In 2017, Watson – prone to considerable anxiety, with multiple phobias and a history of piss-poor self-esteem – was asked to go on Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls.
Fresh from a sell-out tour, star of BBC’s The Blame Game, Fighting Talk and The News Quiz, Neil Delamere returns to Edinburgh with a brand new show.
A clownish maintenance crew finds a magical bird and the mad chase begins.
The fastest-selling act at Glasgow International Comedy Festival three-years running is back with a brand-new show! In her 40th year, Susie has decided to leave cynicism behind to …
Why shouldn’t a middle-aged, middle-class, middle-eastern single mother of two relate to Stormzy, the King of Grime? In this new show, Shappi connects with her truth, her ‘Inner St…
Irasshaimasé! Welcome to the store! Meet Keiko.
She’s the dreamer of dreams.
Cork comedian Chris Kent is back with more kids, stories and a keep cup to compensate for his guilt about overpopulation.
Are you sitting comfortably kids? It’s time for Drag Queen Story Hour – an interactive storytime like no other! Join in on the interactive fun with sing songs, stories and lots a…
The sell-out smash-hit show returns! Following acclaimed runs in London, New York, LA and San Francisco, multi-award-winning Police Cops are back with their new and improved 90s in…
If at any point you have used your legs, thought about legs or if you know someone with legs, then this is the show for you.
Last year’s show, Dressing for Dinner, earned Evans some of the most ecstatic reviews of his career including an unbeaten 4.
Fresh from sell-out performances in London and Los Angeles, two of the co-creators of Fringe sell-out smash-hit Thrones! The Musical bring you a Harry Potter parody musical that is…
The semi-final of the 2019 Funny Women Awards. The best new female comedy acts compete for the coveted Stage Award and a place in the final. Hosted by 2017 winner Thanyia Moore. Established in 2003 and now a key fixture on the UK’s comedy calendar, the Awards have become an important launch pad for many talented performers with alumni including Katherine Ryan, Zoe Lyons, Susan Calman, Kerry Godliman, Sara Pascoe, Bridget Christie, London Hughes, Sarah Millican, Rachel Parris, Desiree Burch and many more.
Fringe favourites the Sleeping Trees are doing Christmas in Edinburgh! Offering their surreal take on the most Christmassy story of all time; The Nativity. Join Mary, Joseph, Jesus, Santa, the Wise Men, reindeers and Aled Jones, in this brandy butter-soaked selection of brand new sketches from the multi award-winning comedy trio…
Jena Friedman is scared shitless and wants to feel less alone.
Gird your loins and suspend any disbelief for the weirdest, rip-roaring adventure you’ll ever experience.
Shaving the Dead starts with two undertakers waiting at a coffin.
Fresh from his 2019 Best New Show nomination at Leicester Comedy Festival, Steve McNeil (team captain/creator, Dara O Briain’s Go 8 Bit) hosts a whole week of different shows, ably assisted by Rob Sedgebeer, using WiFi Wars’ world record-breaking interactive tech! Lots of special guests! Bring a charged smartphone to play along! Critic’s Choice (Time Out)…
From the postcolonial Middle East, to the EU and USA, old orders are collapsing. Tech-savvy extremist groups are ripping up rulebooks while a generation of young men burn with resentment and unfulfilled self-entitlement whilst falling into online worlds of fantasy, violence and reality…
In a small Nigerian town Ben, Obembe and their two older brothers slip away to fish at a forbidden river. Unnoticed and carefree they continue until the prophecy of a madman changes their lives forever…
Fat Blokes is a sort of dance show about flab, double chins and getting your kit off in public – made by artist and forward-facing fatso, Scottee. Fat Blokes uncovers why fat men are never sexy but are always funny, always the before, but never the after shot…
Truly funny, indigenous comedy, Aboriginal Comedy Allstars features three Aboriginal Australian comedians: Kevin Kropinyeri, Steph Tisdell and Andy Saunders.
Dating again after a complex break-up, Jessie is trying to get her personal life in order – before her kids wake up. Cave brings her critically acclaimed blend of confessional comedy and DIY performance art back to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe after a sold out run in 2018…
Best known as the co-creator and co-star of hit podcast 2 Dope Queens, interviewing the likes of Jon Stewart, Tig Nataro and Michelle Obama to name just a few. Phoebe is also a New York Times best-selling author of You Can't Touch My Hair & Other Things I Still Have To Explain and her second book Everything's Trash, But it's Okay and stars in Netflix film Ibiza and Paramount's What Men Want…
The mother of all confessional shows from the bestselling author and star of The Fast Show and Two Doors Down. Does My Mum Loom Big In This? is for everyone who’s had a mother or been a mother, featuring hair-raising hilarious true stories from Arabella’s dysfunctional childhood, her perilous career and her life as a single working mother…
Following a surprising (and culturally deeply unsettling) smash-hit, sell-out run at last year’s Fringe, this mind-bogglingly awful, disquietingly successful idea for a late-night comedy extravaganza returns…
If there was an alien invasion of planet earth who would you want to represent the human race? Politicians, David Attenborough, The cast and crew of Stranger Things? What about a g…
Framed around the personification of Goethe’s Faust, a sinister figure adorned in black strides purposefully on stage to proclaim that to strive is divine, because movement is li…
Part insider look at the making of the film Jaws and part musings on what constitutes an artist, The Shark is Broken, written by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon and directed by Guy Maste…
Eddie Izzard invites you to his brand-new work-in-progress reading/performance of Charles Dickens’ classic epic Great Expectations. Actor, comedian – Eddie’s career spans both of these with record-breaking comedy tours and critically acclaimed film, TV and theatre performances…
A glorious celebration of the work of the world’s greatest playwright. Expect silly sketches, toe-tapping songs and dastardly duels. ‘The perfect way to introduce your child to Shakespeare’ ***** (BroadwayBaby…
Nath Valvo can really get a room worked up.
One bright and sunny day, a fish jumps out of a river, and promptly meets a fellow animal with whom he will share the next 46 years of his life.
Hopefully, you know the kind of show you’re in for, with a deliciously meaningless title like this, and crafted surrealism is exactly what is in store.
Nancy and Alex fell in love when they were teenagers. It is wholehearted, obsessive, knotted-together love. An exploding pig heart leads to a first kiss, shared secrets, comic books and Dido classics…
"I could be one of the Boys," New Zealander Chris Parker sings ecstatically at the start of Camp Binch, wearing a shirt and leggings echoing Elaine Stritch's iconic o…
Baby Wants Candy has become almost as much a staple of the Fringe as being slapped in the face with flyers on the Royal Mile.
