Looking for rising stars this summer? Try gossipy standup, an end-of-the-pier homage and a ‘gay witch sex cult’Frankie Monroe, the impish proprietor of a working men’s club who has made a Faustian pact to keep his establishment open, is bound to be a b…
Continue ReadingStage performances have been disrupted this summer by last-minute delays, cancellations and postponements. Is it just a run of bad luck – or a cultural shift?One theatre audience, already seated, is told that the play has been called off because of a t…
Continue ReadingCrowdfunding and finding patrons are among less painful options as cost of performing at the fringe soarsIn the run-up to the Edinburgh festival fringe last year, comedian John Tothill was having “horrific hallucinations of being pulled into hell by th…
Continue ReadingThe comedian’s show Collaborator involves 160 audience members getting speaking parts – and Kitson has anticipated every possible question, anxiety or misstepWhat happens when an audience participation-phobe makes a show all about audience participatio…
Continue ReadingThe comedian’s show Collaborator involves 160 audience members getting speaking parts – and Kitson has anticipated every possible question, anxiety or misstepWhat happens when an audience participation-phobe makes a show all about audience participatio…
Continue ReadingChartreuse de Villeneuve, AvignonThere is gallows humour and unzipped ribaldry as a mischievous group share stories that are joyful, tender and sometimes eye-wateringWarning! The people in this show are likely to die at any moment, we are told. Don’t b…
Continue ReadingTestosterone-soaked clowning show Furiozo: Man Looking for Trouble spikes fun with fear – but the hooligan’s knife-edge moments of vulnerability lead us somewhere differentClowning is about vulnerability. Hyper-masculinity is about invulnerability. Wha…
Continue ReadingSoho theatre, LondonLenoir’s mischievous charm is infectious, and she plays with skill on the heartstrings and funny bonesClowning may be silly, but it is seldom, these days, insubstantial. Paulina Lenoir is performing Puella Eterna as part of the Lond…
Continue ReadingAs a veteran of the festival, Richard Gadd captures the mix of heady promise and bleak reality that awaits another influx of acts this summerNothing prepares you for performing at the Edinburgh festival fringe. It’s the largest arts festival in the wor…
Continue ReadingWith manga circus, a Jaffa Cake musical, silly science and a llama adventure, there is something to entertain audiences of all ages this summerThe jaw-dropping, dreamlike animations of 1927 linger long after the final curtain. Now, the restlessly inven…
Continue Reading