Issue 2

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E N E E T S CHRI NGEROUS DARK&DA

8–11 AUGUST 2014 — YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE FESTIVAL

‘YOU CANNOT FAIL TO BE AMAZED...

A MASTERPIECE’ BERLINER MORGENPOST

INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED

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30 JULY - 25 AUGUST 2014

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30 JULY - 25 AUGUST 2014

HOT IT’S BALCOKU!T DUB TOTAL SEL E 2013

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THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

Your complete guide to the Festival PUBLISHER Sam Friedman

FRIDGE They’re oddly overlooked amid the frenzy of the Festival. But fear not: Fest brings you coverage of Fringe performers’ best-stocked fridges.

EDITOR Evan Beswick CREATIVE DIRECTOR Matthew MacLeod DEPUTY EDITOR Tom Hackett THEATRE EDITOR-AT-LARGE Matt Trueman COMEDY EDITOR-AT-LARGE Lyle Brennan

Glenn Cosby

“As the Fringe’s only comedy baker my fridge is a bit bipolar.

There is fruit and veg for healthy breakfast juices and lunches and also a metric ton of baking margarine and litres of cream for the cakes I produce on stage each day. Because we’re from Devon we also have some cider”

WEB EDITOR & SUB EDITOR John Hewitt Jones PHOTO EDITOR & COVER Weronika Bachleda WRITING TEAM Ed Ballard, Billy Barrett, Sean Bell, Lyle Brennan, Jo Caird, Tom Hackett, Julian Hall, Si Hawkins, Dan Hutton, Ben Judge, Miranda Kiek, Andrew Latimer, Catherine Love, Edd McCracken, Brett Mills, Lewis Porteous, Stewart Pringle, Arianna Reiche, Lucy Ribchester, Jay Richardson, Alice Saville, Joe Spurgeon, Tom Wicker

SALES & MARKETING Gillian Brown, Lara Moloney, Tom McCarthy, George Sully, John Stansfield

@festmag www.festmag.co.uk hello@festmag.co.uk Founded by Dan Lerner and Helen Pidd Published by Fest Media Limited, Registered in Scotland, number SC344852. Registered office 3 Coates Place, Edinburgh, EH3 7AA Every effort has been made to check the accuracy of the information in this magazine, but we cannot accept liability for information which is inaccurate.

Show times and prices are subject to changes always check with the venue. All rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reprodiced in whole or in part without the explicit permission of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the printer or the publisher.

4 fest 5–7 August 2014

GLENN COSBY: FOOD JUNKIE Assembly Roxy, 4:00pm – 5:00pm, until 25 aug, not 11, £7.00 – £14.00

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Contents 8

The CHRISTEENE Machine

Dark, subversive, and utterly mesmerising - CHRISTEENE pushes the boundaries of good taste

12 Over the Hump They might be advanced in years, but this isn’t stand up sitting down. Fest talks to some of the old folks telling jokes

16

The Art of Circus

If any company makes the case for circus as an art form, it’s Circa

19 - Comedy

Nick Swallow, Will Franken, Tim Vine and dozens more of the best Festival comedy

39 - Theatre 64 - Music 67 - Kids 70 - Listings

Hayani relates an emotionally powerful autobiographical story from South Africa One-man extravaganza Dandy Darkly’s Pussy Panic! fails to impress

Tall Stories apply their unique brand of story theatre to Emily Brown and the Thing

Your essential guide to what’s on at the world’s biggest arts festival

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6 fest 5–7 August 2014

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5–7 August 2014 fest 7

MUSIC&CABARET

“ YOU GOTTA

SLAP THEM. PICK THEM UP.

SHAKE THEM.

“

Dark, subversive and utterly mesmerising, The CHRISTEENE Machine is a true Fringe experience. Evan Beswick meets an artist who wants to slap you, then cradle you…

Photos: Weronika Bachleda. Thanks to Anteaques tea house and antiques store, Clerk Street

S

aturday night: I’m watching CHRISTEENE haul herself around the stage, growling explicitly sexual lyrics, and simulating obscene acts on her backing dancers.

Hard, aggressive disco music shakes the low ceiling, as the trio—CHRISTEENE and her two hairy, sweaty co-conspirators—thrash through a set that crashes against boundaries of taste and acceptability. One song, ‘Big Shot’ is a masterful befuddlement of gender roles. With bombast stolen from the most macho of hip hop, she goads and berates the “boyz”; they, meanwhile, ornament her with coloured fans, striking deeply feminine and oddly alluring poses. It’s thrilling, but also deeply, worryingly subversive.

Tuesday afternoon: CHRISTEENE is laughing as a dainty pot of jasmine pearl arrives in the tea and antiques shop where we’ve agreed to meet. “It’s just like my grandma’s!

This is so fuckin’ crazy!” she giggles. A customer walks in, claps eyes on a transvestite with blue contacts, smeared makeup, threadbare clothing and a taped-on heel. They nervously handle some pricey relics, and shuffle out. “Is it time to pour the tea? Mine’s turned a nice pissy colour!”

As our conversation continues, CHRISTEENE observes, in her sassy (but low) Texan drawl, that “Britain is just as fucked up as America” and points to her very recent discovery of Mr Blobby as existence of this. “Who thought

8 fest 8–11 August 2014

this would be good for children? I mean, he talks like a demon!” I mention that the bulbous, spotty character once released a chart-topping single (a copy of which I, shamefully, owned) and immediately she’s on to me, politely insisting that I provide a rendition. “Blobby, oh Mr Blobby, if only you could make us understand...” “Understand what?” she laughs. Night or day, it seems, there is no such thing as an ordinary time in the company of CHRISTEENE. Then again, there’s little by way of firm ground when it comes to identifying exactly who CHRISTEENE is.

Nominally, Christeene Vale is a genderqueer act, the alter ego of Paul Soileau and the second of his female creations.

Over the past five years, CHRISTEENE and her boyz have produced an album and a series of music videos – titles such as ‘Fix my Dick’ and ‘Tears from my Pussy’ showing a pugilistic disregard for all that is tasteful and wholesome. It is, however, not quite that simple. Firstly, the “drag” label.

CHRISTEENE laughs: “Oh no! The ones who do come to see drag are the first ones to leave! Because they’ve been told it’s drag. ‘This is a drag queen, I understand’. No, no, no, no, no. That’s waaaaay to easy. Don’t fuckin’ play me that way!”

“I like them drag shows, don’t get me wrong. I like to see some good old fashioned trashy drag. Fun, campy u

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MUSIC&CABARET

www.festmag.co.uk

8–11 August 2014 fest 9

MUSIC&CABARET t︎ drag. But that’s not what I’m meant to be doing.”

It is, she says, the liberating space of the “middle ground” that drives what she does – “that really beautiful place in the middle that I’ve always felt for ever and ever but I’ve had to fight through the bullshit of the structures that they’ve given us growing up.”

“I don’t feel one way or the other in the gender realm. I have a dick.

I have long hair. I have nails. I wear heels. I have a little bit of everything, and I’m not claiming to be one or the other.”

Secondly there’s the shock factor.

I put it to CHRISTEENE that the show is specifically and gratuitously designed to shock and unsettle. On one level, she’s on board. The show is definitely “aggressive” – a real shock to the system for those who have only seen the online videos.

These are, on the whole, a more tongue-in-cheek affair than sweatily squaring up with CHRISTEENE and the boys in a live show.

“We serve you the puddin’ first!” is how she gleefully puts it. “It needs to be an assault. You know, when someone’s hysterical you gotta slap them. Pick them up. Shake them.

And the audience needs to be woken up quick.”

She slaps her hands excitedly. “I want these images to be other-wordly. These pandas pissing on this masked monster pulling shit out of her ass and screaming, and lights flashing at you and the smells...” This is, as it happens, a fairly good précis of the opening blitzkrieg of The CHRISTEENE Machine.

But willfully disturbing? She’s not convinced: “No, if somebody gets scared I want to cradle them.”

“I feel very sexy and settled when I do the show. It’s definitely designed to wake you up – to make you think some things you haven’t thought in a long time. Like: ‘those boys look sexy’. But they don’t look like the boys in the magazines you’re always getting shoved at you, right? All muscly and all boom boom.”

Right. They are certainly not magazine beauties. She explains: “They are sexy because of what they are doing, and their energy coming at you, and their femininity coming at you and blowing you out the water. You know, we’re all animals, we’ve all got feminine and masculine and something in the middle going on up there, so I think the show taps into that for a lot of people. And they stay, and they don’t run.”

I absolutely believe it. In conversation, as on stage, CHRISTEENE is thoroughly engaging and, when she’s on a roll (as above) a little bit mesmerising. But I’m still not sure who the person eating Dundee cake opposite me is. Where does CHRISTEENE stop and Paul Soileau start? “That’s a difficult question for me,” she says. “Everything I’ve been telling you is about that.”

In any practical sense, it is near-impossible to squeeze a cigarette paper between the two. “Internally, it’s all one with the other,” she explains. So it’s not a character, I ask? “No. It’s more of a possession.

10 fest 8–11 August 2014

“I don’t feel one way or the other in the gender realm. I have a dick. I have long hair. I have nails. I wear heels.”

“Things start out as a character when they knock on your door. But for me, they’re founded in a feeling – an emotion or a problem or a joy. This is the product of what I was feeling when I was in that storm. And when these creatures knock on your door... you have to kind of go on a date with them. And you go on a date with them, in whatever form they feel. And they you say, ‘Do you want to go on another date with them?’

“It’s just like any other relationship,” she says, as serious as she has been all afternoon. “You start to go on lots of little dates with them. Dress them up. Let them talk, not you. And if they turn out to be something you really want to invest your love in, just like any other lover you have... I just happen to have lovers in my mind.”

Whatever it is, it’s an intensely creative relationship. A stand-out moment from the show is, perhaps, illustrative.

After the hammer and tongs opening, CHRISTEENE delivers a monologue which glows with imaginative heat, using an image of “the woods” as both a biographical and metaphorical site for personal and sexual exploration.

“That’s when we get you. And when I say get you, I mean that’s when the audience starts to listen. When we talk about the woods it’s so beautiful and we are all there, because we found an element from our childhood before it got fucked up. And we present to you this really dark and beautiful pageantry, to remind you that you have an imagination still too – that things can be beautiful, not only in the woods but in there. And then we take you there and we read to you, and we hit you hard…

“And then we pull you right back out of it and shit you back into the world!”

Underbelly, 10:10pm – 11:10pm, 1–23 Aug, not 10, 17 Aug, £12

www.festmag.co.uk

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8–11 August 2014 fest 11

COMEDY

OVER THE

HUMP They might be advanced in years, but this isn’t stand up sitting down. Miranda Kiek meets some of the old folks telling jokes Photos: Weronika Bachleda

Right: Lynn Miller

“Y

ou’re going to have to talk slowly, sweetheart, I’m deaf,” says comedian Lynn Ruth Miller over the phone. It’s also a very bad line. “Are you already in Edinburgh?” I ask. “I’m in Edinburgh but I’m from San Francisco,” she says in the voice of one correcting a misunderstanding. Clearly interviewing eighty-one-yearolds comes with its own unique set of challenges.

Miller is one of a rotating line-up of performers in Old Folks Telling Jokes – a showcase for the older stand up.

She is a former academic who, at the age of 70, took a comedy course in order to write about it for a newspaper (“I didn’t believe you could teach people to be funny”). Eleven years on she has established a highly successful career as a stand up.

In Lewis Carroll’s immortal comic poem, ‘You are old Father William’, a dumbfounded youth repeatedly questions Father William as to the origins of his unquenchable goose-crunching, back-somersaulting, head-standing energy. I know how the youth feels. Me: “You’re doing five shows, you’re 81! Aren’t you going to be exhausted?” Miller [reprovingly]: “Honey, I don’t party, I don’t go out on dates, I don’t cook dinner for anybody, I get up in the morning and my life is my performance. I get 8 hours of sleep. I eat three meals a day. I am not anorexic.”

Cor, what a woman! I bet Miller wears purple, with a red hat that doesn’t go – that is when she’s wearing anything at all. Stripping is a speciality. She doesn’t get down to her

12 fest 8–11 August 2014

panties she hastens to reassure me (just in case I’m prudish) but she does wear some “very strip-y chemises.” Wait a moment, she’s just remembered, she does begin one of her songs completely starkers (it’s the sort of thing which can slip your mind) – but she is behind a screen. I ask the obvious question, why, why does she do it? Isn’t there something almost masochistic about exposing her ageing body, a body already abused through her years of extreme eating disorders (Miller used to suffer from bulimia) and asking the audience to laugh at it? u

“Shows with premodifiers, be that gay comedians, Jewish comedians or old ones, tend to be shit” www.festmag.co.uk

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8–11 August 2014 fest 13

COMEDY

Above: Lewis Shaffer

t︎ It was happenstance initially. Miller needed a song for her act and the only one she could remember the words to was Johnny Mercer’s ‘Strip Polka’, “I’d learnt that song when I was a little girl. I had no idea what the woman was doing. I knew she was taking off something, but I didn’t know what.” She took her clothes off to be funny, “But then I do everything to be funny.” Audiences liked it and it “built up”. Before she started stripping the most people saw of her body was her head and feet, she shrouded herself in turtle necks and long skirts. Now she says she has far more body-confidence. “It’s changed the way I dress, it’s changed the way I think about things. Women are far too hung up on what they look like, every woman hates the way they look. I want them to see my body, it’s terrible, it’s 81 years old, it sags all over the place, bulges where it shouldn’t and I’m a very happy woman.”

I suspect the stripping was also a useful tool for breaking into the comedy circuit. Miller is quite clear that as a woman, and a very elderly one, she faced a double whammy of discrimination: “Bookers thought it was just a whim, and as a pensioner I had no right to be taking away paying work from younger comedians.”

It’s one of the reasons comedy producer Geoff Rowe set up Old Folks Telling Jokes in the first place, to give older comedians a chance, to convince the public that stand up is not the preserve of the young – that wit, like wisdom, may increase alongside crow’s feet. He’s delighted by the recent success of the Pythons’ reunion, noting that there was scarcely a newspaper account which did not mention the sum total of their ages. “In terms of audience response there do seem to be a huge number of older people who want to go and see older comedians.” I suggest that this is an attractive prospect to a producer; everyone’s after the well-off baby boomer market. He doesn’t deny it. True, the audience of the show I attend is older than the usual Fringe comedy crowd, just not that much more mature.

Lewis Schaffer, another comedian in the line up, is more sceptical. “Shows with pre-modifiers, be that gay comedians, Jewish comedians or old ones, tend to be shit,” he says and tells me he’s only allowing himself to be ghettoised for the money. I’m not sure how far he is joking. But then, perhaps, he’s right to be peeved – he’s only 57, and if that makes him old, I’m middle-aged and Lynn Ruth Miller is anti-diluvian. “I’m old, I’m dealing with it, I’m learning how

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to handle it,” says Schaffer when I put this to him, “I’d only be middle-aged if I was going to live to over 100, which I’m not.” But as he says, “I’m not just on this show because I’m old, but that’s a part of it, I’m on this show because I’m a unique voice in British comedy today... Could you just pretend I didn’t say that?”

The mitigating factor of this show-with-a-modifier, Schaffer tells me, is that all “the comedians are funny. I’ve seen a list and you’d have them on any show. These are not just old people, they are funny. It’s unfortunate that it’s called Old Folks Telling Jokes. It’s not going to be jokes about being old or for old people, it’s going to be jokes that anybody could enjoy, and will enjoy.”

So has being “old” (his word, not mine) affected his comedy in anyway? “I think a thirty-year-old in trouble is sadder than a 57-year-old in trouble. Maybe that’s what makes what I do funny, because I’m so old, people know that I’m in trouble but I’ve survived so the chances are good that I’m going to survive tomorrow, that makes it more entertaining.”

Miller has a different take on how her age has affected her comedy. It gives her a longer term perspective on life and its absurdities. In her day, she tells me, “A pot was something you cooked in. Now it’s marijuana. And pornography has set a whole new standard for sex. You have to be an Olympic athlete to do all that stuff.”

And yes, perhaps that’s closer to the truth of the show itself. While Rowe might maintain that not all the humour is about, “bus passes, going to the post office and watching Countdown” – that sort-of thing, plus Viagra and antacids, undeniably accounts for a lot of the laughs. This does not mean the jokes are stale, or cosy. They may be jokes about being old, told by oldish folks, but the jokes themselves aren’t old.

One more thing does occur to me: everyone knows that the old are more vulnerable to illness. Does this pose any practical difficulties? Does Rowe need to find, not to put too fine a point on it, a bigger reserve list? Is this stand-up done sitting down? Rowe laughs, “There was some joking over filling in the risk assessment form, but so far there have been no problems. We haven’t had to build a ramp to help get the performers on stage.” n MIRANDA KIEK Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 4:15pm – 5:15pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, not 12 Aug, £7

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Richard Fry and The Gilded Balloon present

Stories from

the B-side of pop

Gilded Balloon Nightclub, Bristo Square | gildedballoon.co.uk | 0131 622 6552

30 July - 25 August 12.30pm £7 (previews £5)

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8–11 August 2014 fest 15

THEATRE

Circus of the Subconscious If any company makes the case for circus as an art form, it’s Circa. Matt Trueman meets artistic director Yaron Lifschitz and performer Rowan Heydon-White

“I

hate circus.” This is how one editor’s email (not Fest’s) starts.

No niceties. No hope-you’re-wells. Circus-hating. My pitch— circus-centric as it is—is clearly dead in the water. “Well,” the email backtracks momentarily, “I don’t hate it. I just don’t think it’s art.”

Coming from the arts editor of a national newspaper, this is a big statement. This is someone, after all, who decides the art that you get to read about. That, in turn, affects what we value and accept as culturally significant. If they say, “Classical Ballet, yes; Scottish Dancing, no,” that matters. It comes with consequences.

It determines whether something is deemed high or low art, who gets to hear about it, whether it’s in or out. Circus, apparently, is definitely out. Not art. Case closed.

There’s no better rebuttal to that position than Circa, the Australian outfit that emerged from the ashes of Rock and Roll Circus in 2006, under the leadership of artistic director Yaron Lifschitz.

It’s not that Circa revolutionized circus—companies like Circus Oz and, dare I say, Cirque du Soleil had already pushed it well past sawdust and screamer marches—but they pared it back to something stripped down and raw. As contemporary circus had grown in confidence, it had also grown in size and sweep, serving grand spectaculars for a global audience. Lifschitz and Circa returned it to a human scale: of bodies, of effort, of expression.

“The tradition of contemporary circus had been to take the act and layer it with a sort of literalness: put lycra on it, give it a context or a story and assume that it’s going to mean something,” Lifschitz tells me over Skype from Melbourne. “What I did was to say, ‘Let’s get rid of everything. Let’s get rid of characters, costumes, sets, story. Let’s look at the fact that there seems to be a specific gravity to everything we do, a set of basic operators: line, shape, form. That’s where our early work started.”

Since then, Circa have spliced circus with Shostakovich, twisted it into contemporary dance, filled cathedrals with angelic aerialists, and, in this year’s Edinburgh offering, Beyond, toyed with Darwin’s theory of evolution and the notion of animal spirits. Last year, the company won a special Total Theatre award for their influence on a new generation of circus companies: Pirates of the Carabina, 3 is a Crowd and A Simple Space, to name a few.

All this stems from a different approach to theatricality: not more dramatic, but more absorbing and intense. “Circus tends to be added

16 fest 8–11 August 2014

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THEATRE to,” says Lifschitz, “More tricks, more people, more set, more theatricality. Then we wonder why there’s nothing very present, artistically.”

Lifschitz does the opposite. Presence is all.

Lifschitz, who describes himself as a “failed theatre director,” drew his inspiration from companies like Complicite, DV8, Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal. “What I craved was heart and intensity.” He turned to circus not out of any particular pull to the medium—“As an art-form and an aesthetic, circus isn’t really my thing,” he says—but rather because he “was interested this idea of the human body pushed to an extreme where it becomes a kind of emotional thing.”

That, according to performer Rowan Heydon-White, lends Circa’s work an authenticity that sets it apart. “Seeing your muscles work,” she says, stretching out as part of a post-show warm-down, “Seeing us sweat and pant and breathe, putting our all into something, is part of what makes it beautiful and interesting.” Circa tries “not to hide that from an audience and go ‘Ta-da,’ but to go ‘Look what our human bodies are achieving’.”