The host of Whose Line Is It Anyway, Loose Ends and Talks Back makes his much-anticipated return to the Edinburgh Fringe stage with a one-man show guaranteed to be funnier than Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy…
Join Diane as she recuts the red ribbon on her iconic 80s nightclub The Flick. A hedonistic paradise rebuilt in the heart of Edinburgh – where live music plays, cocktails are shaken till the early hours and special guests dazzle as brightly as the disco ball…
The Duchess of Canvey returns with a new show and new songs! Join her on a hilarious journey of self-discovery as she reclaims her place in the heart of a divided Britain. Check in your (faux) fur coat, grab a cocktail and prepare to be reunited on the dance floor…
Hot off the back of total sell-out runs at Edinburgh Fringe 2016, 2017 and 2018, and Soho Theatre, multi award-winning Police Cops return with their sci-fi comedy blockbuster. After his father is killed by an evil robot, Sammy Johnson teams up an alien pilot and his trusty Cyborg, embarking on an intergalactic adventure across the galaxy to find Earth, avenge his father and become the best damn police cop in space…
Your favourite movies – musicalised! And you choose! Top Gun, Die Hard or Jurassic Park from the critically acclaimed Los Angeles comedy company, 30 Minute Musicals. With over 16 musical parodies of cult classic films under their belt, 30MM brings three favourites to Fringe…
Damon Runyon’s brilliant Broadway Stories became Guys and Dolls. Here, two of his finest, Johnny One Eye and A Piece of Pie, twist and swing to life like improvised jazz! Best Show runner-up, Brighton Fringe 2017…
Russell performs his work-in-progress show testing new material. Some jokes will last to his tour or TV shows, some will survive just one night. Regardless, it’ll be fun. Come be part of the process…
In 2017, Mark Watson – a man prone to considerable anxiety, with multiple phobias and a history of piss-poor self-esteem – was asked to go on Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls. It really wasn’t for him at all because his favourite things include safety, comfort, food and not being scared and miserable…
There are two sides to every story. And every story has a song. With signature style and humour Two Worlds weave together four stories full of heart and revelation that unfold the fabric of Maori musical culture, its genealogy and evolution…
Paul Simon is a name that has cemented itself into the Hearts and Bones of audiences all over the world. As an artist, his name has become synonymous, not only with music but with cultural history! In this poignant and critically acclaimed show, British singer-songwriter Gary Edward Jones not only recites the music of one of his idols, but also tells the unique story of Paul Simon: combining visuals, stage design, and of course…
Brendan Galileo is determined to make his mark on Irish political life and save the local school of music from being converted into apartments for racehorses, by joining the ranks of the European Parliament…
Sleeping Trees are silly, funny boys. They don’t know what this show is about yet, but it will be sillier, funnier and contain at least three boys. ‘Phenomenal performers brimming with verve and fizzing with invention’ (Chortle…
Divet Show will bring glitter, glamour, fun and over 30 world-class stars like Adele, Whitney, Celine, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Freddie Mercury, Cher… all impersonated by one man, Marko Vainio, accompanied by his drag dancers! Marko Vainio is an award-winning impersonator and has been on the road for over 15 years, doing over 2000 shows already…
A budding journalist from an unlikely background lands a dream internship at the country’s biggest online news company. But getting in the door is just the start. Getting ahead is a whole other story, especially with a boss who barely acknowledges his existence…
‘The War oan Terror? Whit’s it f*cking like?!’ The world needs a new kind of warrior – a woman, a Russian, a wee Glesca hairy… Cold as ice, deadly as a cobra, common as muck! Storytelling and stand-up with a little light killing on the side…
Best Male Comedian winner, New Zealand Comedy Guild awards 2017. Best Show nominee, NZ International Comedy Festival 2017. Best Newcomer nominee, Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2016…
In his debut show, character comedian Raphael Wakefield charts the rise and fall of his idol, Arsène Wenger, and asks what it means to become successful. As heard on BBC Radio 4 Extra’s Newsjack…
A Maori boy’s musical about his Hollywood hero. An award-winning solo cabaret following the personal journey of a young Maori boy wanting to fit into a world he has no blueprint for…
A reserved English father turned Tantric Masseur. A Muslim mother who insists on open dialogue. Roann has been caught in the middle since seven, furiously masturbating… Roann McCloskey navigates life as a post #MeToo queer, British-Algerian woman in this award-winning sell-out production that will have you laughing, crying and pondering the name you’ve given your genitals as you’re taken on a journey of excruciating self-discovery…
Observing the little traditional conventions in life – one pink sock for Michaelmas day, keeping toenail clippings in a separate jar from fingernails, cream first, then jam, then bacon – is what separates us from the animals…
Identity politics. Right-wing nationalism. Climate Change. Brexit. Ronan Keating’s solo career. There isn’t much philosophy going on. Following his Celebrity Big Brother house “vacation”, the host of BBC Radio 4’s Sketchtopia embarks on one man’s mission to find a philosophy that explains and engages the malaise of modernity…
Winner: Pinder Prize, 2019 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Edinburgh debut from one of Australia’s most exciting comedians. I’m a stand-up comedian from Australia and I think I’m funny…
Writer and star of BBC Radio 4 series Australian Trilogy, Sarah Kendall returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a brand new hour of storytelling. Funny and probably a bit depressing in places…
Join West End Producer as he auditions special guests for his Free Willy musical. You, the audience, are on the panel as WEP challenges guests to perform such iconic whale-based hits including: My Willy Needs to Be Wet and One Whale More…
Welcome to the eye-popping drawing adventure presented on a magical whiteboard. As two mischievous friends play, mysterious creatures appear and disappear as they draw and erase on the blank space with ink markers…
As seen on ABC, The Comedy Channel and Channel 11 which featured their one hour comedy special. After a sold out 2018 world tour, Beej and Jimmy are back! Australia’s favourite twins return with a new show packed full of hilarious songs and sibling banter…
The Time Show is a comedy/theatre/spoken word show about time. It is suitable for people who know of time. Following on from his shows about the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair and talking, award-winning writer and performer Rob Auton turns his attention to time…
Before Voldemort was He Who Must Not Be Named, he was just Tom Riddle, another moody teen that couldn’t talk to girls. Join Tom and his Hogwarts classmates on a hilarious musical adventure packed with magic, hormones and more than a few murders…
Experience legendary French icon Edith Piaf’s life, loves and losses through the songs that shot her to stardom such as La Vie En Rose and Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien. Piaf’s songs are punctuated with a collection of extraordinary stories of her life as recounted by Australian cabaret star Michaela Burger, who takes on a multitude of key characters, from Edith’s half-sister Momone to Piaf herself, ably supported by co-star Greg Wain on acoustic guitar with subtle use of effect pedals…
Anuvab Pal is trying to understand a thousand years of this bewildering British Isle through his Indian lens, deploying respectable tools he’s mastered like corruption, deceit and fake news to find whether they exist in this land…
Ireland’s comedy sweetheart (self-titled) and Dublin Fringe Best Performer nominee is returning to Edinburgh on The Prosecco Express, fresh from her sell-out Irish tour and Soho Theatre run…
Sarah Jane Morris with her unique and powerful voice celebrates John Martyn illuminating his life and art in her new show Sweet Little Mystery. Directed by writer and comedian Mark Thomas this event includes unreleased footage of Martyn and interviews with his close friends and family…
Invisible is an unflinching, hilarious and unexpected insight into life at an age when the world ghosts you. Cally recalls the time she nearly disappeared in Iceland (the country, not the shop)…
As seen on BBC1’s Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, The Tracey Ullman Show, BBC R4’s Dead Ringers and 4Extra’s Newsjack. Rob Brydon has called him ‘a remarkable new talent’ and the pretentious 23-year-old impressionist likes to agree…
The traditional band Korean Gipsy Sangjaru set out to create ingenious world music based on the Korean traditional culture and arts. It’s touching, astonishing and emotional! Inspired by Paulo Coelho’s novel The Pilgrimage, the wanderers created diversified musical numbers on the way to Santiago…
Quick, hide! The Fringe favourite returns with a brand-new hour of extraordinary absurdist character comedy nonsense. Just terrific. Blam blam! 'A show as bafflingly stupid as this should rightly divide an audience down the middle, but through some strange alchemy the crowd absolutely lap it up...
A blissfully domestic sitting room in a nameless American suburb is the setting for Brian Parks’ riotous comedy The House. We open as two couples arrive fresh from their lawyer’s offices following the completion of the sale of the house from one couple to the other...
Last year, Simon Evans earned rave reviews for Genius, his howl of despair at our declining national appetite for intelligent conversation, let alone public figures of exceptional ability...
Sanspants Radio present Plumbing the Death Star Live. One of Australia's most popular pop culture podcasts will be performing for the first time at Edinburgh Fringe, in which we ask the important questions in pop culture and dissect fictional universes...
One of the best-received acts in Edinburgh present the best of their last three epic one-man shows. Come see what all the fuss has been about. 'Brilliant stuff' **** (Guardian). 'Excellently crafted...
Award-winning Jolyon Rubinstein's hit satirical podcast is leaving the comfort of the Spotify studio and traveling to Edinburgh for three exclusive recordings. As always, Jolyon will be joined by three top-notch guests for your amusement and horror...
A stand-up comedy show featuring two outstanding comedians; one has over 100 million YouTube views, the other has a famous dad. For two weeks only these brilliant US acts are hitting the Fringe and sharing what will be an hour of famously well-produced comedy...
Joanne Hartstone’s one-woman show is a brilliant send up to classic Golden Age Hollywood that keeps the glitz and glamour of the period whilst showing the grimy and exploitative underbelly that lurks just beneath the surface...
Millennial anxieties are unpacked and explored in devised comedy I’ll Have What She’s Having. Written and performed by Jess Brodie and Victoria Bianchi, two women who live completely different lives and fake their own happiness around each other...
Zoo is a play which touches upon awkward social contracts between people, and the total indifference of the natural world. It opens with an impending event: a hurricane is about to strike a Miami zoo...
The year is sometime in the 1800s, it seems, or else 2018. The venue, a seedy taproom, or the basement of an Assembly George Square building, again, depending on how you look at it...
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. Separated by eight years and a world of experience, it is an uneasy reunion...
Official sell-out show 2016. Returning from sell-out runs at Soho Theatre and Edinburgh Fringe 2016/2017. Multi award-winning comedy trio The Pretend Men are back in town with their globally acclaimed comedy blockbuster Police Cops: an action-packed hour of adrenaline-fuelled physical comedy, cinematic style and uncompromising facial hair...
A master of audience coersion, Kate Berlant mines her best material from audience response rather than her own resources. There are times when it seems as though she is resting on stock replies to an audience member denying she is actually psychic, but it is equally evident that Berlant is a hugely talented improviser who spins funny and engaging material from almost any audience response...
John-Luke Roberts is, for a certaint quotient, one of the staples of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Plugging away for years in various Free Fringe venues doing critically-acclaimed shows but failling to break through into the mainstream, one can only assume that the handsome, charismatic Roberts only stayed on the fringes of the Fringe through either voluntary force of will or deliberately alienating material...
The world's most dangerous ukulele group is back in 2018. After sold-out Adelaide 2017/2018 and Edinburgh 2017 Fringe seasons, the boys return with new recruits and a brand new show that's sure to blow minds and shake up the world of uke yet again...
