Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe slick standup’s fringe debut is full of searching questions about the right to keep and bear arms‘I’ve got a gun.” Nice to be pitched, with that opening line, straight into a show declaring itself different from the ot…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghChakira Alin’s buoyant show is shot through with bitterness as she gives a lucid account of Hackney’s transformationIn her solo show about the aftermath of gentrification and austerity, Chakira Alin bemoans the rise of cos…
Continue ReadingMonkey Barrel, EdinburghThe standup’s tale of teenage travails, guilt and redemption borders on the sentimental but gets the balance rightThere’s trauma comedy, finding laughter in the very worst moments of our lives. But there’s space too for quite-a-…
Continue ReadingThe city is plastered with festival posters during August. If you want to make an impression, beware goofy grins and try channelling Charli xcxThe Edinburgh fringe is in full swing and I’m looking for my posters. Which, given the function of a poster, …
Continue ReadingPleasance Dome, EdinburghPity poor Batilda Bigbum as she navigates a failed courtship and flight to a nunnery, before being burnt as a witch in this uproarious comedyOne of the great characters in recent live comedy is Rosalie Minnitt’s Clementine, a s…
Continue ReadingPleasance Dome, EdinburghIn an eyebrow-raising debut, Galvo shares not very fond memories of her education in IrelandRachel Galvo ditched a career in business a few years back, fleeing Dublin for London drama school – where she wrote what is now The Sh…
Continue ReadingZoo Playground, EdinburghBelgian actors Verona Verbakel and Anemone Valcke share anecdotes about their industry in a knotty show about ambition and failureWhen we arrive, the screen behind the performers is displaying the entry for The Ego in the onlin…
Continue ReadingSummerhall, EdinburghHannah Maxwell’s delightfully meta hour, namechecking Richard Gadd and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s breakthroughs, is a blueprint for three potential shows – with the audience as focus groupHannah Maxwell would dearly like a bad review. …
Continue ReadingMonkey Barrel, EdinburghZero per cent alcohol? Ghosting? ADHD? Our self-flagellating host has a skewed take on them all You could write theses on comedy’s relationship with social maladjustment. Many a standup, we imagine, was once an awkward kid makin…
Continue ReadingSummerhall, EdinburghThe theatre-maker’s childlike passion for stories and illustrations makes facts a hoot in this faux seminarYou can’t argue with the title: here is a weird, wonderfully warm morning show from illustrator and theatre-maker Scott Turn…
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