Heydon-White has just come offstage in St Étienne.

She’s both a base and a trapeze artist, which means that, in addition to flying through the air with the greatest of ease and whatnot, she spends much of every show with other members of the company—usually men—stacked u

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8–11 August 2014 fest 17

THEATRE

t︎ up on her shoulders. One routine in Beyond, sees her solve a Rubix Cube while strolling about the stage with a man stood upright on her head. She frowns with concentration. Her neck muscles brace themselves. It’s not spectacular or showy, but it’s certainly impressive and engaging. You know how much it takes. You live that with her.

“We don’t make our routines by stringing our hardest tricks together,” Heydon-White explains, still touching her toes in the teddy-roll position. “Circus can be more than a wow factor. In today’s world, you can get your wows anywhere. You can see Olympic gymnasts on your television or a man jumping out of a spaceship online. Our world is so saturated with the wow factor that it’s not enough any more.”

In other words, Circa’s less concerned with virtuosity than with expression. “It’s not just ‘I can do this trick,’” continues Heydon-White, “It’s ‘how else can I do this trick?”

That playfulness, pushing at the possibilities, governs Circa’s process. Lifschitz sees his role as akin to “the grain of sand that irritates an oyster into producing a pearl.” He’s constantly “asking impertinent questions: ‘What if you did that back to front? What if you did it blindfolded?’” Every act is put through its paces, “pulled apart, folded back on itself, explored.”

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In that way, Lifschitz and Circa are able to imbue each show with a very specific flavour. Their last show, Opus, was “monumental: big music, big ideas.” Beyond is more playful and delightful, “like your subconscious on a really good day.” Not that Circa’s shows have a fixed meaning.

They’re more abstract than that. “I’ve never been worried about the ‘abouts’ very much,” says Lifschitz.

All of this puts the emphasis squarely on personality rather than pure ability. “I say to my performers that everything they do could be done much better by a welltrained monkey. We’re a weak, inflexible species. What makes circus amazing is our humanity.” As such, he looks beyond hypermobility and concrete abs to “artists who have brains and hearts.”

As if to prove it, I mention that editor’s reaction—“great as acrobatics, but that’s all”—to Heydon-White. She sits bolt upright, legs still at some stupidly obtuse angle, and scoffs.

“Art is, by definition, anything that can affect you emotionally, change you or change your perspective on the world.

It has the ability to revolutionise the world, be that in the minute details of one person’s life or an entire culture. If circus isn’t an art, then I don’t know what is.” n MATT TRUEMAN Underbelly, Bristo Square, 7:00pm – 8:00pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 20 Aug, £16.50 – £18.50

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COMEDYREVIEWS

Will Franken HHHHH A rare breed of character comedian: one who shows no affection for his creations whatsoever PAGE 26 Photo: Weronika Bachleda

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8–11 August 2014 fest 19

COMEDY

Lyle Brennan LEAD COMEDY CRITIC

Brent Weinbach

HHHHH Sheeps

HHHHH

A

mid possibly the highest concentration of comedy wonks anywhere on Earth, a show like Brent Weinbach’s should thrive. It’s comedy about comedy, from a man who looks like he’s never laughed in his life.

Weinbach is feted for his strangeness back in the States, and by way of introduction to Edinburgh, he sets out to distinguish himself from his more marketable peers. He tells us he was once banned from a standup club for being “off-putting”, and it isn’t hard to see why.

But if you ask him, his obscene, deadpan absurdism is far less objectionable than the mass-appeal bilge he mimics and corrupts. Cue a caricature of Def Comedy Jam misogyny that mutates from a “white people be like...” routine into an Inception-style layering of a half-Filipino guy doing a black guy doing a white guy doing a black guy. Later, he subverts the everyman observational shtick in a similarly mind-bending way.

It’s conceptually clever, yet often puerile in execution: experimental, hinting at intelligent points, while also having the crowd form an a cappella fart orchestra. Thus the message that Weinbach is different is rigorously backed up. He likes to wrongfoot us, to bend mime and dance and language bizarrely out of shape.

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In his defiant bid to be as weird as he likes, Weinbach marches purposefully where more cautious comics fear to tread. He tries on accents that many would worry seem racist, as with an internal dialogue where the voice chastising him for his self-indulgence is, for some reason, Indian. His female-focused crowdwork, meanwhile—where “I’m not going to touch you” is technically true—would be too creepy for some. It’s Weinbach’s poker face that saves him here; any hint of a smirk and

it would come across as “look at me, I’m being transgressive”, but instead it’s just a sober demonstration of what it looks like when you excuse yourself from the rules.

Near the end he states, as if it were necessary, that he doesn’t like “jokes you have to get” – he’d rather chase laughs we can’t explain. If you’re a standup sitting idle between shows, or just a comedy fan who’d like to see the form put through the mincer, it’s an endeavour that demands your attention.

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COMEDY

Left: Brent Weinback Above: Sheeps

That is, of course, if you’re not already going to see Sheeps, an equally inward-looking sketch show that runs at the same time. Now a few years into the game, the ex-Cambridge Footlights trio are putting those well-schooled brains to good use, with a selection box of genre parody that sends up virtually every performance type around.

The premise, laid out during an arch bit of housekeeping, is that the boys are soon to play at Wembley. It’s the gig of their lives, and they’re gracing Edinburgh with the chance to see material being workshopped before it’s unveiled to 90,000 fans.

But each time they attack the stage with boyband gusto, they stumble over the first sketch and reset. Something’s not right with ‘Night at the Aquarium’.

For a start, it lacks a punchline. They’ll have to try it in every conceivable style and configuration – a game of theme-and-variation that grows increasingly absurd.

Past shows have established Sheeps’ fondness for a self-referential

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breed of sketch whereby everything comes with a commentary. They pause for post-skit appraisals, and it’s rare to see them play a part with any regard for sincerity. This shifts focus from the play to the players and, as personas go, they’re on to a winner. The vision of tetchy Northerner Liam Williams clashes with that of haughty artiste Alistair Roberts, while sweet, stupid Jonno (Daran Johnson to the taxman) is like the only child in a broken home, wishing everyone would just stop fighting.

This year we get to see that dynamic stretched over a framework that at once fleshes out the three characters and produces amusingly amateurish pisstakes of improv, musicals, horror, mime... the count starts to blur around 15.

Part of what makes it so impressive is that they begin with such basic raw material. Aquarium worker Iggy (Liam) wants to knock off early for his birthday, but arrogant meathead Todd (Jonno) won’t cover for him, leaving

him to mope with his mop and the sinister jellyfish (Al) that’s floating stage left. And that’s it.

After refashioning the scene into heavy-handed political allegory and tongue-twisting farce, each Sheep gets his own signature version. Liam’s patchy redraft, written angry and drunk at 3am, betrays a broken heart, while Al’s is just an excuse to hog the stage.

Jonno’s sickly-sweet rendition mocks his own role as the lovable simpleton.

This all amounts to a postmodern take on the old story of creative differences breaking up the band. It’s clever and insiderish, yet with enough goofiness to stop it seeming smug. n

LYLE BRENNAN

SHEEPS Bedlam Theatre, 9:15pm – 10:15pm, 2–24 Aug, not 11, £10.50 BRENT WEINBACH Gilded Balloon , 9:15pm – 10:15pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £10 – £12

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COMEDY Lloyd Griffith: Voice of an Angel, Body of a Trucker

HHHHH As a countertenor, Loyd Griffith is used to hitting highs and lows.

At least that’s what the tone deaf me gathers from the exhibition of his skills tonight. Ironically, it’s a very even tone that the Grimsby comic strikes throughout his modest show.

Burly and engaging, the experienced chorister meanders through a sketchy journey of his life, including the doors that singing has opened for him and the ridicule it has exposed him to as well. Episodes include singing in a choir accompanied by a wayward Dudley Moore on The National Lottery Live, and being mistaken for a woman by a builder.

A natural performer, Griffith is given to acting out some of the milestones in his life via reconstructions which enlist the help of audience members.

Unfortunately these are very one-dimensional events. Take, for instance, the example of a slow dance with someone he fancied at school. A lot of time here is spent establishing the scene with a dry ice machine, and other faffing – and you can’t help but wonder if all this effort is going to be commensurate with the punchline. You would be right to wonder.

A singalong at the close of the show to callback to a previous mention of Griffith’s singing career further underlines the gently coercive nature of the show. At several points it requires us to generate the energy required to get him from A to B. More exploration and less scene-setting and it could have been a very different story. n JULIAN HALL Pleasance Courtyard, 7:15pm – 8:15pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 11 Aug, £7.50 – £10.50

22 fest 8–11 August 2014

Rachel Parris: Live in Vegas

HHHHH If you’re not familiar with Rachel Parris... don’t be rude to the person showing you to your seat. You never know who it might be.

That said, if you don’t know Parris, you should. A musical comedian at a Fringe awash with mediocre musical comedy, Parris succeeds in distinguishing her show from the herd with wellhoned talent, and by the deceptively simple tactic of taking it as far away from Edinburgh as possible (in spirit, at least), setting it in Nevada’s neon Babylon.

The conceit of Live in Vegas places it in the ballroom of the Bette Midler Memorial Hotel (to those who protest that Midler isn’t dead, Parris points them to the hotel’s slogan: “We’re working on it.”). Here, a series of bizarre, washed-up

musical acts take to the stage: painfully posh English rock star Crispin Prentice, surprisingly progressive country singer Gracie-Lou Steinberg and monstrous diva Felice. All are portrayed by Parris, with varying consequences.

On her own, Parris is a winning presence, flitting between giddy ebullience and expertly applied darkness, easily finding the humour in between; it’s therefore disappointing that the portion of the show where she plays herself is so brief. Crispin and Gracie-Lou are both one-note characters, but when inhabiting Felice, Parris taps into a rewarding vein of demonic narcissism and toyboy lust that results in her biggest laughs and a barnstorming finale. Such highs may make the audience wish for a more consistent performance, but the calibre of Parris’s comedy is still far greater than most. n SEAN BELL Pleasance Courtyard, 4:30pm – 5:30pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 12 Aug, £9 – £11

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8–11 August 2014 fest 23

COMEDY Alfie Moore: The Naked Stun

HHHHH Here’s another dip into the casebook of Sergeant Alfie Moore, a burly, “institutionally sarcastic” policeman whose decades on the force have given him the sort of anecdotes most standups would kill for. The story of his months on the trail of a flasher, back when Moore was an idealistic rookie, develops patiently and gets good mileage out of the gulf between US cop dramas and life on the beat in Scunthorpe.

Moore’s an accomplished raconteur, spinning his yarn like the Radio 4 regular he is. It’s shot through with wry wit and adorned with some nicely written motifs: the inspector he’s trying to please but who only dishes out bollockings; police jargon and its incongruity with real-life danger; the compulsive confessor who hampers the investigation at every turn. Though light on big laughs, it’s well-researched and insightful, throwing up moments of farce that present the world of modern policing in all its illogical, bureaucratic dreariness.

Occasionally Moore caves to the urge to court cheaper laughs. A few contrived jokes—a play on “bag for life”, an outdated German porn gag—aren’t worth the effort, while a sex scene involving a uniform fetishist plays out with apologetic reluctance.

But these are blips en route to a good point: Moore’s had enough of “minor” sex crimes being trivialised, and calls for his fellow officers to realise that the local perv, if laughed off and left alone, can become a real monster.

As for us, though, he’s happy to let us giggle at the image of a sex pest in a shower cap.

Today he plays to a polite crowd who, even during the story’s taser-wielding climax, could perhaps do with 50,000 volts up the backside.

But this competent hour—closing on an even-handed defence of by-thebook policework—doesn’t quite have that sort of firepower. n LYLE BRENNAN Assembly George Square Studios, times vary, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, £9 – £11

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Liam Williams: Capitalism

HHHHH This show is called Capitalism, Liam Williams says, “to keep stupid people away”. As the hour references thinkers such as Žižek it wittingly flatters its assumed audience. But the subject matter is more interesting than that.

It examines what it means to try and engage with capitalism as an all-consuming social force, and how critiquing its potency engenders only sloganistic and ineffective gestures.

Williams is an impressive performer, shambling around the stage, berating himself. His yearning for authenticity begets a confessional approach, and his stuttering pauses puncture his trajectory every time he seems to be getting anywhere. He acknowledges the demands an audience makes of a performer, referencing television programmes and video games in

order to fulfil the required connection with a liberal audience. There’s an awesome World Cup song (knowingly untopical), and unexpected gags stab and delight.

But the show seems too untroubled by its failure to deliver a message, when there’s lived politics under the surface that could be fruitfully explored. The brutal ending demonstrates Williams’s willingness to debase himself in service of the show, but this similarly underlines the fruitlessness in attempting to stand for something.

Perhaps this is a deliberate response to his success last year, which resulted in Williams being seen as a voice of a generation. If that’s the case it appears that generation has nothing to express other than angst and resignation.

But Williams has more incisive and developed critiques to make than that, and when he stands up for them he’ll be awesome. n BRETT MILLS Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1:15pm – 2:15pm, 1–25 Aug, not 11, free

COMEDY Nick Coyle: Double Tribute

HHHHH Nick Coyle is a lonely man. So intense are his feelings of heartache and isolation that he has difficulty standing before an audience without the aid of a veil and several pairs of novelty glasses. Even once he’s built up the confidence to strip away these layers of protection and security, he remains visibly nervous, and rightly so. Double Tribute is a show in which Coyle bares not only his own soul,

but also that of his dead girlfriend Jenny. A generous performer, he even spends a portion of this moving eulogy baring the soul of Garth, the lover with whom she repeatedly cheated on him.

After introducing us to Jenny’s ashes and the cyborg he constructed as her replacement, the Australian delves into her diary so that we can better understand the woman responsible for his sexual awakening and current ennui. This leads down an unpredictable avenue of nut allergies and dystopian futures, Coyle presenting us with images so harrowing that audience members long for

novelty glasses of their own.

Coyle is a captivating performer, whose perseverance in the face of an initially baffled late night crowd pays off greatly. The hour is so densely packed full of ideas, precise physicality and surprising turns of phrase, that it’s best just to surrender and allow the comic’s unstable whimsy to wash over you. There will be far slicker shows on at the Fringe, but few so deserving of breakthrough success. n LEWIS PORTEOUS

the NHS and the fun you can have on the NRA website chat forums, shoe-horned social commentary that the previous routines can’t adequately support. A disappointment after previ-

ous simmering hours; but Stevenson will surely recover. n JULIAN HALL

Just the Tonic at The Caves, 10:00pm – 11:00pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, not 12 Aug, £8.50 – £10.50

Tiffany Stevenson: Optimist

HHHHH Tiffany Stevenson tries to get a platonic flirt on with an audience member in the front row at the top of her hour.

She’s perhaps aware that she will need as much playfulness and levity as she can muster to drive this year’s erratic material through.

After an uneven and unsurprising intro, Stevenson gets going with her framework and theme draping: namely, her recent need for a hospital operation, as well as her doctor’s bedside manner, prompting her to wonder how much of an optimist she is.

More of an optimist than could be expected, is the answer; especially given that the comic has been through a rough time with the op, and has previously suffered bouts of OCD and suicidal thoughts. The nature of the subject matter is challenging comedically, but the material that meets it is often lacking in ambition. A pall of disilluisonment hangs over much of the show.

At various points Stevenson has to ask us to get on board the “bus to Funtown” and takes back ownership of jokes that turn out to be “just for her”, as the familiar saying goes. That’s always a bad sign. Well into the show, it feels as if she is still recovering from an earlier, protacted distraction arising from a sound bleed from another venue.

Her ending extols the virtues of

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Gilded Balloon , 9:15pm – 10:15pm, 30 Jul – 23 Aug, £8.50 – £10

5–7 August 2014 fest 25

COMEDY Ria Lina: School of Riason

HHHHH One can only sympathise with Ria Lina: six months spent writing a show that deals in large part with Michael Gove’s controversial education reforms, only for Britain’s least popular politician to be dumped from his post mere weeks before her Fringe run begins. Despite this sensationally bad luck (for her, not for England’s schoolchildren), School of Riason is a witty and provocative delight, with only a few uneven elements.

Equal parts an account of Lina’s decision to homeschool her three children and a polemic against the British education system which led her to do so, the show’s greatest strength is Lina herself. Comedically, Lina is a master of the unexpected one-liner, which helps break up the more longform (though equally amusing) material in which she reflects on her homeschooling adventure. While most of her cheerfully caustic criticisms of Gove have been made before, her articulation is compelling and charismatic, and lacks the hectoring quality to which many political standups succumb.

Unlike them, Lina never loses her eloquence, or our patience.

While an accompanying PowerPoint presentation is clearly necessary to many of Lina’s jokes, it relies a little too heavily on material culled from the internet.

Meanwhile, most of her frequent interludes on the ukulele are both funny and gorgeously sung, but one ditty concerning the mutual antagonism between Britain and France feels out of place in an otherwise intelligent show.

Nevertheless, Lina’s natural grace as a comedian, as well as her vivid comic imagination, should persuade audiences to ignore such minor missteps. n SEAN BELL Gilded Balloon , 3:00pm – 4:00pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, £8 – £9

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Will Franken: The Stuff they Put in Sleep

HHHHH Will Franken is a rare breed of character comedian: one who shows no affection for his creations whatsoever. Each begins life as a recognisable grotesque, but is callously twisted into something so abstract and strange that we find ourselves unable to empathise with them on any level. They go from being people to abstract concepts, serving purely as vehicles for inspired, satirical monologues and bitter flights of fancy.

Loose and undefined, he tunes in and out of them throughout his performance, mining laughs from something more primal than mere recognition.

During an opening skit that sees him enact an interview between a

pretentious arts correspondent and a hack catchphrase comedian, Franken sets out his stall as a talent attacking the artificiality of showbusiness from within.

His ire broadens with each sketch, and by the end of the show he’s impotently shaken his fist at all forms of art, media, medicine, religion and progress.

He can be playful, as during a surreal conference call between a businessman and two pre-recorded blowhards, and utterly incendiary: an intentionally provocative Goodfellas parody sending shockwaves through the room. Often he’s both at once. But whenever the comedian strays into areas that good taste tells us he shouldn’t, we’re immediately reminded of his low status. Franken doesn’t ever punch down. This out-of-breath, sweaty man seems in thrall to some greater comic power. n LEWIS PORTEOUS Just the Tonic at The Caves, 10:40pm – 11:40pm, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £10 – £11

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8–11 August 2014 fest 27

COMEDY The Circus

HHHHH Cheer – as another daredevil takes the floor in a spangly cape. Gasp – as they promise to defy the laws of physics before your very eyes. Cackle – as each of their stunts turns out to be more rubbish than the last.

That’s the name of the game at The Circus, one of two showpiece extravaganzas being staged by the Invisible Dot. Like Mr Swallow: The Musical it’s populated by a grab bag of their regular collaborators, with Dan Atkinson’s maniacal ringmaster just about holding it all together. A lot of love has gone into making it feel like the real deal, complete with a nimble-fingered accordionist, a big top and a cannon (for blasting Paul Foot into the stratosphere). Each lineup features half of the dozen-act roster, and all concerned have had immense fun inventing alter-egos.

Tonight’s undisputed stars are Natasia Demetriou and Ellie White, as the Sexy American Girl Cousins (to whom none of these four words apply). They’re indentured to the circus—or “keerkoos”—to perform an erotic ribbon dance, a duty fulfilled with agonised, queasy reluctance.

Their mangled Mediterranean accents and graceless acrobatics have the audience in fits. Also excellent is Joseph Morpurgo as the delusional Elemento, advancing his firebreather father’s legacy by mastering wind, water and earth. He plays it with flailing limbs and ludicrous hyperbole

Ellie Taylor: Elliementary

HHHHH Ellie Taylor seems to be doing things backwards. She has already carved out a B-list TV career over the last few years in Show Me The Funny and as the host of Snog Marry Avoid?, but has now started hitchhiking up to the Fringe to establish herself as a standup.

Perhaps real reward does lie within live performance? She revisits the same venue, in almost the same timeslot, with practically identical material as in

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that shows off a knack for colourful writing.