It's obvious from the loud, excited audience in Assembly Studio 3 that London-based comedy theatre trio The Pretend Men – Nathan Parkinson, Zachary Hunt and Tom Rose – have returned to Edinburgh with something of a reputation, after previous critically acclaimed, sell-out performances of their high-tempo, cinematically-inspired Police Cops, and its unexpectedly 1980s "low-fi sci-fi" sequel Police Cops in Space...
Hope Theatre Company bring us this brutal and beautiful production exploring sexuality through the lens of two boxers. This is a refreshingly unique glimpse into the lives of two men experiencing a love which dare not mention its name, and the potential repercussions when stereotypical masculinity is perceived to be challenged...
Demi Lardner feels the need, at one point in their most recent show, to unveil a banner listing their previous accomplishments and awards they have won. This is presented alongside a series of self-depracating laughs at technical errors and admonishing of the welcoming audience applauding their routines...
As the lights go down, the audience are met with a film playing on a screen, with a voiceover asking various people of diverse identities what utopia means to them. They reflect with various answers – ‘a level of wellbeing’, ‘heaven’, and ‘total equality and bliss’...
Dystopia is a tricky subject matter to get right in a world obsessed with its own destruction as our current one. The well has perhaps run dry for bleak future worlds in which we eek out existence in the presence of a tyrannical overlord, a plotline popularised in science fiction through the 1970s in films such as Invasion Of The Body Snatchers...
He came to our home with my Grandmother. He went and he never came back. Masked, but without one. He gave my sister and I each a five dollar bill. Or was it 10? One of a series of portraits...
Olivier Award-winning Guy Masterson, (Under Milk Wood, Animal Farm, Shylock), now brings Dickens' festive fable to vivid life. Globally renowned for his physical and vocal dexterity, Masterson recreates Scrooge, Marley, Fezziwigs, Cratchits and Tiny Tim in an enchanting performance that will dazzle and dunk you in Christmas Spirit – in Summer! (Why not? Australians do it!) A memory that will linger...
A new weekly event bringing together some of the Fringe's most exciting artists for a mix of chat, comedy and performance. The show is being hosted by Hardeep Singh Kohli and curated by Drugstore Culture, a forthcoming magazine that serves as a pharmacy for the soul – dispensing art, cinema, fashion, argument and, of course, humour to all who pass through its doors...
Perhaps it is because of the multi-show venue, or just the financial realities of bringing any production to the Edinburgh Fringe nowadays, but Peter Darney’s production of Charles Gershman’s Free & Proud is a stripped down affair...
Devilish diversions and Arcadian amusements to while away the wee hours with the best of the festival. Expect puppetry, mime, clown, variety, comedy, music and hilarity.
What if Lady Macbeth was the reincarnation of the mysterious White Fox? YVUA Arts present their award-winning About Lady White Fox with the Nine Tales... Excellent Domestic Performing Arts Production by Korean Cultural and Arts Centres Association, 2017...
Returning to Edinburgh, Modern Maori Quartet’s live shows are parties like no other. With hearty voices in epic harmony, this award-winning contemporary Maori showband shares unique takes on showband hits and pop music, original songs interlaced with distinctive waiata (song) and dance, Maori traditions, aroha (love) and tongue-in-cheek humour, charm and charisma...
The women of England demand the vote! The remarkable true story of Muriel Matters: the South-Australian actress and elocutionist who became a leading figure of the UK's suffragette movement and the foremost woman orator in Britain...
The Revue return to the Fringe following an international tour with an hour of high-octane sketch and musical comedy – with an absurdist and political bent – from the best and brightest of Oxford student comedy...
It is a truth universally acknowledged that an actor in possession of a woman's story must be in want of a wife – to help him adapt it. Charles 'One-Man Star Wars' Ross, gives Pride and Prejudice the one-man treatment.
August 5, 1962. Marilyn Monroe is found dead! Official verdict: probable suicide. Seven people are present from 22:30 before police are finally called at 04:30. What do they discuss? In the style of 12 Angry Men, all the known facts are brought together, lies exposed, myths debunked...
Enthralling one-woman musical narrative. Post-Mormon to UK transplant Wrenne performs her unique multimedia show about the struggle between her two selves: onstage and onscreen. Driven by compelling, melodic electropop, it's a journey-is-the-destination tale with unexpected twists...
Two lovers take an elixir with ever-lasting consequences. The creators of five-star sell-out hit, In Tents and Purposes (SOHO Theatre/UK Tour), return to compete with their egos in a new comedy-play about the reality of living for eternity...
Hamilton (Lewis) is the epic story of a self-starter who worked a lot harder, by being a lot faster, born and raised in Stevenage, the most successful British F1 driver in the history of the sport...
Last year, Simon Evans earned rave reviews for Genius, his howl of despair at our declining national appetite for intelligent conversation, let alone public figures of exceptional ability...
Charles 'One-Man Star Wars' Ross and Canadian Fringe legend, TJ Dawe, parody the Netflix smash series, Stranger Things. Prepare to have your Upside Down turned right side up. You'll laugh until you bleed from your nose, just like Eleven.
Russell Howard returns to Edinburgh for two weeks only. New ideas, New routines, Anything could happen! It's gonna be great, and it's only a fiver. Who's in?
You've never seen comedy like this before. Following their hit sell-out shows in Brighton, Live at Zédel and Vault Festival, this outrageous double act present Swag, a wild and joyful celebration of the female identity...
What happens to the women that men can't write? In this showcase of strong female characters, a group of Cambridge's finest lady and non-binary comics will endeavour to find out. Fresh from every screen and stage ever, the cast-offs, the sidekicks, the nonspecific love interests and the straight-up plot devices come together to stick it to the man...
As seen on the Comedy Channel. A brand-new show of uproarious musical comedy from Australia's favourite bickering identical twins. Settle in for hilarious songs that have seen them compared to Flight of the Conchords and Tim Minchin, mixed with their trademark sibling rivalry banter...
The After School Club join Irish playwright Conor Burke to present their debut production. Sophie and Ben love each other very much despite their differences... but sometimes they make it a bit too difficult for themselves...
Cork comedian Chris Kent returns with his sixth solo show, Looking Up. Chris has spent the past year balancing comedy with being a stay-at-home dad and trying to grow a beard. He has also removed the word 'mate' from his vocabulary as it takes too much effort to say in an Irish accent...
It's the musical they said would never happen! After last year's award-winning show, he's back with stories from his life set to music. Oh yes. Featuring: his time in the CIA, the fight over a parking space with Prince Charles and the loss of his imaginary friend Bogey...
Layla McKinnon is days away from saying 'I do' to Andy McKinnon. Already having the same surname as her fiancé used to be a funny coincidence but now threatens to drive them apart...
Tim is acting strangely. Judith wants answers. Together, they're struggling to reach a conclusion. A punchy, honest comedy about avoiding decisions at all costs. Written and performed by Roxy Dunn (creator of five-star sell-out hit In Tents and Purposes, Soho Theatre), as seen in Channel 4's Babylon, BBC Three's Top Coppers and Wannabe...
Before Voldemort was He Who Must Not Be Named, he was just Tom Riddle, another moody teen at Hogwarts. Join Tom and his best friend/snake Nagini on a hilarious musical adventure packed with magic, hormones, and more than a few murders...
UK stand-up's foremost contrarian takes a break from all the controversy in this new show. No politics, no religion, no smut, no swearing, just great jokes and good, clean fun. 'Superbly intelligent, highly articulate and deeply sour' (Spectator)...
Star and writer of Sky TV's Baby Hater and Ireland's brightest new comic, Joanne McNally returns to Edinburgh after her sell-out debut Bite Me last year, with her hysterical and whipsmart look on life, love and lies we tell ourselves...
Sleeping Trees have been travelling around the world! They\'ve been scuba-diving at the Great Barrier Reef, trekking the ancient Inca trails of Peru and gone dogging in Blackpool. But what starts as an innocent journey of discovery soon leads to an intricate series of events, culminating in the secret mission to end all missions...
Total sell-out 2015, 2016 and 2017! One of the best-known, longest-running and most celebrated improv shows in the world. 'Entertainment phenomenon!' ***** (Scotsman). Critics' Pick (New York Times)...
From the creators of the sell-out hit Buzz: A New Musical. Bryony Buckle is astoundingly average. Her days are filled with mind-numbing office work, thinking about lunch and lusting after Orson Bloom from IT...
The legendary Ms Anderson brings you her seriously comical cabaret. Singing songs of disappointment, depression and death by songwriters who share Adèle's life view that things can only get worse and undoubtedly will...
Meet Benjamin and James. Benjamin plays the keyboard. James plays the guitar and occasionally raps. But not only are they a musical twosome, they also happen to be identical twins. This is this Australian comedic double act’s debut at the Edinburgh Fringe and they are excited to share the full Stevenson Experience with their audience...
