Adrian Raine’s pioneering work in neurocriminology can be seen as a reaction to the supremacy of nurture over nature in the debate about the causes of criminal behaviour.
Conman, faith healer and US Army reservist.
Spot the cliché.
A spectacle of music, video, strobes, multimedia, animation in 3D and 2D, with treated and customised film, using colour effects, singing and flamenco percussion mixed with Scottis…
Set in small, Irish living room - somewhere between cosy and claustrophobic - Three Days’ Time is a thoughtful domestic comedy about weird parents, leaving home and mysteriously …
A dark comedy focusing on four teenage girls an hour before head girl is announced.
A music and projection performance through the prism of blues with live music by Justin Lavash and projections by Darrell Jónsson.
Foehn Effect is an intense act, accounted by the actor who takes the public with her on a journey through psychological pain and all the phases that she passes: depression, anger, …
It’s always disappointing to see an interesting concept marred by poor execution.
Recording artist Alana is suddenly alone when her mentor father is seriously injured in a road traffic accident.
Caryl Churchill’s 2002 play about the ethics of genetic cloning and an extension of the well-worn ‘nature versus nurture’ debate is a challenging text for actors.
There’s an unspoken rule on the tube: never try to start a conversation.
Tristram Shandy’s sizzling autobiography, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, has just hit the shelves and the author has announced a nation-wide tour: a theatrica…
Immer City’s intriguing audio-immersive take on an oft-forgotten part of the tale of Macbeth is a wonderfully atmospheric and unique experience, if one that still feels rough aro…
A completely improvised silent movie accompanied by live ragtime piano music, inspired by the films and ambience of the 1920s.
It’s a familiar scene to many a Fringe-goer: a black-box stage, a chair and an actor with his story.
Anybody who finds themselves rooting for a couple in a film or show will love the responsibility handed out by Ae-Ja Kim in Our Man.
From the pen of former Royal Court Young Writer, Nick Cassenbaum, comes a brand new absurd comedy for young people about living a dream.
A comical and haunting play about a young generation’s morality and its desperate search for connection.
The alternative late-night Fringe experience returns.
Cleo Sylvestre tells the fascinating story of the Jamaican/Scottish woman who braved the Crimean War to tend to wounded soldiers, described as ‘a warm and successful physician, w…
Set sail for adventures galore.
A good crack at absurdist sketch comedy, this piece from Australian company 7blue is good fun and at times bitingly clever, the puns and witticisms are nineteen to the dozen, but f…
It’s not often you get to see theatre in what is essentially an attic.
Wave After Wave builds on a reputation for presenting new frontiers in digital art, cyanotype and screen print.
The gold from the Great Waverley Train Robbery was never found but, 30 years on, new information has come to light as to its whereabouts.
The strength of this production primarily sits with the intensely provocative script written by Philip Ridley.
Californias Dreamin’, performed by California Poly SLO’s company Smile and Nod, comprises a mixture of short and long form improvisation, based on audience suggestions.
With a Cambridge Footlights endorsement on their flyer, this is a group already promising great things to an expectant audience.
There is a theory in literary circles that, at some point in the writing process, the characters will take on a life of their own and as such, will dictate their journey to the wri…
Tomorrow, Maybe – the newest offering from writing duo Amies & Clements – is a touching musical, set to an absolutely exquisite score which is brought to life with passion by b…
Smart may seem innovative in putting Facebook and Tinder at the heart of a drama, but this cannot compensate for boring and one-dimensional characters and a tedious plot.
Triple Entendre is directed, created and designed by Emily Cairns and is a comic musical cabaret about “Love, Life and Other Stuff”, consisting of a collection of original song…
Being middle-aged, gay and married is difficult enough without having a mildly annoying vegetarian accent.
Striding onto the stage accompanied by thunderous fanfare, taking his place on a podium and decrying the evil of tyrants and the chains of authority, Dominic Allen’s blistering a…
Australian comedian’s Edinburgh debut.
This is a show that anyone who has ever been single – and that means everyone – needs to see.
From Mountview London graduate’s company Some Riot Theatre, A Series of Unfortunate Breakups is a rollercoaster of storylines and emotions that impresses and moves in equal measu…
Victorian gentleman magician, John Henry Blackwood, returns with a series of magical experiments to explore the potential of time travel.
Anyone looking for important and assured new writing would be well-advised to give Ecce Theatre’s Crazed a look.