Elsewhere there’s lion tamer Tim FitzHigham, ploughing on manfully without his beast, human cannonball Paul Foot slurring out the strange fates of his predecessors, and Phil Wang’s Unbelievable Hao spouting confused Confucianisms. It’s enough to make feigned incompetence look easy, until Eric Lampaert arrives with

a sword-swallower act lacking the knockabout charm of the rest. Despite his Frenchman’s obnoxiousness, he can’t stop self-consciousness seeping through, and it’s the only turn received with anything less than a hearty hurrah. n LYLE BRENNAN

2013. Only this time, she’s taking on a full hour instead of 30 minutes.

Pirouetting through her material with girl-next-door glances and near-perfect pacing, Taylor embodies the chatty zeitgeist of the Facebook generation – tortured as it often is.

Much of her set repackages last year’s jokes on her unglamorous modelling career, living with the parents and the strains of long-distance relationships.

Thankfully though, she also engages in pressing issues surrounding body image, the social institution of marriage and sexual equality (though her act is far from the earnestly political comedy of Josie Long or Bridget Christie).

It’s clear that Taylor has adjusted to life behind the camera with this nimble, trimmed and effortless routine.

Her box-small venue (sweltering, but equipped with DIY fans) sees punters queuing up way before the house opens, so she’s unlikely to need the PR. That said, it’s relatively benign, moderate comedy with only a hint of political edginess. She is bright, sharp-eyed and direct, and one hopes that she will return next year with even heftier social commentary. n ANDREW LATIMER

Assembly George Square Gardens, 10:30pm – 11:30pm, 31 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £14 – £16

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 12:00pm – 1:00pm, 1–22 Aug, not 11, free

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COMEDY Tim Vine: Timtiminee Timtiminee Tim Tim To You

HHHHH Without imposing subjective bias, it is safe to say that Tim Vine is not for everyone. While maintaining editorial integrity, one could even go so far as to say that an hour with Vine is many people’s idea of Hell. Indeed, to some Fringe-goers, if the cosmic war between good and evil was won by Satan’s horde, his ghoulish legions ushering humankind into the Underworld beneath a venom-blackened sky, it is entirely possible that the Seventh or Eighth Circle of Hell would be an auditorium in which Vine pulls on a boater hat and utters the words: “My girlfriend is a raspberry. I sure know how to pick ‘em.”

Through the echoes of uproarious applause, you notice that your watch has stopped running. There is

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breath at your ear. “I am the All-Master,” whispers a voice. “I am the Morning Star.” The voice is there and not there. The air is thick with the once-mortal heat of damned souls.

Tim Vine starts to jitterbug.

But that is only the opinion of a few – and they aren’t here tonight.

There is indeed that uproarious applause, and Vine’s audience of hundreds is in stitches from start to finish. There’s an injured dancing pig (“He pulled his hamstring”), and an Arnold Schwarzenegger bit. Vine

hasn’t deviated from his long-standing shtick in the slightest – his act is still a onslaught of fluffy puns, contextless musical numbers, and a smattering of the surreal. Vine provides us with no narrative structure.

He doesn’t need to: something is at work in the hearts of his fans, and if you happen to be one of them, you will adore his hyper-energetic hour. n ARIANNA REICHE Pleasance Courtyard, 7:30pm – 8:30pm, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £15 – £17

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COMEDY Dr Neal Portenza Performs His Own Autopsy Live On Stage. One Night Only. (Obviously).

HHHHH If the very thought of fully interactive standup comedy makes your toes curl, it might be worth steering clear of Josh Ladgrove’s new show. Returning to the Edinburgh Fringe with a maniacally clownish set of prop-comedy and audience-lasered material, Ladgrove reintroduces us to an old friend: his alter-ego Dr Professor Neal Portenza.

With his shaggy beard and wrestler hair, Ladgrove dons the white lab coat and applies bouffon makeup, looking like Triple-H on Art Attack. His get-up matches the demonic horseplay that, even sitting in the back row, audiences will be unable to escape. This pur-

posely farcical and downright wacky routine sees the Australian comic draw portraits of individuals in the audience, snort a face full of “drugs” and encourage everyone to get handy with some colourful foam pipes. It is an absurdly entertaining, well-timed and infectious performance that has Portenza in complete control the whole time.

It’s a shame that, on occasions, the interaction wanders off on a tangent. Though this is partly what Ladgrove’s show is about, it starts to sap the energy from the gags. Some of the threads are needless, especially when they mix in some very question-

Milo McCabe: Troy Hawke

struggle tests Hawke’s durability to the maximum.

Jaunting from terrorist-in-training, to men’s rights campaigner, to trainee racist—all assisted by the Mr Men characters—Hawke takes on elements of Geoffrey Palmer’s reactionary character, major Harry Truscott, in David Nobb’s sitcom Fairly Secret Army.

These flights of fancy stretch Hawke each time.

The necessary prefacing to each scrape limits the verbal flourishes previously in evidence, and you start to question if the character was ever meant to to carry an hour.

A less fragmented, ripping yarn, might have suited this creation better. But even with its narrative foibles this is an intriguing and funny hour. n JULIAN HALL

HHHHH The latest creation of talented character comic, presenter, and one-time musician Milo McCabe resonates somwhere between Michael Palin’s Ripping Yarns and perhaps a younger incarnation of The Fast Show’s Rowley Birkin QC. Louche, loquacious, drenched in puns, similes and metaphors, Hawke’s matinée idol persona is instantly engaging and he wraps us around his fingers with his wordplay, whenever his fingers are not already busy holding what looks like an ostrich feather.

Hawke reveals his dysfunctional, but privileged, childhood and how his father died at the hands of a real matinée idol, David Niven, in the most ludicrous way. So far, so surreally good.

The central thrust of Hawke’s time with us is to grapple with the absence of adversity in the life of the average middle class chap. A fair point, but the quest that ensues to find a meaningful

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able material: one parody of racism, for example, goes that bit too far.

Perhaps the greatest attraction to Ladgrove’s set is that its success or failure lies firmly in the hands of the audience. It will change every night, depending on how brave, sedate, drunk or mad his crowds are.

His feverish physical humour often erases the line between performer and crowd. If you’re willing to take part, you’ll have a far more rewarding experience. n ANDREW LATIMER Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 6:20pm – 7:20pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, not 12 Aug, £6 – £8

Gilded Balloon , 6:45pm – 7:45pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 11 Aug, £8.50 – £10.50

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COMEDY Come Heckle Christ

HHHHH Joshua Ladgrove’s performance as Christ, in which he invites the audience to berate him, arrives in Edinburgh replete with accusations of blasphemy. Inevitably, this brings a frisson to the show. We enter the venue to find Ladgrove as Christ on the cross, meekly welcoming the audience as his flock, offering the Messiah up as a target for an inquisitive crowd.

Consequently, by the end of the the show, this Christ has delivered his verdict on squirrels, taken a selfie, and twerked.

But this is an idea which is much better than its execution. This Christ is without any coherent personality, and so the comedic riffing is never meaningfully developed. And Ladgrove’s comebacks are not good enough, often relying on pedantry and unexamined Bible references to make points which are correct, but neither funny nor revealing. Considering there are topics bound to arise—Christ’s relationship with his Father, science versus religion, carpentry—you would expect prepared material on these which might say something about faith, love, or why an audience would choose to spend an evening bellowing at Christ at all. Ladgrove’s side-stepping of a query about Gaza demonstrates his timidity – this Messiah unfortunately has no sermon to deliver.

That said, this is a funny show, but solely because the audience does some cracking heckling, often delivering significantly better comebacks than the performer. That the crowd begins to probe Ladgrove about his own personal life—rather than Christ’s—shows their lack of faith in the performance on offer. This suggests there are few converts here. n BRETT MILLS Pleasance Courtyard, 10:20pm – 11:20pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, not 11 Aug, 18 Aug, £7.50 – £9.50

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Backstage in Biscuit Land

HHHHH ‘Random’ has become one of the most abused words of our generation, freely applied but with little accuracy. Jess Thom reminds us of what randomness really is: she has Tourettes, which means she says “biscuit” roughly 16,000 times per day, along with a variety of other verbal tics which are, she admits, completely mysterious in their origins. However, there is nothing random or mysterious about the obvious strengths of her show, which acts as both an education in her condition and a whirlwind demonstration of its creative possibilities.

Thom’s first challenge, which she overcomes immediately, is to conquer the natural, slightly nervous politeness of her audience. It’s okay to laugh, we are assured, because we are laughing

on her terms. When politeness acts as a substitute for critical thought, she has no use for it and neither should we.

Thom also has no interest in being coddled or stigmatised. To do either would miss every point she makes, which she does as regularly as she makes us laugh. The show is a double-act between her and “Chopin”, her wonderful assistant, whose skills at comedic improvisation are tested (and proven) by Thom’s consistent stream of glorious nonsense.

Thom recounts how her condition has affected and informed her life: as a performer rather than an audience member, she explains, this is probably the only time she is guaranteed not to be asked to leave the theatre. Everyone has a right to art and laughter, but Thom reminds us that not everyone gets to enjoy it. n SEAN BELL Pleasance Courtyard, 1:55pm – 2:55pm, 1–16 Aug, not 4, 11, £9 – £11

8–11 August 2014 fest 31

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0844 693 3008

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8–11 August 2014 fest 33

COMEDY

Mr Swallow: The Musical

HHHHH This irrepressible creation of Nick Mohammed usually appears in the guise of an unhelpful life coach, but here we find him having come to terms with his calling as an entertainer. He’s decided on a new musical adaptation of Dracula as a vehicle for his talents and assembled a team comprising versatile musicians and first-time actors to help pull it off. All acquit

Wendy Wason: Hotel California

HHHHH Hotel California comes with a health warning. In fact, Hotel California is a health warning.

Wendy Wason’s tale of confronting the realities of the US medical system is an admirable exercise that says more about the need to conserve the NHS than it does about her as a performer.

So that essentially is job done, if you take the closing section of the Scottish comedian and actor’s show in isolation. Indeed, her plea to save the NHS will be

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themselves admirably, and do such a good job on the opening number that one may well wonder where the laughs are going to come from.

The brilliance of Mr Swallow – The Musical is that it works hard to establish a sense of resourceful professionalism, purely so it can then be undercut by the title character’s obnoxious behaviour and petty grievances. The production, of which it turns out we’re watching a dress rehearsal, could work as a straight piece if only Swallow would genuflect to his director’s vision. Instead he saunters about like Bela Lugosi

crossed with a Butlins Redcoat, tormenting and humiliating everyone who crosses his path. Exuding the entitled air of a spoiled child, only he is immune to shame. This may be extremely broad humour for the most part, but it’s a joy to watch his accomplices lose their composure in the face of his petty tyranny. In fact, it’s the thwarted gravitas of business partner David Elms that pushes this debacle into firm must-see territory. n LEWIS PORTEOUS

the enduring memory you have from her show, but somehow she avoids leaving you feeling cheated and manipulated.

She’s honest, she’s genuine, and she has brought us a case study in hospital hell.

In essence, the story of her husband’s hospitalisation in LA isn’t necessarily the most dramatic tale from start to finish. But Wason makes use of every hurdle—from jobsworth desk staff to racist doctors—to build it up. This does mean she’s not left much room for comedic asides and this is flagged from

the off: the introductory material on her family only scratches the surface of the potential it has.

That this is more storytelling/ theatre than comedy is alluded to with a conceit over half-way through. We hear some recorded hospital conversations that Wason has eavesdropped on, and it feels genuinely as if she is distracting herself away from her own worry via the misfortune of others. If similar conceits had been introduced at other points this device might have not looked slightly askew in the mix. It adds a textured layer that has nothing to build on. Notwithstanding that, Wason holds the attention throughout. n JULIAN HALL

Pleasance Dome, 7:00pm – 8:00pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, £11 – £14

Gilded Balloon , 5:15pm – 6:15pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 11 Aug, £11 – £12

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COMEDY

17/07/2014

13:35

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Big Difference Productions, with support from Centre for Comedy Studies Research, presents

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Semi-Finals of the Funny Women Stage Award 15th August - 9.30pm Laughing Horse @ New Empire Bingo Hall Venue 110

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LECTURE SERIES CMY

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a LECTURE SERIES

11.10am 13th – 17th August Venue 27 Tickets: 0131 556 5375 www.justthetonic.com

Delivering fab free! entry shows freestival

01 – 25 August

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1-25 August 2014

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8–11 August 2014 fest 35

COMEDY Prompter

HHHHH From the co-creator of Set List, Troy Conrad, comes this similar but much tougher concept of stand-up improvisation. Prompter is inspired by the most obscure, batshit crazy TED Talks you’ve ever seen online, with three comics asked to deliver a presentation from the prompter in front of them.

The twist is, not only do they have no idea of their character or specialist area of expertise until they arrive on stage, but the prompter “breaks down” periodically, forcing them to ad-lib the latest insights into their supposed research or flounder.

An indication of the format’s robustness (or otherwise, perhaps) is that the subjects are significantly more prescribed than the eclectic, incongruous compounds of Set List, and consistently cover the extremes of human behaviour. Specifically “Five Heil-y Effective Habits of Hitler”, “Making Inbreeding Enjoyable For Everyone” and “Drug The Ones You Love!” on the day I caught the show. Presented

by John Hastings, Tom Stade and Tim FitzHigham respectively, only Hastings, unfortunately up first, flourished within the limitations – Nazis are always good

John Robertson: A Nifty History Of Evil

HHHHH In his scarlet suit, bug-eyed and bellowing, John Robertson cuts a devilish figure – the perfect host for an afternoon’s descent into depravity.

Trying to keep up with his gallop through two millennia’s worth of villainy feels like clinging to a bullet train.

“Right!” the anarchic Aussie barks in lieu of “hello”, and a long, virtuosic intro spews forth.

Genesis is retold with the help of a lunatic God and an inflatable whale – making as much sense on stage as it does in print.

With a “ssh!” and a swipe, Robertson

36 fest 8–11 August 2014

for barking at a crowd when inspiration temporarily dries up.

Demanding that the participants incorporate randomly projected graphs and audience members into their lectures too, Prompter truly is a test of wit and imagination. Still, I found myself sympathising with the performers as much as laughing at

them. Shorter talks and slightly less perfidy from the prompter might compromise Conrad’s vision. But it’d make for an easier show to perform and a more entertaining watch I’d surmise. n JAY RICHARDSON

cues rapid-fire blackouts to let him snap in and out of surreal vignettes mocking the roots of morality. It moves at a gruelling pace and, come September, his tech will be a wreck.

Robertson paints characters from history and scripture as cartoon deviants and psychos. To him, Adam and Eve are boring. He prefers Adam’s first wife, Lilith, from an insane work of biblical apocrypha. Sure, she’s a flying baby-killer, but next to Eve, that scapegoat for original sin, she’s also a feminist icon. Later, swaggering,

priapic Byron becomes an example of how the rich trample all in their path, while Robertson finds a kindred spirit in the Marquis de Sade: a pervert with real imagination.

Amid the dizzying tangents these spawn are snatches of lucidity.

Rasputin gives way to a scathing comment on Russian homophobia, while Urbain Grandier, the French priest undone by his libido, becomes a cautionary tale for Russell Brand.

But suddenly the next scene crashes in with “and now…”, creating a sense that sheer momentum masks unfinished ideas.

In the Buddhist creation story Robertson invokes at the top, order emerges out of chaos. There’s no such miracle for A Nifty History, but it’s undeniably entertaining. n LYLE BRENNAN

Gilded Balloon , 3:45pm – 4:45pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, £10 – £12

The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 3:30pm – 4:30pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, not 11 Aug, £8

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5–7 August 2014 fest 37

COMEDY Axis of Awesome: Viva La Vida Loca Las Vegas

HHHHH Regular Fringe-goers will easily recognise Axis of Awesome, who have been performing here with consistent success since 2008.

Well-established practitioners of comedy rock at a Fringe where musical parody is hardly in short supply, when the band comes onstage, it is clear they are playing to the enthusiastic fanbase that has turned out in force. Any straggling newcomers may be welcome, but they are not pandered to in quite the same way. Instead, the audience are expected to indulge the band, who present what feels like thirty minutes’ worth of serviceable material, stretched out to twice that time.

This may lie in the band’s roots as a YouTube sensation. The online video platform has helped kick off countless creative careers and boost the profiles of those whose esoteric talents might otherwise have struggled for exposure. Yet it has also helped foster a kind of act that does not work well outside the confines of a short, sharp video, and consequently struggles to sustain an entire live performance. Such is the case here.

The band’s strength is the comic chemistry between the members, which helps feed the playful ribbing that breaks up the setlist. The patchiness of the songs themselves cannot be ignored however; lacking here is the sprawling creativity of Bill Bailey, or even the juvenile charm of Tenacious D. Their greatest (perhaps only) success remains the viral hit ‘Four Chords’, although even it has grown over-familiar since its release in 2011. Devoted fans or not, some acts should stay on the internet. n SEAN BELL Gilded Balloon , 9:00pm – 10:00pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 21 Aug, £12 – £14

38 fest 5–7 August 2014

James Acaster

HHHHH “I respect the rules, and so should you,” James Acaster tells us, wilfully disrespecting one of the most basic rules of standup comedy as he does so, by not actually standing up. He’s on his knees for the first ten minutes of this confident, well-structured and origami-like show, due to a “loophole” he’s discovered in the rules of performance.

As with much of the set, it would be a shame to give away the details, as much of the pleasure here comes from Acaster gently and patiently unfolding the layers of his various comic conceits.

Chief among these is that we’re not watching Acaster at all, but an undercover cop by the name of Pat Springleaf, sent to infiltrate a group of gangsters selling drugs to comedians backstage. The case isn’t going well, but the comedy’s sort of taken off.

It’s a great vehicle for Acaster’s nerdy and pedantic stage persona, which is at once self-conscious and gloriously un-self-aware.

But this is no hour of character comedy: the cop thing is simply a framework within which Acaster can fit the gently surreal skits and faintly OCD observations (his outlook on life is not unlike that of the equally brilliant and genuinely OCD Jon Richardson) for which he is becoming deservedly well-known.

At one stage, Acaster shows us a diagram to demonstrate the perfect way to fold a packing box: all the flaps overlap one another such that “they’re all the top flap”. It’s a great allegory for this show, which folds in on itself several times in a way that is at once ambitious, unassuming and satisfying in a defiantly odd way. n TOM HACKETT Pleasance Courtyard, 8:00pm – 9:00pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, £9 – £12

THEATREREVIEWS

Hayani HHHHH A lyrical, emotionally powerful autobiographical drama relating the experiences of two boys growing up in South Africa during the democratic transition PAGE 44 Photo: Weronika Bachleda

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8–11 August 2014 fest 39

THEATRE

Matt Trueman LEAD THEATRE CRITIC

Awkward Conversations With Animals I’ve Fucked

HHHHH Show 6

HHHHH We Have Fallen

HHHHH

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nother issue, another set of shows itching for social overhaul. Is it just me? Is my subconscious searching this stuff out – or is it the only thing that artists are interested in talking about? Right now, I could probably walk into Haggis Haggis Haggis at the Scottish Storytelling Centre and find someone inciting a proletariat uprising.

Because, face it, you don’t expect a call-to-arms from a show called Awkward Conversations With Animals I’ve Fucked, and yet that’s pretty much what you get. In fairness, playwright Rob Hayes delivers exactly what his title promises: that is, stilted post-coital chats with a menagerie (or trois). For an hour, Jack Holden stands onstage in his tighty whities, squirming and twitching, and discusses the birds and the bees with, well, the birds and the bees.

However, there’s more to it than that. Awkward Conversations’ animals are basically red herrings. With each of his conquests, Holden’s character grows in confidence. He starts small, with a pet dog, but becomes ever

40 fest 8–11 August 2014

Show 6

more adventurous and unapologetic.

Between each scene, he scrawls the species on the back wall, bigger and bigger, bolder and bolder. He settles into himself and finds a patter with his partners, but he also becomes more and more romantic. A one-night stand with a stray cat becomes a romantic weekend in a rural barnyard with a goat.

In other words, this soft-spoken, sweet-hearted young zoophile learns

to commit – both to his lovers, and to his chosen, verboten lifestyle.

When the sirens approach, he grabs a screwdriver and braces himself to fight for his right to fuck whatsoever he so pleases. Society can go hang.

He’s going the whole hog.

Admittedly, the writing doesn’t always deliver the guttural laughs you might hope, and it overplays its ambiguity, but it’s a great little gesture of a play.

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THEATRE

We Have Fallen

The same goes for Mark Ravenhill’s Show 6, written for the Lyric Hammersmith’s Secret Theatre company. Knotty ideas outweigh its somewhat effortful execution, in both the writing and the staging.

