Top shows at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe
FIVE STAR COMEDY
Phil Nicholl: Your Wrong
“It is his most properly personal show ever, beautifully crafted, without a single comedy stitch that is not neat and secure.”
Heroes @ Monkey Barrell (Venue 515)
FOUR STAR COMEDY
Richard Todd, Monsters
“Richard and his monsters make for a powerful hour of tragi-comedy. Take your own monsters along. They will love it.”
Laughing Horse @ The Counting House (Venue 170)
Zach & Viggo
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Hide Ad“Like all the best double acts, they have an incredible connection with each other – constantly making each other laugh, playing tricks, flirting, shooting messages to each other with a glance.”
Underbelly Cowgate (Venue 61)
Boris and Sergey’s One Man Extravaganza
“Sergey’s one-man show is a glorious paradigm of artistic over-indulgence.”
Assembly George Square Theatre (Venue 8)
The Establishment: Eton Mess
“Just when you think this is all comedy jolliness and huge fun we get a dollop of darker stuff from a pro-hunting fox and a pro-slavery advocate from a non-specific colony.”
Assembly George Square Theatre (Venue 8)
Suzi Ruffell: Keeping It Classy
“This breezily entertaining hour from the ever-more accomplished Suzi Ruffell belies her insecurities about merely being a ‘mouthy cow’.”
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)
Colin Hoult/Anna Mann in How We Stop the Fascists
“Together they make a laughter-filled hour of character comedy with a light dusting of politics wrapped up in a verbatim theatre piece by much- married actress and activist Anna Mann.”
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)
Ari Eldjarn: Pardon My Icelandic
“Eldjarn uses the Nordic countries as a giant toybox, introducing us to mannerisms and prejudices we didn’t even know existed.”
Heroes@Monkey Barrell (Venue 515)
FIVE STAR THEATRE
Coming soon!
FOUR STAR THEATRE
Amy Conway’s Super Awesome World
“Having successfully created an atmosphere of self-defeating anxiety and doubt, Conway turns to her experiences as a Samaritans volunteer: a series of quiet, emotionally raw phonecalls that form an effective contrast to the polished and upbeat introductory spiel.”
Summerhall (Venue 26)
Me and My Bee
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Hide Ad“The power struggles between the three character-performers carry along a story that might otherwise feel like a string of loosely connected bee-related, musical set pieces.”
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)
Show Me The Money
“In the first few minutes, Paula Varjack, alone on stage, strips away the convention that you don’t talk about how much you earn or, as an artist, any other jobs you do to make ends meet.”
Bedlam Theatre (Venue 49), until August 13
Séance
“This immersive short theatrical experience takes place in a completely dark shipping container for audiences of no more than 20. Fortunately, it has a slew of performances every day, otherwise people would be climbing over each other trying to bag tickets.”
Summerhall (Venue 26)
Start Swimming
“This production with young people in South London was made in response to Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere, a play by economics journalist Paul Mason for the Young Vic about the failure of recent revolutions and protest movements. The assured, impassioned performances make this play feel raw and vivid.”
Summerhall (Venue 26), until August 26
FOUR STAR CABARET & VARIETY
Betty Grumble: Love and Anger or Sex Clown Saves the World Again!)
“I won’t spoil the routine other than to say that, like the rest of Grumble’s show, it’s not for those with conservative ideas about which body parts should be displayed – or put to imaginative use – in performance.”
Heroes @ Monkey Barrell (Venue 515), until August 27