‘What does it mean to be a human?’Voiced explicitly at one moment during this equal parts captivating, inviting and horrifying production, the question of the very nature of hu…
With referendum fever sweeping the country, Haggis’s face was on every TV.
The toilet, which dominates the floor space of this production, is essential to the performance of Squirm.
We’ve all been there – the shattering realisation that you are not Adele.
A bold hour of stand-up and character comedy from Flora Anderson (Laughing Horse New Act of Year finalist 2015) and Cam Spence (hasn’t entered competitions but if she did she’d win…
Written in the 90s, Jerry Finnegan’s Sister presents the iconic ‘girl next door’ story without being self-conscious and with a great deal of laughter.
Arriving fresh-faced from Dorset, young sixth-form group Harpoon present their take on Oliver Lansley’s hilarious play Immaculate.
In the near future, the government approves a bill to cancel the NHS.
Hang, the latest show from Yellow Jacket Productions, set in the near future where the death penalty has returned with an added feature, the victim is able to choose the method of …
A Boy Named Sue written by Bertie Darrell provides an interesting insight into the experiences of members of the LGBT+ community, played with great energy by the cast of three.
William, having just been fired from his position as the world’s worst drama teacher, thinks he might join the navy; a headmaster reflects on his “illustrious” past, while Tim is…
The ever experimental Flanagan Collective is back with their new show, From the Mouths of the Gods, all about maths, free will, and determinism, with a little bit of kissing thrown…
An older man’s plans to marry his naive ward, raised to know nothing of the world, are scuppered when she accidentally falls in love with a young stranger who tips his hat to her i…
When a remote lighthouse is attacked by a dangerous band of wreckers and vagabonds only one of the keepers escapes alive Joining forces with the sole survivor of a shipwreck, the p…
The description of this touching piece of work as advertised in the Fringe guide does not do it justice.
It’s all queasily familiar: a small badly lit room, a table littered with bottles of vodka and plastic cups, and several alarmingly costumed twenty-somethings sprawled over the f…
Matchgirl is a refugee in Calais’ Jungle.
To start with – a confession.
The female object of Beethoven’s widely known composition for solo piano is unknown, though in this devised production by the York Drama Soc, she is given form and identity as th…
The show is a modern adaptation of the famous Arab folk story, in which Aladdin takes his wife Jasmine (her real name is too difficult for a European audience to pronounce) to Gree…
We know more about the Moon than we do about the ocean floor.
The Madwoman in the Attic is a famous piece of feminist literary criticism that dissects the feminine ideal and its opposite, as exemplified by the relationship between Jane Eyre�…
Returning for its 12th season, the critically acclaimed curated programme showcases silver screen shorts and contemporary filmmakers all day, every day.
Comedy! Circus! Cabaret! At our five venues across the city: C, our powerhouse of performance on Chambers Street.
Barry is charming, flamboyant and has a very ornate vocabulary.
Take a walk on the wild side and experience the embodiment of animal behaviours into human characters.
Threesome follows the rocky road to a triple tryst as married thirtysomethings Sam and Kate (Chris Willoughby and Gemma Rook) attempt to spice up their faltering relationship by in…
A sharply witty exploration of parenting and schoolgirl obsession.
A new satirical comedy that asks what it really means to be a female and have a personality.
Four people with a few more mutual friends than they might expect trip round one another in Strawberries in January, a play that mixes and matches the tropes of romantic comedies w…
In ecology, an ‘edge effect’ is a contact point between two habitats, characterised by an increase in biodiversity.
The Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club has failed to hit the nail on the mark with their latest show Picasso Stole the Mona Lisa.
Durham’s Ethrael Theatre presents a musical adaptation of Aeschylus’s The Furies, a tale of vengeance, honour, justice and mercy.
Hell is an office and the Devil wants out, but in order to get a job transfer he needs to find a suitable replacement: cue Georgina, young aspiring lawyer with a thirst for power.
Two Thirds charts the endlessly tangled lives of a group of university friends after graduation.
Before the lights go down and the show begins, a voiceover warns us to expect ‘scenes of extreme horror’ as this retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic tale begins.
Ursula K Le Guin, noted author of A Wizard of Earthsea, is visited by an alien adopting her form.
An intimate stage work that synthesises poetry, music, and dance, with P K Page’s brilliant verse at its core.
In this devised piece, the company from the University of Pennsylvania’s Theatre Arts Program set themselves an almighty challenge in terms of the subject matter they deal with (…
L.
