Posts Tagged ‘fringe’
Alan Bissett: When Billy met Alasdair
Alan Bissett’s electrifying new show When Billy Met Alasdair is a theatrical knockout – a sharp, witty and impassioned collision of two of Scotland’s towering cultural figures: the cerebral, softly-spoken writer Alasdair Gray, and the incendiary working-class comedian Billy Connolly. It’s a love letter to Scottish identity, laced with passion, joy, and a deep reverence…
Read MoreJo Caulfield: Bad Mood Rising
Jo Caulfield’s Bad Mood Rising is an absolute masterclass in comedy. With scalpel-sharp wit, immaculate timing, and a gloriously grumpy worldview, Caulfield takes the audience on a laugh-packed tour through life’s daily irritations, social absurdities, and the general madness of modern existence — and every minute is pure gold. From the moment she walks on…
Read MoreRobert Burns: Not in my Name
Kevin Williamson’s Robert Burns – Not In My Name is a tour de force of poetic reclamation, political critique, and passionate performance. With this bold and incendiary show, Williamson not only reintroduces us to Burns, but demands we reconsider who he was—and what he truly stood for. This is not your schoolroom Burns. There are…
Read MorePiaf Revisited
Christine Bovill’s Piaf Revisited is far more than a tribute show — it’s a transporting, emotionally charged journey through the soul of French chanson, refracted through the legend of Édith Piaf and the life of Bovill herself. With her velvet voice, captivating storytelling, and effortless stage presence, Bovill doesn’t merely sing Piaf — she resurrects…
Read MoreViv Groskop: Vivalicious
A show about self-help in the coming age of President Oprah Winfrey. Everything seems to be about reinvention, and Viv Groskop wants to be the best possible version of herself. So why is that so hard? Does there come a time when you should just give up and accept you are not that great a…
Read MoreJo Caulfield: Killing Time
Jo Caulfield walks on to stage, sizes up the audience in moments, and proceeds to question, mock and taunt them. The venue offers a welcoming bar at the side of the room, and is packed out even this early on in the run – early booking would definitely be prudent to make sure you catch…
Read MoreMore Moira Monologues
Bisset, male, author. Plays Moira, female, cleaner. Completely straight. And she’s a foul mouthed, deeply funny, chain-smoking delight. It’s easy to see why this show won a Fringe First in 2017. This is deeply confessional, but still light as a meringue, and all at the same time, covers acres, hectares of difficult, sensitive and tricky…
Read MoreThe Moira Monologues
Falkirk. Or tae be mair exact, Fawkirk. This is a sheer classic, and is both theatre and comedy, making a welcome return 8 years after its first appearance at the Fringe in 2010. And it’s still fast, fresh and very funny. The language is explicit lowland Scots, Fawkirk variety, and Bisset plays Moira Bell, a…
Read MorePreview: The Sacrifice Zones by James O’Brien
A small, intimate venue, a healthy crowd, and an understated, eloquent performance of searing political poetry. O’Brien is not new to stage performance, but is best known as a theatre director, having brought his legendary GIRO Theatre Company to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on several occasions in the 1980s and 1990s. Although the company performed internationally…
Read MoreThe Artist as Explorer
When I last met Richard Demarco, he was talking about retiring, stepping back from the gesamtkunstwerk which is his life and persona. He said ‘…there were no more five year plans.’ Of course this was a rueful reflection on his unique contribution, not only to to the arts in Edinburgh, but his advocacy of the…
Read More