Edinburgh festival 2025: 20 theatre shows to see this summer

Peter Pan has a pop fantasy, Faustus is in Africa, Brian Cox leads a banking satire and Billy Connolly meets the late Alasdair Gray. Elsewhere, the joy of pickling, a landmark jazz album and Elton John’s libel case take centre stageWhenever you see a p…

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‘I face the haters full-on!’ Rosie Jones on ramping up the laughs in her new drug-dealing sitcom

In Pushers, the comedian and actor plays a disabled woman from Yorkshire who turns to crime after her benefits are cut. She talks about beating trolls, ‘inhumane’ Labour – and her love of gravy‘No,” says Rosie Jones with a laugh. “I have never done any…

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Greg Davies: Full Fat Legend review – Taskmaster manchild lists his humiliations

Royal Albert Hall, LondonDavies uses his ostentatiously puerile sense of humour to fine comic effect, with a series of stories capturing his long struggle to get over himselfHold forth for two hours about your low self-worth, and you can start to look …

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Magdalena, Woman of Joy review – sex, sin and saintliness with a tour de force host

Playhouse East, LondonLily Sinko rages, writhes, provokes and teases her way through the horrifying life story of her storyteller with cartoonish abandonMagdalena appears from the dark, perched on a bar stool, cigarettes and liquor by her side, an arra…

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Magdalena, Woman of Joy review – sex, sin and saintliness with a tour de force host

Playhouse East, LondonLily Sinko rages, writhes, provokes and teases her way through the horrifying life story of her storyteller with cartoonish abandonMagdalena appears from the dark, perched on a bar stool, cigarettes and liquor by her side, an arra…

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‘Stupider than everyone else’: one comic’s semi-naked bid to perform dozens of Penguin novels

In a riotous show, Garry Starr dons a tailcoat, flippers and little else to re-enact a bookshelf full of classics. Would you help him bring The Jungle Book to life?Comedy smash-hits come in all shapes and sizes. You’ve got your standup, your sketch – a…

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Katherine Ryan: Battleaxe review – comedy’s ice queen melts into audience agony aunt

Cliffs Pavilion, SouthendIn a show of two halves, the caustic standup is at her best when rolling her eyes at the weaker sex, but her post-interval crowd-counselling doesn’t quite cut itHow would you like a ruthless cynic as an agony aunt? That’s the q…

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‘This could be our last year’: student comedy troupes priced out of Edinburgh fringe

Nish Kumar among comedians warning that rising costs could stop university revues visiting the festival‘I don’t have any family connections in comedy or television, my leg up was that I went to a posh university that had this relationship with Edinburg…

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Edinburgh fringe event organisers urged to capitalise on Oasis and AC/DC gigs

Fringe Society CEO says venues could offer concertgoers ‘morning after’ shows or tempt residents who ‘want to hide’Organisers of Edinburgh fringe events have been urged to be “pretty smart” and capitalise on the decision by Oasis and AC/DC to play gigs…

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Rory Bremner review – slick satirist cosies up to Trump, Rees-Mogg and the king

Assembly Rooms, EdinburghThe impressionist mixes modern politics with blasts from the past in a witty show that sticks to familiar groundTopical comedy meets a trip down memory lane at Rory Bremner’s touring show, where gags about – and impersonations …

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