The Morton Players’ production of Lear’s Daughters attempts to give an insight into the complex characters of Goneril, Regan and Cordelia from Shakespeare’s King Lear by examinin…
When I think of an all girls boarding school, I think of discipline, tradition, etiquette, and above all a place where success must exceed expectation.
A blend of music and comedy, Cabaret Nova exhibits some of the Fringe’s up and coming stars.
When their estranged father dies, twins Nicky and Jake reunite to execute his will.
A short and beguiling piece of theatre, As Thyself is presented here as the first part in a conceptual series of plays by Isla van Tricht, although it was originally a standalone p…
This is a story of Sarah, a lover of maps and trigonometry.
Jason Robert Brown’s musical The Last Five Years is not an easy undertaking.
A reflection of war through 100 years: from World War One through to the modern day.
Archimedes (Alexander Wilson) is interested in scopophilia, pleasure derived from looking.
Edgar Allan Poe and Sigmund Freud, partners in crime, telling horror stories and picking them apart: it sounds like rich source material, but Mr Poe’s Legendarium doesn’t quite…
The Rattlesnake’s Kiss, part of Jethro Compton’s Frontier Trilogy, is an all-round masterclass in what theatre at the Fringe can be.
Set in the Spanish war, The Night Watch is a gripping period drama.
I wasn’t supposed to be reviewing this show, but on a friend’s recommendation (“three Korean ladies doing Chekhov.
The Secret Garden from Not Cricket Productions is a faithful and on-the-whole, effective, adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic tale.
Oh What A Lovely War (musical), Oh Calcutta (nude theatre) – but what is Oh Gumtree? The title says nothing of the play behind the poster really but deserves further investigatio…
The Small Things Theatre Company’s The Stolen Inches brilliantly puts family relationships under a microscope.
Brought to the fringe by multi-talented Jethro Compton, The Clock Strikes Noon (along with the rest of the Frontier trilogy) is not to be missed.
Jethro Compton, formerly the driving force behind Belt Up Theatre, has certainly earned his household name at the Fringe, bringing shows of consistent quality for years - notably w…
What I remember most strongly from Richard Parker, a 2011 dark comedy from playwright Owen Thomas, was the heat.
Singular actor and writer of Clairvoyant, Bettine Mackenzie is funny.
As roommates, young London singletons Zoe and Ruth are as mismatched as Peep Show’s Mark and Jeremy.
Phantasmagoria is Hookhitch theatre’s adaptation of the Lewis Carroll poem.
Mum and Dad are out and it is time for a bedtime story with a twist.
There is a room in C Nova that you have never seen before: up endless winding staircases and through many closed doors, a small attic store has been meticulously transformed into t…
The life and work of classic children’s author Beatrix Potter is given a sweet folk musical twist in this fun ensemble piece.
The Tate Postmodern has everything you would expect to from a contemporary art gallery: a whole host of hipster credentials, disinterested security and an overpriced gift shop by t…
Cut the Mustard has what can only be described as an offbeat premise: it’s almost time for a live broadcast during a not-so-popular slot on Icelandic radio.
“Did she fall or was she pushed?” posits the Mad Hatter (Annie Neat), as Three Mugs of Tea embark on their consumerist take on Alice in Wonderland.
Holly has watched the world slowly fall apart since the summer of 2012.
I was the only one watching this show, and what a mistake the hordes of people outside on Victoria Street made.
Troy Diana’s comedy These Troubled Times focuses on Charles (John Curtis), an openly gay man who arrives at his brother’s family home to babysit his niece and nephew.
Delivered as an interactive art workshop, with a narrative line slowly emerging, Some Thing New is a great idea with an unsatisfying execution.
Like all great people (Whitney Houston, the Romans) Harry loves a bath.
Disorder is a play about mental illness that attempts to portray the realities of living with bipolar disorder, as well as the long term effects of the condition, not only on the s…
Splitfoot by Piper Theatre tells the tale of the Fox sisters “Devil Daughters” who, in post-civil war New York, convinced the public that they could communicate with the dead.
Beckett’s dramatic works are disorientating at the best of times.
Cleansed is classic Sarah Kane: disturbing, difficult, packed with violence and potentially quite profound.
Valiant is an hour of verbatim stories from women who have experienced war, adapted from the book Valiant War and Exile by Sally Hayton-Keeva who collected interviews from women ac…
Trying to recreate the British music festival environment in a small Edinburgh theatre cannot be easy, but Signature Picture’s Festivus gives it a damn good go.
Ayckbourn fans will love this comedy of manners from Durham University’s Fourth Wall Theatre.
