FIRST HIPPO ON THE MOON and More Coming to Pleasance This August!

The Edinburgh International Conference Centre hosts the spectacular Cirque Éloize alongside Festival favourite Nina Conti and contemporary dance show Requiem for Aleppo as part of the Pleasance's Edinburgh Fringe programme this August. This programme marks the launch of a brand new partnership between the two venues.

Also announced today: Irvine Welsh's pop opera Creatives, the adaptation of David Walliams's The First Hippo on the Moon and dozens more shows as part of the Pleasance line-up this Edinburgh Fringe

• The Edinburgh International Conference Centre hosts four headline Pleasance shows this Fringe, including the high-octane Cirkopolis by Canadian circus megastars Cirque Éloize who return to the Fringe after almost 20 years.
• This exciting new partnership between Pleasance and EICC will enable the Pleasance to programme some of the most technically challenging shows on the Fringe, shows that would not otherwise be possible without the space and facilities at EICC.
• This programme also includes a one off performance of Requiem for Aleppo, a contemporary dance show presented by 12 dancers from around the world. Proceeds of ticket sales will go to the Syria Relief charity.

• "The epicentre of the Fringe" (wow247), the Pleasance Theatre Trust announces Irvine Welsh's new pop opera Creatives, alongside an adaptation of David Walliams's children's book First Hippo on the Moon and 79 more shows as part of its Edinburgh Fringe 2017 programme
• The announcement of these new shows join 157 shows already on sale on www.pleasance.co.uk including French dance comedy extravaganza Tutu and comedian Sue Perkins.
• The Pleasance celebrates 33 Years at Venue 33 and commissions a brand new type of mobile small theatre.

www.pleasance.co.uk / @ThePleasance / www.facebook.com/ThePleasance

Marking the start of a new partnership between The Pleasance Theatre Trust and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), the Pleasance today announces several shows from its Edinburgh Fringe 2017 programme which are set to be staged at the EICC this summer.

The technical facilities at the EICC will allow the Pleasance to present work on a scale that has previously not been possible. One of the highlights of this year's Pleasance programme at EICC is Cirkopolis. This spectacular show comes from critically-acclaimed contemporary circus troupe, Cirque Éloize from Montreal, Canada. Inspired by the legendary 1927 film Metropolis, Cirque Éloize takes its breath-taking blend of circus art, theatre and dance to a highly-stylized metropolis setting, where twelve acrobats and multidisciplinary artists rebel against monotony, reinvent themselves and challenge the limits of the factory-city as only they can. Accompanied by an original musical score, huge video animations and an inventive stage design, they live in a world where fantasy defies reality - the veil of anonymity and solitude is lifted and replaced by bursts of colour.

Other shows staged at EICC this year and going on sale on Thursday, 11 May include the award-winning comedian and ventriloquist Nina Conti with her sell-out show In Your Face. In the children's programme, The Polar Bear and Unicorn Theatre present Polar Bears Go Up, devised and performed by Eilidh MacAskill and Fiona Manson. This show follows two lovable and intrepid Bears exploring the Artic.

On 16th August EICC will also host the very special event Requiem for Aleppo, a brand new work created by composer David Cazalet with choreography by Jason Mabana which features 12 international dancers, choral music, medieval Arabic poetry and the real life stories of people from the ancient and devastated city of Aleppo. All proceeds from ticket sales go to the charities Syria Relief and Techfugees.

Anthony Alderson, Director of the Pleasance said: "The Pleasance is thrilled to be working with the EICC. The incredible technical facilities will allow us to present work that previously could not have considered coming to the festival. Presenting work and artists at the very pinnacle of their careers alongside those starting out is central to the Pleasance Theatre Trust's aims. We are already in discussion with a number of shows for the 2018 and 2019 festivals, shows that will utterly delight Fringe going audiences."

Marshall Dallas, Chief Executive of the EICC, said: "The Pleasance has a rightly revered position on the UK and international arts and culture scene and as a venue we are very excited to be hosting some of their biggest shows at the EICC this August. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is integral to our city's offering to the world and, as part of EICC's increasing support of Edinburgh's festivals, myself and the team are delighted to be working in partnership with the Pleasance."

On Thursday, 11 May Pleasance Theatre Trust announces 81 more shows on sale with an array of exciting newcomers and Festival favourites highlighting the pages of Edinburgh Fringe 2017 programme.

