Summerhall, EdinburghHannah Maxwell quits doomscrolling and turns her attention to tech bros’ targeted assault on democracy and our smartphone-addicted complicityLast year, Hannah Maxwell laid out three blueprints for an Edinburgh fringe hit. In her sh…
Continue ReadingSummerhall, EdinburghVengeance for a slaughtered pig is the starting point for a riotous parody that suggests the meat industry poses an existential threat to human survivalThat’s my next hotdog ruined. Shakespeare’s “too solid flesh” is squeezed into …
Continue ReadingPleasance Dome, EdinburghThis is a spiky, interrogative and surprisingly conventional set from an act who usually pushes standup to its limitsYou can fall victim to your own high standards – and few comics have set higher standards than Jordan Brookes….
Continue ReadingMonkey Barrel, EdinburghA comic on the verge of the big time offers a ‘very silly hour’ around the highways and byways of her lifeA former winner of the Sean Lock award for comic originality, Harriet Dyer richly delivers on that promise of oddity in he…
Continue ReadingUnderbelly Bristo Square, Edinburgh There is crackling chemistry between Zofia Zerphy and Rhiannon Bell while their washing gets done but this play remains a puzzleNames go missing like lost socks in this laundry-based, amnesia-laced romcom. With crack…
Continue ReadingGilded Balloon Teviot, EdinburghWith charisma and craft, the Australian standup discusses childhood sexual abuse in a show with a healing qualityIf fringe audiences know Frankie McNair’s work at all, it’s as a purveyor of vaporously insubstantial nonse…
Continue ReadingSummerhall, EdinburghJessica Aszkenasy rages and wrestles with daddy issues in a show that combines feminist analysis with outrageous humour and tendernessAfter the 2025 debut of her breast-forward stage persona Titclown, Jessica Aszkenasy’s second gru…
Continue ReadingA growing wave of Palestinian performers are using comedy to tell their stories of occupation, exile and warThe war in Gaza is a topic many avoid discussing, let alone joke about. But for Palestinian comedians, humour has become an essential tool for k…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe standup is on sparkling form as she mines a lifetime of baffling and alarming experiences for a smart, purposeful and very funny hourSophie Duker is done with men. She swears it. And, in her fourth hour, Hot Beef Injec…
Continue ReadingChurch Hill theatre, EdinburghAt the Edinburgh international festival, Olivier Rannou’s lone cowboy encounters desert dangers in a mix of clowning, mime and visual trickeryThe lone ranger at the centre of Olivier Rannou’s family-friendly western initia…
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