The Pleasance Will Launch 2024 'Best of Edinburgh' Season for Their Islington Home

If you didn’t manage to catch the Pleasance’s sold-out shows in the Scottish capital this Summer, you’re in for a treat! After the success of their 40th anniversary Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Pleasance Theatre Trust is bringing an exciting and diverse season of Fringe favourites with theatre, comedy, cabaret, magic and children’s shows to London this Autumn. With 50 shows, there’s something for everyone at Pleasance London, with all performances now on sale.  

Joe Sellman-Leava will kick off the season with two of his sell-outs; Fanboy (14th – 16th October) is a love-hate letter to pop culture and nostalgia, while It’s The Economy, Stupid (14th – 16th October) will embark on a quest to uncover how the economy wins elections, and why the force that dominates our lives is so complicated! Hughie Shepherd-Cross’ sixth Fringe play, Gang Bang (17th – 18th October) tells the story of one man by the name of Don Lambrini who in 1945, when Sicilians were pouring onto boats for America, accidentally boarded an all-inclusive Thomas Cook cruise to Blackpool.  Bebe Cave’s The Screen Test (17th – 19th October) is a one-woman dark comedy about delusion, desperation and dreams following an aspiring actress in 1930s Hollywood, so desperate to become a star that she might just sacrifice herself along the way.

Using just a single deck of cards, one of the best card magicians in the world, Andrew Frost will enrapture audiences with Andrew Frost: Cards on the Table (19th October), delving into the mechanics of sleight of hand, the level of discipline needed to become a card cheat, and how feigning good fortune can bring about genuine luck.  Award-winning writer Emma-Louise Howell (BBC Writer’s Room Finalist)’s arresting debut play I Really Do Think This Will Change Your Life (21st – 23rd October) is a hair-pulling, fake-nail scratching, catfight against what it means to be a #GirlBoss.

Two of Pleasance’s Charlie Hartill Fund winners will return to London as part of the season.  Sweet Beef Theatre’s Crying Shame (23rd October) is a cabaret-show-cum-wellness-journey all about loneliness; you might be lonely, but you're definitely not alone.  Sierra Sevilla’s For the Love of Spam (7th – 9th November) is a comedic, multi-sensory, participatory one-woman show dedicated to two things: canned meat and colonialism. 

Lubna Kerr’s Chatterbox (24th – 25th October) recalls the labels we are given in primary school and looks at the impact they have for the rest of your life. Ethereal artist LULA.XYZ presents her brand new show I AM - A Walking Universe (25th October), spotlighting overt medical racism prevalent in the UK alongside the first episode in the series OommoO (25th October), which considers what happens when you’ve left everything behind for the promise of something better and the something ‘better’ isn’t ‘better’. 

Shows from the Pleasance Edinburgh National Partnerships scheme are heading to London too.  From multi award-winning Documental Theatre, Scaffolding (26th – 27th October) is an explosive show about strength, love and community.  Winner of The Debut Award at this year’s Besties Òran (11th – 13th November) is a thrilling story of a man on a journey to rescue his best friend from the Underworld.

Following his previous smash hit successes, Luke Wright returns with a new set of poems that get to grips with the idea of JOY (26th October).  In her debut storytelling show 16 Postcodes (29th – 31st October), Jessica Regan (BBC, Channel 4, Guilty Feminist) shares lessons lived and learned from a life as she moves North, South, East and West, finding out which is best.  How a Jellyfish Saved the World (30th – 31st October) is a heart-warming, tentacle-tapping, puppetry musical from Jam Jar Theatre.  Inspired by real events, 2024 Untapped Award winner Drum (4th – 6th November) is a joyful and poignant play fusing storytelling, music and dance; capturing a unique snapshot of the swinging sixties.

Award-winning drag king and London's loveable nature boy, Bi-Curious George, invites you into a raucous celebration of queerness and the animal kingdom in the love letter to nature that is Queer Planet (14th – 16th November).  Sorry (I Broke Your Arms And Legs) (18th – 20th November) is a riotous debut PowerPoint presentation combining the thrills of World Book Day with the hilarity of the Maths Olympiad from Maybe You Like It.  And, rounding off the theatre programme, Jake Roche: Neporrhoids! (21st – 23rd November) is a (mostly) true story following the meteoric rise and devastating fall of chart-topping boyband member Jake Roche.

In the comedy programme, Fringe legend award winning John-Luke Roberts will launch the season in style with John-Luke-a-Palooza (13th and 20th October) as he does all 10 of the solo comedy shows he’s ever done in a row across two days! Named ‘the rock’n’roll star of British Comedy’ by Rolling Stone, Rachel Fairburn is back with seven deadly characters, in Rachel Fairburn: Side Eye (6th November). Most Outstanding Show nominee at MICF 2022 and 2023, Laura Davis returns with Albatross (13th and 14th November), rapid-fire stand-up that journeys through nature, empires, lighthouse keeping, existentialism, birdwatching and haunted microwaves.