THEATRE

6 x 6 x 6 / A Gym Thing / A Heart At Sea / Cockroached / Dr Carnesky's Incredible Bleeding Woman / Follow Suit / Jelly Beans / Kafka and Son / Labels / Let Me Look At You / Not I / Offside / Once Were Pirates / Perfectly Imperfect Women / Pleasance Bytes / Poll Function / Siren / Speaking in Tongues: The Lies / Speaking in Tongues: The Truths / The Expiration Date of Jonas Müller (Age 70) / The Last Days of Judas Iscariot / The Paper Cinema's Macbeth / Todd & God / Victim / We Are Ian / Whalebone / When We Ran / You Forgot the Mince / Yvette

COMEDY

AAA Stand-Up / AAA Stand-Up Late / Accessibility Gala / Adele Is Younger Than Us / Alexander Fox: Ringo / AMUSICAL / Arthur Smith Sings Leonard Cohen - The Final Tribute / Audible Live / Berk's Nest Mid-Fest Comedy Special / Dad's Army Radio Hour /
David Edwards - How to get a Second Date / Folie à Deux / HUB Fresh / Instant Sunshine / Lee Nelson: Serious Joker / Live at the Pleasance / Lucy Porter: Choose Your Battles /
Marcel Lucont's Whine List / Matt Forde: Eat. Sleep. Political Party. Repeat /
Max & Ivan: The Reunion / MW's FESTIVAL OF BAD IDEAS / Newcomer Gala /
Nina Conti - In Therapy / Questing Time / Romantic Encounters in a Darkened Room /
Simon Day - In Character / Sleeping Trees at the Movies / Sophie Willan: Branded / Spank!tacular / Terry Alderton: All Crazy Now / The Death Hilarious: The Scum Always Rises / Tim Key / Tim Vine: Sunset Milk Idiot / Tom Ballard: Problematic / Vikki Stone and National Youth Orchestra of Scotland Camerata: Concerto for Comedian & Orchestra

MUSICALS AND OPERA

Buzz: A New Musical / Creatives / The Toxic Avenger

DANCE, PHYSICAL THEATRE AND CIRCUS

Cirkopolis / Last Clown on Earth / Requiem for Aleppo / The Dreamer

CABARET AND VARIETY

Hot Rocs / Who Shot Wayne Sleep

CHILDREN'S SHOWS

David Walliams' The First Hippo on the Moon / Nutty Noah - Wear Your Pants With Pride / Roald Dahl's Marvellous Medicine / The Listies Make You LOL / The Little Prince and the Pilot / The Polar Bears Go Up

EVENTS

Charlie's Letters / G and Ste's Big Gay Wedding

Apart from the award-winning Cirkopolis, dance, physical theatre and circus programme sees Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre (SDAC) teaming up with Fringe favourites Gecko on The Dreamer, based on works of Shakespeare and his contemporary Tang Xianzu. This will be a European premiere and SDAC's first time in the UK! Celebrating 20 years since their Fringe debut, multi-award winning Russian physical theatre company Derevo return with their latest masterpiece, Last Clown on Earth. Deeply fallen and pushed around, the immortal cosmic figure of the Clown is full of inner joy, yet trapped in a never-ending cycle of self-sacrifice and rebirth.

Musicals and opera strand includes Creatives - a darkly comic pop-opera with an original book by Irvine Welsh and American Skin author and professor Don De Grazia. The original music was composed by Laurence Mark Wythe and the score also includes songs from some of the most popular rock bands of recent decades (New Order, Oasis, Iggy Pop). Irvine's first ever musical, Creatives offers a fascinating insight into Chicago's music scene through a Wednesday evening songwriting class full of the egotistical and the dysfunctional - their dreams, what they will do to realise them, how they are stolen, thwarted and compromised. This 'popra' has been staged at the Chicago Workshop Theatre earlier this year and will receive its UK premiere at the Pleasance this August.

The couple behind the success of Memphis, Joe DiPietro and David Bryan (also known as a founding member of Bon Jovi) bring their latest production to the Pleasance. Based on a 1984 B-movie cult classic, The Toxic Avenger is a rock musical focusing on a nerdy scientist who decides to clean up the toxic waste problem in his home town and is transformed into a superhero called Toxie after being tossed into the deadly waste. The show received six Off West End Award nominations, including Best Musical.

One of the main highlights of the children's programme this year is The First Hippo on the Moon which receives its Fringe premiere at the Pleasance this August. The show is an adaptation of a book by David Walliams, actor, comedian and TV presenter best known for creating and performing in Little Britain alongside Matt Lucas and being on the judging panel of ITV's Britain's Got Talent. The First Hippo on the Moon is a fantastical adventure from Les Petits theatre and features puppetry, music, mayhem and a giant space race to the moon! Suitable for ages three and up the show provides an uproarious escapade the whole family will relish and delight in. Also in the children's programme: Australian kids comedy specialists The Listies present The Listies Make You LOL featuring toilet paper guns and Alien attacks!

Theatre programme presents Dr Carnesky's Incredible Bleeding Woman hailed by The Guardian as 'delightfully po-faced and deliciously tongue-in-cheek'. Mixing entertainment with politics, the director Marisa Carnesky and a group of extraordinary performers from London's cabaret scene reinvent the rituals of menstruation and feature sword swallowing, illusions and hair hanging. The Guardian's article on the show here.

