Feature: ELEVATOR FRINGE, Part One: Performers Pitch Their Shows To You... Quickly!

Overwhelmed by the mammoth task of deciding which shows to see at the Edinburgh Fringe this year? BroadwayWorld have you covered!

We asked performers to imagine what they'd say to readers if they had to pitch their show in between floors whilst in a lift with you.

Keep it snappy, people and... go!

birthday girl @ theSpace on the Mile, 22-27th August, 10.15 AM

this is a play about birthdays. it's also about growing up, the future and the inevitability of ageing - a prospect that you're finding increasingly unnerving. tonight is your twentieth birthday, and, though you're surrounded by balloons, cake and a sizeable bottle of gin, you couldn't feel less like partying. birthday girl confronts fears of the future and how scary it can feel to grow older. mixing various anecdotes of birthdays past, it highlights how important these milestones are. we see inside the head of the otherwise unnamed birthday girl, aware only of her age, and that today is her birthday. this girl could be anyone, possibly even you.

Why did you create this show?

birthday girl was created the summer before i turned twenty. i realised i was (uncharacteristically) dreading my twentieth, and thought that maybe making a play out of my emotions might be more productive than wallowing in them. i then coupled this with a lifelong obsession with birthdays and plethora of anecdotes, and so birthday girl was born.

performer: ruby woods

production company: second birthday theatre co.

Photo Credit: Amber Daly

Cottage @ Greenside, Infirmary Street, 22-27th August, 10.10 PM

A deserted public toilet. Sometime last century. One man walks in. Another follows.

Cottage deals with one of the most shameful yet thrilling parts of queer history, setting the dilemma of public sex against the intricacies of private connection in the context of the cottaging scene. It rejects the modern trends of sanitised queer stories by returning to examine authentic relationships in an unflinching gaze at what the twenty-first century may prefer to ignore.

Cottage has recently been performed at the Durham Drama Festival, where it was awarded Best Show, Best Writing, Best Lighting Design and Best Actor.

What's the worst thing you can imagine happening during your show?

We all live in mortal peril of one of the toilets falling over.

Performers:
Ben Lewis as One
Stephen Ledger as Two
Darcy de Winter as Three

Producer: Sightline Productions (produced by Ellen Olley)

Photo Credit: Ellen Olley

Definitely Maybe Actually Nevermind @ Underbelly Cowgate, 23rd-28th August, 10.50 PM

"What do Jamie, Mark, and Fitzwilliam Darcy all have in common?
They're white, problematic, and played by Colin Firth."

Join non-binary drag artist Crystal Bollix as they take on their greatest enemy yet ... Romantic Comedies. Fall in love with this new cabaret extravaganza all about the pitfalls of 'chick-flicks' and 'will they-won't theys'. Will they or won't they survive the tricky world of rom-com masculinity, femininity and beyond?

Expect dazzling lip-syncs, costume changes, and two new special guests every night!

Why did you create this show?

I've always been obsessed with Rom-Coms, the fantasy of it all, but as I got older I started to feel alienated from it. As a queer non-binary person, I didn't fit into this narrative. So I did what I always do and processed that through drag.

Producer: Haus of Bollix, Crystal Bollix and Lena Stahl

Photo Credit: @lexiclarephotography

Flat & the Curves @ The Stand's New Town Theatre, Lower Hall, 16th-28th August, 10.35 pm

We're New Act of the Year 2022 and Musical Comedy Award 2021 finalists, and we're making our Edinburgh debut this year at The Stand's New Town Theatre. In our salacious cabaret of unbridled fun, we'll be belting our tits off singing original songs that explore sex, scandal and sisterhood. From the team that brought you Fringe cult-hit Sh!t-Faced Showtime, you can expect a very naughty night with sensational singing; Think Fascinating Aida, meets The Inbetweeners. There'll be big voices and bold statements in this night of hilarity and full-frontal vulgarity.

Why did you create this show?

We celebrate female liberation, and after the last few months, it's safe to say we still have a way to come (and we do like to come). We're not particularly political, we want to entertain rather than ostracise but, if we overthrow the patriarchy at the same time, that's a bonus!

Performers: Flat & the Curves: Katy Baker, Issy Wroe Wright, Charlotte Brooke and Arabella Rodrigo

Producers: Issy Wroe Wright & Katy Baker in association with Leicester Square Theatre.

