Feature: ELEVATOR FRINGE, Part Two: Performers, you have 30-seconds to sell your show... GO, GO GO!

Ahhhhh the uncomfortable silence of a ride in a lift. Ohhhh the constant pressure to sell tickets for your Fringe show.

Hang on... two birds, one stone?

Performers pitch their show to you... quick, before the lift doors open!

A Bletchley Park Musical @Army@TheFringe, Drill Hall, 16th - 28th August, 8:30 PM

Dots and Dashes: A Bletchley Park Musical is a story centred around the lives of six women working at Bletchley Park during World War Two. A story of love, loss, secrets and the sacrifices these women made to save millions of lives, to rise above their roles, and silently fight a war behind closed doors. A musical ode to the unsung heroes of World War Two, Dots and Dashes is an empowerment of women from then to now.

Why did you create this show?

We created this show because we think it's important to bring some female voices into a male-dominated musical theatre world. It's an original musical that has a totally new sound, and a completely fresh perspective. We think that's really important to bring onto the scene.

Performers: Katie Damer; Martha Morris; Charlotte Fenning; Tabitha Radcliffe; Lisa Hazel-White; Amber-May Hutton.

Producer: ChopLogic Productions.

Photo Credit: Callan Riches

Head Girl @ TheSpace on North Bridge, 5th - 13th August & TheSpace on The Mile 15th - 20th August, 10.55 AM

Becca is running in the campaign for head girl at school and running herself into the ground, all with a smile on her face. With a spring in her step and revision cards ready to go, the world is her oyster. But who is she doing all this work for? A coming-of-age story about falling in and out of love with yourself. Head Girl navigates the 21st century and girl boss mentality, whilst still practising self-care seven days a week. A platonic love story that is full of adoration and careful ambition.

What other show do you want to hype?

Your Aunt Fanny are the Queens of the Newcastle comedy scene, and we would totally recommend getting yourself to Muff Said at the Assembly Rooms. They are just a laugh a minute and create a whole new meaning to sketch comedy which is totally refreshing.

Performers: Caitlin Fairlamb & Rowan Miller

Producer: Girl Next Door & Rosie Bowden

Photo Credit: Emma Solomon Photography

The Hippie Shakes @ Greenside Infirmary Street, 5th -27th August (not 14th or 21st), 1:45 PM

Based on a true story, this new piece of gig theatre is a distinctly female story of motherhood, survival, and intergenerational cycles of abuse. Chickie is a woman divided. She is torn between her desire for freedom and her responsibilities as a mother. She wants her husband's undivided love but must grapple with him pulling the family into the illegal drug trade of the hippie movement. Set during the turbulent 60s and 70s, this one-woman show combines intimate storytelling, dark humour, and live music to tell a truly incredible story.

Why did you write this show?

I wrote this show for several reasons. Firstly, I was so inspired by the real Chickie's life: her determination, her resourcefulness, and her bravery. Secondly, I wanted to tell a story that showed the darker sides of bother motherhood and the hippie movement. And finally, I wanted to challenge myself (a very non-musical person) to tell a story where music plays a key role.

Performers: Elliott Chase, Ryan Lester, Paven Rai, Calum Harrison

Producer: Sweaty Palms Productions

Photo Credit: Frankie Regalia

Lucid @ ZOO Playground 1, 14th - 28th (not 22nd) August, 11.30 AM

Lucid is a new play about a group of children on their Year Six residential trip to the Isle of Wight in 2010. We follow the children through the caves, forests and discos of their trip, and also into their dreams. When we meet them, somebody has put a note in Toby's locker pretending to be Lucy. We aren't quite sure why. Lucid is told with brilliantly inventive physicality and live foley. The play was selected for, and performed at, the National Student Drama Festival 2022. Oh, and Tom Daley's in it too.

Why did you create this show?

