The Fringe programme is amazing and sprawling as always. To help you make your picks here are three of our suggestions that you might like to include in your Fringe mix.
Top Show from a Scottish artist – Lunchbox
Pleasance Courtyard (The Green) @ 16:45
Scottish Pakistani female actress, comedian and writer Lubna Kerr is well known on the Scottish circuits. She’s been at the Fringe in recent years with her shows Tickbox and Chatterbox – an insightful trilogy about her own upbringing, looking at race, perception and identity. Now she’s back with part three; Lunchbox explores similar themes but also delves into bullying and belonging and confronts the prejudice and challenges that many young people must navigate during their formative school years.
Set in a secondary school in Glasgow, this powerful solo show delves into the dynamic between two teenagers who live on the same street but experience the world very differently. Taking on all the roles, Kerr examines the impact of bullying through the eyes of these two young people as directly influenced by their environments and upbringing.
This multi-rolling even involves playing Steven, a troubled Scottish boy, and Lubna, a Pakistani girl! On a quest to find her true passion, Kerr seeks refuge from the challenges of adolescence in her lunchtime drama club, whilst Steven seems destined for a life as a perpetrator.
Told through the nostalgic lens of playground politics, this compelling and timely piece asks whether our paths are defined by where we come from or whether we can rewrite our own stories. Lunchbox presents a deeply personal exploration of cultural identity, adolescence and the long-lasting impact of childhood encounters.
And if you’re curious to go further back to time Kerr will also be performing Chatterbox from 18th – 25th August at Pleasance Courtyard (The Green) at 13:00.
Top Musical – Midnight at the Palace
Gilded Balloon Patter House (Big Yin) @ 21:30
Be prepared to get on your feet with this edgy new musical that you won’t want to miss. It’s directed by acclaimed director and choreographer Paul McGill (Fame, 2009; Man on Wire, 2008; Smash, NBC). The Edinburgh Reporter team have heard some of the original music a bit ahead of the Fringe and we were wowed.
Do you remember The Cockettes? The iconic and flamboyant drag ensemble from the 1970s, who paved the way for artists from Prince to David Bowie, and RuPaul to Madonna. Well, this new musical is inspired by them. Think raucous hilarity, think rebellion, think disco, think pop, think outlandish and outrageous. You’re on the right lines. Midnight at the Palace is a lens into this genre-pushing world in an eccentric and dazzling celebration of the queens who came before.
Midnight at the Palace dismantles the lines between art and showbiz, politics and performance. Audiences are invited to join the original ‘F*ck You Counterculture’ troupe for a night of radical joy and glitter-encrusted anarchy.
A fever dream of gender-bending hippies, freaks and drag queens, Midnight at the Palace invokes the real-life story of The Cockettes. Radical founder Hibiscus (then George Harris) is the renowned subject of one of the 20th century’s most recognisable photographs when they put a flower into the muzzle of a soldier’s gun during a Vietnam War protest.
The group became a symbol of authenticity in an era of civil strife and unrest. Paying homage to the multi-decade journey of this legendary group, the original score from Brandon James Gwinn (Two Birds & One Stone, Trixie Mattel; It Takeis Two, George Takei; Small Town Story, Village Theatre, American Theatre Group) brings to life the electricity and excitement of The Cockettes in the 1970s for a modern-day audience.
Brandon James Gwinn comments, As a huge fan of the music and culture of the late ‘60s, it has been nothing less than a party to create music that tells the story of this incredible troupe of visionary weirdos. The goal is to use the palette that comes with the sounds of the times to create something as uniquely queer, imperfect and passion-filled as the original Cockettes. The challenge becomes to make theatre that honours their story, but make it wacky, asymmetrical, even transgressive, to honour their spirit.
Rae Binstock adds, The Cockettes were a bunch of young people in a world that was falling apart. They dealt with it by making art and connecting with each other and being outrageously, monstrously, deliciously themselves. Writing this show has brought me back into my own present, into the pain and importance of being alive moment to moment, and strengthened my faith in the power of art to keep the world spinning.
Top play – Beth Wants the D
Pleasance Courtyard (Baby Grand) @ 13:45
Tickets here
One in twenty people live with serious mental illness and this show is all about writer and performer Beth May’s own struggle with bipolar disorder. Raw and real, Beth doesn’t hold back telling us what she’s been through and what her life looks like – it’s honest, oh so personal and utterly hilarious.
Offering a comedic insight into intrusive thoughts, Beth Wants the D confronts death and delusion as Beth takes audiences through the extreme highs and lows to the scariest thing of all – a future full of hope.
With wit as sharp as it is self-aware, renowned podcast host and actor Beth May unravels her experience with bipolar, suicidal thoughts and the razor-thin line between sanity and madness. While Beth Wants the D embraces the absurdity of the chaos of the mind through a fast-paced comedic lens, it never loses sight of the very real consequences of mental illness.
A surprisingly relatable cathartic experience for audience members in response to Beth’s own turbulent journey. Beth May’s story is one of strength, survival and finding humour in the darkest of places; sometimes, the best way to face your demons is to laugh in their faces.
Writer and performer Beth May comments, I think this show might be helpful for people. People with mental illness, particularly those who deal with psychosis or have substance use issues, are often feared and vilified, and many times they haven’t survived to share their story. My story can’t bring them back or even do justice to their experiences, but it can show people that the curtain between sanity and madness is shockingly thin, and that our values are sometimes fragile. I think this show makes the case that even when things are so bleak and even when you feel like you’re CRAZY, you can come back from this. I think that’s a message worth spreading. Or maybe I’m just an ego-maniac!
