Summerhall, EdinburghHannah Maxwell’s delightfully meta hour, namechecking Richard Gadd and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s breakthroughs, is a blueprint for three potential shows – with the audience as focus groupHannah Maxwell would dearly like a bad review. …
Continue ReadingMonkey Barrel, EdinburghZero per cent alcohol? Ghosting? ADHD? Our self-flagellating host has a skewed take on them all You could write theses on comedy’s relationship with social maladjustment. Many a standup, we imagine, was once an awkward kid makin…
Continue ReadingSummerhall, EdinburghThe theatre-maker’s childlike passion for stories and illustrations makes facts a hoot in this faux seminarYou can’t argue with the title: here is a weird, wonderfully warm morning show from illustrator and theatre-maker Scott Turn…
Continue ReadingSummerhall, EdinburghWe’re just sensory-seeking animals, says choreographer Léa Tirabasso, with a high-energy hour performed by six impressive dancersThe surrealist worlds of choreographer Léa Tirabasso are not immediately readable to the average audie…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe New York foursome’s freewheeling logic will have you laughing without knowing why in a fringe debut that’s smart enough to revitalise sketch comedyWith sketch comedy not exactly cresting a wave in the UK right now, why…
Continue ReadingPleasance Dome, EdinburghAn anti-work activist and a nepo volunteer join the group for a research study in Dan Bishop’s polished playWhen plays get under way we wait for something to happen – look and listen for clues, monitor behaviour, tune in. One o…
Continue ReadingMonkey Barrel at The Hive, EdinburghThe standup follows a first half of in-your-face jokes about American democracy with a palpably painful account of the loss of her motherStandup shows about losing a parent – “dead dad shows”, they get called – have …
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghDrawing on her experiences moving from Nigeria to the UK, this livewire standup delivers a multifaceted first fringe showThe fringe is nothing if not a place where unknowns can write their names across the stars. Ayoade Ba…
Continue ReadingSummerhall, EdinburghFrom existential angst to dotty monk routines, US clown John Norris marches to the beat of his own drumWith his show and persona Mr Chonkers, American clown John Norris scored a cult hit on the fringe three summers ago – and now a …
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghA man picks up a dead stranger’s lanyard and gets sucked into a sinister corporate world in Bunkum Ensemble’s unsettling playOn the way to an interview for a job, one in a proper office that his mum can be proud of, Ben We…
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