Ravenhill slams two mismatched vocabularies together: a young man has run over a “chav” in the “favela.” With one sentence, we’re in a hybrid of Britain and Brazil. The twentysomething (Steven Webb) is a high-street hipster in gold hotpants, absolutely a product of consumer capitalism, and yet here he is, discovering that his real parents were disappeared by a military junta.

And just like that, Ravenhill equates Thatcherism with the military dictatorships of 1970s Brazil. Both, he argues, whitewashed over the past, eradicated any alternatives and left an undissenting present. What Brazil’s military junta did with fear, ours managed with cheap consumer goods and a mantra of happiness at all costs. The words of David Cameron and, before him, Peter Mandelson, ring in your ears: “We are all Thatcherites now.”

Caroline Steinbeis delivers a swift,

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sparse, in-the-round staging, with her cast in swimwear as if basking through a life-long holiday. The peculiar physical performance style, though intriguing, mostly serves to obscure an already slippery text though, and Ravenhill’s play spins off the rails as our hipster hero attempts an insurrection, only to collapse back into familiar comforts.

So what would it take to make us change our ways? Nothing short of a miracle, if you believe Jacqui Honess-Martin. Her play, We Have Fallen, part of the IdeasTap Underbelly showcase, wonders whether anything can disrupt the path to globalisation.

Twelve planes have dropped out of the sky, inexplicably, all at once; one of them, with eerie coincidence, right by the Russian border. Hundreds are dead and thousands more, stranded, as planes are grounded worldwide.

Three intercutting monologues converge on one another: aeronautical engineer Jennifer, charged with investigating the black box flight recorders; frequent flyer and hedgefunder Richard, stuck in a Moscow

hotel bar but determined to get home somehow; and Pam, an soulful eco-activist camped at Heathrow in protest against the third runway.

There’s more than a touch of JG Ballard in all this, particularly in its sense of society as we know it teetering on the brink, and the sudden shift in the laws of physics. Like Ballard, Honess-Martin invokes an end-game scenario and writes with a sharp eye for detail, but her text doesn’t gain a huge amount in performance, particularly given her own standand-speak staging. Still it’s eloquent and poetic, and it ends on a note of dogged, defiant optimism.

SHOW 6 Summerhall @ Roundabout, 3:50pm – 4:50pm, 2–17 Aug, not 7, 14, £14 WE HAVE FALLEN Underbelly, Cowgate, 2:10pm – 3:10pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, £10 – £11 AWKWARD CONVERSATIONS WITH ANIMALS I’VE F*CKED Underbelly, Cowgate, 6:50pm – 7:50pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, not 13 Aug, £9.50 – £10.50

8–11 August 2014 fest 41

THEATRE

This is Contemporary Ice Skating

HHHHH Montréal has always been the home of doing things a little bit differently; a base for the revolutionary Cirque du Soleil, the director of gravity-bending Fringe hit Leo, and street-style circus group The 7 Fingers. So it’s little surprise that the city would also be the first place to reinvent the art of ice skating.

Le Patin Libre (“Free Skate”) has created something special in ditching

Jamaica Farewell

HHHHH Most people who sneaked into a country with a million dollars stuffed in their duffle bag would want to keep it quiet. Debra Ehrhardt, however, has gone and made a show about it. Jamaica Farewell is the autobiographical tale of her journey from Jamaica to the USA, a road littered with danger, obstacles and 100 dollar bills.

The show, performed by Ehrhardt, follows her youthful intoxication with the candy and

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the frills, lycra, frozen smiles (no pun intended) and draconian strictness of traditional skating culture. By founder Alexandre Hamel’s own admission, he was kicked out of various skate schools - something the troupe pays tribute to in a satirical sketch where a lone outsider incurs the wrath of a uniformed Sergeant Major by swapping rigid drills for stylish flips.

It’s this relaxed, fun-loving vibe that’s the most enjoyable thing about the show; the company is at its coolest (go on then, pun intended) when letting go, goofing around, moshing to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, or showcasing the performers’ own idiosyncratic tricks and flourishes.

But the transitions between sketches feel laboured, the commentary is impossible to hear—though both these issues could be early venue teething problems—and sometimes it’s hard to know whether the choreography is there just to frame the skills, or to communicate something in its own right.

Having a party at the end where we all get on the ice to have a go is a stroke of magic though: at least then it’s immediately clear just how bloomin’ difficult the swishing skills are, that the troupe make seem effortless. n LUCY RIBCHESTER

consumerism of America and her determination to get to the promised land despite the odds. At the age of 18, and as her nation is in political tumult, Ehrhardt meets a charming CIA agent who becomes her unwitting ticket out of Jamaica. First, she just has to smuggle out a million bucks.

At the same time as highlighting the difficulties faced by immigrants, Ehrhardt’s play cleaves surprisingly closely to the great American dream of freedom and opportunity. This is, after all, the story of an individual who made it thanks to her own rule-breaking initiative, offering only glancing references to the structural barriers

to achieving her goal. Whether the dream was worth all the danger, meanwhile, is never really explored.

Even putting aside this criticism, Jamaica Farewell is never as compelling as its subject matter would suggest. The momentum is hampered by clunky sound design, while Ehrhardt’s overwrought delivery quickly begins to grate. It’s quite a feat, but Ehrhardt somehow manages to make a high stakes quest for success into a dull, sluggish viewing experience. n CATHERINE LOVE

Murrayfield Ice Rink, times vary, various dates between 3 Aug and 23 Aug, £15

Pleasance Courtyard, 4:15pm – 5:30pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, £8.50 – £11

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THEATRE Travesti

HHHHH Prior to the Edinburgh Fringe, a sustained debate on attitudes to sexual identity and feminism manifested itself, rather grotesquely, in the lyrics of Robin Thicke.

The addition of painstaking confrontations over Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian—exchanges that have been notably tortured on Twitter—confined discussion to the obligations of pop culture.

Director Rebecca Hill seeks to obliterate the male apathy surrounding everyday sexism in Travesti: a conversation that for a long time was still chaired by men. After interviewing what she described as ordinary women, Hill took their words and handed them to a cast of six men to perform.

The resulting role-reversed verbatim piece riffs on the sexualisation and unrelenting objectification of women today – from nightclub groping to outright rape.

It’s clear how hard Hill has struggled to get the balance between comedy and tragedy correct. The piece is often hilarious, leaning on the silliness of six men playing women. There’s something quite troubling however about the comedy: as if it trivialises the subject matter. It’s satire with a sobering message, about presentation, confidence and socialisation, but the ensemble play for laughs in an uncomfortably direct manner.

Of course, the very fact that it is camp and breezy allows Hill to wallop us with moments of real alarm and distress. A detailed vision of threatening behaviour when a woman gets on a bus full of hostile men exhibits how many women feel the need to suppress their fear. Perhaps, however, a deeper assessment of patriarchy as opposed to straightforward self-image would expose an even greater and more pressing inequality. n ANDREW LATIMER Pleasance Dome, 2:50pm – 3:50pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 5 Aug, 19 Aug, £8.50 – £11

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How to Disappear Completely

HHHHH He may have a reputation for being something of a storyteller among his friends, but Itai Erdal is far from a natural performer. In his hands, even an anecdote about being sexually assaulted by a dugong (it’s a bit like a manitee) is one of grating tedium.

However, in this multimedia treatise on his mother’s death, Erdal is able to overcome his oratory shortcomings and reduce half the audience to bawling wrecks by the end. That’s partly becase of the fact that cancer is an inherently tragic disease; and partly due to the award-winning lighting designer’s ability to manipulate emotions through visuals.

Erdal paints himself as a man who’s always asserted control over his life and surroundings. It’s this trait that

enabled him to rise to the top of his industry, yet continues to sabotage his relationships. His decision to chronicle his mother’s deterioration at the hands of lung cancer can be considered an attempt to take ownership of a personal crisis. That he found himself so helpless despite his best efforts is what makes his tale so deeply moving and human.

Despite promising us a work of moral complexity, Erdal barely touches on his eventual agreement to assist his mother’s suicide. What he does is allow us to put ourselves in his position and imagine the lengths we’d go to in order to alleviate a loved one’s suffering. When we’re shown video footage of the moment in which he offered to end his parent’s misery, the scene is all the more powerful for its low-key ambiguity. n LEWIS PORTEOUS Underbelly, Cowgate, 7:30pm – 8:30pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, not 13 Aug, £10.50 – £11.50

8–11 August 2014 fest 43

THEATRE Hayani

HHHHH

Winky

HHHHH When balding no-hoper Neil attends a self-help course he realises there’s only one thing holding him back from the life he’s dreamed of, and that’s living with his obsessively religious maniacal sister, Winky. Telling her to move out is the obvious solution. But is it the right one?

Adapted verbatim from a short story by celebrated American writer George Saunders, Winky asks how far personal fulfilment is a right – or to use the play’s preferred metaphor, should you allow other people to defecate in your oatmeal?

Saunders’ unerring ear for cliché in public and private discourse translates very effectively to the stage – especially when combined, as it is in this production, with an acutely observed lexicon of platitudinous gesture and expression.

Edward Davis is especially good at this and his portrayal of the charismatic, self-righteous, self-help guru Tom Rodgers is terrifically accomplished.

Amy Tobias is also strong as the intensely well-meaning, vulnerable Winky.

But the production does frequently lose pace, especially in the second half of the play. Perhaps there is an extent to which bleak monotony is part of the point - we really get a sense of how trapped Neil is in his one-note purgatory. But I wonder if the momentum could have been maintained better had there been a sharper adaption of the source.

Nevertheless, the play still succeeds in bringing home quite how often cowardice and kindness go hand in hand. And it is uncomfortably funny in its refusal to offer any satisfactory resolution. n MIRANDA KIEK

Hayani means home in Tshivenda.

But where and what is home if you are young and black in post-apartheid South Africa?

Written and performed by Atawanda Kani and Nat Ramabulana, and based on their own experiences, Hayani relates how these two boys grew up in South Africa during the democratic transition. A series of monologues and dialogues told from the perspectives of relatives, friends and teachers, as well as the boys themselves, are woven together to create a narrative which has all the immediacy of oral testimony.

These components are arranged more thematically than chronologically - the only problem being that this almost musical fluidity can be confusing. I was frequently unclear as to which boy’s story is being told and

which characters are being represented. The production would not have lost anything had the plot, and who was who, been more clearly signposted; especially given that it uses more than one language.

Kani and Ramabulana’s acting is superb. Without a single change of costume, a bewildering array of characters are given vibrant life. Their storytelling is immersive in its vividness and is amply aided by the continuous backdrop of live solo guitar music, written and performed by Matthew McFarlane.

This is a lyrical autobiographical drama, which highlights the way that home is not always the place that you might think; and by virtue of its intense humanity, among the most emotionally powerful experiences on offer at the Fringe this year. n MIRANDA KIEK Assembly George Square Studios, 5:10pm – 6:30pm, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £12 – £13

Underbelly, Cowgate, 12:40pm – 1:40pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, not 13 Aug, £9 – £10

44 fest 8–11 August 2014

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THEATRE The Post Show

HHHHH How has no one done this before now? An improvised post-show discussion. The format’s inspired: recognisable, structured and ripe for ridicule.

Of course, we haven’t actually seen the show under discussion and the actors haven’t actually performed it. It’s only through our questions— Could you just explain the half-hour section in Spanish? How did you manage to piss off both Christians and Satanists?—and their fanciful answers, that the full horror of what’s just occurred onstage becomes apparent.

We enter just in time to catch the tail-end of the final scene: a bafflement of backstories, unseen characters and established conventions. Tonight, it’s Prodigal Father: a six-hour tale of two brothers, their comatose mum, abusive dad and a physical theatre “safe space”. Also, it seems: raft merchants, yoga instructors and, er, a demon mother.

Yet, brilliantly, the three members of “Shallow Scream Ensemble Theatre Collective” justify every element with that laughable luvvie indulgence.

Whatever you throw at them—dance sequences, deus ex machina—they’ll defend the decision to the hilt, convinced of their own genius.

As so often with improv, though, you wish The Beserker Group were stricter with their resorts to surreal-

Trainspotting

HHHHH Somewhat appropriately, the performance of this gloriously anarchic take on Irvine Welsh’s tale of sex, skag and the underside of Edinburgh was interrupted by the heckling of very drunk audience members. The actors gamely carried on, incorporating or ignoring the rowdiness as best they could in this semi-immersive, promenade adaptation.

Largely faithful to Welsh’s text, Harry Gibson’s adaptation splits the narration between the characters as the story rollicks along, retaining the novel’s

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ism. The more plausible the play, the better the comic bullseye.

However, The Post Show is only semi-improvised. Here and there, it swerves into scripted sketch territory and, while that can be amusing on its own terms, it does confuse the form.

Moments you thought improvised turn out to be plot points and, for all the laughs, you leave feeling duped. n MATT TRUEMAN

distinctive vocabulary and unabashed filth. There are some finely-honed performances, particularly Gavin Ross as the charismatic waster Mark Renton, and the strong ensemble switch between roles to fill in the supporting characters. It’s bold, outrageous and not for the squeamish, with the inclusion of distressing moments like a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart.

The design is minimalist but mostly effective; a screen of white canvases are pulled apart to reveal various scummy locales, and the skid-marked toilet bowl is especially stomach-churning. Despite the engaging stagecraft, however, scene changes are clumsy, and at points the whole operation feels

a bit of a mess.

The piece is also prone to stylistic heavy-handedness, as each scene is bookended by a physical interlude from a monochrome, masked chorus of dancers. The choreography is sloppy and uninspired, failing to illuminate or reflect on the themes of the play and is lit by a gratuitous strobe. The production could do with shaving a good twenty minutes off its running time, as after an hour or so it begins to lose focus and the extended dance sections become less and less palatable. n BILLY BARRETT

Assembly George Sq. Studios, 9:40pm – 10:40pm, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £12 – £15

Hill Street Drama Lodge, times vary, 1–24 Aug, not 5 Aug, 12 Aug, 19 Aug, £12 – £14

8–11 August 2014 fest 45

THEATRE Quentin Crisp: The Naked Truth

HHHHH Quentin Crisp is supremely quotable, even if quips like “gay pride is an oxymoron” feel as dated as the London police who put him in the dock for “importuning.” This one-man show sees director and performer Mark Farrelly exhume him in wittily sepulchral style, unleashing epigrams like a 20th Century Oscar Wilde.

He’s had plenty to work with, as unlike the doyenne of Reading Gaol, Quentin Crisp’s own appetite for autobiography extended far beyond ballads. Born Dennis Pratt to “middle-class, middle-brow” parents, Crisp reinvented himself as a self-described pansy of the purplest hues, claiming exhibitionism as his drug of choice.

He earns his crust proto-voguing for evening art class matrons – director Linda Marlowe brilliantly imagines it here in his fluid, blue-lit interlude of poses. Then, he styles out the Second World War on a succession of American GI’s arms, becomes accidentally trendy in ‘60s Soho, and then less accidentally famous in the ‘70s when his autobiography The Naked Civil Servant is televised.

The second half of Farrelly’s script is weaker – a recreation of Crisp’s New York stage shows spun from sour quips and faintly ill-judged audience participation. And where no amount of jeering and beatings would tear Crisp’s rich velvet suits and gorgeous silk scarves from him, here, his

Last Christmas

HHHHH A tacky, twinkly Christmas tree sparkles away next to a man. He looks at us forlornly and launches into a monologue. In Last Christmas, playwright Matthew Bulgo shows a man struggling to clarify his identity in the wake of a family tragedy. There are a few cracks in the text itself, but an engaging performance from Sion Pritchard deftly covers them over.

Working a nine-to-five office job, Tom’s life isn’t going exactly the way

46 fest 8–11 August 2014

pitch-perfect wigs presumably stole the budget from the crumpled tuxedo they top.

This production emphasises Quentin’s lonely latter years rather than showing him at his crisp best. Farrelly is blackly, elegantly

compelling in a production that still doesn’t quite shake the dust from his subject’s prolific autobiographical output. n ALICE SAVILLE

he’d planned. A bit of reading has made him reconsider some choices he’s made, and on a trip back to his home town of Swansea he realises he hasn’t escaped as much as he’d hoped. In the tradition of many monologues, information is drip-fed to manufacture plot twists and emotional responses.

It’s not that Last Christmas isn’t tight and well-executed. Just that we’ve seen these kind of solo shows before: a person has gone through some kind of trauma which causes him to reassess things and lash out from time-to-time. The main problem

here is that Tom isn’t pushed far enough, so the events are sometimes a little banal.

Pritchard gives some gravity and humour to the text, however, and skips along at a healthy pace. He manages to be performative without ever being fake, and tells the whole tale with all the likeability of a mate over a pint. This is a story of broken and shifting masculinity, and he treads that line perfectly. n DAN HUTTON

Gilded Balloon , 3:00pm – 4:10pm, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £11 – £12

Assembly George Square Studios, 12:00pm – 1:00pm, 31 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, 18 Aug, £9 – £11

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#EdintFest

JamesPlays

The

A bold new Scottish trilogy: love, blood and blind ambition

BY RONA MUNRO

National Theatre of Scotland and National Theatre of Great Britain

5 – 9 August (Previews) 10 – 22 August (various days and times) Festival Theatre

Directed by Laurie Sansom Featuring James McArdle, Andrew Rothney, Jamie Sives, Blythe Duff, Mark Rowley and Sophie Gråbøl

Supported through the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund

Book tickets from £15* eif.co.uk/jamesplays 0131 473 2000 www.festmag.co.uk

*Fees apply Photo David Eustace Charity No SC004694

8–11 August 2014 fest 47

THEATRE Outings

HHHHH This performance’s titular outings aren’t pleasant family trips out to the seaside, but emotionally tense exits from the closet. The authors, Thomas Hescott and Matthew Baldwin, were behind Ovalhouse’s The Act – a 1960s-set yarn of the gay underground that got scooped up to play the West End. Here, they’ve stuck to non-fiction to string together a collection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender coming out tales, crowdsourced with the help of Stephen Fry’s formidable Twitter army.

The stories are performed by four standup comedians, who dramatise reactions ranging from fury, to disgust, to indifference in pacy style. Andrew

The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland

HHHHH Ordinarily, emerging from a show in a state of bewilderment suggests some sort of failure, either on the part of spectator or show. Something has been lost in translation. The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland, however, cultivates just this kind of bafflement. Confusion, paradoxically, is the route to a sort of clarity.

Inspired by a dialogical form of therapy developed in Finnish Western

Icarus Falling

HHHHH Daedalus and Icarus is a tale of hubris, recklessness and youthful folly.

It’s about a father’s love and, later, his grief. Icarus, who flies too close the sun, singes his wings and plunges back down to earth.

However, some see it as a story of highs and lows; that is, as a metaphor for manic depression.

Prompted by Wikipedia, Australian beat poet Scott Wings follows suit in this punchy little solo.

48 fest 8–11 August 2014

Doyle’s depiction of an emo teenager coming out to his mother is easily the funniest. After he throws a “diva strop” at her indifference, they reenact the incident as an adorably theatrical slanging match. Set decades earlier, Rob Deering’s story of surreal, bleak aversion therapy trapped in a room with Guinness, retro beefcake pornography and vomit-inducing injections is moving in a bleaker way. But these longer narratives are too rare, and set amongst slighter snippets and LGBT historical soundbites in a rapid-fire format that’s better at highlighting their

clichés than their universal truths.

Coming out stories tend to be well-worn already, passed around as initiation tokens into a not especially secret club. This is not verbatim theatre – instead, these stories have been thoroughly polished and trimmed to cocktail ring-brightness. They’re compelling, but don’t expect to be either as surprised or outraged as the parents who populate them. n ALICE SAVILLE

Lapland, Ridiculusmus’s show ambitiously layers two simultaneous performances, separated by a thin wall. The audience is split down the middle, half of the spectators on each side of the division, before swapping places halfway through. Watching, therefore, we see and hear one performance, while the shadows and muffled sounds of another distractingly haunt it.

It’s no easy viewing—or listening— experience. The two halves of the play, which periodically synchronise and overlap, involve the same characters: a family with a mother and son suffering from psychosis, and a psychologist who may or may not be hearing voices himself. Identities and

mental states, however, are fluid, making it even harder to piece together what Ridiculusmus present us with.

