Monkey Barrel, EdinburghThe 2023 best newcomer winner rebuts her ‘mild’ reputation with choice quips and boyband eroticaOn her first visit to the fringe, Urooj Ashfaq left as the surprise winner of the best newcomer award. Now she returns, to rebut a d…
Continue ReadingScottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh Alan Bissett embodies both the expansive Big Yin and the detached author of Lanark in a thoughtful, entertaining search for their connectionThere is a scene in Alasdair Gray’s landmark novel Lanar…
Continue Reading@sohoplace theatre, LondonHenry is the first of a group of star performers taking Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe’s hit show about depression into the West EndSince its premiere in 2013, Duncan Macmillan’s one-person play about depression has gradua…
Continue ReadingAssembly George Square Studios, Edinburgh Robert Daws stars as the great comic author in this one-man show but is let down by lukewarm humourRobert Daws has lots of previous form on PG Wodehouse: he has played in various Jeeves and Woosters through the…
Continue ReadingThe sense of wonder never wavers in Hart’s charming ‘best of’ set, a fringe favourite in a year of crowd-pleasing card work, mentalism and a hidden-squirrel routineMagic is addictive. The more you see, the higher the bar rises, but the itch to be astou…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe south Londoner’s avian theme frames a fine debut about family, neurodivergence, pigeons, pigeons and more pigeonsTwenty years ago, Original Pirate Material emerged from Brixton and made a star of Mike Skinner AKA the S…
Continue ReadingCabVol1 at Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh After last year’s Live!!! Kent-Walters’s hilariously monstrous alter ego has returned from hell to reclaim his club from gentrifying usurper Vegas DaveWith his painted face and demonic demeanour, Joe Kent-Walters’ al…
Continue ReadingDance Base, EdinburghMalcolm Sutherland’s meta production about isolation and the search for intimacy knowingly ties its themes to the experience of the fringeThe dry title belies a show with spark. Solitude Without Loneliness can feel like several fri…
Continue ReadingMonkey Barrel, EdinburghTV success hasn’t gone to Smith’s head as he still sweats the small stuff – as well as detailing his attempts to procreateReviewing Ian Smith’s breakout show Crushing two summers ago, I compared the Yorkshireman to Rhod Gilbert,…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Through song and standup, Cohen transforms her 2023 medical emergency into glorious oversharing with this comic triumphEverything was going right for cabaret comic Cat Cohen two years ago: Netflix special under her belt, …
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