Articles by Emily Jane Kerr

Is This Thing On?

A difficult look at a physically and mentally abusive relationship, Is This Thing On? uses a mixture of physical theatre and words to take us on an uncomfortable journey through the history of a relationship...

Murder, She Didn't Write: The Improvised Murder Mystery

A murder has been committed. But the detective can’t remember who died, who is the murderer or where it happened. That’s where the audience comes in. Murder, She Didn’t Write by Degrees Of Error has an excellent concept...

Spencer Jones: The Audition

Spencer Jones is a genius but I’m not sure why. In his latest show The Audition he combines all of the best elements of his previous shows; object manipulation, loop pedal and recordedsounds and songs, and very silly faces and noises...

Rachel Parris: Keynote

Review
★★★
Edinburgh Fringe
Pleasance Dome
21st Aug, 2017

Rachel Parris has been invited back to her old school to speak at prize giving, but what is she going to say? Is she even a role model at all? Rather than prepare for this speech at all, she’s written an Edinburgh show...

The MMORPG Show – No Rolls Bard

I have never played Dungeons and Dragons. I never thought I would want to. But after seeing The MMORPG Show - No Rolls Bard I am genuinely considering taking it up as a hobby.The creator of Knightmare Live, Paul Flannery, brings us a ridiculous improvised comedy featuring tabletop gaming and quite a substantial amount of audience participation...

Jessica Fostekew: The Silence of the Nans

There are comedians that are laugh out loud funny, every couple of minutes a big laugh; but the stuff in between is dead air and tumbleweed. There are some comedians that are excellent storytellers, and hold your attention...

Shit-Faced Showtime: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Magnificent Bastard Productions have become a hit at the Fringe throughout the last few years with their productions of Shit-Faced Shakespeare. They have since spawned some equally as unpredictable offspring, including this year’s Shit-Faced Showtime Presents: The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz!The premise is simple: 5 classically-trained musical theatre performers set out to perform The Wizard Of Oz, but one of them is, predictably, shit-faced...

Adam Kay – Fingering A Minor on the Piano

Adam Kay used to be a doctor and he wants to tell us all about it. Following his sell-out show last year he is back for two weeks only to reprise Fingering A Minor On The Piano. The title is ambiguous, and turns out it has nothing to do with the show...

George Egg: DIY Chef

George Egg is a hybrid chef and comedian. Part cooking show, part stand-up, this is a hilarious hour filled with wonderful smells and brilliant absurdist comedy.Last year, Egg brought us his show Anarchist Cook, about cooking in hotel rooms...

Abandoman's Rob Broderick – The Musical in My Mind

Rob Broderick is a one of a kind performer. Every show is different and mostly based on audience suggestions, but this is an improvising rapper like no other. Whether improvised or not, each of his songs is a marvel to behold...

Matt Richardson: Slash

Matt Richardson is a firecracker. Never has a man who appears so genial and friendly been so outraged. Luckily his outrage is hilarious, as is the subject matter of his new show.The basis of Slash is slash fiction...

Help!

Review
★★★★
Edinburgh Fringe
Zoo
16th Aug, 2017

If you’ve ever wondered what having a mental-health issue feels like then head down to Help!. Viki Browne takes you on her journey of admitting she needed help – in a sequinned jumpsuit, rat hat, audience participation kind of way...

This Is Your Trial

Improvisation and a cappella groups are two a penny at the Fringe, and it can be difficult to find a unique format with which to entertain the crowds. This Is Your Trial is an improvised courtroom, using the best improvisers and comedians on the circuit at the moment...

Lula del Ray by Manual Cinema

Manual Cinema is a very special kind of company. They are a performance collective specialising in live shadow puppetry. Watching Manual Cinema is an experience and Lula Del Ray is absolutely beautiful...

Jess and Joe Forever

Jess and Joe want to tell us their story. They are friends but they weren’t at the beginning, but they’ll get to that point. Jess and Joe Forever is a touching story, about a boy and a girl and how difficult it can be to fit in...

Nassim

Nassim. No rehearsals. No preparation. A different actor every performance. A script in a sealed envelope. What could go wrong?This is a show that touches the heart. It’s theatre that uses many tools to tell us a story...

2 Become 1

2 Become 1 is a standard Jukebox Musical. It has all the elements of a good musical comedy and includes many throwback songs from the 90s of the sort that a young girl might sing along to while brushing her hair and gazing into the mirror...

The Whip Hand

The Traverse Theatre is onto a winner with its programming this year. Douglas Maxwell’s The Whip Hand a family comedy drama, about power, privilege and escaping the past, is a firecracker of a piece...

Siren

To be surprised by a show at the Fringe is a rare and wonderful thing. Siren takes us in one direction then knocks us off our feet, making sure we are never sure of where the story is headed next...

Monster

Boy meets girl. Boy is an actor, working on a show based around anger and Shakespeare’s text from various plays. Joe Sellman-Leava (writer and performer in this one man show) takes this idea and uses it for the basis of telling his tale, weaving in and out of different personas and voices...

Nina – A Story About Me and Nina Simone

1960s America. A hot day; 38 degrees in the shade. We certainly feel the heat in this piercing, soulful production at the Traverse theatre.Josette Bushell-Mingo writes and performs in this one-woman show, using Nina Simone’s music and political acts to make parallels with today’s society and question how far we have really come...

Mars Actually

Three aliens from Mars, fascinated by all things Earthly. They just want to tell us about life on Mars. And tell us they do, in so many weird and wonderful ways.Superbolt Theatre have another hit on their hands with Mars Actually...

Luke Kempner: Take a Long Hard Luke at Yourself

Luke Kempner takes a Luke in the mirror in this gently funny show, poking fun at himself and the impressions he uses to express himself. He is a comedian and impressionist and uses these skills to investigate who he really is...

Wolf Meat

Grandma is a drug dealer. Her grandson appears to be very special and her granddaughter regularly takes medication, seemingly to stop her eyeballs rolling out of her head. There’s also a copper who seems dead set on taking Grandma ‘downtown’...

The Jurassic Parks

Superbolt Theatre’s The Jurassic Parks is ridiculous; in the best way possible. The Park family are showing Jurassic Park in memory of their mum. She died last year, and they’re showing the film at the local community centre for a memoriam...

Flesh and Bone

Imagine William Shakespeare wrote Attack the Block and you get Flesh and Bone, a tale of an East London tower block and it’s residents. We learn their stories as they finally get a voice...

Translunar Paradise

Theatre Ad Infinitum have been a Fringe favourite for years; creating thought provoking and beautiful shows to touch both your heart and your mind. Translunar Paradise premiered here in 2011 and the show presented here is near enough the same...

Joe Jacobs: Ripe

Review
★★★★
Edinburgh Fringe
Sweet Holyrood
30th Nov, -0001

In Ripe, Jacobs takes us through the stages of a banana corresponding to the stages of life; through stand-up and rap. Touching on drugs, dogs, success, decline and mental health, he shares with us the struggles he's facing at the moment...

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