Edinburgh Festival

How do you deal with self-hatred? Do you go to therapy? Do you talk to your friends about it? Or do you create a one-hour comedy show and put it up at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? For Alexander Bennett, the third option was the way to go.

What’s the worst gig you’ve ever had? I bet that Ollie Horn has had one much, much worse than you.

Some shows make you smile instinctively, and Jingle Street is one of them. Jingles, with their strong potential for catchy nonsense, lend themselves well to the world of musical theatre. The concept is funny and well executed, with overall silliness giving way at times to surprising emotion.

With rolling around on the floor, confetti, a paddling pool, and a toothbrush, The Last Show Before We Die is one of the most bizarre shows of this year’s festival. At the same time however, it’s one of the most moving. At its core, this is a show about endings. Last Show is formed around interviews with people from palliative care nurses to the cast’s grandparents about their experiences of all the endings we experience, from death to running out of toilet paper.

In Sophie Swithinbank's award-winning Bacon, friendship and love are inextricable from danger, anger, and hurt. It's a play that lives on the boundaries, the scales constantly tipping - literally, as the set takes the form of an oversized seesaw. 

Gunter is an energetic, subtle, genuinely amusing, hard-hitting piece that ties the effects of violence and suspicion to the patriarchal structure and all its demands. Julia Grogan, Norah Lopez-Holden, and Hannah Jarrett-Scott materialise the story while Higman narrates it and contextualises it sitting at her drums, electric guitar in hand. Titles introduce the characters and set the scene, streamlining the process and maintaining a beckoning pace freed from the need of any lengthy explanation. Unshackled from the constraints of historical accuracy but rooted in the factual events, the show is feminist fringe theatre at its best.

Epic scale stunts and mind-blowing magic in a spectacle that swings from edge-of-your-seat astonishment to belly laughs. Illusionist and inventor Kevin was trained by Penn & Teller, has had sell-outs at Edinburgh Fringe and reached the final stages of Britain's Got Talent with his death defying, stunning magic.

After thrilling the world, with more than 500,000 spectators and astonishing appearances at the Royal Variety Performance and Montecarlo Circus Festival, 'best circus show 2022' (TheatreWeekly.com) returns to Edinburgh... on a mission to entertain! Joining the energy of Africa with a rhythm 'n' blues sound, five unleashed acrobats perform their comedy tribute to cult movie The Blues Brothers.

Madeleine Hamilton blows. Her pipes. She blows her pipes and she blows them well. But this is not your average bagpipe show. Through the medium of Scotland's most famous instrument, Hamilton demonstrates with deft and witty imagination that these noise tubes are actually just like men, and falling in (and out) of love and lust. 

The smash-hit, gig-theatre show returns, charting the true story of Cora Bissett's rollercoaster journey from 90s indie-kid to wised-up woman. Touring with Radiohead, partying with Blur, she was living the dream. Until she wasn't. With a live band, Cora celebrates life's euphoric highs and epic lows, asking what wisdom we should pass to the next generation, and which glorious mistakes we should let them make.

Why would a woman leave her career as the lead singer of a multi-platinum band? Was it fate, family, or something else? When she hears a compelling voice within her closet, urging her to leave her marriage, Oskar must make a choice, stay and continue as is or take a bold step to find her voice and make a new beginning for herself and her children.

FutureHome Productions will present the world premiere of Awake and Narcoleptic with female comic, Sarah Albritton, a captivating solo show that combines comedy and vulnerability to shed light on the challenges of living with a misunderstood sleeping disorder.

BWW catches up with Elliot Minogue-Stone to chat about bringing Groovicle to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

BWW catches up with Cam Gavinski to chat about bringing Bonheur to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

With Big in Scotland Kieran Hodgson proves that he is not just one of the greatest comedians of his generation but one of the best to have ever performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Well-known comedians and the public have offered their support to an actor after she tweeted that only one person attended her one-woman play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

BWW catches up with the team behind The Society for New Cuisine to chat about bringing the show to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Potty the Plant welcomes you to Little Boo Boo’s General Hospital, home to three haphazard nurses, a day-dreaming cleaner, a suspicious doctor - and a singing, dancing plant. An hour of escapist fun filled with catchy tunes. The show for people who want an hour of ridiculous, musical fun - led by a slightly unsettling plant!

Olga Koch's latest show doesn't provide one of the smoothest hours at this years Fringe but does solidify Koch's place as one of the best on the comedy scene

BWW catches up with Hannah Maxwell to chat about bringing Nan, Me & Barbara Pravi to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe

In his 10th show, the multi award-winning stand-up returns with new stuff, greatest hits and bits and pieces from his decade at the Fringe. Host: BBC Radio Scotland's No 1 show, The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected, BBC Scotland's Edinburgh Unlocked. Comedian Of The Year (UK Comedian). Star of BBC Scotland's biggest viral hit, News At 3. 250 million+ views.

You may think Fiona Yu is just another Hello Kitty stereotype... but you’d be dead wrong. From the Tony-winning producer of Six comes an outrageously irreverent world premiere musical mash-up of Asian feminism with a killer score. Fiona Yu is a high achieving, but highly disillusioned Chinese-American woman. She is fed up with the stereotypes forced onto her by a white, patriarchal society – namely that she is the human embodiment of a speechless cartoon feline. Based on the cult novel by Angela S Choi, this musical is a ruthless combination of sex, violence, and stilettos.

A Christmas Carol meets It's A Wonderful Life meets... *NSYNC. It's Christmas Eve 2009: seven years into the world-famous boy band's indefinite 'hiatus', *NSYNC's Chris Kirkpatrick has until midnight to make a wish that could change his life forever. A parody musical featuring 12 original songs and plenty of 90s nostalgia! With music direction by Taylor J Williams (Hamilton, Moulin Rouge!) and sound design by Josh Millican (Six, The Band's Visit).

Alan Bissett guest blogs for BWW on bringing the Moira trilogy to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

BWW catches up with Kiran Deol to chat about bringing Joysuck to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.