Edinburgh festival 2019: the shows we recommend

Plan your schedule with our roundup of top shows, ordered by start time. This page will be updated daily throughout the festivalBoutSummerhall, 10.20am, until 25 AugustAn exploration of brotherhood through the motif of boxing, Chang Dance Theatre’s sho…

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The Edinburgh fringe is obsessed with food – so I went and gorged on the best shows

From comedy about carveries to clean-eating rants, food is a huge theme at this year’s festival fringe. The Guardian’s restaurant critic gets stuck inAt Valvona & Crolla, a venerable Edinburgh deli dating from 1934, I am eating arancini for breakfa…

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Space hoppers and superstars: Edinburgh festival 2019 – in pictures

Our photographer Murdo Macleod has been seeking out the wildest, weirdest and best shows during the second week of the Edinburgh fringe festival Continue reading…

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Jack Rooke review – eyebrow-raising stories about love, sex and friendship

Assembly George Square Gardens, EdinburghIn this intimate show backed by a live harp, the effortlessly charming comedian expounds on platonic, brotherly and romantic love At one end of St Pancras train station is a neon pink sign by Tracey Emin that re…

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Kate Tempest review – this isn’t a gig, it’s a reckoning

Leith theatre, EdinburghThe performance poet absorbs all of the uncertainty and anger of our times, and pours it into ferocious, apocalyptic music that both wounds and healsRarely can a room have felt so alive. With her Mercury-nominated mix of spoken …

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Josie Long review – the mother lode of love, joy and laughs

Stand Comedy Club, Edinburgh The standup tenderly hymns the joys of new parenthood in this delightful, tightly focused showHaving a baby is about as far from unique an experience as it’s possible to get, so it’s impressive how Josie Long makes it her p…

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Courtney Pauroso: Gutterplum review – the latest sexy clown from Dr Brown

Underbelly Cowgate, EdinburghMore anarchic comedy, sexual frankness and in-yer-face clowning from the director behind Natalie PalamidesIs there a more singular style in comedy than Dr Brown’s? The shows in which he’s had a hand – his own, culminating i…

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#HonestAmy review – warmth, stoical wit and a flavour of fortune cookie

Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh Kathy Burke directs Amy Booth-Steel’s feelgood, if cliched, ukulele-assisted chronicle of cancer and PTSDFive years ago, Amy Booth-Steel was a jobbing actor, when she was diagnosed with stage three cancer and told she could be…

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‘I should have died in 1992’: Craig Ferguson’s comedy comeback

He quit booze and Scotland – and became a chat show sensation in the US. As he returns to standup on his home turf, we rescue him from selfie-takers on the streets of GlasgowOn the morning we meet, Glasgow seems especially delighted to have Craig Fergu…

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Daniel Kitson review – seat-of-the-pants caper funnier than it has any right to be

Stand Comedy Club, EdinburghKitson delivers a last-minute set of quarter-baked routines, but it’s still a pleasure to be entertained by his unique humourIt’s from one extreme to the other with Daniel Kitson these days. You get the complex and technical…

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