EDINBURGH 2023: Review: WONDER DRUG, PleasanceAugust 20, 2023Charlie has cystic fibrosis, a condition that causes a build-up of mucus. Lovely. But with a new girlfriend and a Wonder Drug called Kaftrio coming soon, what can stop him now? A rollicking course of intravenous antibiotics set to 80s bangers!
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: JAMES ROWLAND: PIECE OF WORK, SummerhallAugust 20, 2023James has been touring his storytelling theatre shows for half his adult life. This year was different. Returning home after his first stint away he received a letter that exploded his life and the tour became a search: for the person who sent it, for a sense of home, and to maybe save a life.
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: LADY DEALER, SummerhallAugust 19, 2023For Charly, every day is the same. They used to be different, when there was Clo, but there isn't Clo anymore and she doesn't want to dwell on that. She just wants to chug coffee, blast Beastie Boys and deal drugs. Simple. But when Charly suffers a power cut, she's forced back into the real world; a world of knockoff Morrisseys, disapproving mothers and, ultimately, a world she has to navigate alone. Lady Dealer is a mile-a-minute poem play by Martha Watson Allpress about self-forgiveness, the exhaustion of trying, and mistaking self-destruction for self-preservation. It's also about weed.
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: BED: THE MUSICAL, Gilded BalloonAugust 19, 2023Bed – A playful and poignant 'pocket-sprung' musical. Instead of a honeymoon, newly-weds Ben and Alice buy a luxury divan. Twenty years of marriage milestones in 60 minutes – love, betrayal, loss and dirty linen. We spend a third of our lives in bed.... If only beds could talk!
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: KATHY AND STELLA SOLVE A MURDER, UnderbellyAugust 18, 2023BFFs Kathy and Stella are Hull’s least successful true crime podcasters. When their favourite author is killed, they are thrust into a thrilling whodunnit of their own! Can they crack the case (and become global podcast superstars) before the killer strikes again…?
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: TOM MORAN IS A BIG FAT FILTHY DISGUSTING LIAR, PleasanceAugust 19, 2023What's the worst lie you've told? How far would you go to keep it a secret? Tom is a charismatic people-pleaser, an expert in empathy, but someone who struggles with the truth. Join him in this hilariously honest solo show as he seeks to exorcise ghosts, confess his deepest darkest secrets and somehow un-f*ck his future. As Tom begs the question, if I never lied again and was just myself, would any of my loved ones still love me?
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: I HOPE YOUR FLOWERS BLOOM, Scottish Storytelling CentreAugust 16, 2023Flitting between romantic obsession and botanical description, this semi-autobiographical piece by Raymond Wilson offers a raw, moving and genuinely humorous exploration of healthy masculinity, self-worth and working-class access to nature. Through his friendship with Flo and her modern nomadic lifestyle, Raymond attempts to escape the greyness of the Glasgow scheme into Scotland's natural world, with some unflinching self-reflection along the way.
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: TIM MURRAY IS WITCHES, UnderbellyAugust 16, 2023From The Craft to Wicked to Hocus Pocus, Murray will have you howling at the moon in a tribute to queerness and how we discover our powers once we find our coven. Witches is an hour of stand-up, original comedy songs, drag and also, he flies. Okay, not really, but wouldn't that be sickening?
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: SHANE DANIEL BYRNE: BUT HE'S GAY, Gilded BalloonAugust 15, 2023But he's gay... The award-winning Shane Daniel Byrne is Irish comedy's new wonderkid (in his mid-30s). Back in Edinburgh for the first time after winning second place at So you Think You're Funny 2019. Once considered an exciting talent of contemporary performance art in Dublin he messed that up and now he's a comedian.
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: CAROLINE RHEA: I IDENTIFY AS A WITCH, Gilded BalloonAugust 15, 2023Hi, it's me, Caroline Rhea. I'm thrilled to return to Scotland, my part-time childhood home, and not just because it's the only place you can get tablet and no salad. Yes, you know me as Aunt Hilda on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and I've been a stand-up comedian for 34 years. I'm here to do my new show, I Identify as a Witch, because at this point I seriously do, so does my 14-year-old daughter. My new show covers everything from parenting a teenager to dating (it's super fun).
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: KATY BERRY: DIAMOND GODDESS CRYSTAL PUSSY, Just The TonicAugust 16, 2023Katy Berry grew up on Long Island, the land of Billy Joel and baked clams, but she never fit in. After a staggering revelation that her mom slept with Poseidon in the 80s, it finally makes sense: she's been a demigoddess all along! Now Katy's done doing human shit and out to help other repressed goddesses unleash their power.
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: LIAM WITHNAIL: CHRONIC BOOM, Monkey BarrelAugust 15, 2023Join the gifted comic storyteller with over 10million TikTok and Instagram views as he battles chronic illness and hilariously reckons with his new reality during a hospital stay. This enlightening stand-up show about how we adapt when life throws a curveball takes audiences on a rollercoaster of laughter and packs an emotional punch.
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: KUAN-WEN HUANG: ILHA FORMOSA, Gilded BalloonAugust 15, 2023In his debut hour, Leicester Comedy Festival Best Show nominee and 'Taiwanese force of nature' (Chortle.co.uk) Kuan-wen tells how he traded his beloved Taiwan for the rainy British Isles, what it means to be Taiwanese and what it symbolises through generations of migration and shifting identities.
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: LET THE BODIES PILE, Gilded BalloonAugust 15, 2023What connects two seemingly unrelated killings, 27 years apart? In 1993, Steve's mother dies suddenly; can he trust GP Harold Shipman's 'Natural Causes' diagnosis? And in 2020, when dozens die in a Yorkshire Care Home; is Covid responsible, or something more sinister?
EDINBURGH 2023: Review: THE COLLIE'S SHED, Gilded BalloonAugust 13, 2023Based in a Men's Shed in East Lothian, The Collie's Shed follows four retired miners as they discover how a review into the policing of the '80s mining strikes and a potential Miners' Pardon Bill by the Scottish Government suddenly affects them, their friendships and their relationships. Journey with us through time as we hear how one unforgettable and violent day of striking at Bilston Glen Colliery leaves our characters wrestling with what is right and wrong. Learn who our characters are, who they once were and where they stand on the picket line...