The Lost Boys get loose: Jack Holden on rebooting Peter Pan and The Line of Beauty

The actor and writer has turned JM Barrie’s story into the hedonistic nightclub musical Nvrlnd – but his talents are also showcased in a one-man thriller and a queer classicThe room is hot, sticky and covered in trampled confetti. A mashup of noughties…

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Pickled Republic review – a curious cabaret of jarring vegetables

Summerhall, EdinburghRuxandra Cantir’s cast of gherkins, onions and carrots is conceptually funny but lacks biteWe can agree that a cabaret involving pickled vegetables is conceptually funny. The stars of a variety night do not normally count gherkins,…

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Body Count review – dark laughs in a tale of Bonnie Blue-style sexual extremes

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghIssy Knowles considers the phenomenon of sex as a competitive sport with a portrait of a fictional OnlyFans star and her balaclava-clad followers‘I would love you to rearrange my insides.” It’s a shocking line that would s…

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Body Count review – dark laughs in a tale of Bonnie Blue-style sexual extremes

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghIssy Knowles considers the phenomenon of sex as a competitive sport with a portrait of a fictional OnlyFans star and her balaclava-clad followers‘I would love you to rearrange my insides.” It’s a shocking line that would s…

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Nerds review – Steve Jobs and Bill Gates go toe-to-toe in a rollicking rap battle

Cowbarn at Underbelly, Bristo Square, EdinburghThe two titans of tech are parodied in a thoroughly fun send-up of the competition between Apple and MicrosoftThis musical comedy about billionaire tech gurus Steve Jobs (Kane Oliver Parry) and Bill Gates …

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Nerds review – Steve Jobs and Bill Gates go toe-to-toe in a rollicking rap battle

Cowbarn at Underbelly, Bristo Square, EdinburghThe two titans of tech are parodied in a thoroughly fun send-up of the competition between Apple and MicrosoftThis musical comedy about billionaire tech gurus Steve Jobs (Kane Oliver Parry) and Bill Gates …

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‘It’s a brigade of old gits!’ Miriam Margolyes, Andy Linden and the older performers storming Edinburgh

At a festival so often dominated by bold young talent, it’s veteran performers stealing the spotlight this year. We meet them – from household names to octogenarian newcomersMiriam Margolyes is ensconced in the garden room of a fancy Edinburgh hotel, f…

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Luke McQueen: Comedian’s Comedian review – lord of mischief gatecrashes the popular podcast

Pleasance Dome, EdinburghThe tricksy standup uses AI to create his own episode of the long-running interview series on which he’s never been invitedThe Comedian’s Comedian podcast, in which comic Stuart Goldsmith interviews one standup per episode, has…

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‘TikTok is like an old-school variety show’: what’s behind the surprising boom in ventriloquism?

The once musty old art of voice-throwing is back in vogue on stage and online. Its new hip practitioners – plus 1980s TV mainstay Roger De Courcey – explain why their vocal tricks and errant dummies are wowing audiences againIt is the greatest duet, pe…

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Lorna Rose Treen: 24 Hour Diner People review – ‘best joke of the fringe’ winner serves up silliness

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe character comic returns with another daft set of surreal characters and sharp one-liners – this time stuck in an open-all-hours cafeWhen Lorna Rose Treen won the best joke of the fringe award two years ago with a cheet…

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