Waking Beauty is a new take on the traditional fairy story of Sleeping Beauty set in a re-purposed circular room papered with stencils and pasted pages of old books, fairy lights, …
To do justice to any of Sarah Kane’s work, you need to not be taken in by the maniacal, despairing nature of her scripts.
St Andrews Revue’s new sketch show Fashion is a fun and enjoyable way to spend 50 minutes, but it’s not going to split your sides or radically change your point of view.
Do you like weird and impenetrable absurdist drama? The kind of play that seems to bend time with its slowness? Do you find pleasure in watching characters say meaningless things t…
At first it’s almost as if George Dimarelos has chosen to counter any preconceptions about loud Australians by opting for the least dramatic stage entrance possible; he’s alrea…
Haste Theatre’s new take on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur is one full of charm and humour.
Mistaken presents four short monologues, written and directed by Nick Myles and performed by William McGeough.
In keeping with its history, this latest production of La Ronde by Zebronkeyis controversial.
50 minutes of Britney, Shania Twain, All Saints and the Spice Girls: every 90s girl’s dream.
Through a strong ensemble cast, this piece aims to expose the truth behind the juxtaposition of the stereotypical woman and the reality which every woman struggles to deal and cope…
Two women live alone in an attic, never leaving the confines of those four walls.
At the Break of Dawn is a show brimming with big ideas and questions all jostling together for space; but whilst the concept itself is impressive, the execution falls short of its …
Brimming with originality and presenting a confidently executed show, Revan and Fennell are a double act that have the potential to succeed the comedy throne of French & Saunders.
Fear is the ultimate fantasy.
C’s Fringe Film Festival is a smorgasbord of productions shuffled neatly into one come-and-go styled theatre.
Comedy! Circus! Cabaret! at our five venues: C, our powerhouse of performance on Chambers Street.
Australian comic George Dimarelos’s first full-length show at the Fringe is a solid effort, with his conversational style and obvious talent for observational comedy showing a lo…
Lynn Ruth Miller, age 80 reprises her 2013 Time Out and Soho Theatre award-winning extravaganza featuring outrageous comedy and songs, offering inspiration for living life to the f…
Todoandahooha’s Telling Tales is a series of 21st century morality plays commenting on and critiquing the contemporary world.
Stuck! Three strangers trapped by fate.
Musical comedian and YouTube sensation Vicky Arlidge returns to Edinburgh with her new one-woman show.
Emma is called in for a meeting with her manager and is reminded of a company contract she signed at the start of her employment: she must inform the company whenever she develops …
Chloë Moss’ 2008 play about two women reunited after getting out of prison is confidently revived by SUDS in Eliza Gearty and Tom Herbert’s searing production.
Cambridge University troupe The Foxymorons promise their sketch show Up the Auntie will be a “ludicrous abandon” of “porn, politics, pheasants and porn”, but their failur…
Tender Napalm is a two-hander by Philip Ridley, best known for his controversial 2005 play Mercury Fur.
Tom Stoppard’s one act play, The Real Inspector Hound - a dynamic farce depicting two theatre critics commenting on an absurd parody of a country house murder mystery play.
Internationally acclaimed New York singer returns to the Fringe with her new retro show, celebrating all-girl groups from Connie Francis and Lesley Gore to Brenda Lee and the Supre…
The show follows five ruthless and driven individuals battling their way up the financial ladder within an unnamed organisation.
With an impressive variety of theatre tricks up their sleeve, Le Petite Artist recreate the classic Hans Christian Anderson tale.
It is an exceptionally brave thing for an amateur company to take a recent professional London production and attempt to pull it off as a Fringe performance, but this is exactly wh…
Dinner is Swerved starts at 11:30 pm, so it isn’t really dinner — more like a midnight snack.
The life of Myung-su is colourful in many ways.
In a near future where genetic screening is used to determine your place in society, the Anima Project uses controversial therapy to cure those with unfavourable genetic personalit…
Medical student music group One Dissection from St George’s, University of London escape the dissecting room and break into a different kind of theatre to present a medical a cappe…
Learn to Laugh with Keep Calm and Improv is a comedy show that attempts to deconstruct the notion of improvised comedy through improvised comedy.
Cabaret Nova has undergone a transformation since last year.
Half Derren Brown mind tricks and black magic show, half theatrical monologue, this 50-minute lock-in with John Faust is frighteningly good fun.
If one has been lucky enough in life, one might have met that unique person that makes us feel like we are flying, or, at the very least, like we could fly and never land.