But once you surrender to the hypnotically strange viewing experience, Ridiculusmus’s doubling technique has an extraordinary effect on the senses. The chaos and uncertainty of hearing voices is created for the audience, who have to filter through the cacophony of competing sounds while frantically scrambling to decode these intersecting stories. All of a sudden, the internal dissonance of mental illness feels a whole lot easier to fathom. n CATHERINE LOVE

His Icarus is stranded in a tower, frustrated and lovelorn; his Daedalus, a bitter and twisted old man, trapped in a maze of his own making. When he flies away, he leaves Icarus behind. “Sometimes,” says Wings, “parents are shit and sometimes they leave you for no reason.”

On balance, all this has more to say about the myth, than it does about mental health. Wings’ portrait of depression can feel generic, albeit, at times, knowingly so. “Everything’s cliché,” he sighs, heavily, when Icarus gets stuck in a rut: heartache is cliché. Poems are cliché. Clichés are

cliché. It’s a neat expression of the listlessness that can drag a person down.

However, too often Wings loses his nerve and beats a retreat into irony. Retro Zelda references and ninja-based flights of fancy puncture the story for a cheap aside. It’s in keeping with his high-octane performance, admittedly, but Wings is more watchable than his writing. Where he crackles with charisma, his words fall somewhat flat. n MATT TRUEMAN

Gilded Balloon , 1:00pm – 2:10pm, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 21, £12 – £13

Summerhall, 12:00pm – 1:10pm, 1–24 Aug, not 8, 9, 10, 18, £14

C venues - C nova, 9:25pm – 10:15pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £7.50 – £9.50

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE

Vincent Goes Splat

HHHHH If you drop two marbles at the same time from the same height, they’ll fall to the ground at the same time. Similarly, if two humans jump from a building concurrently, they’re likely to hit the ground pretty simultaneously. This is what Will and Vincent did. Guess who met a messy demise.

The entirety of Vincent Goes Splat, written and performed by Wil Green-

Hancock’s Last Half Hour by Heathcote Williams

HHHHH Pip Utton is probably best known for Adolf, his intense monodrama in which audiences are brought face to face with the most reviled figure of the twentieth century. With Hancock’s Last Half Hour, he returns to the Fringe as another unpleasant fascist, albeit one who brought much happiness and laughter to the world.

A sociopathic wife-beater he may have been, but good timing will get you far in the entertainment business.

With unsurpassable scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson behind him, not to mention a stable of top comic talent to bounce off, Tony Hancock’s timing assured his status as a beloved British icon. That the man’s obvious faults remain a point of such

www.festmag.co.uk

way, leads up to this one moment as we hear about two lives in freefall, plunging to an inevitable end. It’s a charmingly comedic tale of love and fate, and provides a number of hearty chuckles.

Greenway plays fast and loose with notions of truth and fiction (“Who goes to the theatre to be lied to?”), and uses a warm, somewhat scatty style of delivery which immediately gets us on board. It meanders down a strange, quaint path and pulls us along gently for the ride.

Vincent Goes Splat is, however,

altogether too full of whimsy to be anything other than an enjoyable romp.

Greenway also uses a few to many similes which, though well-written, start to grate a little over the duration of the story. The plot and its characters ooze with irony to the point of bursting, and it’s difficult to tell just why this story is being told. Also, watching a man making out with his own hand isn’t as funny as you’d think. n DAN HUTTON Underbelly, Bristo Square, 7:00pm – 8:00pm, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £9 – £10

gruesome interest for fans almost 50 years after his suicide is due to the disparity between his private life and the persona that millions grew to love on TV and radio.

To watch Utton enact the sad clown’s final moments, drinking from the bottle alone in a Sydney hotel room, is heartwrenching. The character’s ghostly, pallid complexion indicates how lost he is to the world, and yet he can’t help but play to his audience. Slipping in and out of forced jollity, he cracks one sad joke after the next for the teary eyed throng, even wheeling out the odd showbiz anecdote. Appropriately, many of these revolve around celebrity funerals.

Heathcote Williams’ dialogue sounds perfectly credible in Utton’s hands, the writer having evidently gone to great pains to try to understand a hopelessly difficult man. n LEWIS PORTEOUS The Assembly Rooms, 12:00pm – 1:00pm, 30 Jul – 10 Aug, not 31 Jul, £10

8–11 August 2014 fest 49

THEATRE

Are You Lonesome Tonight

HHHHH Do you know what your life path number is? Or your destiny number?

My life path number, I discover, is one – the same as Tom Cruise’s, or so I’m told. But does this really matter? The answer, most definitely is no. But that’s not really the point of Ellie Stamp’s intimate performance.

It’s the effort expended in trying to make sense of her forays into cod numberology which provides this theatrical tangle of ideas with some sort of payoff.

The Future for Beginners

HHHHH What if you could take out a guarantee on the future? Data cleansers Bethan and Matthew want to spend the rest of their lives together. But in order to do so, they aren’t prepared to leave anything to chance. Viewing life as determinable data, they set about meticulously planning every detail of their future, from pets to birthdays to in-laws. What could go wrong?

It’s essentially a subversion of the

50 fest 8–11 August 2014

Stamp has thrown an awful lot into the mix here: Elvis (and his love of bizarre numerology); a framing narrative around a schizophrenic for whom she was an informal carer (and their belief that she is the great rock ‘n’ roller’s secret love-child); the odd song; a bit of cooking; an informal smattering of cognitive neuroscience. In reality, it’s a unmanageable number of plates, kept spinning largely by charm alone.

Stamp is a kind and engaging host, with enough charisma to lead an audience willingly through somewhat nonsensical experiments. Of course we can’t be definined by numbers.

And my similarities to Tom Cruise are vanishingly few. But there’s fun

to be had in entertaining those possibilities.

As a piece about mental health and the line between sanity and delusion, Are You Lonesome Tonight is possibly more of a conversation starter than a game-changer. There are chinks of clarity here: a finale in which Stamp claims the myriad identities of audience members for herself, for instance. It’s an uplifting case for the infinite possibilities and malleability of identitity – surely a more humane alternative to a medical model which diagnoses that multiplicity as deviant? n EVAN BESWICK

romcom genre, swapping serendipity for sureness. There will be no lucky encounters or chance separations in the shared life of these lovers. The problem, of course, is that they end up planning their lives rather than inhabiting them, living vicariously through their own imagined future selves.

There’s definite spark in the opening premise. The idea of imagining the contours of one’s life has a certain undeniable appeal and speaks intriguingly to a modern world in which we already tell the edited stories of our lives on social media. Liveartshow’s performance style, meanwhile, is quirkily charming, flinging in odd

bursts of opera and video projection.

The show lacks the legs, however, for its hour-long running time. It’s not long before it begins to churn out tired gags and bland dialogue, while the concept wears increasingly thin.

And it has to be the first time that a ukulele has intentionally—rather than inadvertently—ruined a show on the Fringe.

The problem is, careful planning doesn’t make for thrilling theatre. Take away the uncertainty, and where’s the drama? n CATHERINE LOVE

Summerhall, 3:30pm – 4:30pm, various dates between 1 Aug and 22 Aug, £5

Summerhall, 3:40pm – 4:40pm, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £10

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE

This summer, you could wander through shadows.

The Scottish National Gallery is open every day.

See what you could do this summer.

The Mound, Edinburgh

www.festmag.co.uk

Peter Graham, Wandering Shadows, 1878. Scottish National Gallery. National Galleries of Scotland is a charity registered in Scotland (No.SC003728)

8–11 August 2014 fest 51

THEATRE How to Achieve Redemption as a Scot Through the Medium of Braveheart

HHHHH As a teenager, Rachael Clerke found herself eschewing her Scottish identity, one that to her seemed inward looking and closed-minded, instead choosing to emphasise the diverse branches of her family tree. But, as she entered her twenties, Clerk found her Scottishness reasserting itself.

How to Achieve Redemption… charts her reconciliation with her national identity and asks what exactly it means to be Scottish.

Armed with a trusty PowerPoint slideshow, Clerke embarks on a journey through a landscape of Scottish archetypes. Using a series of charmingly bad costumes and video clips, she embodies a triumvirate of famous faces as she tries to find the person who best embodies Scottishness. Her choices: William Wallace, Alex Salmond and, curiously, Donald Trump.

Enjoyable and often thoughtful though this is, How to Achieve Redemption... doesn’t always work. The structural difficulty in trying to define a whole national identity, much less her own identity, through the prism of just three people is never quite overcome.

This is a show that’s strongest when it focuses on the personal and is crying out for a greater focus on Clerke’s own story, her thoughts and conclusions.

Moreover, much like Clerke’s Alex Salmond caricature, How to Achieve Redemption… is rather flabby around the mid-section. A little more discipline in the writing and some ruthless editing would do How to Achieve Redemption a great service.

But ultimately, with a charmingly DIY aesthetic and a stirring, Braveheart-inspired finale that manages to be both sentimental and knowingly silly, it’s difficult not to caught up in this well-meaning and at times insightful production. n BEN JUDGE Underbelly, Cowgate, 4:10pm – 5:10pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, not 12 Aug, £10 – £11

52 fest 8–11 August 2014

Sister

HHHHH It dawns on me as I watch Amy and Rosana Cade touching themselves in front of the two unsuspecting strangers that they’ve pulled from the audience that I’ve never seen a lapdance in the flesh.

It’s just the first of a number of eye-opening moments. Amy tells tales from her year making porn films – “In my opinion you can still be a feminist and like getting cum in your face”.

Rosana talks about—but will not specify, such is the shame she feels—the sexual fetish that absorbs hours of her time online.

It’s all very graphic; but it’s also funny, the sisters bursting the balloon of our awkwardness with wry responses to each other’s anecdotes. They both spend nearly the entire show naked, but after the first shock of that opening lap dance, their strutting, posing and even occasional pole dancing come to feel fairly ordinary. Though the pair are talking about their sexuality and the various ways in which they perform that sexuality, Sister isn’t in

Domestic Labour: A Study in Love

HHHHH A vacuum cleaner is raised to a performer’s shoulder, handle aimed threateningly at the audience.

Helmets are adorned with whirring blenders and whisks. A yellow rubber glove is inflated until it explodes, the sharp sound rippling out through the room. If the home is a battlefield, then 30 Bird are armed to the teeth.

The company’s unique take on love and feminism dramatically reconfigures the domestic sphere, transforming familiar household appliances into instruments of power and playfulness. Performers Betsabeth Emran, Sara Zaltash and Nicki Hobday find more inventive uses for household objects than you would imagine possible, their tickling tableaux interspersed with recited exchanges between an Iranian man and his English wife.

itself a sexy show. Their accounts of family members’ struggles with their choices, in fact, make it a warm and moving one.

There are lulls in the action. And a favourite narrative technique—speaking nearly the same words at the same time to give a sense of their different takes on something—too often results in delivery that is stilted and robotic.

These flaws notwithstanding, it’s a rare thing for a Fringe show to make you genuinely rethink your position on subjects as major as porn or escorting.

Sister does just that. n JO CAIRD Summerhall, 8:15–9:30pm, 1–24 Aug, £13

Through both this central relationship and their ingenious use of domestic appliances, 30 Bird question where the lines are drawn in the continuing battle for gender equality. The show’s snippets of conversation touch on everything from contraception to household chores, suggesting how women’s social role has been both liberated and restricted by advances in technology. You can have it all, as long as “it all” includes the housework.

But while the issues are vital and the images striking, 30 Bird’s story is frustratingly confused in its telling. On one level, the splintering and sharing of the narrative allows it to speak beyond just one woman’s experience, but on another it becomes messy and difficult to follow. With a little development, however, this could be an engaging, witty and impressively inventive addition to ongoing feminist debate. n CATHERINE LOVE Summerhall, 2:00pm – 3:00pm, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £12

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE

Blood at the Root

HHHHH It’s a tragedy in itself that a topic such as racial tension in the United States continues to be such sprawling and abundant territory for theatre-makers.

This, entangled in frighteningly recent clashes over gun control, economic immobility and urban overcrowding

in America, has given the Penn State Graduate Acting Class a profound political stimulus for Blood at the Root.

New York-based playwright Dominique Morisseau developed the play in partnership with the company and director Steve Broadnax to magnify the focus on segregation in the schoolyard. Infusing hip hop dance, poetry, rap and music, this complex and discerning work uses real events

in 2006 as its inspiration, telling of six black students arrested for the “attempted murder” of a white student at Cedar High School in Louisiana.

Led by powerful, mature performances from a six-strong ensemble, the company highlight the need for engagement in politics at grassroots level – and stress, quite urgently, that the solution is connected to economics as much as it is sociology.

Students’ desire to catapult themselves away from poverty, a topic for which the groundwork was laid down so perfectly in documentaries such as Hoop Dreams and Waiting for Superman, is what really ignites the show. In fact, this central theme could be explored even further.

Instead, the actors rely a little too much on the tropes of student musical theatre, banging on chairs and syncing hoodies to convey drama. Misplaced decisions aside, this is authentic, comprehensive and provocative theatre that plays host to a vital, meditative conversation. n ANDREW LATIMER Assembly George Sq. Studios, 12:25pm – 1:40pm, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 12, £10 – £12

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8–11 August 2014 fest 53

THEATRE

Symphony

HHHHH Play-meets-gig is well on its way to becoming a genre of its own, as theatre and live music increasingly join forces. It’s a promising hybrid: theatre has plenty to learn from the success of gigs, not least the visceral thrill of the live experience. When was the last time you walked out of a theatre with heart pumping and sweat dripping?

The formula is one that nabokov have attempted to perfect with Symphony, a genre-blurring experience

Night Bus

HHHHH A schoolboy with nowhere to go, a moonlighting transvestite crooning Marilyn Monroe songs, an elderly woman with a sixty-one stone brother at home and a packet of Earl Grey in her cloth shopping bag. This is a night bus and all human life is here. Character after character briefly boards and alights, one melting into another - the mad, the bad, the sad, the shit-faced, the lewd.

There is a dream-like quality about

54 fest 8–11 August 2014

that marries live music and short plays

by Ella Hickson, Nick Payne and Tom Wells. In Edinburgh, it fits neatly in one of the tents in Assembly’s George Square Gardens, briefly evoking the atmosphere of the music festival in the middle of the city.

The three pieces of writing that nabokov have slotted together are more snapshots than plays, offering everyday tales of chance encounters, ill-fated romances and triumphant underdogs. These playlets are then wittily punctuated with music, from imagined theme tunes to drunk serenading, all performed by a ferociously

talented—and impressively energetic— quartet of actor-musicians.

It’s all charming enough, and there are certainly worse ways to spend a wet hour in Edinburgh. But strip away the music and these are slight, flimsy scraps of writing with little to hold them together other than the enthusiasm of the performers and the frame that nabokov have put in place.

Theatre as gig is an exciting form, but it could do with a bit more invention than it receives here. n CATHERINE LOVE

night buses that should in theory translate well into this series of short vignettes, written and performed

by Linda Marlowe and Sarah-Louise Young. The pair—Young in particular— display admirable versatility in their character acting, yet the piece as a whole verges on monotonous. Again and again, self-consciously unexpected mini-denouements come across as more bad punchline than pathetic tragi-comedy.

The problem lies in the meld of verbatimesque dialogue—a starkly unfiltered form of reality—and the play’s absurd tendencies, the latter

unfortunately diminishing the power of the former. If we are meant to leave the auditorium thinking that people (those who take night buses in particular) are strange, contradictory, clown-like creatures, this point would be made far more convincingly with less superimposed surrealism.

Some interludes work better than others – I particularly liked the pair of expectant mothers feuding over the last empty seat. Even so, it felt a long hour’s journey. n MIRANDA KIEK

Assembly George Square Gardens, 5:00pm – 6:00pm, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £13 – £15

Pleasance Courtyard, 1:00pm – 2:00pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 13 Aug, £8.50 – £11

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE Near Gone

FREEDOM IS NEVER GIVEN.

HHHHH Katherina Radeva defines the outline of her stage with 18 bunches of white carnations – perimeters as perishable as her attempts to share her grief at the story of her younger sister, in a moving performance with the language-crossing power of a ritual.

Radeva’s narrative floods out in rapturous Bulgarian, eulogising the hometown of her childhood, and its preservation in her parents’ country home. She itemises the fruit growing in their garden – apples, kiwis, even bananas.

Her co-performer Alister Lownie translates.

She comically goads him into replicating her vibrant physicality, while he gets the words for raspberries and blueberries mixed up. The device emphasises the alienness of Bulgarian culture – when he falters, she waits impatiently for the audience to translate the word for “fence”.

But it also shows the agonising awkwardness of narratives of grief. Each time she nears the conclusion of her sister’s story, she breaks off to dance to Balkan musician, Goran Bregovic’s ‘Kalashnikov’. The song mixes folkloric joy with bleak, explosive lyrics. She brilliantly echoes this ambiguity by strewing flowers as though at a wedding, but with a violence that tramples them increasingly furously under foot.

After each dance, her narrative starts anew, and her frustration at her homeland’s traffic and smoking doctors grows. Lownie adds his voice—independent of hers, for once—to record his own reactions to the dirt tracks and new apartments of modern Bulgaria. Radeva’s grief is tied so closely to lost remembered places and rites that Lownie can’t reach – but this intensely personal performance crafts a bridge of floral delicacy. n

IT MUST BE WON.

BY

DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU DIRECTED BY

ALICE SAVILLE

Summerhall, 12:30pm – 1:30pm, various dates between 1 Aug and 23 Aug, £10

STEVE BROADNAX

 Edinburgh Spotlight



THE MUMBLE

12:25

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31 JUL - 25 AUG

8–11 August 2014 fest 55

THEATRE Antiquithon

HHHHH When brother and sister Ourelia and Vodek Cazaniescu fled Romania, all they were able to bring with them was a few precious items from their beloved grandfather’s cabinet of curiosities. Step into the Antiquithon and they’ll show you their treasures: the spiderabbit – supposedly engineered by the Soviet government to produce a material to rival Nylon, but really, Ouralia admits, one of her grandfather’s more fanciful experiments in taxidermy; Marcel, a dancing skeleton in a top hat; the hairy hand and skull of a yeti from Tibet.

Most curious by far, however, are the siblings themselves, who snipe and glare at each other as they strive to create an air of mystery around what is quite clearly a huge pile of junk. Aurélie de Cazanove and Gwen Aduh are likeable performers, she providing plenty of Borat-esque mispronounciations and examples of political incorrectness—Nicolae Ceausescu may have killed all those

children but he was really a sweetie, we’re told—and Aduh specialising in carefully observed moments of phyical comedy. But with no plot to fall back on, and Vodek an entirely silent partner in this affair, there’s only so long the relationship can maintain our interest.

De Cazanove and Aduh attempt to ramp up the drama towards the end,

but the device falls flat and the carefully fostered ambiguity in the siblings’ relationship is lost in an instant. The surprise ending lightens the mood, but feels like a lazy way to draw this thankfully brief theatrical experience to a close. n JO CAIRD

effect when Mr Malasombra swoops larger than life, then shrinks again, swinging his tiny shadow-catching cage.

But none of this can make up for the lackadaisical pace and repetitive choreography. Characters give us the same gestures over and over again. Confrontations are dragged out with the same robotic actions.

Sure, clockwork mannerisms are

supposed to be part of the style, but the danger is zapped when we know the hammer isn’t making contact with the body. If it had been whipped into a ten minute sketch, Malasombra could have been a brilliant dark storm.

As it is, it feels more like a persistent raincloud. n LUCY RIBCHESTER

Institut français d’Ecosse, times vary, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £5

Malasombra

HHHHH Sometimes the best ideas are the shortest ones, which must make it frustrating when standard formats such as the hour-or-so theatre slot come into play. Unfortunately, Malasombra seems to be a victim to this convention of timing: stunning in its ideas and design, but drawn out so slowly as to dampen the spark and drama out of an otherwise cleverly conceived show.

