Fringe 2023

Scottish jazz guitarist and singer Aki Remally, who also performed in the Hendrix & Us show at this year’s Fringe, brings the music of black conscious American poet and author Gil Scott-Heron back to Edinburgh for a sell-out show.Along with Fraser Urquhart on...

A Scots schoolgirl singer who wowed judges on TV's The Voice Kids UK is performing in TWO shows on the Fringe.Elyssa Tait, 13, reached the finale of the hit ITV show last month after stunning judges Pixie Lott, Will.i.am, Ronan Keating and Danny Jones...

Luminescence, a collaboration between the visual artist Maria Rud and saxophonist Tommy Smith, opened in St Giles’ Cathedral on Thursday night as part of the Fringe.It is completely improvised in the moment – Smith had no idea what he was going to play as...

Gyles Brandreth is that annoying geezer on in the background of my mother’s telly when I go visit her.And queuing for his Gyles Brandreth Can’t Stop Talking! show (he really can’t) at Assembly George Square it was ladies of a certain age, and a...

A Bloody DelightSad-Vents is not a play about making its audience feel comfortable. And maybe that’s exactly why you ought to see this tragicomedy dripping with talent this Fringe. As audiences arrive at the Underbelly’s Jersey space, the actor begins with a disclaimer of the graphic...

Former First Minister, Alex Salmond is coming back to the Fringe in a new show The Ayes Have It! The Ayes Have It! along with Succession star Brian Cox, CBE, and former Speaker John Bercow in the Speaker's chair for a couple of nights...

From King Charles to Keir Starmer, Prince Harry to Putin, Sunak to Strikes and Sleaze, no stone will be left unturned.Expect 100% brand-new material from this multi award-winning institution where much of the content is written by the preposterously talented cast and creative...

IN the last full year before the general election, the legendary show returns with all the latest political dramas, characters, questions and unreliable predictions. Can Starmer win? Has Sunak a path to victory? Has the SNP peaked? Can Brexit ever be done? Let's try to make...

Mad or just angry – she’s certainly alone. Jazz icon Zelda Fitzgerald is locked up in a mental hospital and has just hours to live. Award-winning actress Catherine D. DuBord and Texan director Lydia Mackay will premiere their new version of The Last Flapper by William Luce...

Shahar Marom told us about his Fringe show, the Machine Man Spectacle at the Hill Street Theatre.He explains: " I try to answer seven questions by using seven machines that were built especially for that purpose: Why do we look for fame? Can...

Joe Wells rattles off his artfully constructed ironic jokes and wry observations on life as an autistic person so fast it's hard sometimes to keep up. His mind is fizzing with comic ideas and as each is chucked into the mix and morphs into the...

Geraldine Hickey is a popular comedian in Australia, where she won the best show award at the 2021 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Not yet a household name but a talented comic who has put in the work over many years and whose star is...

Pleasance have reported that their 39th Fringe was a great success with more than 36,000 people visiting the Courtyard on the busiest day in August.The company sold more than 480,000 tickets which is a 10% increase on last year. The Pleasance Theatre Trust...

RuPaul stars Baga Chipz and Anita Wigl'it pose at Virgin Hotels Edinburgh as they begin their Fringe shows at Gilded Balloon. Baga Chipz and Anita Wigl'it performed at a one-off Drag Brunch at Virgin Hotels Edinburgh, in the midst of their run at Gilded Balloon...

YOU just never know where and when you will find a gem. Up on The Lawnmarket on Riddles Court, a audience packed out the space for this show.They were well rewarded with, what it says on the title. From the Wild West to...

The play Arthur Miller would write after getting kicked in the head by a horseDeath of a Salesman. Our Town. A Streetcar Named Desire. And now, Bad Play. American sketch comedy group Big Tobacco has set out to write the next great American drama,...

Renowned Kiwi/Canadian/Jewish comedienne Deb Filler recounts her hilarious quest to meet ‘The Three Lennys’ in Kravitz, Bernstein, Cohen, and Me.Deb Filler is an internationally acclaimed comic, musician, writer-performer, producer and character actor. Her Jewish identity forms the basis of much of her work, creating...

Dozens of comedians have joined together in Edinburgh to pay a special tribute to a tragic stand up in a daily show that has become one of the most popular performances on the Fringe.Stars from the world of comedy including Frank Skinner, Dara Ó...

The weather might not have been playing ball at the launch of the Assembly Food Festival in Assembly George Square Gardens on Friday night, but it certainly didn’t put a dampener on the event.This is the lull before the storm (which might be...

Three women on a stage covered in foliage, one dressed in green, one in blue, one in brown. This is the story of Sleeping Beauty, right? So one of them must be the princess who was woken with a kiss and lived happily ever...

Scent at Greenside Infirmary Street4 StarsTHIS performance deserved more than the small audience it got on Thursday evening so we hope this review will encourage you to go.This was a thoughtful, honest, emotional performance by Stacey Cullen, who really brought us into this woman's crisis...

An unlikely star takes the stage in witty new comedy at Edinburgh Festival Fringe.As summer heats up, so does the anticipation for the Fringe. The new play Ringer is a humorous dive into the complex world of overworked actors and is the debut work...

Skinner is immediately drawn to a man in the front row with a black kilt, sparkly black jacket and cane.He proves to be something of a comic foil for Frank throughout the show and loves every minute. The 66-year-old refers back to when...

A one-man show about Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, who with Sir Edmund Hillary was one of the first mountaineers to successfully conquer Everest on his seventh attempt.‘Tomorrow is a big day. Our first attempt to reach the summit. That was our plan, but mountains have...

An award-winning comedian has had her Edinburgh Fringe opening night thrown into chaos after thousands of pounds worth of musical instruments were lost by an airline.Australian TV star and musician Michelle Brasier has been left scrambling to find instruments to perform hit show Reform,...

This was a story written before the pandemic, and performed on the Fringe last year, but the importance of the story remains sadly topical.The performers (and there are only two) are formerly members of much lauded circus troupes such as Circa and Cirque...

If you like your stand-up comedy delivered on steroids then Josh Elton is the man for you."Hello, Wembley! Have we got a lot of energy. Is this wicked! We are in for a helluva show," he said, bounding on stage after corralling the early-afternoon...

Three huge tongues – resin sculptures – lie on custom-made steel plinths. The tip of one points up, another points down.Their shiny, red, gelatinous surfaces are like jellyfish. We want to look inside them, to see what lies beneath, but we won’t. The...

Guffy at the Pleasance Courtyard4 starsWE always feel that the mark of a good production is that you want to see more of the work of not only the actors but the writer/director as well.The performance of Georgia Blue Ireland as Guffy was a tour...

What happens when an Action Hero walks into a small sound booth by themselves, alone on a dark stage? That’s what audiences can find out over six performances starting on 22 August when Summerhall hosts a collaboration between the Action Hero partnership and Deborah...