Photo Credit: Karla Gowlett

GASH THEATRE NEEDS SOME SPACE @ Assembly Rooms, 4th-27th August, 10.25 pm

"Boy, you're an alien

Your touch, so foreign

Wanna be your victim

Ready for abduction"

- Katy Perry

Come aboard the Starship GASH for a voyage of interstellar sex-ploits!

Do aliens have body image issues too? Is there a galaxy far-far-away enough from your ex? What's really at the centre of a blackhole? (Spoiler alert: it's Demi Lovato)

Gash Theatre tackles inter-dimensional bodies and sexualities, speeding between astronaut striptease, himbo space-drag, Sigourney Weaver references, and some questionable theories about tentacle porn.

Houston, let's get NASA-ty.

Why did you create this show?

The title occurred to us while working on our last show. The prospect of a sci fi GASH extravaganza became how we distracted ourselves from the stress of that previous piece. The show's themes - of bodies, sex, queerness - have deepened since then, but the stupid pun of the title came first.

Performers: Nathalie Ellis-Einhorn and Maddie Flint

Producer: Gash Theatre

Photo Credit: Isaac Widdowson

The Grandmothers Grimm @ Greenside, Riddles Court, The Thistle Theatre, 15th-27th August (not 21st), 6.25 PM

Cannibalism, werewolf trials, deceit and murder... Marie Hassenpflug and the Brothers Grimm are editing the darkness out of old stories. As they do so, little by little, the voices of the storytellers who created the tales are eroded away. What will be saved and what will be forgotten?

The Grandmothers Grimm explores women's role in the creation of the Brothers Grimm's famous fairy-tale anthology through three sinister fairy tales, told three different ways. Discover a night of folk and fairy tales unlike any you've ever heard before.

Why did you create this show?

The Grandmothers Grimm was created to shine a light on the ways women contributed to - and were erased from - the Brothers Grimm fairy tale anthology. The play brings laughter, truth, original and early fairy tales, and a touch of the macabre to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Performers: Emily Ingram, Justin Skelton, Jenny Quinn, Gerry Kielty

Photo Credit: Grant Jamieson

how to build a wax figure @ Assembly, George Square, 3rd-29th August, 12.55 PM

Girl meets anatomical wax sculptor.

Anatomical wax sculptor meets girl.

They fall in love. Or something like that.

Bea's older neighbour was her first love, her first cigarette, her first prosthetic eye. When Bea is invited to the Wellcome Collection to speak about her expertise making fake-eyes, she finds herself unable to untie Margot from all that she does. As she tries to unpack her mentor's effect on her work, Bea must dissect what love really looks like.

Wax Figure is funny, queer story of age gap relationships, first love, and work. We're making gout sexy (I promise).
Why did you create this show?

Who doesn't want to explore an intergenerational relationship that's full of gruesome anatomical wax figures, dancing, and cake? The play is literally and metaphorically messy. It's a genuine look at queer love and life, centring queerness without othering it. It's silly and fun and heartbreaking and felt urgent for a world looking to put queer experience into into rigid boxes.

Performers: Nell Barlow, Liv Dowd, and Alice Franziska
Producers: November Theatre & Emma Ruse

Jungle Door @ Greenside, Infirmary Street, 22nd-27th August, 5:10 PM

Jungle Door invites its audience to indulge in the joyous, disheartening, and hopeful moments over a year shared by ex-lovers Michelle and Louise as they rekindle their friendship. Challenged by beauty standards and the housing crisis, Michelle smiles through the filler and plans her perfect day, unaware her bridesmaid is hiding a dark secret.

Why did you create this show?

To create a piece of theatre that shows modern Ireland, Queer representation with characters that are more than their sexual orientation, to create the type of work I want to see!

Performers: Rena Bryson and Hazel Doolan

Producer: Eva's Echo Theatre Company

Photo Credit: Catriona Bonner

Muff Said by Your Aunt Fanny @ Assembly Rooms, 4th-27th (not 15th or 16th) August, 9:05 PM

Your Aunt Fanny are an all-womxn theatre company from the North East of England. Muff Said is our latest offering, a comedy sketch show that vividly captures a night out on the town with your wildest, oldest, filthiest friend. We will pull your leg then pat you on the back just like any trusty friendship group would. Your Aunt Fanny celebrate all things fabulous, ridiculous and thoroughly inappropriate using our satirical, uniquely clever voice.

What's your favourite thing about the Fringe?

The crepe van at 2am, hands down.

Fannys: Brogan Gilbert, Emma Crowley-Bennett, Izzy Sorby, Jackie Edwards, Katie Powell, Lydia Brickland and Matilda Neill

Photo Credit: Jon Forster

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