Edinburgh Festival

Written and performed by Rachel Stockdale. Meet Rachel – a Northern, 20-something actress whose funny, celebratory and politically powerful one-woman play explores her true-life experience of weight gain from size 8 to 18. From audition nerves and throwaway comments to literally breaking a leg, this unconventional play is for: Anyone who's put on or lost weight; Anyone who had free school meals; Anyone who's tried to have it all.

What did our critic think of HIYA DOLLY! at TheSpace @ Surgeon's Hall?

Are friendships the greatest love affairs of our lives? Join us to celebrate the publication of Michael Pedersen’s much-anticipated prose debut and intimate memoir Boy Friends. Along with two pioneering artists, Shirley Manson and Charlotte Church, Pedersen explores friendship, grief, love and the realms beyond. An evening of readings, performance and exuberance, this is an artists’ conversation not to be missed.

The Dead Ducks return to the Fringe and Edinburgh is all the better for it.

Sportsperson is written and performed by Cerys Bradley (Soho Theatre Young Company, Amused Moose semi-finalist, 2020). It's a show about playing sport and fitting in and how Cerys is quite bad at both of those things. It's also a show about being non-binary, embarrassed about wearing lycra and how spending your childhood in a car whilst your parents watch your brother play football (and rugby and tennis and cricket) definitely doesn't leave you with a massive chip on your shoulder.

Crazy Canadian circus for the young, premiering in Edinburgh after visiting 16 countries! The art of giving each other a chance and collaborating when the right time comes is what the Brotipos will have to learn! Two clowns touch the hearts of the audience and make them laugh through their quarrels, their acrobatics and their lonely moments. A show filled with handstands, diabolo and a hand-to-hand act that will make you sing and dance with them! Hilarious and comical, that's Brotipo. For the young and old! Winner of eight public choice awards!

A show about mental health, not just mental illness. From number-one, best-selling author, award-winning comedian and presenter Dave Chawner.

This dark-comedy love letter to Britney Spears is a nostalgia-fest for anyone who has ever dropped to that Hit Me Baby One More Time beat and for anyone who came of age against the pernicious backdrop of 90s/00s misogyny.

What did our critic think of MY LOVER WAS A SALMON IN THE CLIMATE APOCALYPSE at Pleasance Courtyard?

What did our critic think of SHE WOLF at Assemly Roxy?

It is 1871 and the seductive Vampyre Carmilla has chosen her next victim, the gentle and innocent Laura. Can the love of the young doctor and her father be enough to save Laura from Carmilla's clutches? And will anyone listen to the fears and predictions of villager Susan when she encounters her in the marketplace, for this is not the first time Carmilla has walked this earth?

Rachel Jackson is an award-winning, Scottish comedian with TV credits such as The Stand Up Sketch Show (ITV) and Edinburgh Unlocked (BBC). Almost Famous is about all the times she thought she was so damn close… The Rock tweeted her three times ffs! Also deals with her debilitating illness, OCD, but this show doesn’t have a sad bit and is wet-your-pants funny.

Nothing I can write will truly describe the brilliance of this stand-up show. There simply isn't enough hyperbole. 

Best Sketch Show (Time Out New York). BriTANicK is the comedy duo of Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney. They have written for Saturday Night Live and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, were named Variety's Top 10 Comics To Watch and spent six years as the official voices of Cartoon Network. Their online videos have amassed over 50 million views and they regularly perform to sold-out crowds in New York and Los Angeles.

A new show about private things, public things and trying to wrap your big sexy arms around time to keep it still. You’ve seen Jessica on Live at the Apollo and QI, amongst other telly shows.

Success demands sacrifice. So does Svengali. Gripping, intimate monologue exposing the dark heart of a dynamic of power, desire, and control. A promising young woman rises to supernatural heights on the tennis circuit under the hypnotic thrall of a master coach. Mentor and protégé battle for dominance – on the courts and off. Channels sports stories and 1980s erotic thrillers to reimagine a classic character for the #MeToo era.

Catriona has a history of making stuff up. But she’s getting better. When an attractive American tourist arrives, she decides to show him around her Northern Irish town. And she might blur the line between fact and fiction, just a little... Soon she's telling him about cannibal peasants, human roosters, and the largest orgy ever held on consecrated ground.

Billy Kirkwood: Energetic does exactly what it says on the tin and more.

An angry yet artless examination of Malta's ban on abortion.

What did our critic think of JESUS, JANE, MOTHER & ME at Pleasance Dome?

An unflinchingly unrelentingly brutal production, a Little Life is not for the faint of heart. But it deserves to be seen nonetheless.

What did our critic think of LUCID at ZOO Playground?

What did our critic think of KATHY AND STELLA SOLVE A MURDER at Summerhall?

Bilal Zafar is natural, easy-going and full of his own brand of chilled out sarcasm. 

What did our critic think of THE MOULD THAT CHANGED THE WORLD at Websters Theatre?