show...
Frank has issues. He's a comedian and self professed cultural provocateur. He's intelligent, he's funny, he's frustrated, he's frank and he's just about to kill himself. But first, he has one or two important things he'd like to say...
Sigmund and Christian meet, and slot together like puzzle pieces. Their friends don’t understand, but that’s fine. They only need each other. Aching for an impossible closeness, and in thrall to morbid passions, they decide to push their relationship past a final, irreversible boundary.
The candles are lit... A tah-tah to the old, a hurrah for the new! Come and pay your respects at our funereal short fiction fiesta: a eulogy for literatures lost, a delirious romp towards pastures new...
The Other Realm brings Lovecraft’s classic short story to the stage for the first time. Pickman is an artist of extraordinary talent, but his gruesome paintings are borne of a terrible secret...
Come and wave me off. Künt and the Gang's last ever Fringe show, though I'll probably just be back cap in hand in a couple of years when I'm skint and whatever I do next fails.
Euripides’ classical tragedy, of one woman’s quest for revenge and the terrible lengths she is willing to go to inflict pain on her wayward husband, has been performed thousands of times since its original conception...
Eleventh Hour Theatre’s fresh and admittedly interesting take on Sophocles’ Classic tragedy presents a new spin on the classic tale that, whilst successful enough, fails to realise its full potential...
To commemorate the 100th year of the Bearpit Podcast (Podcast) the gang have invited back some of the best loved guests from the back catalogue, and some new faces, to help celebrate this huge occasion...
Madness? Love. A forgotten heroine / tragedy / suicide: oppression mining all within, infects unseen. That’s for remembrance. Pray. Remember Hamlet... and Ophelia. Cambridge University presents Shakespeare’s most popular tragedy in 80 minutes...
Critically acclaimed solo show about life, death and paper towels. A hilarious, heart-breaking experience that straddles the line between comedy and tragedy. ***** (BroadwayBaby.com)...
Reminiscent of an Irish Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Howie the Rookie is a two-hander exploring the journeys of Howie (Tom Taplin) and the Rookie (Ed Limb) as they become immersed in the seedy underworld of 1990s Dublin...
ImmerCity’s stripped back and stylised telling of the ever popular Scottish play is an at times disorienting, nightmarish and incredibly compelling piece of theatre that will give you shivers as you leave the auditorium...
Adolph Eichmann never personally killed anyone, but he was hanged in 1962, having been found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The evidence against him was overwhelming, but he remained as detached from the facts as he had been from the millions of deaths he facilitated...
In a dystopian London, in which the unseen outside world is ravaged by violence, drugs and fear, Mercury Fur focuses upon the relationship between two brothers and depicts, in characteristically graphic and unsettling ways, the lengths to which they would go to protect those whom they love...
With impressive physicality and strong delivery of Shakespeare’s language, three young actors present a vigorous new adaptation of Macbeth set in a modern-day youth offender’s institute - but without much attempt to shift the story into this new context...
'When you durst do it, then you were a man; And, to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man.’ Set in 1953 against the backdrop of Queen Elizabeth's coronation, Lady Macbeth is presented as a picture-perfect housewife, perceived by her sexist society as the conventional subordinate and suppressed spouse...
The Tragedy of Two Tuesdays takes place in a restaurant called The Dream Cafe, wherein quiet cooks, sassy servers, a busboy and a menacing manager butt heads about nonsense and whine about their not so bad lives.
Renaissance tragedies are rarely as enjoyably silly as Wanton Theatre’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore. This student production revels in the farcical aspects of John Ford’s controversial play, with passion turned up to 11...
Champs Mêlés’ production of Iphigenia in Tauris is a two hour, French language translation of J.W von Goethe’s 18th century adaptation of Euripides’ original Greek tragedy with the occasional English surtitle...
ACMS returns for its sixth Sisyphean year at the Fringe, hosted and curated by Thom Tuck, 'an authoritative and slightly creepy blowhard' (Scotsman), and John-Luke Roberts, 'a lever-operated mouth on a stick' (Fest)...
Last year's cult hit is back with a brand new show! Hell to Play is a bad taste comedy game show set in hell, hosted by the devil. Every night, two top comedians compete to save their souls...
After almost three decades, it's time for Turps to curl back into the foetal, reconnect the umbilical, and tell himself that everything will be alright. Another show from another heteroflexible white lad, living a life without the loveliest of true loves, and the f*ckiest of true f*cks...
Lip Theatre Company’s offering at the Fringe this year presents an interesting take on the classic Greek myth of Medusa: one that is unfortunately plagued with tonal shifts and an unfocused vision that hinders the performance...