Sam Simmons is a dad now. This is a sentence which will fill any fan of Simmons’ onstage persona with terror as the abrasive, manic clown who has terrorised the Fringe repeatedly over the past few years doesn’t seem like the kind of person you’d want raising a child...
Brand new, late-night game show from the award-winning, critically-acclaimed Goose. One band, two teams of contestants, and a corybantic one-man cartoon strobe speed host – come witness the anarchy unfold! Two nights only, book early.
I have never seen anyone manage to create humour from pessimism and snobbery as well as Simon Evans does and oh my, we were in for quite a helping of it in this hour long show. Feeling slightly self-conscious at first of being one of the youngest members in the audience I was surprised by how on board I became with Evan’s way of thinking...
This piece of historical new writing takes its audience through four periods in Zimbabwe’s turbulent past, stretching a staggering 120 years, from 1895 to 2015. The action shifts from the toxic time soon after Cecil Rhodes began his colonial project in Zimbabwe and the resulting Matabele Wars, to Mugabe and Nkomo’s Nationalist resistance in the sixties, to the mass killings of dissidents against Mugabe’s premiership, and finally to the unstable yet hopeful present...
Gazing at a Distant Star follows three lives individually dealing with their own losses. First we are introduced to the boisterous but relatable everyman, Arun, working in a call centre to raise enough money for university...
Recently I have become a bit disappointed after seeing a few household name comedians as I feel that some of them have become a little out of touch with their audiences in the material that they deliver...
A pure and exhilarating romp of a good time. Baby Wants Candy: The Completely Improvised Full Band Musical (try saying that after a few beers) offers improv, musicals and so, so much more...
Immersive Joe’s NYC Bar returns to Edinburgh Festival Fringe with two shows a day at Assembly Underground. The audience arrives at the venue and begin to queue outside for the experience of being transported to Brooklyn dive bar Joe’s...
After an eventful year off (got a new laptop, etc), the boy's back in town with resolutions galore but less courage in his convictions than ever. How much has Ivo learnt? And what good has it done him? As seen on Mock the Week, Live at the Apollo, As Yet Untitled, Live from the BBC, Fighting Talk...
Warning: Spoilers, swearing and a hilarious combination of incest and sex jokes. This can only be the content of Thrones! The Musical.Preparing for the next episode of Game Of Thrones to air, a group of friends gather at a recently divorced friend’s house to discover she has never watched the series...
The last stand in not-growing-up, Nath Valvo is holding the frontline for all those amongst us who are done shelling out for their brother’s baby monitor, done giving up every weekend to go to yet another blasted wedding, done being pounced on by Aunty Jennifer and asked about our when-not-if offspring...
This isn't a comedy show, it's raw storytelling. I've never left a stand-up hour needing to go and have a private little cry in the venue toilet before, but Gadsby leaves you feeling overwhelmed, humbled, and very, very angry...
Shappi Khorsandi returns to the Fringe for 2017 with her new show Mistress & Misfit, a touching hour of comedy that weaves narratives from her own life and the story of Emma, Lady Hamilton best known as the mistress of Lord Nelson (of the Trafalgar Square variety for those who don’t listen to Radio 4)...
Americana Ad Absurdum Productions certainly lives up to its name by combining America’s most-loved export, free-market capitalism, with some surreal and absurdist humour. Imagine Glengarry Glen Ross written by Eugene Ionesco and you’ve got an idea of the kind of rapid-fire dialogue that ends up folding in on itself, weighed down by the characters’ reliance on finance jargon that doesn’t mean anything in the real world let alone the world of the play...
Some Riot theatre's new play is a rollercoaster of love, loss and the passion and pain of being young that hooks you from the first word, makes you fall in love with it then breaks your heart in the process...
The Alleycats, Scottish A Cappella Champions 2017, return to the Fringe for the eighth consecutive year! The Cats are back, but something is amiss. When a mysterious force sends ripples through time, everything is thrown into jeopardy! Join in as The University of St...
Clad in brown flairs and turquoise patterned shirt, Mike Bubbins is instantly a performer who stands out. Unapologetically expressing his love for all things 70s, Bubbins brings us on a journey along memory lane, comparing the past and present with a varied concoction of anecdotes, jokes and clever observations...
Shappi presents England's unsung heroine. For too many years she has been known as just Nelson's mistress, a bit of a harlot (you get one job in a brothel and bang goes your reputation)...
Winner: 2017 Best Show, Melbourne International Comedy Festival. 'Hello, I have another show for you. It's inspired by a woman called Nanette. Although we didn't exchange a single word or even a glance, Nanette has changed my life...
Ian D Monfort communicates with many famous figures who have passed to the other side. Among them is Steve Jobs, of Apple fame. Following his correspondent’s example, who modernised the humble phone by making it an iPhone, spiritual medium Montfort wants to modernise what we call rationality, making it… well, you get the joke...
In 1986, the Kendall family stood in their back-garden, staring at the Australian sky and hoping to catch a glimpse of Halley’s comet. This blink-and-you-miss-it encounter with a celestial body sets the tone for a gorgeous and heart-breaking hour of storytelling – a meditation on life, loss, and luck, with an emotional scope seldom seen in standup...
Glasgow theatre company Tidy Carnage explore the modern phenomenon of internet shaming by fusing theatre and film through Shame, written and performed by Belle Jones. Supported by a digital cast of sixteen actors, we watch the warm and cheeky Vicky home alone waiting, riddled with anxiety over her 15 year-old daughter Kiera (Sarah Miele), who has gone missing after being exposed in a video of an ‘intimate’ nature has gone viral across the internet...
Nobody wants to be lectured. That phrase suggests being sat, face down at your desk, with a monotoned teacher informing you in thorough detail just how the Roman Empire came to power...
It might seem all-too-witty for a SCRABBLE World Champion, when asked by the media for “a few words” on his victory, to admit 'I don’t really know any'. Yet, as this unexpectedly charming one-man-show by Dylan Cole reveals, the answer is all-too bitter-sweet...
Canadian rapper Baba Brinkman has explored several of the world’s biggest talking points – from evolution to climate change – and now he’s back for more. Ever thought you’d see a TED talk combined with an hour of hip hop improv? No, me neither...
If you are looking for a show that demonstrates exceptional acting and physical theatre skills Tobacco is where you will find it. South African company Baxter Theatre presents this dark comedy as part of the Baxter Theatre Season at Assembly...
Hardeep Singh Kohli is a Fringe favourite and you can tell immediately by his stage presence that he is relaxed with the audience. He is suave and wears his pink turban and kilt well; he knows what he is doing...
Alison Skilbeck's serio-comic celebration of Shakespeare's older women, directed by Tim Hardy. 'There are no good parts in Shakespeare for older women'. Professor Artemis Turret, played by Alison Skilbeck, sets out to refute these words in an illustrated lecture...
Join the critically acclaimed Oxford Revue as it returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for its 53rd year. Written and performed by the country's finest student comedians, Triptych is an hour of sharp and subversive comedy that promises to keep you entertained with sketches, songs and satire...
Modern Maori Quartet are a good-looking, suave, contemporary Maori showband in the vein of forebears such as the Hi-Marks, Maori Volcanics Showband, Dalvanius and the Fascinations, Maori Troubadours, Maori Hi Five, Quin Tikis and The Howard Morrison Quartet...
Winner of 15 top South African theatre awards, Lara Foot's story of pain, redemption and hope combines traditional African storytelling and magical realism. In an impoverished village in the Karoo, South Africa, a young girl, Thozama, struggles to survive...
Sarcastic, satirical and hilariously self-deprecating, Woolly is a sheep with serious issues! Nominated for the Best Comedy Award of Melbourne Fringe 2016, Woolly is the tale of how one sexually frustrated, twentysomething Brit dealt with rejection in the most absurd way possible: by running away to a sheep-shearing shed in South Australia! What emerged was more sheep than man...
For anyone who has suffered mental illness themselves, or has lived with someone who is afflicted, this piece will cut close to the bone. Triple Fringe First winner Andrew Buckland stars in Lara Foot's powerful and poignant drama about friendship, dysfunction, addiction and angels...
One year late, because he got the maths wrong, Ivan celebrates 11 years actually on the Fringe with guest appearances from other creations of Tom Binns, who have recently featured in BBC One's Hospital People.
Mary is on the edge of a breakdown trying to keep her foul-mouthed three-year-old in preschool. Drought. Flies. Earthquakes. Apocalypse? Or just October in LA? Written by and starring Julie Shavers, 'Ms Shavers is rock solid' (New York Times)...
One is good with his fingers, the other is good with his mouth. Beatbox sensation and one-man orchestra Tom Thum – best known for the most watched TEDx talk of all time, Beatbox Brilliance – joins bohemian singer-songwriter Jamie MacDowell to form an award-winning partnership that is 'redefining musical parameters' (Nouse)...
