Show Pony review – what happens when the circus says goodbye to you?

Summerhall, EdinburghIn a compelling collaboration with Bryony Kimmings, the German company Still Hungry deconstruct, satirise and celebrate the circusThree women are remembering their introduction to the circus as children. It offered not just a world…

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Elf Lyons: Horses review – playful clip-clop through equine culture

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Part-clown, part-mime and part overgrown child, Lyons leads us through mythic history to reconnect with a lost world of imaginationIn comedy terms, Elf Lyons has always been less of a thoroughbred, more of a breed apart –…

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House of Life review – glittering benediction from a joyously funky double act

Underbelly, Cowgate, Edinburgh A sequinned ‘RaveRend’ and his sidekick Trev help the audience banish sadness in this ebullient hourAnointed with glitter paint, taking our seats to a score of dirty funk licks, we are not so much an audience as a congreg…

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Chris Cantrill: Easily Swayed review – midlife distress call goes from one big laugh to another

Monkey Barrel @ the Tron, EdinburghOne half of the Delightful Sausage duo undertakes an epic quest with his pals as he deals with middle ageTwentysomethings, there is nothing here for you! So says Chris Cantrill at the start of Easily Swayed, a show hi…

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Ania Magliano: Forgive Me, Father review – winning comedy about commitment and a lost coil

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe standup delivers bullet-proof set-pieces in a masterclass on threading emotional significance through joyful autobiographyLast year, a late reveal recast Ania Magliano’s lighthearted comedy set as something more meanin…

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‘I wanted to give people hope’: how Every Brilliant Thing became theatre’s best antidote to depression

As Duncan Macmillan’s celebration of the little things in life lights up the Edinburgh fringe, 10 years after its debut, the actors who have helped make it a hit all over the world explain its universal power to connectAn uplifting play about depressio…

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3 review – knockabout fun as Ambika Mod rejoins her old improv gang

Assembly George Square, EdinburghNaomi Petersen and Graham Dickson complete the trio who weave a tangled web out of three words suggested by the audienceBefore she became a star via This Is Going to Hurt and One Day, Ambika Mod trained with improv comp…

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Andrew Doherty: Gay Witch Sex Cult review – the funniest fringe horror since Garth Marenghi

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh In this winning pastiche set at a gender reveal party, Doherty plays a monstrous estate agent battling occult forcesCome to a show called Gay Witch Sex Cult, and you don’t expect a host like this. Kaelan Trough is an esta…

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Edinburgh goes bananas for cult show with a gorilla costume, a rocking chair and little else

Back for its 15th year, this festival favourite finds a bespectacled primate sitting silently on stage for 56 minutes – to wild applauseThe queue snakes around the bar, stretches down the corridor and up the tightly packed lane to Edinburgh’s Victoria …

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Olga Koch and Finlay Christie use their privilege as a rich seam of humour | Brian Logan

One standup asks moral questions about her family’s post-Soviet wealth, the other uses a self-satisfied persona to survey his gilded lifestyle. Both strike comedy gold at Edinburgh fringeAt a festival where everyone’s losing money, and some can’t affor…

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