Dillie said: “I wasn’t supposed to be doing the Festival alone. I was supposed to be up in Edinburgh as per usual with my buddies in Fascinating Aïda, wringing the last drops of fun from our recent show, Charm Offensive before taking a year off to write the next show. And then Adèle Anderson, the Dame, my friend, colleague and collaborator of over 30 years, was diagnosed with cancer, and suddenly all our lives were upended, hers most of all. So our little break will be rather longer than ever intended, and I shall be solo-ing more than I’d ever planned, and keeping the name of Fascinating Aïda alive in my own way.”
After celebrating 30 years of Fascinating Aida, Dillie Keane is taking a break from the trio to bring audiences her brand spanking new show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 6 – 31 August – her first solo show there in 557 years, written by her and Adèle Anderson..
Brand new songs, grand old favourites, gorgeous songs of love and hilarious songs of disgraceful filth. Dillie will break your heart, mend it again and have it sent to the cleaners for pressing. And she’ll give you her recipe for chutney while she’s at it.
As founding member of Fascinating Aida, Dillie has amassed over 17 million hits on Youtube for their charming and now infamous takes on a variety of topics from Cheap Flights to OFSTED to Dillie’s notorious ode to dogging, which itself has reached 2 million hits so far.
Having studied music at Trinity College, Dublin and acting at LAMDA, Keane founded Fascinating Aida in 1983, discovering her now long term writing partner Adèle Anderson who joined in 1984. With the trio she has enjoyed 30 years of success, playing countless tours around the UK and Ireland, featuring stints in London theatres including the Donmar Warehouse, Theatre Royal, Haymarket, the Apollo and the Garrick. Further afield they have played shows theatres on New Zealand, New York, South Africa as well as one month at the Sydney Opera House.
Away from Fascinating Aida, Keane has presented a number of one woman shows both in the West End and at the Edinburgh Festival as well as developing her acting career in plays such as The Plough and the Stars (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Juno and the Paycock (Leicester Haymarket); Present Laughter (Birmingham Rep) and the Dublin premiere of The Vagina Monologues.
Submitted by Arabella Neville-Rolfe
