Latest Reviews

Long Distance

Long Distance is a new play which explores intimacy and connection through a series of text messages.

Tit Swingers

Causing mayhem onstage rather than on the seven seas, Tit Swingers is a show that recounts the tale of the pirate queens Mary Read (Abey Bradbury) and Anne Bonney (Sam Kearney-Edwa…

Gwyneth Goes Skiing

Linus Karp and Joseph Martin of Awkward Productions have an innate talent for honing in on the most ludicrous point of any given situation and turn it into a non-stop laugh-a-secon…

A Night with Janis Joplin

A music-filled biography of the life and musical influences of Janis Joplin that sets the house on fire.

The Manchester Revue

At the end of the show, the cast on stage said “If you’ve enjoyed the show, we’ve been The Manchester Revue.

The Faustus Project

Half Trick Theatre company certainly knows how to entertain.

PALS

Any Scot has experienced that feeling where the solution to overcoming one of life's minor criss seems to be to go bouncing up a Munro somewhere in the highlands.

HYPER

Does the way you see someone change how you see their story? Does the way you hear someone change whether you are even willing to hear the story at all? HYPER presents a confrontin…

Tiff Stevenson: Husband Material

You can always rely on three things from the Edinburgh Fringe: a huge, purple, upside-down cow, a ton of flyers everywhere and Tiff Stevenson giving us a hilarious show.

Things We Will Miss

The show is an intelligent, serious meditation on the most serious of subjects: the climate crisis.

Serious Theatre from Serious People

Charlotte Anne-Tilley and Mabel Thomas reveal their skills as actors in Serious Theatre from Serious People at Gilded Balloon Patter House.

Rob Auton: The Eyes Open and Shut Show

This show - at Assembly Roxy - starts with Rob Auton’s take on a guided meditation, which with his languid delivery and Yorkshire accent, turns out to be actually quite soothing.

Demi Adejuyigbe Is Going To Do One (1) Backflip

Demi Adejuyigbe has promised big things for his debut Fringe show, Demi Adejuyigbe Is Going To Do One (1) Backflip at Pleasance Courtyard: original songs, presentations, bits and …

Can't Stop Carrying On

As an ageing film producer plans to resurrect his past cinematic successes, an audience are invited to share his memories and triumphs as he flicks through his back catalogue of wo…

Stevie Martin: clout

In Stevie Martin: clout, at the Monkey Barrel, Martin plays a successful “online comedian” - which she calls herself before retching.

Jessie Cave: An Ecstatic Display

Jessie Cave says she would like to be remembered as a “fun mum”, which we certainly get aglimpse of in An Ecstatic Display at Assembley Roxy.

Alex Franklin: Gurl Code

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is about Alex Franklin’s Gurl Code, but this show is an example of really great comedy, constantly shifting from one gag to another, as Fr…

Chris Tavener is Faking Cool

It’s a lot to impress me with comedy songs.

Sh!t Theatre: Or What's Left of Us

The duo, Louise Mothersole and Rebecca Biscuit are having their turn to folk moment.

Of the Land on Which We Meet

Na Dihnang Circus presents Of The Land on Which We Meet.

Knight, Knight

The music that welcomes us in is a mix of standard mediaeval fare and the morecontemporary Angel, by PinkPantheress which set the tone of what we’re about toexperience in Knight,…

Hot Concrete: Too Hot (and Too Concretey) for TV

It’s not often you get to be in the audience for a pilot TV show, let alone a live chat show witha warm-up act, special guests, commercial breaks and several references to pastco…

Milo Edwards: How Revolting! Sorry to Offend

Taking a page out of his own interpretation of what motivates British society, Milo Edwards challenges the industry by throwing a glove down at them in the form of his latest hour,…

Micky Overman: Hold On

What really drives Mick Overman’s material in Hold On is her ability to mix wider generalisations with specifics about her own experiences of a given scenario or norm.

KAREN

Sarah Cameron-West’s Karen is an electrifying explosion of female rage and comedic prowess that follows a loveable underdog who faces off with her arch nemesis in the aftermath o…

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.

A History of Paper by Oliver Emanuel and Gareth Williams

Told through paper mementos, A History of Paper is an epic love story.

This Side of the House

Oxbridge and its debating unions are known to be places of political intrigue, where the future politicians of the day test their mettle and learn the skills they will be using whe…

The Brenda Line

In the canon of surprising things my mother told me, the fact that the Samaritans used to have designated phone lines for men wanting to use them as sex lines must rank high.

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 …

Technically: A Musical

Twitching the curtain and shining a light on what happens backstage, Jacob Marshall and Shannon Hill’s Technically: A Musical is a show full of inside jokes and caricatures from …

Rose Matafeo: On and On and On

There are a lot of people to get into the Pleasance Forth for Rose Matafeo’s first comedy hour since 2018’s Horndog.

When Vincent Met John

When Vincent Met John is a historical encounter few could have anticipated.

