Photo Coverage: Scotsman Fringe First Winner THE FALL at the Edinburgh Assembly Fringe Festival

THE FALL, one of the Baxter Theatre Centre's impressive showcase of six award-winning and cutting-edge productions at the 2017 Edinburgh Assembly Fringe Festival in Scotland this August, was awarded the Fringe First at this year's Scotsman Awards. Presented weekly and designed to encourage performers to bring new work to Edinburgh in the spirit of adventure and experiment, the Scotsman Fringe First Awards celebrate the best new writing on the Fringe.

THE FALL is a vital and frank collaborative piece of workshop theatre devised by the original cast that took South Africa by storm when it premiered. In the production, seven University of Cape Town Drama graduates share their experiences during the #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMust Fall and subsequent student movements' demonstrations in 2015 and 2016. The highly acclaimed play is facilitated by Clare Stopford, curated by Ameera Conrad and Thando Mangcu, two members of the ensemble and the dynamic cast comprises Conrad, Mangcu, Oarabile Ditsele, Zandlie Madliwa, Sizwesandile Mnisi, Sihle Mnqwazana and Cleo Raatus.

The #RhodesMustFall protest was originally directed against a statue commemorating Cecil Rhodes, situated at the foot of the university's famous Jameson Steps. A month later, following a University of Cape Town Council vote the previous night, the statue was removed. The campaign for the statue's removal led to a wider movement to decolonize education across South Africa, garnering global attention.

Race, class, gender, sexism, colonialism and ideologies of patriarchy - core to global conversations and interventions today - are tackled head-on IN THE FALL, which seeks to unpack discrimination in all its forms, trailblazing the genre of Theatre for Social Justice. The play does not offer solutions to the questions raised by the movements which inspired it but hopes to create and nurture dialogue on intersectional and institutionalised discrimination against the marginalised. THE FALL adds its voice to the national and worldwide debate and youth-led revolutions against injustices, inequality in education, cultural representation and many other contemporary conflicts.

Presented in association with Assembly Festival and Riverside Studios, THE FALL plays alongside Lara Foot's theatrical hat trick of TSHEPANG: THE THIRD TESTAMENT, THE INCONVENIENCE OF WINGS and KAROO MOOSE - NO FATHERS, Sylvaine Strike's TOBACCO and Yael Farber's MIES JULIE. Take a look photographs of the production, which runs at Assembly George Square Studios at 15:10 until 27 August from Tuesdays to Sundays, courtesy of the Baxter Theatre, below.

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