Oddball alert! A guy wearing headphones sits strangely close to me and asks whether I like “communist romcoms.
It’s tempting to say that Lear’s Daughters feels like two different plays.
The Morgana of legend: sometimes kind, sometimes violent, always bewitching.
Cirque Tsuki: Feast plays with the old tales of 1001 Arabian Nights, exploring multiple interlocking stories-within-stories.
Woyzeck! is a one-man show and an interesting take on Buchner’s timeless tale.
Bazaar and Rummage was written by Sue Townsend, best known for her Adrian Mole series, and incorporates some of the wry humour typical of those books.
In 1996 Lisa White interviewed her grandmother, Millie Shrieves, who grew up in colonial India.
If you want to know what it felt like to be part of one of the most disastrous free concerts of the ’60s, this atmospheric show is a good place to start.
God on Trial is a vital and important piece of theatre.
The Greenville Ghost, a new script by Tom Bonnington, is a laugh-a-minute farce about two struggling hoteliers who decide to invent a fictional ghost to draw in clientele.
Rachel Lincolns’ latest production gives the brutally honest lesson in Sexual Education that Britain needs.
Brian K.
Instrumental cabaret for piano and strings by Macao composer Njo Kong Kie (music director of La La La Human Steps for many years) interweaves classical sensibilities with contempor…
After the success of ‘League of St George’ last year, Bricks and Mortar Theatre are back with their second Edinburgh Fringe production Barge Baby.
In the third part of this mafia-inspired trilogy, the action returns to a dingy hotel room in Chicago.
15 years after his Fringe First nominated play Ultimate Islands, ‘beautifully written, sensitive and intelligent’ (Scotsman), Michael Daviot revisits Robert Louis Stevenson.
The concept of Cirque Tsuki’s final instalment of its trilogy is strong.
The Bunker Trilogy has transported the world of Shakespeare to the trenches of the first World War.
For a minute, I thought I’d walked into a puppet theatre version of The Duchess of Malfi.
The unsolved mystery of Jack the Ripper has provided constant fascination for people around the world ever since the grisly murders were committed.
Shellshock! Improv Live! features a daring band of young performers improvising sketches entirely from audience suggestion.
The Jungle Referendum, by Three Mugs of Tea Theatre, invokes the classic tale of the Jungle Book to explain what’s going on with the Scottish referendum.
The room of a poet is dimly lit by desk lamps.
Set almost entirely in one small flat, Spunk is the tale of James, a young wheelchair-bound gay man who is in desperate need of a sexual encounter.
This theatrical one-man show is about a man attempting to define his life after being told he only has six months to live.
Lucifer is the second instalment in The Capone Trilogy, the new set of plays from producer Jethro Compton and writer Jamie Wilkes.
80 years old and behaving like someone a quarter of her age, Lynn Ruth Miller is certainly not your typical OAP.
Eden Gate is very much like stepping into a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie.
Scott Wings has taken this classical myth and twisted it like beaten metal.
Forget Ancient Greece: this Agamemnon marches straight into a real life bunker, transposing Aechylus’s personal and political drama deftly into the world of the First World War.
An insight into the online lives of six teenagers, Chatroom displays a parent’s worst imagining of how online communication can escalate.
Four performers share a flat in Edinburgh, the setting indicated only by the Fringe guides and flyers which share the single table in the play’s single room with a pair of biscui…
Promises made.
Unsung, a tender, devastating domestic drama by Ayndrilla Singharay, draws on her experiences at the ASHA woman’s refuge.
Lie motionless in the centre of railway tracks, they say, and a passing train will leave you untouched.
Exeter University’s Theatre With Teeth brings their modern ballet to Edinburgh, presenting the story of three couples and a maid on a weekend away.
‘The people here feel so lonely that they need a television to remind them that there’s a world outside’.
Peeling wallpaper covers the walls of a dimly lit studio in the upper reaches of C Nova on Victoria Street.
What does it take to be remembered? What would you have to do to ensure that your name lives on forever? Three young lads have spent a few years on the music scene and have finally…
We’re standing in the atrium of C Nova as a balloon wanders down from above with a note.
The Hollywood Film Festival is an improvised comedy/drama show taking the standard improvised format onto the silver screen.
Returning for its tenth season, the critically acclaimed curated programme showcases silver screen shorts and contemporary filmmakers all day, everyday.
Comedy! Circus! Cabaret! At our five venues: C: our powerhouse of performance on Chambers Street.