Nazeem's boundary-pushing comedy, explores his love/not-so-love relationship with a planet fraught with mistrust. And given the state of the world, the feeling seems to be mutual. 'Hussain is a wonderful comedic artist who blends observation with comedy that crafts an intelligent and hilarious show' **** (EdFestMag...
Last seen in 2013, the prodigal triple Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee returns 'as inventive as ever' (Guardian) with his eighth stand-up hour about change, pain, honour and gain. Funniest Joke of the Fringe winner...
Returning with his charming and surreal style and a new perspective on life, Cork comedian Chris Kent presents his fifth solo show, Moving on. Having moved to the UK and recently become a dad for the first time, adult life is leaving him more confused than ever...
Velocity: Rising is the next generation in Irish tap. Honoring past traditions but blasting them feet first into the 21st century, Velocity: Rising breaks away from the idea of what an Irish dance show is to one that is expressive, free, fast-paced and edgy, driven by passion and pride! Led by Guinness World Record holder for The Fastest Feet in the World, James Devine, and five-time World Champion Irish dancer, David Geaney...
South African-born, New Zealand-based award-winning Urzila Carlson's natural, straight up style has audiences eating out of her hand the moment she takes the stage. 'Effortlessly likeable, a well-paced stream of belly-laughs' (Sydney Morning Herald)...
Winner: 2017 Best Show, Melbourne International Comedy Festival. 'Hello, I have another show for you. It's inspired by a woman called Nanette. Although we didn't exchange a single word or even a glance, Nanette has changed my life...
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a French pilot, poet and writer, who is best known as the author of children’s classic The Little Prince. This new play from Vagabond Productions explores Saint-Exupéry’s life as the author reflects during his fatal final flight...
If you’ve ever seen Ron White before, you already know what to expect. There is whisky. There is an ashtray, which at least implies his historic affinity for cigars. There is heavy breathing picked up by a microphone...
Gargantuan tales of old Fleet Street adventures chasing celebrities, politicians and assorted crooks from TalkSPORT's odd couple, Parry and Graham. An x-rated, lurid and boozy exposé of media excess and an expletive-riddled battle of bile.
With sell-out tours across Australia, NZ and London, Nazeem makes his Fringe solo debut with incisive political, cultural observations about modern life. He hopes you can make it. 'Hussain's cheerful manner belies the acuity of his observation' (Guardian).
The debut play by double Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Liam Williams. This is a play about gender, the ethical dimensions of modern love, and a mandatory sillier third theme to make the whole thing seem less serious, in this case lemon tart...
Global Pillage, hosted by BBC Radio 4's Deborah Frances-White. A hilarious, brand new podcast recording where two teams of comedians take on the hive mind of the audience in a quiz about idiom, customs and the strange nature of the human race...
In your Face Theatre in conjunction with the King's Head Theatre return to the Fringe with their highly acclaimed and incredibly visceral adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s cult novel in a shocking, vile, and immensely enjoyable production that will leave you disgusted and awed in equal measure...
Looking like a cyberpunk priest, Tsai Pao-Chang’s hero is swamped in technology — AI, encrypted files and dating sites. We see a bereaved protagonist, Ho-Hien. His lover has just died in a plane crash and he cannot find peace, especially so when a file belonging to his deceased shows a torrid history...
Sarah Jane Morris and Antonio Forcione come together in a worldwide tour to promote the launch of their collaborative album Compared to What. This duo has each been compared to an impressive array of musical geniuses including Janice Joplin and Tom Waits (vocally) as well as Jimi Hendrix (instrumentally) – a comparison Antonio wears with pride...
90s-kid’s television hero Dave Benson Phillips brings back his hit children’s game-show Get Your Own Back, but there’s a twist. It’s live and it’s at the Fringe. All-aboard the nostalgia train; one ticket promises you a regression to your 8-year-old self and a chance to meet the real DBP, a treat in itself...
The shape-shifting comedy double act return with their live, comic existential meltdown that takes place as two comedians attempt to stage an epic, historical, romance novel in under an hour...
Returning Fringe classic White Rabbit Red Rabbit is Nassim Soleimanpour’s experimental monologue, in which the relationship between actor, writer, audience and text is explored and questioned...
This is a disappointing show, mainly because the Oxford Revue don’t have that many funny sketches to perform. Over the course of an hour, they spend too much of their time trying to be clever and ‘meta’, and too little time actually delivering funny jokes...
A disenchanted falconer from Norfolk. A lion numerologist. Bette Midler as a telepathic, transatlantic telephone-using murderer. Sally Phillips and Lily Bevan certainly don’t go for obvious characters...
Witty, lively and often heartwarming, Britney is a hilarious and hugely watchable production. The show intersperses narration and sketch-like scenes as it tells the true story of two friends, Charly Clive and Ellen Robertson, as they react and come to terms with Charly being diagnosed with a brain tumour...
A production without any set or props is a risky move. With Fringe shows moving towards more technical ‘whiz’ year on year, bringing a show to Edinburgh that's as stripped-back as Save + Quit is a gamble...
In the latest theatrical offering of a Jane Austen themed adaptation, this piece, which is billed as a new musical by Penny Ashton, interweaves thirty-three direct passages from Austen’s own novels, and seeks to amalgamate them in such a way so as to create a new narrative, headily replete with figures not out of place in either Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion or Northanger Abbey...
Incredible, hilarious, infectious, amazing. These are just some of the words that were uttered by audience members as they left Wednesday evening’s production of Baby Wants Candy...
Hurricane Michael is the kind of production I come to Fringe to see: a very specific, niche show, seemingly outside of my interests, that is found to be a surprisingly charming hour of entertainment...
It can probably be agreed that there’s a lot to be unhappy about in the world at the moment. The best place to escape most of this is arguably the Edinburgh Fringe Festival - but if you’re feeling ready to take a look and a laugh at the political and social issues currently facing society, from Trump to the so-called Islamic State and all things in-between, then this is the show for you...
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 us and he can touch them...
Emerging in a Grecian breastplate of gold, to a poetic backdrop of Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est the stage is seemingly set for the presentation of a man whose view of himself is certainly not lacking in confidence, bordering on adulation...
“Charles Hawtrey 1914 -1988 – Film, Theatre, Radio and Television Actor Lived Here.” So reads the plaque where Hawtry (of Carry On fame) resided in Deal, Kent from 1968 until his death...
Sarah Kendall’s stand-up routine has a different format to most: it’s all centred around a single tale, and it’s in the hands of someone who really knows their way around storytelling...
Jamie MacDonald comes from a tradition of endearingly grumpy comics, ranting affably about all of life’s niggles, from racist taxi drivers to obnoxious ramblers. Nominally discussing how he often stands out as a blind man, the greatest enjoyment comes from his descriptions of his encounters with some gloriously horrible people...
What to expect from a show called F*cking Men? Yes, it is ostensibly about sex, specifically gay sex, and as you’d expect it’s ripe for memorable one-liners like “I’m not gay, I’m in the army...
‘Musical’? Check. ‘Parody’? Check. Pop culture buzzword plus whimsical piece of punctuation? Check. The title of Thrones! The Musical Parody has all the components of your typical audience-baiting, sell-out show...
First things first. In Tents and Purposes is, for my money, one of the most intelligently and unashamedly silly shows on at the Fringe right now. The concept is that graduates Libby and Sam encounter a Fortune Teller who prophesies that one will be rich, find the love of her life and pretty much everything will be amazing, while the other will lose everything and die a dramatic death...
It’s a bowl of sugar mixed with grit. Liam Williams, Edinburgh Comedy darling, has written a play and it’s a two-hand romance. Travesty charts the relationship of yuppies Ben and Anna, from their intrepid beginnings to the later, harder trials...
This contemporary a cappella group returns with a musical this year about stories of gap year. Clearly influenced by the popular YouTube video of ‘Gap Yah’ – a comic takedown of over privileged youths on their ‘valuable experiences’ abroad – the Alleycats’ production is always lighthearted, though it entertains without the satiric energy of the original...
With breathtaking magic, effortless circus and formidable beatboxing skills, Ongals will have you laughing your hat off, even if you don’t know why. A high-energy physical comedy spectacular to tickle the funny bone of every age, this wave of K-Comedy is truly side-splitting fun for all generations and a show you won’t want to miss! ***** (BroadwayBaby...
Between Episode IV and V of Charles Ross’s One Man Star Wars Trilogy, the writer/performer spent some time polling the audience. During that, one man admitted to having never seen a single Star Wars film...
Ross Leadbeater is an alumnus of the all-male Welsh choir Only Men Aloud!, who won the 2008 television show Last Choir Standing. He’s in Edinburgh singing songs from the Great British Songbook, but over the course of a hit-and-miss hour it proves quite difficult to pin down exactly what this Songbook is supposed to be...
Standup is often at its best when it is possible to discern a great deal of the performer in their material. Nazeem Hussain’s Legally Brown is one such show, drawing on his experiences of the difficulties facing a modern Muslim living and working in Australia and the West...
