‘We’ve had one Fleabag. We can’t have another’ – has the legendary Edinburgh hit become a curse?

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s uncouth one-woman show is seen as the epitome of festival success. But 10 years on, we speak to three fringe performers battling to escape its long shadowTen years ago, Phoebe Waller-Bridge perched on a stool and delivered a line…

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Until Death review – brief encounters with mortality and Marilyn Merlot

theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, EdinburghNalini Sharma makes an engaging fringe debut, using clowning skills and audience participation in a show inspired by her hospital stay“What’s your favourite phallus?” asks performance artist Sophia Cleary in her fring…

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Terrence the T-Rex review – dino entertainers lock horns

Bedlam theatre, EdinburghIn this comic two-hander, uptight Terrence is hawking a prehistoric children’s show when he’s forced into collaborating with upfront Tri-Sarah-TopsIs the Edinburgh fringe big enough for rival comedy shows about warring children…

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‘I’ll never be rich’: Edinburgh fringe standups consider the cost of living – and comedy

As the expense of performing and watching shows at the fringe is ever rising, three comedians ask their audiences to reassess what they place value onMoney is changing hands during a number of Edinburgh festival performances this year, and not just whe…

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James Rowland: Piece of Work review – an affecting account of fathers, sons and Shakespeare

Summerhall, EdinburghRowland’s beautifully crafted show considers his, and our, little lives in the context of the Bard’s wordsContent warning: the next hour, James Rowland tells us, may contain traces of Shakespeare. The clue is in his title but shoul…

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Nabil Abdulrashid: The Purple Pill review – BGT finalist is the funny man at the crossroads

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghAbdulrashid is emerging as one of comedy’s most honest chroniclers of life’s complexities and contradictionsThere are few acts in Edinburgh right now quite like Nabil Abdulrashid – perhaps because he avoided the fringe (pa…

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Kiran Deol: Joysuck review – survival, victimhood and justice explored

Gilded Balloon, EdinburghThe physical assault Deol underwent in the US informs a set that comes alive when the audience join her search for agencyWho wouldn’t want to hold the fate of those who’ve wronged them in their hands? The American justice syste…

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Kiran Deol: Joysuck review – survival, victimhood and justice explored

Gilded Balloon, EdinburghThe physical assault Deol underwent in the US informs a set that comes alive when the audience join her search for agencyWho wouldn’t want to hold the fate of those who’ve wronged them in their hands? The American justice syste…

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How impressionists keep audiences laughing in an age of social media celebrities

Younger audiences may not recognise people comedians are impersonating but some performers say there’s still plenty to work with“If I see somebody become famous, and they’ve got tremendously predominant mannerisms and they speak a certain way which is…

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‘It’s a zeitgeist-capturer’: climate crisis and trans rights are talk of Edinburgh festival

Walkout by authors over fossil fuel links plus controversies about identity, racism and sexism are hot topics at politically charged eventWhen Jessica Gaitán Johannesson led a mass walkout at an Edinburgh book festival event last weekend, she told the …

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