During the pandemic, several members of our company began working in schools. We are so excited to stage the comedy and ache of being eleven years old with joy and artistic bravery.
Performers: Kiera Battersby, Layla Chowdhury, Ella Downey, Alasdair Linn and Hannah Taylor.

Producer: As If

Photo credit: Beatrice Debney

My Lover was a Salmon in the Climate Apocalypse @ Pleasance Courtyard, 3rd - 29th August (not 15th or 22nd), 4.30 PM

Humanity ruins everything, but humanity's a dodgy side-branch of fish evolution. Why not return to being fish? Fin's empathy for nature culminates in believing he's a salmon, whilst his band looks on in horror. But could this kickstart a climate revolution? This gig theatre show mixes Irish trad/folk music with electronic soundscapes. One of the characters eventually turns into a salmon, is cooked, and is eaten onstage. But amongst the laughs, surrealism, and the takedown of industrial food production, this is a very human picture of two characters struggling to comprehend what the future of this planet means for them.

Why did you create this show?

As creators we care about the climate emergency and wanted our play to be a safe (and fun) space for an audience to absorb and reflect upon their relationship with the world around them. The Salmon of Knowledge Irish myth inspired us and the choice to use trad/folk music.

Performers: Rory Gradon, Elinor Peregrin, and Elisabeth Flett

Photo Credit: Rory Gradon

POLES: The Science of Magnetic Attraction, Pleasance Courtyard, 23rd - 29th August, 2.10 PM

Cora's a mess. She's self-obsessed, stripping, and to top it all off, her bff-turned-gf-turned-ex (it's complicated) turns up drunk at the club one night. Poles is gripping new Aussie dark comedy about stripping, loneliness, and the stigma of monetising your body.

Why did you create this show?

To challenge commonly held negative perceptions around stripping and the wider sex work industry! It's based on real experience...

Writer and performer: Amelia Pitcher

Producer: Tart Theatre Collective

Photo Credit: Kyle Dobie

Posey Mehta: I Am Not A Gorilla @ Underbelly Bristo Square, 3rd - 29th August (not 15th), 10.00 PM

Gloria's not a gorilla. But that hasn't stopped her spending 5 years in the gorilla enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo. Join her as she faces all the hurdles of being a modern woman: dating, a lack of career progression, and a crippling, all-consuming addiction to bananas.

This clowny, surreal character comedy marks Posey Mehta's comedy debut, following educations in clown from master of the craft, Philippe Gaulier, and in horrifically messy one-night stands from the University of Cambridge.

It's Miss Piggy does Inside, only without the music, Netflix budget or Bo Burnham's roguish white-guy charm. It's also set outside.

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

Given how much I had to emphasise in my Risk Assessment that deep-throating bananas on stage poses little risk to me because I am the deep-throating expert and have practised extensively, I would hate to prove myself to be a big ol' deep-throating fraud and choke on a banana.

Performer: Posey Mehta

Photo Credit: Kamesh Mehta (my poor long-suffering dad, bless him)

She Wolf @ Assembly Roxy Downstairs, 3rd - 28th August (not 15th or 22nd), 1.50 PM

Winner of the 2022 Assembly ART Award and the Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize. A fierce, ferocious monologue about getting f*cked over and fighting your way back. Spoken by a woman hiding out at the zoo, She Wolf tears open questions of gender and class in a capitalist world. What does it take to succeed when only the fittest survive? As Maggie's life falls apart, becoming animal is only human. 'A powerhouse on stage, Cowan's conviction in her performance is as strong as her writing' (TheReviewsHub.com).

Why did you create this show?

I was inspired by the myth of the She Wolf, the creature linked to the founding of Rome - symbol of western civilisation. I'm interested in blurring these woman/wolf, human/animal boundaries, and propelled by my anger at capitalist systems that force us to constantly compete for our livelihoods, for survival.

Performer: Isla Cowan

Producer: Isla Cowan in association with Assembly Festival

Photo Credit: Mihaela Bodlovic

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