Jess Thom, co-founder of Touretteshero, returns to the Pleasance following the great success of Backstage in Biscuit Land. This time she takes on Samuel Beckett's short play Not I, a theatrical experience that explores neurodiversity and asks who is allowed to perform what and who gets the final say.

Canadian Parallax Theater presents its take on The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Two thousand years have gone by and Judas Iscariot is still in purgatory. Nobody's dared put him on trial. But thanks to a cocky human rights lawyer, the trial of the afterlife must begin. Along the road we will meet Pontius Pilate, Sigmund Freud, Satan and Mother Teresa, in this riotous and irreverent look at what it is to be alive.

Fringe First-winner for Dirty Great Love Story Richard Marsh presents his latest creation, Todd & God which explores what happens when a slacker atheist becomes the Chosen One. Luckily, God has a sense of humour.

The Paper Cinema, founded in 2004 by Nicholas Rawling with Imogen Charleston and Christopher Reed, creates unique performances that combine animation, music, film and theatre to lead the viewer through a variety of stories. Following the success of their take on Odyssey, they are back this year with Macbeth. Intricate pen and ink illustrations are skilfully manipulated in real-time in front of a live video camera and projected onto the big screen alongside live music, which is integral to the work.

1989. Manchester. A frenzy of drugs, beats and bucket hats. Illegal raves. Acid parties. We Are Ian, recipients of the Charlie Hartill Special Reserve Fund for the theatre 2016 and winners of The Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence, are back with more glowing lights and most riveting theatre.

Comedy programme welcomes the return of stand up A-listers: Tim Vine's back at the Edinburgh Fringe with more nonsense and silly jokes, Tim Key presents his Work in Progress, Lucy Porter advices to Choose Your Battles and the Serious Joker Lee Nelson presents his new material... book early! And the fabulous Nina Conti brings her brand new show, In Therapy to the Pleasance Beyond!

Winners of the Vault 2017 Comedy Award Winners, Stiff and Kitsch share the hard truth in Adele Is Younger Than Us. They have all the heartbreak but none of the Grammys! Fringe favourites Max & Ivan reprise their critically-lauded, Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated show The Reunion for eleven nights only. A bewitching narrative sketch comedy tale of love, loss and shatterproof rulers directed by Tom Parry. Marcel Lucont's successful Whine List makes another welcome comeback! A kind of a self-help group where everyone potentially leaves more depressed than when they arrived.

Along with the already announced spectacular The Wrestling, the list of special one-off shows include: Kiri Pritchard-McLean (doing a solo show An Appropriate Adult) and Jayde Adams (Jayde Adams in Jayded) team up on AMUSICAL celebrating all things West
End with the proceeds going to Waverley Care, a charity the Pleasance has supported for the past 26 years, providing care and support to people living with HIV or Hepatitis C throughout Scotland. The unique combination of a comedian and music composer in the body of Vikki Stone teams up with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland to present Concerto for Comedian and Orchestra... which does what it says on the tin!

Lastly but not leastly, the Pleasance Newcomer Comedy Gala showcases the new kids on the block as they make their Pleasance debut this year. Tickets are free!

To keep up with the all-too-hot topic of the election this year, Matt Forde had to rewrite his show again. It's called A Show Hastily Rewritten in Light of Recent Events... Again! Mark Watson asked a range of top comedians what is your bad idea? What show would you like to put on, but never dare? Now, one a night, they attempt these projects during Festival of Bad Ideas.

One of Australia's most exciting stand ups and Best Comedy Show Newcomer 2016 Tom Ballard makes a welcome debut at the Pleasance with Problematic, a show exploring whether anything can be funny anymore. It's a funny show.

These 81 new shows join 157 already on sale on www.pleasance.co.uk, including the return of Sue Perkins, Sara Pascoe, Dave Johns and Richard Herring to the Pleasance, Cathy, stage adaptation of Ken Loach's famous Cathy Come Home and Charlie Hartill Special Reserve Fund-supported Flesh and Bone from the Unpolished Theatre. Also, Mark Thomson's Snowflake - a collaboration with Scottish drama students as part of the Scottish Drama Training Network and the Pleasance partnership - which explores what it means to live in the world of constant notifications and conflicting knowledge.

Earlier this year the Pleasance Theatre Trust announced the celebration of 33 years at Venue 33 (Pleasance Courtyard) through a commission of a brand new type of mobile venue. From an initial innovative concept created by Triple E the final pop-up 120 seat-capacity 'Project 33' is a design collaboration between Triple E and The Pleasance. The Venue will launch at the ABTT (Association of British Theatre Technicians) Theatre Show in June before going on to host eight shows a day at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as the all new Pleasance Beside. Following the festival, the structure will move to the Pleasance in London where it will form a new rehearsal and performance space.

To post a comment, you must register and login.