Come Get Some! is a rather energetic title, as titles go, but its excitement about Nick Cody is absolutely justified. Cody himself, by contrast, is insouciance incarnate: spending an hour in his company is like listening to a hilarious, Aussie mate down the pub telling some (very, very) funny stories...
Multi award-winning entertainer with sold out performances, presents a sensational UK premiere. ‘The best musical experience' ****½ (RipItUp.com.au). Melvin does Otis Redding's Soul and more: extravaganza of song, dance, tap and soulful funk! Following a huge success at Sydney Opera House’s guest appearance for Club Swizzle, Melvin's been described as a 'singing, tapping, tail-feather-shaking entertainment machine' **** (Time Out)...
A surprise invitation for all adventure seekers! Let's follow this whimsical crew for the ultimate experience of space. A typical 10-year-old boy and his friends happen to set off on an unexpected journey to space to deliver the baby elephant Fernando's messages to his mum...
Star of the critically acclaimed BBC One TV show Hospital People is back with an updated version of his sell-out five-star one-man variety show Club Sets.
Direct from sell-out seasons at 2015 Adelaide Cabaret Festival and Auckland International Cabaret Festival, and winner of Best Cabaret at Adelaide Fringe 2016, this critically acclaimed show charts the life of French superstar Edith Piaf, 100 years since her birth...
Experience the shocking, beautiful true story of Tahirih, a Persian poetess and the first female suffrage martyr. Captivating theatre starring Delia Olam, heightened by evocative live music...
Don't miss Susie Youssef as she weaves stories, characters, sketches and occasional dance breaks into an hour of comedy about her big family, her medium-size anxiety problem and the small checklist that makes all the difference...
After a sell out 2015, Andrew Ryan returns to the Fringe with his all-new show, Ruined. Watch Ryan divide (but not conquer) his own life. He explores the reasons why he has a destructive personality and a habit of catastrophizing situations which leaves him feeling like he is ruining things for himself...
The show that guarantees the biggest laughs of the festival and your money back! BBC Radio Four favourite, Evans, has been immersing himself in economics for a couple of years, like a pig immersing itself in organic cleaning products, and this is the result...
You decide the ending. I will try and bring it Full Circle. Twelve royal performances, astonishing magic and mind control. 'What a pleasure to have met you and be amazed by your magic' (Jimmy Page)...
Mary Lynn (Chloe from 24) gets knocked up by a hunky stranger, becomes the good wife and mother, blows all her cash, and takes an ex-girlfriend’s advice to invest in miniature horses to save her marriage...
Russell Howard and Steve Williams return to Edinburgh to tit about for half an hour each. New ideas, new routines, anything could happen! It's gonna be great and it's only a fiver. Who's in?
Television personality, Patrick Kielty, attempts to revive his stand up career in what is billed as a fresh hour of comedy. Ominously, he admits three minutes in that ‘there is no show because he is happy’...
Having won the Comics' Choice Award at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, multi award-winning comedian Sarah Kendall is back with a hilarious new hour of storytelling. In this hour-long narrative, Sarah takes audiences back to a day in October 1990, when her best friend died for exactly 11 seconds...
Jamie MacDonald is a gentle comic, even when brandishing his white cane as a weapon. Indeed, disdain aimed at bullies, gross but fantastic images of mumps/impetigo-ridden school dances and an absurd discussion of disability and terrorism never land with the churlishness of an Andrew Lawrence (thank goodness for that)...
Being a show in the weird and wacky world that is the Fringe, I must admit, I had certain expectations of magician Chris Dugdale. You expect something ‘alternative’ or perhaps a trick that you’ve never seen before...
Adapted from Nikolai Gogol's original play by Tom Parry – one third of Fringe favourites Pappy's – Marriage stars the cream of Edinburgh's crop: Ben Clark (also of Pappy's), Adam Riches (Edinburgh Comedy Award Winner) and sketch duo Lazy Susan, among others...
For a show with this title, it is perhaps surprising that Nick Cody’s eye-catching facial hair is not the main feature of this performance. Packed with entertaining anecdotes from his gigs, tours and adventures across the globe, Cody’s first foray at the Fringe is set to be a roaring success...
Star of BBC3's cult hit sitcom How Not To Live Your Life, Dan Clark, presents The Wow Wow Show! A very British take on the American late night talk show such as Letterman and Fallon, Dan plays host to an evening of stand-up and sketches from the new wave of UK comic talent: set pieces, house band and very special guests...
In this rendition of an all time favourite, in-yer-face piece of theatre, the King’s Head Theatre, London presents Trainspotting, a gritty Scottish drama that isn't afraid to stand out at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe...
The Oxford Revue’s 2015 Fringe offering is a confident display of strong student comedy. David, Barney, and Will are a charismatic trio and have all the makings of a truly outstanding sketch troupe...
Award-winning guitar virtuoso Antonio Forcione joins dynamic Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale to form a breathtaking duo which masterfully blends soul-jazz and Brazilian guitar with African and Latin rhythms...
After a sell-out run in 2014 Josh and Producer Neil return with their award-winning XFM Podcast ... and all the regulars have been assembled. Contains: Acaster, Kumar, Crosby, Graham, Robins, Producer Neil and more...
One woman, one show, one hour ten minutes and the entire works of Jane Austen to affectionately satirise: New Zealand comedian Penny Ashton’s Promise and Promiscuity is no mean feat...
With current situation in Calais, the rise of UKIP, depressing rhetoric used by politicians to describe migrants, this play could not be staged at a more fitting time. Despite being written in 2000 and set in 1999, it is somewhat disheartening to see how little has really changed...
A Day in October centres around Kendall’s teenage years at a rough high-school in Newcastle, Australia. Kendall at this point is far from the confident comedian we see before us; she has acne all across her face, her weird dreams have even her therapist befuddled and her main objective is to remain invisible...
According to Andrew Ryan, he is a failure. The laughs he elicits suggest otherwise, of course. Referring to his audience as 'lads', this is quintessential Irish stand-up: charming, anecdotal and fast...
As a career move, dying was the savviest option for Jimmy Savile. Unlike American comedian Bill Cosby, who’s still alive to issue terse denials to the more than 50 women who’ve alleged that he drugged and raped them, BBC TV and radio star Savile was safely toes up before his sex crimes were revealed and investigated...
Pantomime is not just for Christmas, according to Òran Mór, whose take on the genre is a wonderfully satirical look at the corridors of power. The plot is a traditional one: the mayor of City State enlists the help of a Scottish boy with a ‘magic pipe’ to rid the streets of rats...
Two Sore Legs is an affecting testament to the fierceness of a mother’s love and the determination of one woman in the face of oppressive societal expectations. Circling around her own coffin on the day of her funeral, Bridget (Maria Connolly) tells us, with humour and frankness, the story of how her eight children came to be standing around her...
Burgeoning Fringe comedy legend and self-professed borderline alcoholic John Robins indulges his audience with a startlingly self-referential hour of stand-up comedy. The Bristolian comic wastes no time in bringing the audience up to speed; his girlfriend has just gone on a month-long visit to Australia, and he’s alone for the first time in months, suddenly realising that his friends have grown up around him without him noticing...
Festival of the Spoken Nerd present a variety of comedy stylings on maths, physics, and all things ‘nerdy’. Hosts Helen Arney, Steve Mould and Matt Parker are all charming, talented and obviously very smart, and their show is a fantastic and funny celebration of their interests...
In which Peter York, co-inventor of the Sloane Ranger, author of Authenticity is a Con and recovering style guru, introduces his dark, edgy and deeply subversive idea of niceness. York's guide to life explains what not to wear, what not to say and what not to think...
A nun and an ex-con find themselves on the run across Ireland, carrying two film rolls, identical in appearance but with very different sets of pictures on them. If this sounds somewhat contrived or like the set-up to a bad joke, Little Thing, Big Thing is very aware of this, and the somewhat implausible beginning allows a lovely set of character sketches and situations to pervade throughout the piece...
It’s a deceptively simple bag of ingredients that Jim Cartwright lists in the script for his new play Raz, which has had its premiere at this year’s Festival Fringe. “Character Shane, a young man...
Amiable hosts Dingo (Joshan Chana) and Dog (Thomas Fraser) present surreal sketches and storytelling in this enjoyable and inventive show that will sometimes be lost on younger audience members...
Critically acclaimed star of BBC1's Have I Got News For You and BBC Radio 4's Mark Steel's in Town, Steel makes his glorious return to Edinburgh after 19 years away from the Fringe after discovering who he really is...
Drawing on their huge catalogue of classic bits, always introducing new material and lacing it all together with bizarre improvised tangents, the Pajama Men create an anarchic night of jubilant and inventive comedy...
If you’re planning on making the trip to see Baby Wants Candy, get your title suggestions ready now! The audience for his fully improvised musical comedy has barely taken their seats (to music provided by the excellent four-piece house band, led by Dan Wessels) when the seven-person ensemble takes the stage and it’s all systems go...