Pop Off, Michelangelo!

Get ready to meet a version of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci like never before in Pop Off, Michelangelo! Travel back to Renaissance Florence, where the two young artists are b…

Gaudi: God’s Architect

The Archdiocese of Glasgow Arts Project (AGAP) was founded in 2006 to engage people of all backgrounds through faith-inspired arts events and activities often through dramatic prod…

I Did Something I Shouldn't Have...

Marketing a show as a thriller often raises hopes that are not met.

BLUBBER

I’ve always hated sculling, and synchro.

Dreamgun: Film Reads

Dreamgun: Film Reads is back at the Fringe and serving up the usual night of nostalgia, banter and chaos! Tackling The Silence of the Lambs, they cooked up a script that’s true t…

Birthday Fish

Birthday Fish is an absurdist physical exploration of the feeling of being a ‘fish out of water’.

Assembly Hall

A curate’s egg, flashes of brilliance but with a first third of tedious mire, Kidd Pivot company’s Assembly Hall, about an amateur medieval re-enactment society, will divide au…

André De Freitas: As Yet Untitled

André De Freitas welcomes us into the room with a “come in, grab a bed.

A Little Night Music

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s MA MUsical Theatre Performance and Musical Directing students have taken the Fringe by storm, as always, with their nearly West End-level produc…

Too Close to the Sun

Wrong Tree’s Too Close to the Sun follows three groups of people on the edge of apocalypse.

Tea Wade: MANDRILL

Tea Wade’s MANDRILL is an hour where we find ourselves learning as well as laughing as we’re taken on a journey through time that becomes a compilation on how social norms that…

Furiozo: Man Looking for Trouble

The name Furiozo murmurs through the festival as a ‘must-see' show and usually when this happens, it’s cause to be cautious.

Winchester

History can do strange things to a person’s reputation, and Sarah ‘Sallie’ Lockwood Winchester (née Pardee,1839-1922) has probably not fared too well in those stakes.

Tom Lawrinson: Buried Alive and Loving it

Tom Lawrinson has a manic energy that can barely be contained by an Underbelly stage.

Straddle: a fantasia on gay rage

Straddle, subtitled A fantasia on gay rage, follows the story of the unnamed Him, played by the energetic and engaging Peter Todd.

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story is a joyful reimagining of the Princess of Wales' life, told with wildly speculative poetic licence.

A Girl Gets Naked In This

Perhaps winning the award for most provocative title of the Fringe, A Girl Gets Naked In This is a series of nine monologues written and performed by women on the subject of sex an…

Homestead

Homestead is a powerful drama that grips you instantly and doesn’t let go.

Thank You So Much for Coming

Hello and welcome to Cynthia’s fabulous party! Meet our generous host as she greets each and every audience member with a chocolaty hors d'oeuvre.

The Glasstown Confederacy

In this new work from Fringe favourite, Rebecca Vines, the talented young cast explores the vivid imaginary worlds of Glass Town.

Tales from a British Country Pub

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall / theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall
21st Aug, 2024

Once in a blue moon you take a punt on a show at 11pm and to your surprise, you find pure gold.

BOBBY WINNER

RUM by Joe Mallalieu

The exposed brick of a top-floor cavern at Underbelly Cowgate is the ideal setting for actor/writer Joe Mallalieu’s premiere of Rum, a solo play rooted in his experience of growi…

Hannah Gadsby: Woof!

Hannah Gadsby has been accused of killing comedy, but you’re going to remember this eulogy for a long time.

Crime and Punishment

Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment will be known to many, having been adapted for stage and screen countless times.

Squidge

Squidge is a debut solo show that follows Daisy (Tiggy Bayley): a begrudged teaching assistant in Lower Sydenham looking after a troubled boy at primary school.

SILENCE! The Musical – The Unauthorised Parody of The Silence of the Lambs

SILENCE! The Musical is the unauthorised parody musical of The Silence of the Lambs.

Showtime!

Em Hoggett brings her twist on the one-woman cabaret show to C Venue.

Cabin Fever

If you are looking for a funny family show, Cabin Fever by Fresh !nk Theatre Company at theSpace @ Sugeon's Hall is a show where kids will get the jokes (most of them) and adul…

Conversations We Never Had, As People We'll Never Be

A couple has thirty minutes to decide whether to erase the memory of their failed relationship.

The Cambridge Footlights International Tour 2024

The Cambridge Footlights International Tour 2024 is back at the Edinburgh Fringe with its latest iteration.

idiots... GAY idiots

According to hosts Grace Fool and Jennifer Schmennifer, this country is founded on Gay idiots—and quite right too! With live singing, drag, character comedy, lip-syncing and clow…

Chris Grace: Sardines (A Comedy About Death)

Fringe regular Chris Grace returns from the US to muse on death, posing such questions as can we enjoy life if we know how it ends? In less than an hour, he tells of the passing of…

Auto/Erotic Tango

"It takes two to tango" is a saying many of us have heard but perhaps have never fully experienced.

