Scotsman Fringe First awards: 8 winners from week two

Today we announce eight more Fringe First winners – and invite you to claim free tickets for the Scotsman Fringe Awards next week

In the Festival supplement in today’s Scotsman there is a cut out form. If you take it to the box office at the Pleasance Courtyard you can claim free tickets to the Scotsman Fringe Awards, which take place on Friday 23 August. You are warmly invited to join us for the biggest awards ceremony at the festival, where you can find out, before anyone else, who has won some of the most prestigious prizes at this year’s Fringe.


As well as our own final week of Fringe First winners, the Scotsman Fringe Awards will reveal this year’s winners of the Carol Tambor Award, the Holden Street Theatres Award, the Brighton Fringe Award, the Filipa Braganca Award, and the Mental Health Fringe Award.

Hide Ad


In between the speeches there will be also be performances by some of this year’s Fringe First winners – watch this space for announcements over next few days.

The Patient Gloria. Picture: Lara Cappelli.The Patient Gloria. Picture: Lara Cappelli.
The Patient Gloria. Picture: Lara Cappelli.


In the meantime, we are delighted to announce eight more winners of our Fringe Firsts, which are awarded each week throughout the festival in recognition of outstanding new writing premiered on the Fringe. Founded in 1973, the awards are chosen by an expert panel of judges led by the Scotsman’s theatre critic Joyce McMillan – once again we would like to thank Mark Fisher, Jackie McGlone, Susan Mansfield, Sally Stott, Fiona Shepherd and David Pollock for debating the merits of dozens of nominated shows late into the night.


We would also like to thank our awards partners, the University of Edinburgh, for their generous support of the Fringe Firsts this year, and the entire team at the Pleasance for hosting our weekly awards – and the final awards show next Friday. We hope you can join us there.

The Patient Gloria, Traverse Theatre. Until 25 August

Subject Mater. Picture: Ali Wright.Subject Mater. Picture: Ali Wright.
Subject Mater. Picture: Ali Wright.

Gina Moxley’s riotous play at the Traverse is a powerful statement about how women are policed and controlled, but also fight back.

Subject Mater, Paradise in the Vault, Until 17 August

Nadia Cavelle’s show at Paradise in the Vault is a wonderful theatrical ode to a vivacious, egocentric Frenchwoman and mother.

Everything I See I Swallow. Picture: ContributedEverything I See I Swallow. Picture: Contributed
Everything I See I Swallow. Picture: Contributed

Everything I See I Swallow, Summerhall, Until 25 August

Hide Ad

Taylor and Shasha’s show at Summerhall is a beautiful study of shifting attitudes to female empowerment and sexuality, as a young woman who has amassed 50,000 followers on Instagram by learning rope bondage, clashes with her mother, an old school feminist.

Until the Flood. Picture: Alex Brenner.Until the Flood. Picture: Alex Brenner.
Until the Flood. Picture: Alex Brenner.

Until The Flood, Traverse Theatre, Until 25 August

At the Traverese, the latest show by New York writer and performer Dael Orlandersmith tells the story of the 2014 killing of Michael Brown by a young white policeman, an event which helped inspired the Black Lives Matter movement.

Bobby & Amy, Pleasance Courtyard, Until 26 August

Hide Ad

Emily Jenkins’ profound play at the Pleasance is set during the foot and mouth crisis of the early 2000s, when millions of farm animals were slaughtered, and its impact on two vulnerable young people who have struck up a friendship on a farm in the Cotswolds.

Sh!t Theatre. Picture: ContributedSh!t Theatre. Picture: Contributed
Sh!t Theatre. Picture: Contributed

Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum with Expats, Summerhall, Until 25 August

At Summerhall, the anarchic new show by Louise Mothersole and Rebecca Biscuit, aka Sh!t Theatre, sees the dou on a road trip to Malta - and the pub where Oliver Reed died - to sample Mediterranean culture at a a time of strained European relations.

LipSync, Summerhall, Until 17 August

In Cumbernauld Theatre’s unforgettable, futuristic looking show at Summerhall, two women play the same character, for reasons which gradually become apparent, in a moving but unsentimental portrait of living with a life-threatening illness.

Are We Not Drawn Onward to New Era, ZOO Southside, Until 25 August

The maverick Belgian company Ontroerend Goed deliver another triumph, with a breathtakingly ingenious show about our current climate crisis that tells its story both forwards and backwards.