Seattle comedy duo Charles (Chuck Armstrong and Charlie Stockman) present an imaginative, original and witty comedy, using physical theatre, sharp word play, and absurdism to launch Moby Dick into space, because, well, why not? Using the bones of Melville's story, the pair journey through culture and humanity past, present and future...
Glenn Wool isn’t afraid to engage with Big Themes: feminism and the existence of God take centre stage during his set. His latest show takes the idea of the ‘little voice inside your head’ and uses it to ask questions about all aspects of life, centred around the question of whether this voice exists as a sentient being separate to one’s self – designed to trick one into making horrendous decisions – or simply just another part of the mind...
Franz Kafka’s short story A Report to an Academy takes the form of an informative lecture given by an ape called Red Peter. In it, he describes to the academics his journey from Africa’s Gold Coast to the music halls of Europe, a journey that includes training to become a music hall entertainer and learning to drink alcohol...
The opening salvo of this musical Game of Thrones pastiche has such brazen, devilish promise that for a while I entertained the possibility of being blown away by it. Dips in quality during the hour of medieval-ish frippery gradually eliminated that possibility, but this remains a mostly well-pitched and, crucially, funny show...
Who Do I Think I Am? is an hour long rip roaring stand up performance. The show is centred around Mark's search for his biological parents which spans the course of 12 years or so.As a central theme it works wonders in the hands of such a capable writer and performer...
“Some people would kill to have what we have,” says Sophie, describing her job as a toilet attendant in a nightclub. This seems to sum her up. Ever the optimist, seeing the good in everyone and treating her clients like ‘stars’, it’s unclear why she is with persistent pessimist, Abiodun, who describes their job as ‘slavery’...
Fairy Tale Theatre: 18 and Over is a collection of original fairy tales with morals and lessons for adults (ie. The Tale of the Bipolar Bear and the Codependent Eskimo), told with a mix of live actors in animal costumes and puppets...
Of the two offerings of Julius Caesar that the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School are offering this year, this review concerns the all-male version: a show brimming with great ideas yet somehow falling short despite this...
Just arrived? Then here's the showcase just for you. Every day Mervyn and his team carefully research the Fringe and bring you live extracts from seven top shows in a packed 90 minute lunchtime extravaganza...
The Venn diagram containing those who enjoy watching football and those who enjoy watching theatre might not have the largest overlap in the world. However, no prior knowledge of football is required to appreciate this powerful piece of verbatim drama...
Voices returns, pitting the festival’s best comedy performers against a disembodied Voice who will interrogate and inspire, creating spontaneous comedy mayhem. Casts have included: Phill Jupitus, Russell Tovey, Hannibal Buress, Rob Delaney, Marcus Brigstocke, Sharon Horgan, Sara Pascoe, Craig Hill, Mike McShane, Joe Lycett, Fred MacAulay, Kerry Howard, Marcel Lucont and Aisling Bea among many others...
'Wildly unpredictable and completely unforgettable... a testament to the power of words to transcend cultures and borders' (NZ Herald). Forbidden to leave his native Iran, Nassim Soleimanpour wrote this play which travelled the world in his place...
Mirza Hadi Ruswa's 1899 classic novel, Umrao Jaan Ada, is brought to life in a new English language adaptation with live music. In 19th-century Lucknow, India, young Amiran (Umrao) is kidnapped and sold to the madame of a courtesan's house who trains her in the traditional high arts of poetry, singing and dance to entertain the men of elite society...
Meet Pramkicker. ‘I am the Edith f*cking Piaf of the empty womb. Je ne regrettay f*cking rien.’ Acclaimed Old Trunk present their hard-hitting new play by award-winning Sadie Hasler...
The Alleycats make a triumphant return to invite you on an audiovisual journey through the technological era. From the invention of the wheel to the dawn of Tinder, the Cats will delight with their velvety blend and lighthearted progressive brand of a cappella...
While buying a lottery ticket, an overworked office worker meets a host of Wizard of Oz-esque characters. The magic act of buying the ticket and the kerfuffle that follows is a kaleidoscopic revelation of the characters’ dreams...
Magical Korean performance combining powerful drums with healing dances. An energetic and multi-talented cast transports you into the past and conjures Leodo, the fantasy island treasured by the Jeju people...
Back for his fourth year, Chris questions whether he’s still chasing his dream, or just too lazy to get a proper job. Recently married, Chris resents adulthood, and fears if there is an afterlife, he might not fit in...
Brought up by his Egyptian mummy in deepest Wales, Omar's childhood was full of mysteries: How did men ruin everything? What's love? Why's depression such a downer? Almost entirely constituted of energy, enthusiasm and wit, Omar excavates the mummy issues of the lesser-spotted Egyptian-Welshman...
Winner: Best Newcomer, Melbourne Comedy Festival. Tom is a star of Australian TV and radio, sells out shows across the country and has supported the likes of Stephen Merchant and Wil Anderson...
The world's finest police force is collapsing around us. Cuts, scandals, looming privatisation and the politicians throttling the life out of the British bobby. Cop-turned-comedian Alfie, star of BBC Radio 4 comedy It's a Fair Cop, returns following his 2014 sell-out Edinburgh show with a dynamic and hilarious plan to resuscitate the thin blue line...
'Slick, stylish and definitely cool, modern without diluting their roots and with a diverse repertoire taking in jazz, Afrobeat and gospel. The individual singers have a stunning timbre; collectively, they are a force' **** (Scotsman)...
The Church of Malcolm is a live rock gig sprinkled with a Kurt Vonnegut like worldview. Malcolm's returned from the brink of death with certain revelations on the Cosmos and the very nature of being...
In an era where the phone book is going extinct, Graham Clark Reads the Phonebook serves as a fitting eulogy to the tome everyone used to own. Clark will leave no stone unturned while focusing his observational lens on the subject at hand.
When seeing a piece of new writing it can be best to have no expectations, to let the play lead you where it will. Often that’s easy, but with a loaded title like Last Christmas you’re bound to have at least some preconceptions...
‘Health and Happiness Guru to the Stars’ Marijana (Gabby Best) takes her audience on a journey to find themselves. Instead, they find themselves faced with a character whose overconfidence, thinly veiled loneliness and peculiar mannerisms are anything but conducive to inner peace in this clever character comedy...
You’d be forgiven for thinking you’d come to the wrong classroom: at times this show seems more like Sara Pascoe vs Biology, what with the fascinating nano-lectures on “sperm selection” and the evolution of human sexuality...
Jack Dee's Help Desk sees Dee and a panel of surprise top comedians address problems that audience members put to them. Everyone in attendance is asked to fill out a card upon entering the show with any problem that they would like the panel to help them with...
Bill Clinton was one of America’s glowing presidents, a shining democrat in the fashion of Jimmy Carter and even America’s beloved JFK. But after the scandal with Monica Lewinsky, Clinton’s lasting legacy has been cemented by that one infamous quote, ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman’...
Freak should be on the curriculum. It won't be, of course. This one-hour explosion of sex and agonising womanhood is rife with coarse language and sexual imagery so deftly conjured by writer Anna Jordan that the near-lyrical intertwining monologues become more explicit than anything we could conceivably be shown on stage...
In his first full Edinburgh show, Jonny Leonard takes issue with stand-up comedians’ perennial bugbear – children’s literature. Dissecting the factual and moral discrepancies of classic children’s stories and from there taking inspiration for his own fiction, Lennard delivers an extremely well-written, inventive and hilarious set...
Inspired by the public performances of Charles Dickens and Mark Twain, the less decorated but more alive writer and actor B.J. Novak (The Office US, Saving Mr. Banks) presents dramatic readings of the comedic stories in his highly acclaimed new collection One More Thing, interspersed with anecdotes and insight as to how these imaginative works of fiction ended up being the most personal work of his career.
There is no bigger name in Australian comedy and he's heading to the Fringe. Don't miss this natural and unmistakably Australian comic whose laconic style thinly disguises one of the fastest comic minds the colonies have ever produced...
If you are someone that enjoys magic in its more basic, “no frills” form, like sleight-of-hand tricks and close-up magic, you can’t go wrong with this show. Though its origins are in the more classic school of magic, there is so much more to it than first meets the eye...
Despite his onstage charm, Marlon Davis could have done more to cover up for a set that contained predominantly weak material. There were certainly stories that provided some amusement, but a lack of subtlety and craft undermined his comic intentions...
The Alleycats say that they love the Edinburgh Festival so much that they create an entirely new show of material just for coming here each year. This year's show combines classics and very recent pop tunes to make for a pleasant hour of listening...
High energy, witty and often silly, Josh's weekly XFM radio programme hits the stage, bringing the humor and voices that you usually hear through speakers into the room. It puts forward the same concepts and contributors as the radio show - as well as some added guests - and the result is a high quality Fringe comedy show...
Fast paced, high-energy, close harmony duo Richard Morton and Reg Meuross, return with their 'spine-chilling harmonies' (Guardian) and 'sharp wit' (Time Out). Phill Jupitus says: 'Simon and Garfunkel with better gags and hair'.