In the final days of mankind, the last nine human beings left in existence are holed up together in a sanctuary base dubbed ‘Plan Z’. First Citizen, Phoenix Nichols, bears the task of keeping morale alive, despite his increasing apathy and decreasing sanity...
The strength of this production primarily sits with the intensely provocative script written by Philip Ridley. Delving into issues of sexual assault, family and mental health the monologue provides and intense and visceral depiction of a young girl’s turbulent downfall...
A matchbox melodrama about a girl whose delusions, while consorting with a demonic friend, and a circular saw cost her an arm. Her foolish (and impotent) father tries to make a new arm for her to no avail...
A culturally insignificant one man show that delves into the bizarre, compulsive and wonderful nature of humanity. An eclectic mix of characters are portrayed, from a pathologically lying Classics professor to a despondent American porn star on the brink of her retirement...
Something Rotten, not to be confused with the 2015 Broadway musical of the same name, is this time Hamlet’s villainous uncle, Claudius’s version of events, told as if he were briefing the audience- his newly formed privy council...
Lindsay, Kells, Maria and Lee have just got back from Nicky’s funeral. However, something is not quite right! Travel back to the date of Nicky’s untimely death to discover the events that unfolded that fateful night...
London, 2014. CID officer, Adam, believes punishing his neighbour will justify what he knows to be right, but will he go too far? He is demanding to be heard! For what? [newline] Justice...
A one-man drama about Indian chief, Crazy Horse that captures the high adventure of the Sioux Wars of the Wild West. A quiet hero, Crazy Horse defies the US military at the Little Bighorn; loves, loses, and clings to his culture, his freedom, and the mystical power of his personal vision - a dream of thunder.
Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way is the star of 'My Immortal', the world’s worst fanfiction. Harry Potter meets teenage goths (literally, that’s the plot). Celebrate 10 years of this literary masterpiece with Mathilda Gregory ('Werewolf Erotica, She Wrote')...
"We are sorry to have to tell you that in this country it all began with a bear... " A man explains the nature of the theatre to his daughter in the 17th century and an audience gamble with puppets in the 21st...
Inspired by the arrest and tribunal of 24-year-old Joanne Hayes, 'And The Rope Still Tugging Her Feet', written/performed by Caroline Burns Cooke, explores the 1984 Kerry Babies Scandal...
The story of Macbeth's tragic demise has been told many times by hundreds, if not thousands, of theatre makers. His sharp rise and subsequent fall from power always comes as a surprise to the titular Macbeth, despite a warning from three witches who try to impart their wisdom; cryptically warning him of upcoming troubles...
Written when he was nearly 70 years old, Arthur Miller's Broken Glass, had been in his mind's development ever since his marriage to Marilyn Monroe ended shortly before her death in 1962...
It’s Friday the 13th and I am about to be trapped inside a slightly claustrophobic metal container with an unsuspecting audience by a group who call themselves Casual Violence, waiting for an evening of unprecedented acts of horror to follow...
It is the tenth year of the siege of Troy, the year that Calchas the soothsayer has predicted the city will fall. The mightiest Princes of Ancient Greece are camped in their thousand black beached ships, desperate for revenge for the kidnapping of Helen, the world's most beautiful woman.
If you got your idea of adulthood from 'Friends' but reality hasn't met expectations; if you fail to be in the moment and find yourself living through your phone; and if you feel connected on-line and profoundly disconnected from people off-line, this is the show for you.
"Mate, it wouldn't surprise me to find out you'd snapped one day and gone on a killing spree." Having heard this more than once, Oli decides to research history's worst psychopaths, hoping for reassurance...
Oh what a man! Francis Henshall is a man driven by his needs, whether its food or a good woman, he is totally consumed and motivated by his desires. Wheeling and dealing is the name of the game and his twists and turns form the plot...
Fresh from his sell-out run in Edinburgh, comedy writer for Channel Four’s 'The Last Leg', Adam judges himself and the world with wanton cynicism but now wonders if this is just his way of avoiding life...
A story of both the abuser/ abused, showing the cognitive distortions which underlie sexual offending and the resulting trauma caused to a victim. Combining emotive text, abstract dance and video footage, 'Distortion' lets your imagination run wild but brings you back to reality when it hurts the most.
Who is the one with social disadvantage? The severely deformed John Merrick, or the upright, conformist Doctor Treves who rescues him from a carnival freak show? Quick wit, pathos, love: what makes the man? Directed by Alison Grant...
I love ghost stories but I have never heard one quite like this. Ghost sex is a tragicomic story of love and loss and the thin line between what’s real and what’s imaginary...