Spanish-Chilean company auMents has teamed up with award-winning cartoonist Max to tell the tale of evil Mr Malasombra - a pointy-fingered, elegantly villainous figure who likes to kidnap people’s shadows and put them to work in his factories. All the feel of a Tim Burton fairytale is here, from the bold pixie shape of the protagonist little girl, to the thick shadow trees and steampunk factory. The lines of the shadow screen shapes are crisp and jagged; perspectives are played with to nice

56 fest 8–11 August 2014

Summerhall, 2:40pm – 3:35pm, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £13

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE

’Tis Pity

FROM THE MULTI-AWARD WINNING MAKERS OF TRANSLUNAR PARADISE & BALLAD OF THE BURNING STAR

LIGHT LIGHT

Mafia + Incest + Love + Violence

STAGE AWARD WINNERS 2009 & 2013 “ADMIRABLE” TIMES | “SUPERB” THE SCOTSMAN

31 July - 16 August (12:15pm) Spotlites @ The Merchant Hall Tickets from: www.edfringe.com www.audleyandcoproductions.com

PLEASANCE KING DOME 30 JULY - 25 AUGUST 2014 17:15 (18:35) (EXCL. 11 & 18) BOX OFFICE 01315566550 | WWW.PLEASANCE.CO.UK WWW.THEATREADINFINITUM.CO.UK @THEATREADINF THE GUARDIAN’S ‘BEST OF THE FRINGE’ 2013

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DIRECTED BY LORNE CAMPBELL

1 LY 8+

SEX

ICT

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6.35pm (1hr) UNTIL 23 AUG (not 10,14, 21) Venue 73 NORTHERN STAGE AT KING’S HALL Box Office 0131 477 6630 Book Online northernstage.co.uk www.festmag.co.uk

8–11 August 2014 fest 57

THEATRE When It Rains

HHHHH Canadian humour’s reputation for impenetrability is confirmed in the unsettling, half-comic momentum of this “live-action existential graphic novel” by Nova Scotian touring company 2b. Two ordinary married couples inhabit projected rooms, the emptiness of their existences outlined in Nick Bottomley’s ingeniously bleak 24bit projected backdrop.

A stylish opener anatomises the characters with well-timed spotlights and corresponding one-liners, delivered by robotic voiceover. But the sitcommy tone it establishes is faltering. Whereas other writers are content to poke at the miserable uncertainty of the human condition, playwright Anthony Black’s boldly rugby tackles the question down in a series of bizarre reversals of fate and cod-philosophical tête-à-têtes.

Louis is a French professor, and hence especially prone to these musings. But he’s also enough of a stereotype that his alibi for his infidelities is to tell his wife Anna (Samantha Wilson) that “I went to eat a crepe. Eet was sheet.” She sees through his ingenious deception, and he experiments with hedonism and homelessness. Meanwhile, she tries adopting the dubious habits of yoga and soy milk consumption to fill her existential void.

Black plays her brother Alan as a souless cipher – a maths genius banker who loses millions by filling in too many zeros. And his wife Sybil (Francine Deschapper) is—of course—utterly free of the prophetic powers to foresee her bleak downfall.

The vast screen continually torments and mocks the characters in front of it, with typed phrases spelling out their failings and signposting their downfalls. But, cruel as its ironies are, these thin archetypes would be even more lost without it. n ALICE SAVILLE Pleasance Dome, 3:35pm – 4:45pm, 2–23 Aug, not 6, 11, 18, £8 – £10.50

58 fest 8–11 August 2014

Early Doors

HHHHH Only on the Fringe could you stumble into a pub in the bright noon sunshine and feel within minutes like you’re in a late night lock-in. Despite being awkwardly programmed in the middle of the day, Early Doors manages to conjure the atmosphere of a boozer in full swing, instantly immersing festival-goers in the inebriation, laughter and despair of this most social of spaces.

The pub is also a space that naturally invites narrative. Sit down, grab a pint, tell a story. Standing and seated amongst the audience, Not Too Tame’s characters share poignant little snippets of their lives. Glasses slam down on the bar, while regulars hail us with prosaic yet poetic tales of sorrow, heartache and hope. There’s a visiting

singer from Bristol, an out-of-work graduate flogging pills and DVDs, and a quizmaster with child custody woes.

Nestled amongst these shards of narrative there is also a subtle, implicit critique of austerity Britain. Jobs here are hard to come by and optimism is a rare commodity. The pub, meanwhile, remains one of the last beating hearts of the community, and even that is under threat.

Gloom is not dwelt on, however, and like all good nights out it ends on a tipsy note of joy. There might not be too much in the way of substance, but the everyday stories are intoxicating in their telling, optimistically suggesting that everyone—no matter how ordinary—has a right to be heard. We all have a story to tell. n CATHERINE LOVE Pleasance Pop-Up: The Pub, 12:00pm – 1:00pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, 19 Aug, £7.50 – £10

www.festmag.co.uk

C theFestival Sally E Dean

Something’s in the Living Room

Tokyo Tapdo!

Sushi Tap Show

New Theatre of Ottawa

The Player’s Advice to Shakespeare

6 – 25 Aug 3.00pm C cubed

30 Jul – 25 Aug 4.45pm C

DEM Productions

Straylight Australia and Bee Loud

Sober Stag Productions

30 Jul – 25 Aug 8.30pm C

10 – 25 Aug 2.15pm C

30 Jul – 25 Aug 4.40pm C

John Burns

Teatro Labora with Ace Production

Norian Maro

Leodo: Paradise Lost

Jestia and Raedon

30 Jul – 25 Aug 3.00pm C nova

31 Jul – 25 Aug 7.55pm C cubed

30 Jul – 24 Aug 3.35pm C

30 Jul – 25 Aug 3.25pm C nova

Lysistrata

Mallory: Beyond Everest

The Road to Skibbereen

Last Call

30 Jul – 25 Aug 7.15pm C nova

Gordonstoun School

Avenue Q (School Edition)

The Dirty Talk

31 Jul – 9 Aug noon C

Verismo Theatre

Departures: A Song Cycle

31 Jul – 25 Aug 3.40pm C cubed

Here Theatre

With more than 200 shows and events across our venues in the heart of Edinburgh, we celebrate our 23rd Fringe with an inspiring international programme of cabaret, comedy, circus, dance, musicals, theatre and family shows. See it all with C venues.

THEATRE Don’t Let Go

HHHHH Counting coffee beans might just be the epitome of tedious labour. In Don’t Let Go, Leonard’s job sees him calculating caffeine, day after day. Manic Chord show a man in the throes of inertia, struggling to be joyful and dreaming about travelling to space as a result.

It’s whimsical, sure, and sometimes on the verge of jumping over the cliff into saccharine seas, but there are some beautiful images which keep the piece ticking along.

This is clowning with a close connection to the human heart: through the sparse dialogue and four performers, we get a sense of a repetitive lifestyle and where it can lead the imagination. Don’t Let Go lacks any real insight into ideas of work, but this allows abstract—if sometimes obtuse— pictures to be created. A newspaper rides through the air on a breeze. A balloon has a life of its own. A man recreates his own moon landing, complete with floating tie and a bubble shower.

You’d expect a few more laughs in a show like this, but the gags which feature are cheap and irregular. Like many young companies, Manic Chord are also in danger of allowing their debt to Frantic Assembly become a little too conspicuous during moments of movement. Don’t Let Go is about as chaotic as the world that it presents to us, but it could do with being a little more firmly rooted in a recognisable reality.

Like Leonard, it needs to be a bit more down-to-earth. n DAN HUTTON Bedlam Theatre, 1:30pm – 2:30pm, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £8.50

Boxman

HHHHH If Edinburgh University ever hosts a lecture on applying dramaturgy to solo performances, Boxman should pitch a tent to get first in line. We were blessed with astonishing one-man shows at last year’s Fringe with Mark Weinman’s mesmerising Captain Amazing and Trygve Wakenshaw’s sweetly surreal Squidboy. Here, Ruaraidh Murray only serves to elevate those performers further.

Murray plays Brian, a paranoid, self-confessed loser who can only make it a few steps from his front door before freaking out about whether he locked the windows and turned off the oven. Liberation comes in the shape of ASDA check-out girl Mandy, and with her the hope that Brian can dismiss his alter-ego Boxman: that annoying little voice in his head that

says he can never be normal.

Even if the title of this show intrigues you, there are no answers on the other side. While it tries to deal with questions of loneliness and despondency, this hour of solo theatre is so stretched out that it feels as if it’s been fed through a mangle.

Clumsy direct address, recurring rainy day songs and bland self-narration gut all coherence from the story. Murray himself is likeable on stage, but his character is entirely unsympathetic, ordinary, false and poorly observed. One sequence which throws in casual sex, drug use and alcoholism is completely jumbled and arbitrary, fuelling the protagonist’s implausibility. With any luck, the show will fit back into the box it came in – to be sealed with a full roll of duct tape. n ANDREW LATIMER Gilded Balloon , 4:15pm – 5:15pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, £10

A New Play Combining Text & Physical Theatre

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www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE #MyWay

HHHHH Modern break-ups involve more than just deciding what CD belongs to who and which of you should keep the dog. Today, heartache comes with an unwelcome custody battle over social media. Who gets the most friends, the most likes, the most photos showing they’ve moved on?

The passions and pitfalls of love online are the subject of the Young Pleasance’s light-hearted browse through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Their teenage protagonist, Frank

Forget Fire

HHHHH Ambition is fundamentally a good thing in theatre. The innocent hubris of throwing every available idea at a production and seeing what sticks is generally to a company’s credit, even when not all those ideas pay off. Forget Fire, its non-traditional narrative an overpacked demi-monde of philosophical conceits and whimsical devices, is certainly proof of this. While there are many areas where it could be tightened or retuned, audiences will respect the combined efforts of 2012 Fringe First winners Pepperdine Scotland and playwright JC Marshall for their sheer imaginative scope.

Following an internet hoax that shakes her sense of reality, a young girl decides to abandon her phone and swear off the online world. This leads to a series of encounters with other eccentrics traumatised by technology,

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Sinatra superfan Nathan, has quit social media after being dumped on Facebook. He’s enticed back online, however, after watching a fellow devotee of Ol’ Blue Eyes perform at a student union open mic night. She instantly gets under his skin, prompting a quest across the net to track her down.

The romcom storyline is paper-thin, but its telling is full of charm, wit and energy. The internet is a tricky thing to summon onstage, as many previous attempts have disastrously discovered. With their choruses of likes and cacophony of inane chatter, Young Pleasance come pretty damn close. They nail the forced cheeriness

of millions of people keeping up the pretence of constantly having the time of their lives, while the frantic conversational movement of Twitter is brilliantly evoked by swarms of figures in electric blue wigs.

The predictable message—that real emotional connection might be found by logging off—could be arrived at via a less circuitous route. But while it’s a little lacking in depth, #MyWay is also inventive, entertaining and gloriously silly. Not unlike social media, really. n CATHERINE LOVE Pleasance Dome, 2:10pm – 3:10pm, 1–16 Aug, £8 – £9.50

forcing her to consider some much larger issues.

No matter how influential social media and its attendant gadgetry have become in our lives, art concerning its growing dominance dates quickly, and often has a tendency towards preachiness. Fortunately, it appears the creative forces of Pepperdine and Marshall figured that out for themselves, allowing them to avoid such pitfalls. Instead, the play utilises the legend of Prometheus, the medium of stargazing and an injection of magical realism to create an ethereal yet irreverent atmosphere.

While some of the performances suffer from over-earnestness (though one side-character who replaces her phone with a balloon almost steals the show), Forget Fire is a brave experiment that will reward audiences willing to drift wherever the story takes them. n SEAN BELL C venues - C, 11:50am – 1:10pm, 30 Jul – 9 Aug, £9.50 – £10.50

8–11 August 2014 fest 61

THEATRE Spine

HHHHH For the past three years, a succession of female monologues has stormed the Big Belly space on Cowgate; 2012 saw Charlotte Josephine’s Bitch Boxer, and in 2013 Fleabag asked hilarious questions about sexuality. Now, in Spine, we hear another voice getting angry at the organisation of economic structures and the theft of knowledge.

Performed by Rosie Wyatt, Clara Brennan’s monologue leaves you exhausted, thrilled and full of potential.

Spine focuses around two characters—Amy, our narrator, and the elderly ‘Mrs Glenda’—who strike up an unlikely friendship based on filth and honesty. Shunned by her friends and family in Willesden, Amy finds that her new pal understands and believes in her ability to join the “posh cock club”

Chewing the Fat

HHHHH Scottish audiences hoping to sneak an under-the-radar Fringe peek at Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill’s behemoth live show, long since sold out at the SSE Hydro, are in for a shock.

Taking Susie Orbach’s Fat is a Feminist Issue as its launching pad, Chewing the Fat is a performance art piece examining one woman’s twenty first century body issues.

But this isn’t a dry academic study, nor is it a feminist, even quasi-feminist, polemic. Instead, it’s a fun, breezy and

He Had Hairy Hands

HHHHH In the town of Hemlock-Under-Lye, strange things happen to strange people. A mayor plans to build a “historiorium” as a tribute to himself and his family. Bingo games calls make little sense but give leads on a spate of serial killings. And fire safety instructors ask only that their students remember to leave their dogs behind during an emergency. This is the silly, irreverent world of Kill the Beast’s He Had Hairy Hands, and it’s painted with grotesque

62 fest 8–11 August 2014

of politics. “Less twat and more cunt”, they decide.

Brennan’s writing is articulate and full of ideas, and what could be a slow 90 minutes turns into a 60-minute drag race as Wyatt rattles through like time is running out. Under the direction of Bethany Pitts, Spine becomes just as much about energy and enthusiasm as about anger at a political system which crushes those at the bottom.

Though there are gestures

towards Marxism, feminism, leftism and many other ‘isms’ besides, Brennan never allows herself to get too bogged down in ideas, instead letting a confused but articulate pair of characters do the talking through one mouthpiece. Anger and passion are thus allowed to permeate the script, so we cannot help but be taken along for the ride. n DAN HUTTON

occasionally dark story of 24 year old Selina Thompson’s own battles with binge-eating, weight loss and attitudes to beauty and food. She is a woman who no longer wants to apologise or excuse herself for how she looks. She is fat, and that’s okay. In fact, she is beautiful.

There is an interesting tension here between Thompson’s drive on the one hand to find acceptance and beauty in her size and the evident disgust she displays towards her binge eating. Among the most poignant moments of the show sees Thompson kneeling on all fours, stuffing roast chicken into her mouth,

a surgical mask covering her face. The effect is to create an image of bovine grazing, an animalistic picture of a woman, feedbag on her face, chewing the meaty cud and seeming barely human. It is a quite horrifying picture, but a powerful one.

There is no grand or profound lesson to be found here, aside from a general conclusion that food is used to fill a void left unfulfilled by other areas of her life, but the hour is easily carried on the broad back of Thompson’s considerable charm. n BEN JUDGE

beauty. It’s a fun evening, but as with many of the horror movies it pastiches, you get a sense that there’s little beneath the surface.

Not that there needs to be anything underlying it all, but with a style that echoes that of The League of Gentlemen, it’s impossible not to try and look for some comment on rural culture. If the company pushed the whole thing a little further, the dark nooks and crannies could be illuminated and the pervasive sense of oddity revealed.

With a giant cast of zany characters, you’d expect something beyond mere caricature. It’s like switching on

expecting to watch Psychoville and getting a Halloween episode of Little Britain instead.

That said, the heavily made-up ensemble of four drive the beast hunt narrative forward with force and have no trouble getting the audience on side. Accompanied by Alex Purcell’s gorgeous animations, the company rattle through this odd tale of werewolves and the supernatural with flair, throwing in the odd song and dance number for added peculiarity. n DAN HUTTON

Underbelly, Cowgate, 3:30pm – 4:30pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, not 12 Aug, £10 – £11

Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 12:55pm – 2:05pm, 2–13 Aug, not 3, 10, £11

Pleasance Courtyard, 6:30pm – 7:40pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 13 Aug, £9 – £11.50

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE 10:00

CalArts Festival Theater 11th Season on the fringe 12:30

Shadow Puppetry Tale of Persephone

Pomegranate Jam 16:45

19:45

Premire Tale of Van Gogh's Lust

Kaspar by Peter Handke Yellow Fever August 2-23 - £8 Gen £6 Con tickets: www.venue13.com - 07074 20 13 13

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I s UR age NO Dam t

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Gu

e EL nd HACIS a C MI of N Sp

‘THRILLING! HAD MY HEART PUMPING!’ HUFFINGTON POST

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‘THE MUSICAL OF THE MOMENT.’

‘EXTRAORDINARY! BREATHTAKING!’

MAXIM ITALY

LA SPLASH

siddharthathemusical.co.uk

31 July - 24 August

(not 6, 13 August)

6.10pm Festival Highlights.com

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8–11 August 2014 fest 63

MUSIC CHRISTEENE: The CHRISTEENE Machine

HHHHH It’s late in a small, sweaty cave somewhere in the Underbelly. A figure is carried, moaning, by two henchmen who push and hustle their way through an increasingly uneasy crowd. CHRISTEENE is deposited on stage, garlanded with two balloons which she sets free, removing the strings from her anus, where they are anchored. The music begins—all thick bass and heavy beats—and as she sings, we see the whites of her eyes and swathes of flesh through the shreds of her home-made clothes.

A bewildered punter might be forgiven for leaving at this point. As an opening gambit it’s aggressively sexual, and deeply discomfiting – all shock aesthetics with little substance beyond a compulsion towards nihilism. And to be sure, CHISTEENE and “the boyz”—a pair of backing dancers whose chubby, sweating bodies and lace knickers are unlikely to appear on MTV any time soon—don’t shy away from destruction. Gender normativity is smashed; religion and government are spat at; she rails against consumerism and apathy.

Except it’s far too simple to dismiss this as inchoate screams of anger, for at its heart the CHRIS-

Americana Road Trip

HHHHH “This next song is about guns, yeah!” hollers Paul Lyall, lead singer of Americana-tribute band Flagstaff. Stetsons and cowboy shirts are on display; the accordionist is sporting a giant US flag. There is much denim. But despite the fact that the singer’s enthusiasm is laced with irony, the song (‘Devil’s Right Hand’) is catchy and rock-pulsed and, as with most of the tunes played

64 fest 8–11 August 2014

TEENE Machine is driven by intense creativity. Imagintively, CHRISTEENE treads wildly unfamiliar territory – a monologue about growing sexual and gender awareness, for instance, takes a personal experience and transforms it into a universal metaphor with its exhortation to “go explore your

own woods”. Technically, it is a performance of real polish, with shape, texture, and military-tight choreography. It’s truly subversive – and, on an energetic Saturday night, it feels dangerous. n EVAN BESWICK

over the 90-minute gig, it’s pretty nigh on impossible to stop your feet from getting sub-contracted into tapping along.

You don’t need to be an expert in Americana to enjoy Americana Road Trip, mainly because the six musicians that make up Flagstaff are. Classic artists are chosen—Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams—but it’s not the crowd-pleasing singalong hits they play, instead going for tracks whose style and beat are recognisable, but which you may not yet have heard of (and which had me scurrying to YouTube the next morning to look up).

Lyall’s vocals are passionate, the easy loping gait of the music infectious and nostalgic. The band have nicknames like “Lousy” Lyall and “the Methadone Metronome”, and clearly love with every bone of them the music they are playing. In a way it is kind of a niche genre (and I did actually scribble “Dad rock” in my notebook), but by the end I was wishing there was just a tiny bit of dance floor space left in the cellar bar to set up an impromptu hoedown. n LUCY RIBCHESTER

Underbelly, Cowgate, 10:10pm – 11:10pm, 1–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £10 – £12

The Jazz Bar, 10:00pm – 11:30pm, 4 Aug, 12 Aug, £8

www.festmag.co.uk

MUSIC Dandy Darkly’s Pussy Panic!

HHHHH The genesis of Dandy Darkly’s latest one-man extravaganza came at last year’s Fringe, when the New York storyteller was approached after a show and accused of “celebrating the murder of women.” His response, it transpires, is a show which offers more of the same, only this time with a greater degree of self-satisfaction at his supposedly transgressive subject matter.

Via his ghoulishly flamboyant stage persona, Darkly confesses to a terror of female sexual organs, and explains that the show is his attempt to overcome that fear. Four gleefully macabre tales follow, each dealing in its own way with death and women, whose characterisation thankfully extends beyond being merely the owners of a certain kind of genitalia.

Darkly is a better storyteller than comedian, and it must be admitted that he spins his yarns (in rhyme, no

less) with considerable skill, taking particular joy in extreme alliteration.

And yet, for a show that is apparently a confrontational response to aspects of modern feminist discourse, it feels like a refusal to engage. In Darkly’s words, “polite society has gotten very polite. I’m not exactly convinced for the better.” While there are many valid, vital arguments to be made in defence of potentially offensive art,

Darkly seems to have no good reason for finding humour in women dying, other than the fact he really wants to.