The African Sahara, a wrecked plane, a stranded pilot and a vastness of sand. Vagabond Productions’ play Saint-Exupéry, A Pilot’s Story begins full of promise of adventure and drama...
Once in a while at the Edinburgh Fringe you stumble across an interesting and adventurous piece of theatre, a so-called diamond in the rough, proving the point of the festival and displaying plenty of creative, sparkling life in the industry wilderness...
Standing centre stage in a dress and a dodgy blonde wig, Mark Grist jokes that this is what two guys with Arts Council funding really look like. It’s doubtless meant self-deprecatingly but, in my opinion, it’s a good use of the money...
There’s a lot going on in Dogs of War. Assembled from scenes out of eight Shakespearean histories, together with new text by David Blixt, it makes use of projection, a live camera, sixteen actors, a chorus and over forty characters...
Leah wants to rest, Goneril and Regan want to party, Cordelia's off to France and matricide is in the air. A bold and beautiful piece of new writing that has rewired King Lear to create a charged drama of familial strife, ferocious behaviour, cheese sandwiches and love...
Antonio Forcione is such an established and adored Fringe regular it almost seems redundant reviewing him because, just as day follows night, a five star review follows Foricone's show...
There is no lack of glitz when it comes to The Nualas; a costume change after just one minute reveals their blindingly sparkling dresses. The three Irish performers immediately convey their carefree characters with quick interchanges, almost finishing each other's sentences...
Mervyn Stutter has been sourcing and sharing his picks of the Fringe for, unbelievably, 28 years and he is clearly not waning when it comes to separating the wheat from the chaff.It's obviously difficult for me to tell you how the show will be the day you see it but judging from the swathe of talent he presented when I saw him, his team has a knack for picking out a wide range of the best of the fest...
World renowned Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (BOVTS) runs acting, stage management and technical theatre courses. The Artistic Director and Head of Technical courses explain everything you need to know.
Hamell has been working diligently on both a new album and a one-man show for the last couple of years after winning the prestigious Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for his previous show, The Terrorism of Everyday Life...
A week into the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and I’m sure that most parents have had to endure fairies, talking animals and patronising presenters, all for their little darlings. Take Thou That Theatre Company with Bristol Old Vic Theatre School have a breath of fresh air to offer with their adaption of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, suitable for ages 7+...
Paul Chowdry is perhaps one of the most interesting comedians at the Fringe this year. His material is fast paced and edgy, dancing along the thin line of what is and is not acceptable material for comedy with gleeful abandon...
Italy, late World War II. Allied bombers approach a hilltop monastery sheltering refugees. A Māori soldier is billeted with a family near Naples. Another steals from camp to track down a pair of chickens and encounters an Italian deserter in a barn...
Australian award-winning comedienne and author of the successful Australian television art doco Hannah Gadsby’s Oz, Hannah Gadsby is back this Edinburgh Fringe with a fresh batch of art-comedy and self-deprecation...
Are you a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings? If so, look no further, this will be the highlight of your Fringe experience. At first I had no idea how Charles Ross was going to tackle the seemingly impossible task of converting Tolkien's masterpiece into a one-man show, but his uncanny opening impression of Frodo and Gandalf's meeting soon made it clear...
An epic march through Paris searching for the grave of someone called Jean-Paul Satre just to please an ex-girlfriend is one of the many very funny and brilliantly recounted tales in Suzi Ruffell’s latest show, Social Chameleon...
Race first opened on Broadway in 2009 and ran for almost 300 performances, directed by its Pulitzer Prizewinning writer, David Mamet. It follows law partners Lawson and Brown and their mentee, Susan, as they discuss whether to take on a case where a wealthy, white client has allegedly raped a black woman...
The Matchmaker is a light-hearted show about Dicky Mick Dicky O’Connor, a self-made cupid for rural Ireland’s slightly-more-than-middle-aged singletons. Dicky is charged with finding companionship for a ragbag of Ireland’s oddest creatures, from Rodger Speck, a five foot nothing, seven-stone jockey, to Fionnuala Crust, a feisty spinster looking for some action, to Claude Glen Hunter (Honourable), who declares himself ‘well-endowed in every way’ and on the hunt for a nimble young man or woman (he’s not fussed which)...
Playwrights and theatre producers alike are increasingly taking bigger risks and becoming more creative when considering how their work is presented onstage. The paradigms of theatre are shifting and it could not be more true with this piece...
Holly Walsh makes it clear in the opening sentences of Never Had It that she certainly doesn’t have ‘it’. Taking the audience on a tour of what ‘it’ means - confirming that whilst Obama does have it, Prince Charles certainly doesn’t - Walsh confronts issues from strip clubs to train announcements to pre-Reformation monastic marginalia, laced with a hefty dose of feminism...
This moving piece of new writing from Vivienne Walshe follows two teenagers trapped in their own versions of hell, who find the route to escapism in each other. In its exploration of teenage sexuality, the script explores both the intense passion and intense awkwardness of young love in a way which is as profound as it is hilarious...
The latest offering from acclaimed playwright Dominique Morisseau is an ensemble piece in every sense of the word. It was devised in collaboration with the cast and director and combines a diverse range of theatrical techniques to create a moving and enlightening experience...
Being visually impaired, Glaswegian stand-up Jamie MacDonald definitely brings a new meaning to “observational humour”. If nothing else, this latest show from “that Funny Blind Guy” proves two things; that there’s definitely more than one way to see the world and that being blind doesn’t mean you can be any less than a ‘tool’ than anyone else...
This engaging one-man play by Alex Oates is a novel take on the descent into drug-dealing: our protagonist, Geordie lad Bruce Blakemore, begins buying cocaine through a shady website known as the Silk Road – which exists in what is known as the ‘Deep Web’ – and sells it on eBay through the help of his unwitting octogenarian Nan and her knitted tea cosies...
We’ve all been there—the post-show discussion that goes on for too long or goes nowhere at all. We’re all in need of the toilet and/or a stiff drink, please stop holding forth about your artistic process...
Three women and a man take us through a number of monologues in this funny, poignant and honest play which gives permission to laugh and cry, and gives hope to women, men, their families and all who are dealing with breast cancer...
Set inside a mental hospital, Plastic Rose has been compared to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Though in proximity to others, these characters are alone. Often funny, awkward and poignant, they try to find the warmth and comfort of others...
A timely new musical about the trafficking of women in Thailand, as seen through the eyes of sex workers, grassroots activists and NGO employees. Inspired by over 50 interviews, it dramatically examines how the trafficking story is being told, and shows that finding a solution is more complicated than it seems...
Hayani is an original play reflecting on the meaning of home in the context of South Africa since its transition. The play explores the stories of two young South African males who both travel back home and in doing so they journey towards better understanding of who they are and what it really means to be a South African...
House of Lineo brings to Edinburgh a modern day African village filled with functional arts and crafts in decor and fashion retail. Depicting the rich culture of the African poeple from Mpumalanga, a land of the rising sun...
Winner of the Overall Fringe Award, Adelaide Fringe. Multi award-winning Australian comedian Justin Hamilton finally brings his intelligent and hilarious story-based stand-up to the Fringe...
Preaching from a book he never read, Vitamin turns into many characters, creatures and things, including a dancer, a marathon runner and a caterpillar. Playing with your imagination, and with unconventional uses of live accordion, making 'inexplicably wonderful comic theatre' ***** (BroadwayBaby...
Much of Ross's childhood was spent in a galaxy far, far away, watching Star Wars videos over – and over – and over again. The result of this misspent youth is his hilarious One Man Star Wars™ trilogy, where he single-handedly plays all the characters, sings the music, flies the ships, fights the battles and condenses the plots into just 60 minutes! If you've already seen the movies, read the books and named your firstborn Skywalker, Ross's zany take on Star Wars is right up your alley and sure to leave a lasting impression.
Tshwane Gospel Choir, a unique community of like-minded souls from South Africa, combine beautiful harmonies with joyful rhythms. Performing contemporary gospel music, they interpret African sounds through western instruments...
Former police sergeant turned stand-up comedian, and star of BBC Radio 4’s, It's a Fair Cop, Alfie tasers his way through a brand new hour of hilarious and fascinating anecdotes drawn from his eighteen years on the beat...
How Chelsea overcame a supportive middle class upbringing becoming the disturbed woman she is today! A Canadian Comedy Award winner (Best Solo Show), Chelsea sings sweet songs with a twisted, razor-sharp edge about issues like cannibalism, talking dirty en Francais, polygamy and existential babies...
Ahead of his nationwide tour, Josh returns to Edinburgh for a strictly limited run of work-in-progress shows. It’ll feature grumbles and jokes which tackle the hot comedy topics of advent calendars, pesto and the closing time of his local park…
Fresh from a sell-out international tour and smash-hit Live at the Apollo debut, Larry returns with a new hour of 'unexpected and excellent' **** (Times) thoughts on Scottishness, sodomites and self-esteem...