There can’t be a more perfect setting for In Conversation With An Acid Bath Murderer than the bowels of Brighton’s Town Hall, where 368 Theatre Company takes full advantage of the Old Police Cells Museum to stage this riveting production...
“Scotland’s brightest comedy talent” **** (The Sun) presents his hilarious and hugely anticipated debut. Fresh from touring Australia and the US, this is a 'must see' for 2016...
Slick sketch comedy from one of the best-reviewed shows at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. ***** (Broadway Baby), **** (The Telegraph),**** (The Mail on Sunday), **** (The Guardian)
His teacher believes Jamie is being bullied because he's gay. She wants to help but the Deputy Head thinks it will sort itself out. Is she speaking from experience or is there something more unsavoury about her unwillingness to help? An explosive new play about bullying and homophobia.
A darkly comic new play about a family living with autism. Adam dreams of travelling round the world, but when his brother announces his gap year plans, the family have to face some crucial questions...
The concept of normality in relation to sanity and the individual is truly fascinating, and Normal Is An Illusion certainly introduces these ideas with thought and contemplation. Set in an institute for the criminally insane, we meet a number of the staff and patients through individual and group therapy sessions and are invited to question what exactly is 'normal'...
Even the most seasoned audience member has to concentrate to grasp every line of a Shakespeare play. It is easy to lag behind the complex language, gleaning a basic idea of what’s going on from a lazy memory of a past BBC adaptation...
The Cambridge Theatre Collective offer up a largely genderbent production of Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedy, set in a high school. Despite some positives, the show makes puzzling decisions and could do more to maximise the emotional potential of the text...
NSDF darlings of 2014 Naughty Corner are back with their winning original play The Bastard Queen! Set at the end of the world, the play sees five young people fight for survival and stave off boredom as the days tick by...
Despite the fact that it's 2015, there's still much debate and handwringing about cross-gender casting in Shakespeare. It prompts questions like, 'does it have a social purpose?', 'What's the point?' And, when it involves female actors, 'is this just an excuse for them to play great classical roles?'Ultimately, the main concern should be whether these productions are any good...
The Morton Players’ production of Lear's Daughters attempts to give an insight into the complex characters of Goneril, Regan and Cordelia from Shakespeare's King Lear by examining their childhood...
Smooth Faced Gentlemen have subverted the original performance conditions of Shakespeare’s plays, which were all-male productions, and have tackled his bloodiest tragedy, Titus Andronicus...
‘As long as it looks okay, it doesn't matter if it's broken.’ - Clare to Emma. Can best friends really last forever? Belfast, 1980. Emma and Clare are thick as thieves, skipping, chasing and playing in the park...
Time is the only thing we can't control, but this is my time so it can be whatever I desire. The 229 is never on time ... and there's nothing worse than being late right?
Part of the American High School Festival, Antigone Now is nothing if not endearing in its attempts to impress. Travelling all the way from Michigan to perform at their age is an achievement in itself...
'A thoroughly enjoyable and funny experience. Thank you, Mr James Christopher … for making the annual pilgrimage to Edinburgh and for making me laugh, repeatedly … The instant connection he’d established with the audience persisted, and they were with him throughout' **** (GiggleBeats...
Game show set in Hell, hosted by the Devil. In exquisite bad taste, top guests every day. Devised by Alexander Bennett: ‘Touched with madness; refreshingly different’ (Chortle.co...
‘Takes in everything from music to comedy and is characterised by an emphasis on truth’ (Independent). A variety show that explores tragedy. Comedians, musicians, storytellers and more combine into a different line-up every night and on Mondays we’ll even have exciting special guest hosts...
Game show set in Hell, hosted by the Devil. In exquisite bad taste, top guests every day. Devised by Alexander Bennett: ‘Touched with madness; refreshingly different’ (Chortle.co...
With the help of two opposing lawyers, God is deciding whether or not to send another flood and have humanity start again. Following their five-star production of Endgame by Samuel Beckett, blind elephant return with an absurd moral tragicomedy...
Female comic Gabby Rankin explores the harsh realities of being dumped by the man she thought she’d marry at the age of 29. Since then, she has just about managed to hold herself together thanks to chocolate, Lucky Strikes and online dating apps...
Award winning comedian James Bennison has finally completed Tinder (at its highest difficulty setting) and wants to help his friends find love too. Come and watch as we invite the best single comedians in Brighton to surrender their Tinder accounts to us for one hour with the sole purpose of trying to convince a member of the public to come to the venue for a date before the end of the show...
Barbara Graham's case is a shocking miscarriage of justice and a declaration should be made by the Governor of the State of California to rectify this injustice, which stands to this day...