More than the wearying loudness of his schtick, this laziness is what kills the show. Audiences can hope that in future, his grisly imagination can be put to better use. n SEAN BELL CC Blooms, 6:45pm – 7:40pm, 2–24 Aug, not 13, free

Circo Aereo & Thomas Monckton:

THE PIANIST Assembly Roxy CentRAl, 2–25 August (not 11th) At 12:00 pm

www.festmag.co.uk

8–11 August 2014 fest 65 Untitled-2 1

18/07/2014 09:38

MUSIC&CABARET Tina T’urner Tea Lady

HHHHH Whatever happened to Tina Turner? Is the Queen of Rock’n’Roll living quietly in a lake house in Zurich? Hell no! Wikipedia’s got it wrong, Turner ain’t having no Foreign Affair, she’s become a tea lady. Oh yeah! She’s on a mission to tell the world that homebrew is Simply the Best. Down with those posh coffee shops and up with Rosie Lee! That, and the elderly T’urner’s

Fascinating Aïda: Charm Offensive

HHHHH Having entertained audiences across the UK for some three decades, Fascinating Aïda are the Fringe’s torch carriers for a musical-comedy tradition in the vein of Tom Lehrer and Eric Idle. Charm Offensive, their latest touring show, may be a bit of a misnomer—there is certainly no offence to be taken here—but what we do have is a gently subversive show, packed full of witty lyrics, tight musicality and no small hint of old-world glamour.

Of a song list totalling some 12 tracks, standouts include

66 fest 8–11 August 2014

insatiable, unshameable sexual appetite is pretty much the only joke in the debut Fringe show of cabaret artist Tina T’urner, the recent winner of the Best Newcomer award in the London Cabaret Awards 2014. There’s nothing subtle or clever about it – no line is worth repeating, no joke bears recounting, but T’urner sings, dances, flashes and seduces with such frightening gusto that I haven’t the heart to be too critical.

The ease and fluency with which T’urner interacts with the crowd is for me the most impressive aspect of her performance. She is silly, rude,

good-humoured, even louder than she is lewd (which is saying something) – and the audience loves it. T’urner’s rasping singing voice is mighty fine too. What a shame her tea-themed parodies of Turner songs don’t have the words to match her voice.

You probably need at least a rudimentary familiarity with the big Turner hits really to enjoy the show, but other than that if you can take your tea strong, and your jokes weak, this is the cabaret for you. n MIRANDA KIEK

‘We’re Next/We’ve Had the Best of the World’, which ruminates on dying, before joyfully revelling in the baby boomer generation’s shafting of the next generations’ economic prospects and the very planet they will live on. Similarly, ‘Prisoner of Gender’ is a surprisingly poignant tale of Adele Anderson’s struggles with her body.

Nevertheless, there’s no escaping the fact that Charm Offensive feels rather safe, perhaps a little too much so. Technically speaking, it’s a well-polished production, but there is nothing novel in the familiar structuring of the songs. Take the newly debuted number on the NHS. Here we have a ballad that sings the praises of the venerated old institution, before things unravel verse by verse

until the great, gleaming expression of post-war welfarism is shown to be a crumbling wreck – a straight-forward pull-back-and-reveal that is used a little too frequently. ‘The Bulgarians’, a series short numbers comparable to comedy-song haiku, also falls a little flat.

But in spite of this, as the trio faux-reluctantly closes out the show with ‘Cheap Flights’, their infamous Ryanair-bashing ditty viewed on YouTube over ten million times, it’s clear that this slick, high-quality production ultimately gives its audience exactly what it’s after. n BEN JUDGE

Cowgatehead, 2:30pm – 3:20pm, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, free

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 6:00pm – 7:00pm, 31 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, 12 Aug, 13 Aug, £14.50

www.festmag.co.uk

KIDS

Little Prince in the Desert A disappointingly repetitive show, as seen by Cameron Searle, aged 11 In this show you are never in the same place for very long, moving from planet to planet. The storyline is very good but unfortunately the show doesn’t live up to its potential.

There is a lack of energy and colour to keep the younger kids’ attention. The basic storyline is that the Little Prince has left his planet to explore the galaxy, leaving his friend The Rose behind. Due to very few props, it gets a bit repetitive because there isn’t much of a difference between the different planets but the masks have lots of character.

Younger children might find some parts funny - I would say it is suitable for 4 to 6 year-olds.

Pleasance Courtyard, 3:25pm – 4:30pm, 1–24 Aug, not 18, £10

Big Red Bath A really funny animal show, as seen by Ella McQueen, aged 4 I thought it was fantastic. They dressed up as animals and there was a lion on a brush. My favourite bit was the end because the dancing was so fun. I liked all the animals, all of them were my favourites. Tell my friends to go there cos it’s so good. I loved the dancing and want to see it all over again. The man was really funny, he made everyone laugh. Mummies should take their big girls and boys, and their babies.

Pleasance Courtyard, 11:00am – 11:45am, various dates between 31 Jul and 24 Aug, £8 – £10

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8–11 August 2014 fest 67

KIDS Emily Brown and the Thing

HHHHH Cressida Cowell’s Emily Brown books are close to becoming modern classics for young children, and the story of her night-time encounter with an enormous, scared ‘Thing’ is one that speaks to all children’s fears and dreams. Tall Stories have beautifully expanded the 2D visual style of the book, with a jaunty, angular set that looks like an unfolding pop-up book brought to life. The characters are played by puppets, soft toy-like avatars and the actors themselves as the staging requires, with visual cues such as Stanley the rabbit’s long fluffy ears serving to ensure we stay on board with who’s who.

Anna Wheatley is tremendous as Emily, a resourceful, tomboyish adventurer played with just the right combination of childish enthusiasm and slight grown-up distance from the character: appropriate, given that Emily takes on a reassuring adult role for the monsters that she meets along the way. Each of these is played with satisfyingly visceral enthusiasm

by Chris Gunter, from the camp, shy Thing (for which Gunter channels more than a little of George, the pink hippo from Rainbow), to the overly friendly polar bear, to the feral troll, which treads just the right line between scary and funny.

The plot is purposefully repetitive and slightly loses momentum in the

The Sagas of Noggin the Nog

HHHHH “The last thing we were expecting today was a talking bird,” jokes a bearded performer when a recognisable green bird appears. Very funny. At the very least, we were expecting a children’s show which utilised the context of theatre to retell the stories of the much-loved TV character Noggin the Nog. These two sagas—based on Noggin’s search for a bride and a quest to find a dragon—are sturdy adaptations,

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third act; but any potential kiddie restlessness is averted by some spirited audience interaction. The bookending of the piece with both child and adult voices discussing first their fears, then their dreams, elevates the story’s message to one that is both universal

and moving. This is an adventurous, fully-realised production that beguiles its young audience like the sweetest of sweet dreams. n TOM HACKETT

but a lack of interaction and shortage of imaginative thinking mean some of the kids in the audience struggle to engage.

Mischievous Theatre smartly choose an aesthetic slightly removed from Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin’s original, opting for a broad Viking-look rather than stripes and smiles. Cutsie animations and puppets allow older audience members to re-live their childhood memories, while kids can enjoy the swords and silly helmets.

A cast of four men play all the parts, including Graculus the aforementioned bird.

Every now and then there’s cause

for a good laugh, but the jokes often feel forced (and, dare I say it, a little patronising). The only time we’re ever really asked to get involved is to say “good luck” and “goodbye”, which feels like one hell of a missed opportunity. Puppet work is also less-than-impressive, with these beings often looking as lifeless as someone forced to do early-morning flyering on the Mile. It all leads to a magical final reveal, but the journey there is too slow and contains none of the magic or humour of the original series. n DAN HUTTON

Pleasance Courtyard, 2:05pm – 3:00pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 7 Aug, £8 – £10

Assembly George Sq Gardens, 12:50pm – 1:50pm, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £9 – £10

www.festmag.co.uk

KIDS ‘THIS ORIGINAL, FUNNY PIECE CELEBRATES THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF PLAY’The Stage Scamp Theatre & Watford Palace Theatre present:

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What’s Peen Seen

From the team behind Stick Man and Tiddler

WhatsOnStage

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COMEDY LISTINGS 07:00 BBC: Today BBC@POTTERROW, 23 Aug, £free

09:00 Japanese Samurai Don Quixote Challenging Giant English Windmills!

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 10–24 Aug, not 13, £free Breakfast Baps with Witty Chaps Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–9 Aug, £free BBC: @BBCEdFest BBC@POTTERROW, 1–24 Aug, £free BBC: Shaun Keaveny BBC@POTTERROW, 22 Aug, £free

10:00 Japanese Samurai Don Quixote Challenging Giant English Windmills!

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–9 Aug, £free Lulo’s Shitting in Narnia Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

10:15 An Audience With Walter J Plinge Alter Ego Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 7–24 Aug, £free

10:30 Baby Wants Candy Workshops Assembly Checkpoint, 9 Aug, 16 Aug, 23 Aug, £15 BBC: MacAulay and Co BBC@POTTERROW, 5–22 Aug, weekdays only, £free

10:40 Josh Smith Not What You Expected Show Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 7–10 Aug, £free

Ben Mepsted: Middle Class Idiots Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 7, 8, 9, 10, £free

10:45 Mean Things I Did to My Sister (and Other Lessons I’ve Learned) Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–16 Aug, £free

10:50 Guns Don’t Kill People, Rabbits with Batteries Do Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free

11:00 BBC: Loose Ends BBC@POTTERROW, 9 Aug, £free Ray Fordyce’s Brunchtime Banter (Part 2) Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free Scotland’s Referend...uhm?

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–23 Aug, not 13, £free

11:10 Bridget Christie: An Ungrateful Woman The Stand Comedy Club, 2–25 Aug, not 11, £10 Beyond a Joke?

Comedy, Culture and the Public Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 13–17 Aug, £5 AhhGee Podcast Live theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 12–16 Aug, £6

11:15 The Dead Pony Society Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–13 Aug, £free

11:45 Aaaand Now For Something Completely Improvised Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, £6—£9

12:00 Conor O’Toole’s Manhood St John’s, 1–25 Aug, £free Martin Pilgrim: Diary Farmer Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free Jessie Cave + Emer Kenny: Grawlix Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–25 Aug, £free Ellie Taylor: Elliementary HHH Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–22 Aug, not 11, £free Eleanor Morton: Lollipop The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8 Cupcakes with Colebrook and Khoshsokhan Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1–24 Aug, £free Ian D Montfort’s Midday Seance Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 1–25 Aug, £5—£8 Dave Waller: Where My Folk To? Laughing Horse @ The Wee Pub, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free About Comedy: Stand-Up Comedy Courses Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, Various dates from 2 Aug to 23 Aug, £99 Shit of the Fringe Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 2–24 Aug, £free GhostCop Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free Stand-Up Showdown: Singh vs Whitmer Laughing Horse @ Finnegan’s Wake, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am 70 fest 8–11 August 2014

Richard Brown: This Is Not for You Hotel Ibis Edinburgh Centre South Bridge, 2–23 Aug, £free Virginia Ironside: Growing Old Disgracefully The Assembly Rooms, 11–24 Aug, £9—£10 Night of the Living Tories Viva Mexico, 2–23 Aug, £free

12:05 Rosie Wilby: Nineties Woman Voodoo Rooms, 2–24 Aug, not 11, £free

12:10 Off the Top Canons’ Gait, 2–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free Tony Law: Enter the Tonezone The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £11 Jana and Heidi Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–23 Aug, not 6, 11, 17, 18, £6—£9.50

12:15 Pab, Comedy and Poetry Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, Various dates from 1 Aug to 22 Aug, £free Spitfire! Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 5–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free What Shall We See Today?

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

12:20

12:50

Jenan Younis: A Masterclass in Anger Management Paradise in The Vault, 12–17 Aug, £free

Lucy Porter: Me Time The Stand Comedy Club, 1–10 Aug, not 5, £10

12:30 The Lunchtime Special Just the Tonic at The Tron, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£6 Pam Ford Happy in Your Skin Too Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 18–24 Aug, £free Patrick Turpin: A Brother for Jonathan Bannermans, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £free LOLympics Live - Free Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–17 Aug, £free Abi Roberts’ Musical CID Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, £5—£9.50 Jon Pearson: Last Supper Whynot? , 2–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £free Big Value Comedy Show - Lunchtime Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £4—£6 Felicity Ann: It Takes All Sorts Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, £5—£9 Get Divorced and Join the Circus The Stand Comedy Club V, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8

12:40 The Lunchtime Ferret Just the Tonic at The Caves, Various dates from 11 Aug to 17 Aug, £3—£5

Making the Move Just the Tonic at The Caves, 4–17 Aug, £free—£2 Gilligan’s Island Laughing Horse @ Dropkick Murphys, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free

12:45

Sophie Willan: Novice Detective ZOO, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£8 Challenge Accepted Suruchi, 1–25 Aug, £free

Settle Down Electric Circus, 18–22 Aug, £free All the Fun of the Fairburn Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, not 19, £free

12:55 Penny Matthews: Cup of Boiled String Southsider, 2–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £free

13:00 The Tight Six Comedy Showcase Ciao Roma, 2–23 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free Afternoon Delight Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5 Marigold Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£6 BBC: Front Row BBC@POTTERROW, 14 Aug, £free The Human Loire Cowgatehead, 16–25 Aug, £free Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe Assembly George Square Studios, 2–24 Aug, not 6, 12, 19, £10—£11 Mrs Thundercünt’s Splooge Adventurers!

Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £3—£5 Up the Auntie C venues - C nova, 10–25 Aug, £8.50—£10.50 Delicious and Dateless Cowgatehead, 1–14 Aug, £free BBC: BBC Radio New Comedy Award 2014 BBC@POTTERROW, 19 Aug, 21 Aug, £free Always Be Rolling - Free Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 1–23 Aug, not 12, £free

13:05 Austerity Pleasures Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £free The Improveteers! theSpace on the Mile, 12–16 Aug, £3

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk @gildedballoon www.festmag.co.uk

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk 13:10 Caution to the Wind Banshee Labyrinth, 2–23 Aug, not 13, £free Derek Johnston’s A Day Oot! The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8 This Slate Is Intentionally Left Blank Chiquito, 2–23 Aug, not 12, 19, £free Girl on Fire Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £free Best of Edinburgh Showcase Show Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£11

13:15 Nicky Wilkinson and Friends St John’s, 1–25 Aug, £free Matthew Collins: My Favourite Waste of Time Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 1–24 Aug, £free Just Like That! The Tommy Cooper Show Gilded Balloon , 18–25 Aug, £10—£12 Surname and Surname: Last Year’s Show (But Better) Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free The Walking Dead The Liquid Room, 1–24 Aug, £free Amused Moose Comedy’s Laughter Awards Final theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 17 Aug, £12.50 Claire Ford: ConsciousMess St John’s, 1–25 Aug, £free Together in Electra Dreams - Free Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–9 Aug, £free Yes Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free

Tamar Broadbent: All

By My Selfie Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £free Liam Williams: Capitalism HHH Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £free Who Is Mr Kirby?

Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free Peace, Tolerance, Surveillance and Drones - Free Laughing Horse @ Ryrie’s, 2–21 Aug, not 6, £free Gráinne Maguire: What Has The News Ever Done For Me? Viva Mexico, 2–23 Aug, £free Atella the Pun Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free The Beta Males Sessions: Richard and The Storybeast Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Kwame Asante: Basket Case Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 11–24 Aug, £free Hannah and Barri: Telly Box Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 11–24 Aug, £free Four On Demand Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 18, £free A Robot Presents Comedy - Free Cowgatehead, 3–24 Aug, not 15, £free

13:20 Sam Brady: Kindness Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free The Live Scriber: Doodle-a-thon-edy!

Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 6–10 Aug, £5 Dan Nicholas’ Conversation Garden George Next Door, 2–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free The Night I Died Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 11–15 Aug, £5

COMEDY LISTINGS Phil Kay: The Wholly Viable II Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 16–25 Aug, £5 Caimh McDonnell: Southbound and Down Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 12, 19, £free

13:25 Alfie Moore: The Naked Stun HHH Assembly George Square Studios, 18 Aug, £9 The Edinburgh Revue Stand-Up Show Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £free

13:30 Plumbing The Depths Paradise in The Vault, 19–23 Aug, £6 The Sketch Show That Cannot Be Named for Legal Reasons Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1 Aug, 4 Aug, 7 Aug, 8 Aug, £free

13:55

Baron Sternlook’s Big Naughty Improv Musical Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 18, £6.50

Gagging for Attention Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £3

13:40 Fat Girl Slim Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £1—£3 Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel HHH Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11 Bob Graham’s Travel Guide for Agoraphobics Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 1–23 Aug, not 12, 19, £free

13:45 #SorryNotSorry CANCELLED Freestival St Mary’s, 1–23 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free The Clinic: An Afternoon of Serious Stand-Up Gilded Balloon , 19 Aug, £5.50

Fridge Magnets Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

David Jesudason: Things My Dad Says Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

Jake Lambert and Dom Lister Laughing Horse @ Dropkick Murphys, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free

Pippa Evans: Don’t Worry, I Don’t Know Who I Am Either Bannermans, 2–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free

14:00 Arthur Smith Sings Leonard Cohen (Vol. 2) Pleasance Courtyard, 15–24 Aug, £11—£12 Shellshock! Improv Live!

C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£9.50 SmART Attack!

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 14, £free All Made Up: This Time It’s Social Chalky’s , 2–23 Aug, not 13, £free Jasper Cromwell Jones: This is Not a Holiday Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 22, £free The Durham Revue: Shenanigans Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£10 Narin Oz: Addicted to Love C venues - C south, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £4.50—£6.50 BBC: Radio 4’s Bookclub BBC@POTTERROW, 23 Aug, £free

My Demons Are Bigger Than Yours Suruchi, 1–17 Aug, not 10, £free

Phill Jupitus: Shirking Progress The Stand Comedy Club V, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10

Ali Brice Presents: Eric Meat Wants to Go Shopping Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, £5

Lunchtime of Champions Sportsters, 4–22 Aug, weekdays only, £free

Fall Girl Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 12, £5—£11

The Oxford Revue Presents – Free Jam House , 2–23 Aug, £free

Jen Brister - Wishful Thinking Whistlebinkies, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free One Man, Five Hats Underbelly, Bristo Square, 8–17 Aug, £8.50—£9.50 Who Ya Gonna Call?

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

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13:35

Once Upon a Time in a Sketch Group Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free Comedy With a Dyslexic Geordie Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 3–24 Aug, £free A History of Rome.

With Jokes - Free Sportsters, 2–23 Aug, not 8, 15, £free

Hooray for Ben Target Banshee Labyrinth, 2–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free This Arthur’s Seat Belongs to Lionel Richie On Top of Arthurs Seat, 16 Aug, £free BBC: Richard Bacon BBC@POTTERROW, 18 Aug, £free

BBC: The Culture Studio with Janice Forsyth BBC@POTTERROW, Various dates from 4 Aug to 13 Aug, £free The Improvised Improv Show - Free Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, £free

14:05 Pam Ayres The Assembly Rooms, 8–10 Aug, £15 The Birmingham Footnotes Have a Plan Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–14 Aug, £4—£6 Kids With Beards - Quest for the Golden Beard Just the Tonic at The Caves, 15–24 Aug, £free

14:10 The Alternative Comedy Memorial Society Stand in the Square, 6 Aug, 13 Aug, 20 Aug, £10 Confessions of a Liverpudlian theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 15–16 Aug, £6 The Exeter Revue: Sketchy At Best Ciao Roma, 2–23 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £free Falafel, Houmous and Baba Ganoush Stand in the Square, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8

14:15 Good Morning, Campers Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 2–15 Aug, £free Caroline Mabey: Chaos is a Friend of Mine Cowgatehead, 9–17 Aug, £free Bryan Lacey: Bry Hard!

Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 16–24 Aug, £free Francesca Martinez: What The **** Is Normal?! - Show plus Book Q&A Venue150@EICC, 9 Aug, £14

Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ

8–11 August 2014 fest 71

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COMEDY LISTINGS POD Comedy Princes Mall, 2–24 Aug, £free We The Chemicals Cowgatehead, 1–8 Aug, £free Best of the Fest Daytime Assembly George Square Gardens, 1–24 Aug, £8—£12.50 Booze, Bombs and Haggis Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free Is He a Bit Simon Jay? - Free Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, £free Robin and Partridge: Robin Dies at the End of the Show Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 18, £6—£9 Dannie Grufferty’s First World Problems SpaceCabaret @ 54, 20–23 Aug, £5

14:20 Let’s Talk About Sketch Baby Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£9.50 Sameena Zehra: Homicidal Pacifist The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 2, 11, £8 Rat: Induction Just the Tonic at The Tron, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £4—£7 The Cleek Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 6–24 Aug, not 11, 12, 18, 19, £free Stewart Lee: A Room With a Stew (Work-in-Progress) The Stand Comedy Club, 2–25 Aug, not 11, £10 Stuart Laws When’s This Gonna Stop?