After an encounter with a wildlife enthusiast, Funny Women Award finalist Amy Mason explores what it means to be a human animal in Free Mason (16th November). What a year it has been for Freya Mallard, with a baby, a Fringe debut and now a London transfer; The Bounce Back (27th November) proves that being a new mum and performing a smash-hit stand-up hour can go hand in hand. With uproarious anecdotes and sharp wit, Rosco McLelland takes audiences on a rollercoaster ride in Sudden Death (29th November) through the highs and lows of day-to-day life, peppered with Scottish charm and unexpected twists.

Holly Stars in Justice for Holly (18th October) tells the story of how she got there to the Superdrug security office, with a handbag full of shoplifted lipsticks. After 2023’s successful debut, the wonky and worried award-winning comedian, and Stoke-on-Trent urchin Adam Flood returns with Back Of The Spoon (14th November). Join UK-based Japanese comedian Yuriko Kotani, one of The Times’ Top Three Rising Stars of the Fringe, in Meanings of Life (23rd and 28th November).

The debut hour from Nerine Skinner, Funny Women Content Creator 2023 Runner Up and Britain’s Got Talent Semi-Finalist - The Exorcism of Liz Truss (21st October) comes to London. Join magician, comedian and charlatan Pete Heat on a surreal journey into your own brain in Bogus (21st November). Indo-Kiwo-Ausso comedian Runi Talwar presents his award-nominated debut hour with Runi Talwar as ‘Runi Talwar’ in Runi Talwar: The Runi Talwar (20th November), in this incredible story of a guy who was once told he should ‘get his name out there more’ and took it far too literally.

John Meagher, the Host of Radio 4's The Divil's Own is coming to London with his debut show Big Year (26th October). Isobel Rogers: will ask modern life's essential questions in How To Be Content (9th November), looking at baby fever, polyamory, living at home and even moving into your mum's house (with your boyfriend). André de Freitas will bring Work in Progress show Makuma (18th October) that tells the story of how, upon turning 30, he discovered he was under a Brazilian curse from his ex called Makumba.

Think Taylor Swift…on acid; Pop princess and multi-award-winning musical comedian Katie Pritchard has mastered up to and including 12 instruments, to bring you the era-defining bonanza, I Kiss The Music (19th November). Pleasance audiences can enjoy a gift of a show from a 2x BBC New Comedy Award nominee, Alfie Packham in My Gift To You (15th November). After over a decade as a critically acclaimed stand-up, Ollie Horn is at the business end of his late-20s, and he’s decided he’d like a wife; get ready for the comedian’s toxic rebrand with Comedy For Toxic People (And Their Friends) (27th October). 

This November, Sasha Ellen brings us My Milf-Shake Brings All The Boys To The Yard (4th November), a stand-up show about all the things that hit you like a ton of bricks in your thirties. Expect group meditation, an effective technique to deal with annoying people, the magic of velvet sofas all mingled with a semi-intellectual demeanour from German based Libyan stand-up Mustafa Algayadi in Almost Legal Alien (19th October). On eBay there is only one winner in a sea of losers, but in Ruby Carr’s eBae (8th November) everyone is a winner.

Mandeep Singh Presents Singhin’ In The Rain (28th November) is a silly, joyous, comedy show from Mandeep Singh about cracking on regardless of the circumstances. Prepare to get spiritual at Bishops’ exploration of love, death and a third general theme in Farewell Bruce Porcelain (16th November), an anarchic hour of surreal sketch comedy, all set at Bruce’s funeral. Expect a lot of props, accents, music, an existential crisis and plenty of artistic self-doubt from Chris East in My Brain Is Soup, Your Hands Are The Spoons (9th November). 

Michael Kunze is superstar actor Mitch Cooney in his Hollywood Odyssey Infinity Mirror (7th November). After sold-out runs at Camden Fringe and VAULT Festival, former journalist and ex-professional doomscroller Suchandrika Chakrabarti tries to explain the news to her 5-year-old niece, through character comedy and props, then speculates about the future with Doomscrolling (21st November). Award nominated character comedian and failed wiseguy Ben Goldsmith welcomes audiences to CrimeLandTown (7th November), playing every character in a 'hilarious' and 'one of a kind' screwball comedy. 

Rich Spalding offers audiences a stand-up comedy show about life, death and what happens after that in Gather Your Skeletons (25th October). The Awkward Silence present a kaleidoscope of characters in their hallucinatory sketch comedy feast Mind Milk (5th and 6th November). Mischievous balding duo Aram Balakjian & Alexy Walexy transfer their sell-out Edinburgh fringe show Shiny Things (29th October) to London, promising a night of pure silliness and uncomplicated delight!

Finally, in the 20th year of the Comedy Reserve, the Pleasance are bringing The Pleasance Comedy Reserve (12th November) back to London for the first time ever. After a sold out run at this year's Fringe, the UK capital can catch four of the hottest new comics; Marty Gleeson, Rohan Sharma, Sam Williams and Sharon Wanjohi. 

It’s a season not to be missed this Autumn at The Pleasance – get your tickets while you still can! Tickets are available at www.pleasance.co.uk.

 

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