Tiny Little Town

Welcome to this Tiny Little Town! Meet the mayor and the townspeople as you embark on this fun and quirky musical.

The Screen Test

It’s the 1930s and Betsy Bitterly is dying to be a Hollywood star.

make the Bed

Make the Bed is an exploration of anxiety and paranoia based on writer and performer Ariela Nazar-Rosen’s own experience—in particular, a bed bug scare that pushed her to break…

Decomposing, Live

Alec Snook is incredibly hyper aware.

Outing

Written and directed by L.

Malion

I was intrigued by the idea of a feminist interpretation of Pygmalian myth because it's seen now as one of the classic stories about men being pigs; and by modern standards it …

Weaving Me, Weaving Mum

A woman sits centre stage, wrapped in thick wools that appear to be knitted and crocheted from a myriad of red yarn.

Baby Rock

Theatre for babies is a delicate balancing act; the show needs to be a multisensory experience for the target audience who may not yet be able to follow plot lines or dialogue and …

Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho

Upon viewing Margaret Thatcher: Queen of Soho, with its vibrancy, provocative introspection, and above all cuttingly sharp humour, it’s really not hard to see why it celebrates i…

Knives and Forks

Friends of seven years, Iris (Ianthe Bathurst) and Thalia (Thea Mayeux) share their lives in the same flat.

Kate Butch: Wuthering Shites

We’re in luck: Kate Butch is workshopping her jukebox musical: Bush! to audiences at the Fringe this Summer.

You Can't Escape an Aussie Boy

Hailed by the company as ‘loud, obnoxious and darkly humorous’, one is left wondering what happened to those elements in You Can’t Escape an Aussie Boy.

Three of a Kind – A New Musical

Set in modern-day America, this Broadway style musical does not hold back on ambition.

Ruby Carr: eBae

If you didn’t know much about eBay before, you will after seeing Ruby Carr’s eBae, a show about everything and everything about the auction website as she auditions to be their…

Petty Tyrant

Thank God! A proper Fringe show.

Dr Dolittle Kills a Man (and Reads Extracts From His New Book)

Dr.

Stamptown Comedy Night

You know you’re in for a good night when the show hasn’t even started and Stamptown’s Dylan Woodley has the crowd raring to go with an electric pre-show roller-skating displa…

A Giant on the Bridge

A Giant On The Bridge doesn’t give much away from its description, so I was ready to be surprised.

Playfight

Playfight is a visceral, fast-moving production from Theatre Uncut, that relentlessly demands your attention from the first moment to the last.

Is the WiFi Good in Hell?

Lyndon Chapman’s debut play directed by Will Armstrong, Is The Wifi Good in Hell? is an evocative coming of age play where identity and environmental displacement collide.

Who Do Ya Love?

Who Do Ya Love? is a fun-loving larger-than-life jukebox musical about Harry Wayne Casey’s journey to starting KC and the Sunshine Band.

The Scot and the Showgirl

The Scot and the Showgirl is a song cycle celebrating the best of Broadway and Scotland’s impact on the music industry, following the highs and lows of a long-term relationship, …

The Last Laugh

The dressing room set may be spooky, but the uncanny element is the actors’ supernatural embodiment of Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecombe and Bob Monkhouse.

Summoning Sondheim

The theatre is dying, so Jordana Belaiche and Grace O’Keefe are holding a séance to bring back the legendary musical theatre composer, Stephen Joshua Sondheim.

Stephen Mullan: Rascal

When did Stephen Mullan become a rascal? I thought it was just as we walked into The Box at Assembly.

Rouge

Rouge is back at the Fringe sexier and kinkier than ever.

OUTPATIENT

To say this is the funniest RomCom I've seen about Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis might be faint praise; to say this is one of the funniest shows I've seen about death is a…

Nigamon / Tunai

Nigamon/Tunai is an inspirational immersive ritual created by indigenous artists, Émilie Monnet from Canada and Waira Nina from Columbia who seek to draw attention to the destruct…

Comedy Hypnosis Show

Throughout the show, the hypnotist repeats the phrase "If you take it seriously, it will work.

Boardroom

Television at the turn of the Millennium was truly like the Wild West.

In Defiance Of Gravity

There lived a certain man in Russian long ago….

Melanie Bracewell: Attack of the Melanie Bracewell

Melanie Bracewell has conquered Australia and now she's set her sights on the UK crying please, let me be humbled.

Frankenstein (On a Budget)

What if Mary Shelly’s gothic horror classic Frankenstein was resurrected as a campy one-man musical? An interesting premise explored by LampHouse Theatre in their new show playin…

Nina Rose Carlin: Seeking Representation

As a smiling Nina Rose Carlin appears on stage with a suitcase, she asks for a one-way ticket to Tinseltown.

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