(1hr Show) Banshee Labyrinth, 2–23 Aug, not 12, 19, £free

14:25 Kriss Foster and Friend Chiquito, 2–23 Aug, not 18, £free

Josh Howie - AIDS: A Survivor’s Story Canons’ Gait, 2–23 Aug, not 11, £free

14:30 Upstairs Downton: The Improvised Episode Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, £free Mercedes Benson Presents... The Pleasure is Yours St John’s, 1–23 Aug, not 8, 13, 20, £free Ian Fox Presents The Unsearchables - Free Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–23 Aug, £free Comedy Death: Comics Talking About Their Worst Gigs Cowgatehead, 2–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free Alasdair Lists Everything Freestival St Mary’s, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free Oh Boy! The Quantum Leap Show Cowgatehead, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free #Happy / A Rather Pleasant, Misanthropic Laughing Horse @ Finnegan’s Wake, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free

❤ Ellie White: Humans HHHH Viva Mexico, 2–23 Aug, not 13, £free

Narin Oz: Addicted to Love C venues - C south, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £4.50—£6.50 Sy+ Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Ken Crystal Afternoon Showcase Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free Worst Show On the Fringe - Free George Next Door, 2–25 Aug, £free 10 Films with My Dad Voodoo Rooms, 2–24 Aug, £free

Matt Forde: 24 Hour Political Party People Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10 Wild Card Kitty: The Showgirl Show Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free The Beta Males Sessions: Adam and Guy Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Dan Cook and Gareth Cooper Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £free Three Shot Mockery Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 1–24 Aug, £free Barbara Nice: Squirrel Proof The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10 The Edinburgh Revue and You Can Too Opium, 2–23 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free Aidan Killian: Jesus Versus Buddha Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £5 Henry von Stifle: Working Class Hero (With a Valet) St John’s, 1–25 Aug, not 10, 17, £free My Sister Says I’m Special Laughing Horse @ Ryrie’s, 2–24 Aug, £free

14:35 Tom Toal in Prequel Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 11, £free Baby Wants Candy present The Improv All Star Explosion!

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £7—£12 Nathaniel Metcalfe: Trivial Pursuits Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 13, £free

14:40 The Quest for Coolness Sweet Grassmarket, 1–25 Aug, £8.50

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am 72 fest 8–11 August 2014

Chris Griffin and Ross Leslie Present Two Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, Various dates from 1 Aug to 25 Aug, £free Eric and Little Ern Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £14—£15

14:50 Jim Campbell’s Personal Space Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Two More Liars Capital Bar & Club, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £free

14:55

The One-Eyed Men’s Cult of Lactos Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £2—£4

Ben Verth: Anxious Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £5

Old Men Walking Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 8–17 Aug, £free

Me, Bill Nighy and the Goblin - A One-Woman Show Performed by Nalika de Silva Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–11 Aug, £5

14:45 Frequently Asked Questions Laughing Horse @ Dropkick Murphys, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free

15:00

The Marijana Method Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Ctrl-Alt-Sketch Citrus Club , 2–23 Aug, £free Kitten Killers Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £6—£9 Gary Colman: ChUNT - The Verb to Grumble Whistlebinkies, 2–23 Aug, not 18, £free Juliette Burton: Look at Me Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 13, £8—£10 Emily Snee is Bifurious Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free Martin Croser: One Night Only! (For Entirely Practical Reasons) Whistlebinkies, 18 Aug, £free Operation You Three Laughing Horse @ The Blind Poet , 1–24 Aug, £free The Rat Pack Stand-Up Comedy Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free

James Veitch: The Fundamental Interconnectedness of Everyone with an Internet Connection Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, £6—£10 Mitch Benn: Don’t Believe a Word The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 10, 11, 17, £10 Ria Lina: School of Riason HHH Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, £5—£9 Matthew Highton’s Good Luck Sleeping Jerks Heroes @ The Hive, 4–24 Aug, £5 Francesca Martinez: What The **** Is Normal?! - Show plus Book Q&A Venue150@EICC, 15–16 Aug, £14 Winter Is Coming Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 12, 19, £5—£11 Showstopper! The Improvised Musical Gilded Balloon , 6 Aug, 13 Aug, £14 Gledhill and Callaghan Pilgrim, 2–23 Aug, not 18, £free Separate But Equal Thistle King James Hotel, 1–25 Aug, £free

The Lift Bedlam Theatre, 2–17 Aug, not 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, £3—£6 Invisible Woman: Maxine Jones Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 12, 19, £7.50 Rachel Stubbings: Doing It for Himself Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£9 The St Andrews Revue Present: Prom Paradise in The Vault, 4–10 Aug, £7 Eddie Hoo: Angry in the Afternoon - Free Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Mitch Benn Is the 37th Beatle The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 10 Aug, 17 Aug, £10 Bristol Improv Steals the Show - Free Whynot? , 4–23 Aug, not 5, 12, 20, £free #meetandtweet Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 18, £3—£5 Minor Delays Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£10 Lizzie Bates: Reprobates Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 9, £6—£10 Narin Oz: Addicted to Love C venues - C south, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £4.50—£6.50 Next Best Thing Opium, 2–23 Aug, not 13, £free Alex Horne: The Percentage Game Gilded Balloon , 12 Aug, 19 Aug, £5 Mark Cooper-Jones - Geography Teacher Globe Bar, 2–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free Russell Kane: The Kaneing Podcast Assembly Checkpoint, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 19 Aug, £9 Aaaaargh! It’s the Monster Stand-Up Show! Free Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, £free

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk @gildedballoon www.festmag.co.uk

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk Jenny Collier: Love in the Time of Collier Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–22 Aug, £free

The Anglo-Irish Glee Tent Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–25 Aug, £free

15:05

15:20

Going Retro with Special Guest: Psychic Ethel Rowbotham theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £5—£6

15:10 Stories About Love, Death and a Rabbit Dragonfly, 2–23 Aug, £free Charmian Hughes: Raj Rage!

Banshee Labyrinth, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £free

15:15 Catriona Knox Thinks She’s Hard Enough Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Skimprov Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £1—£8 Surname & Surname: Bang!

Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£9

Spencer Jones is The Herbert Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £3 John Robertson: A Nifty History of Evil

HHH

Short & Curly - Who Dunnit?

Ciao Roma, 2–23 Aug, not 12, 19, £free

FunBags a Go-Go! St John’s, 1–23 Aug, not 8, 13, 20, £free

Eric’s Tales of the Sea – A Submariner’s Yarn Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £8—£11

Seriously Now! - Free Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, £free

The Hibrow Comedy Hour Summerhall, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 20 Aug, £12

Tania Edwards: Always Rihgt Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£9

Krispy Kreems (and Comedy!) 4U Princes Mall, 1–25 Aug, £free

Bright Club: Scotland’s Fringe Stand in the Square, 13 Aug, £5

The Oxford Revue: Happy Accidents Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£10

Dan Jones: New Kid Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£9.50

Comedians’ Cinema Club Just the Tonic at The Tron, 1–23 Aug, not 12, £7

Chris Coltrane: There’s No Heroes Left Except All of Us Banshee Labyrinth, 2–24 Aug, £free

Kieran Hodgson: French Exchange Voodoo Rooms, 2–24 Aug, not 13, £free

Brydie Lee-Kennedy Repeats On You Cowgatehead, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £free

zazU Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£10

Toast with Ruth E. Cockburn Viva Mexico, 2–23 Aug, not 9, £free

Show Pony Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 12, £free

Jody Kamali: One Man Variety Show Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free

15:25 The Canon: A Literary Sketch Show C venues - C too, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£9.50

15:30

Paul Duncan McGarrity: Fail! - Free Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free

Free Footlights Jam House , 2–23 Aug, £free

I Need A Doctor: The Whosical Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, 19, £6—£11.50

Jason Patterson - All About the Pattersons Laughing Horse @ The White Horse, 3–24 Aug, not 17, £free

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Mae Martin’s Workshop Cowgatehead, 2–24 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free AAA Batteries (Not Included) - Free Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 1–24 Aug, £free

Yes Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, Various dates from 4 Aug to 22 Aug, £free

Kevin J: The Urban Truth Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free

A Bridge Over Toddled Warder Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £free Max Dickins: My Groupon Adventure Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

Patrick Morris: Seemingly Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free The Oxford Imps: Pun and Games Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, £8—£10 Prompter HHH Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, £5—£12

Maddy Carrick in Maddy’s Carrickters Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 18, £free

Nutjob Laughing Horse @ Finnegan’s Wake, 1–25 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, 24, £free

15:45

The Thinking Drinkers’ Guide to the Legends of Liquor The Famous Spiegeltent, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £9—£11

MommAutism - A Love Story Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 1–25 Aug, £free Amused Moose Comedy Awards Gangshow theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 10 Aug, £9

I Am Not Malala Laughing Horse @ Ryrie’s, 2–24 Aug, not 6, £free

Deborah Frances-White: Half a Can of Worms Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11 Six Steps to Joy Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 18, £free Makes Something of Himself Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Andrew Bird - Up Against It Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 17–24 Aug, £free Hilarity Bites Comedy Club: Showcase Show Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free Someone’s Pinched Me Yoghurt!

George Next Door, 17–23 Aug, £free Jeremy Hunt and Other Spelling Mistakes Wee Red Bar, 17–23 Aug, £free Hatty Ashdown: Hurry Up Hatty Laughing Horse @ The Wee Pub, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free The Spork Conspiracy Wee Red Bar, 2–16 Aug, £free Prof’s Olympic Legacy Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1–15 Aug, £free Alistair Williams and Daryl Perry Love You St John’s, 17–24 Aug, £free

Deadly Dungeon Murder Mystery!

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A thrilling Fringe debut from Scotland’s Best Visitor Attraction 2014. Who killed Judge Mental? It’s up to you to find out! t e he C Di f n om n B oS o e U te m D R R in Y Gh ’S e e aW Re a tU RD Rn S!

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0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk @gildedballoon www.festmag.co.uk

15:40

The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8

Rory O’Keeffe is a Fussy Eater Southsider, 2–23 Aug, not 12, £free

In

COMEDY LISTINGS

1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd August Tickets selling fast!

thedungeons.com/Edinburgh

Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ

8–11 August 2014 fest 73

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COMEDY LISTINGS 15:50 Quiz in My Pants Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 12, £free Jagged Little People Cabaret Voltaire, 2–24 Aug, not 5, 13, 19, £free Neil Henry’s Impossible Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, £6—£10

15:55 Simon Munnery Sings Soren Kierkegaard The Stand Comedy Club, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £10 Nick Hall: Helmet George Next Door, 2–23 Aug, £free

16:00 Jenan Younis: A Masterclass in Anger Management Paradise in The Vault, 19–21 Aug, £free Mike Shephard: M*ther of All Parliaments Laughing Horse @ Dropkick Murphys, 2–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free

Francesca Martinez: What The **** Is Normal?! - Show plus Book Q&A Venue150@EICC, 8 Aug, £14 Mysteries of the Unknown Sweet Grassmarket, 4–10 Aug, £7 Ride of the Wagnerian Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £3—£6 The Grandees: BaBoom!

Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 My Mother Made Me Do It Suruchi, 1–12 Aug, £free Alfie Moore: The Naked Stun HHH Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, £6—£11 iPaddy Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 4–24 Aug, £free Al Donegan: The Five Worst Things I Ever Did Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £4—£8

Floe-Joe’s Music and Character Platter theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £7

The Usual Rejects Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free

On The Box! Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £5—£8.50

Old Folks Telling Jokes Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7

Anna Morris: Would Like to Thank Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11

16:10 Hayley Ellis: We Need To Talk About Kevin Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10

16:15 ❤ Tom Neenan: The

Narin Oz: Addicted to Love C venues - C south, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £4.50—£6.50

Do You Remember Rock’n’Roll Radio?

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

Learn to Laugh with Keep Calm and Improv C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

Twins Laughing Horse @ The Blind Poet , 1–24 Aug, not 18, £free

Another American Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

Paul Merton’s Impro Chums Pleasance Courtyard, 7–16 Aug, £12.50—£14.50

Cracker Jokes - Free Pilgrim, 2–23 Aug, £free

Cambridge Footlights International Tour Show 2014: Real Feelings Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, £6—£10.50

16:05 The Clean (As Possible) Comedy Show Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £6

Big Society Thistle King James Hotel, 1–25 Aug, £free

Clever Peter: Free for All! Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Tom Allen: Life/Style The Stand Comedy Club V, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am 74 fest 8–11 August 2014

Lucie Pohl: Hi, Hitler Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£9

16:20

Musical Comedy Awards Showcase Underbelly, Bristo Square, 9–10 Aug,

Rob Auton: The Face Show Banshee Labyrinth, 2–23 Aug, not 3, 12, £free

Staple/face are...

Going Down Fighting Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7—£8

Stephen Bailey: Neon Heart Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£8.50

The Story of Medieval England From 1066 to 1485 at Roughly Nine Years and Two Jokes Per Minute Incorporating The Hundred Years War as a Football Match and of Course Scottish Independence Performed by Paul B Edwards – Free Bannermans, 3–24 Aug, not 9, 16, 23, £free

Cariad and Louise’s Character Hour Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free

Dancing with the Inflatable Colonel Suruchi, 13–25 Aug, £free

Freddie Farrell and Friends Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £free

Joz Norris: Awkward Prophet Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10

Glenn Cosby: Food Junkie Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£14

#The Cult of Comedy presents Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–17 Aug, £free Terry McHugh: Reservoir Dad Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–21 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free Berliner and Stamell: One of Us Will Die Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, not 18, £5 Australia: A Whinging Poms Guide Chalky’s , 1–24 Aug, £free Stephen K Amos Talk Show Gilded Balloon , 17–23 Aug, £13—£14

Paul Savage Finds Every Joke in the Bible Dragonfly, 2–23 Aug, not 12, £free John Lloyd’s Museum of Curiosity Live Underbelly, Bristo Square, 16–24 Aug, £12.50—£13.50 Alison Spittle Needs an Agent Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £3—£6

16:25 Andy Zaltzman: Satirist for Hire The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 13–24 Aug, £9—£10 Goose (An Odd New One-Man Comedy Whodunit) Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£10 Robin Ince’s Blooming Buzzing Confusion The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–12 Aug, £10

The Twins Macabre: Small Mediums at Large Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£10 Narin Oz: Addicted to Love C venues - C south, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £4.50—£6.50

Haunting at Lopham House HHHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10

Candy Gigi: I’m Not Lonely Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £5

16:30

Rachel Parris: Live in Vegas HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11 Jack Gardner and Liberty Hodes On Ice Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 18–24 Aug, £free Free Gaza!

Gilded Balloon , 12 Aug, £10 BBC: In Tune BBC@POTTERROW, 14 Aug, £free Adventures on Air - Free Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–23 Aug, not 12, £free Matt Winning and Lolly Adefope Southsider, 2–23 Aug, not 13, £free

16:35 Danny Ward – Infra Dig Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£9.50

Kate Lucas and Dave Green: Well-Adjusted Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £3—£6

16:40 FanFiction Comedy Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 The Rules of Engagement The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8

16:45 David Elms: Nurture Boy HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£9.50 Charity Chuckle: Stand Up for Charity Just the Tonic at The Caves, 2–10 Aug, £8—£10 Unicornucopia Globe Bar, 2–23 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free Almost Sean Brightman Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free Micky Bartlett: I’m Not Even Sorry Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free Laughing Horse Free Pick of the Fringe Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free Thünderbards: Seconds Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£12 BEASTS: Solo Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Rhys James: Begins Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10.50 White Man’s Burden Laughing Horse @ The White Horse, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free Tom Goodliffe: Thug Liffe- Free Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 1–24 Aug, £free Casual Violence: The Great Fire of Nostril Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 4, 12, 19, £6—£9.50

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk @gildedballoon www.festmag.co.uk

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk Neil Pummell: Losing My Identity Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 18, £3—£5

17:00 Alan Irwin - Party Hard Laughing Horse @ The Wee Pub, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free

16:50

BongoLicious Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–22 Aug, not 12, £5—£8

Ryan Coffey Live and Loud Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10

Wilkinson Ford: Kagoolio Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£8.50

Abi Roberts: Twerk in Progress Voodoo Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free

The News at Kate: Leftie Cock Womble Viva Mexico, 2–23 Aug, not 12, £free

16:55 Just Deserts Presents Waiting for Leo’s Oscar Canons’ Gait, 2–12 Aug, £free

Start Wars To Save Us All Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1–24 Aug, £free Perfectly Goddamned Delightful Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free

Harvey, Garvey and The Kane HHH Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£12

COMEDY LISTINGS Battle of the Superheroes - The Great Superhero Debate Laughing Horse @ Espionage, Various dates from 4 Aug to 24 Aug, £free These Boyz Need Therapy Kilderkin, 2–23 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free Over It - Death, Anorexia and Other Funny Things Laughing Horse @ Finnegan’s Wake, 1–30 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, 24, £free Adam Hess: Mustard Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, £5 Bristol Revunions: Bonus Material Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £3—£7

Twice as Nice Comedy @ Maggie’s Chamber Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–8 Aug, £free Tickled Pig Presents: So Hot Right Now Laughing Horse @ Ryrie’s, 2–15 Aug, not 6, £free Laughter Is the Worst Medicine The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £10 Tom Deacon: Get Your Deac-on!

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–21 Aug, not 8, £free Heavy Petting: Hammer Time Laughing Horse @ Ryrie’s, 16–24 Aug, £free Sid Wick Has No Friends Opium, 13–23 Aug, £free

The Kat and Jon Appeal Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £free

ComedySportz UK Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 17–24 Aug, £free

BBC: Simon Mayo Drivetime BBC@POTTERROW, 18–21 Aug, £free

Nathan Cassidy: Date of Death Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free

Bren and Jenny: Hello!

Freestival St Mary’s, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £free Jack Samuel Warner and John Pendal: Men and Myths Cowgatehead, 1–24 Aug, £free Andy de la Tour Stand-Up or Die in New York Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 12, £11.50—£12.50 Dead Ghost Star Cowgatehead, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free Jollyboat: Five Stars, F*****ck Yeah!

Beat, 2–23 Aug, £free

Sketchbox St John’s, 1–23 Aug, not 5, 11, 12, 13, 19, £free Dave Griffiths: C U in Court Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 9–16 Aug, £free Sean McLoughlin: I Will Prevail Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Nik Coppin - Mixed Racist Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–23 Aug, not 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, £free

edinburgh 3 South College Street, Edinburgh EH8 Email: edinburgh@callprint.co.uk www.callprint.co.uk

FRINgE pRINtINg FROm A cItY cENtRE lOcAtION

an enlightening Buddha Maitreya afternoon of NATURE’S HEART SONG MUSIC POETRY

LIVE!

Tickets available from Ticket Booking Line 0141 226 0000 or visit www.edfringe.com/whats-on/events/nature-s-heart www.buddhamaitreya.co.uk

£15 Adults £10 Concessions £30 Family (2 adults and 2 children)

.

celebrating life together. sunday17august14 2.30 - 6pm

A5 lEAFlEtS FUll cOlOUR SINglE SIDED 500 - £29 1000 - £58

A3 pOStERS FUll cOlOUR SINglE SIDED 10 - £10 50 - £40

READY IN 2 HOURS cAll - 0131 667 3539 Terms and Conditions *Mon - Fri 9am - 5:30pm *Last orders taken 3:15pm *Collection only * From print ready artwork

Artspace@St.Marks, 7 Castle Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2DP

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk @gildedballoon www.festmag.co.uk

Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ

8–11 August 2014 fest 75

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk

COMEDY LISTINGS Narin Oz: Addicted to Love C venues - C south, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £4.50—£6.50 Ahir Shah: Texture Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, £free BBC: The Verb BBC@POTTERROW, 23 Aug, £free

17:05 Don’t Worry Guys It’s Sarah Campbell Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 12, £free John Kearns - Shtick Voodoo Rooms, 2–23 Aug, not 13, £free

17:10 Nicholas Parsons’ Happy Hour Pleasance Courtyard, 1–17 Aug, not 5, 12, £6—£13 Anything’s Better Than These C**ts Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 3–21 Aug, not 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, £free

17:15 Now That’s What I Call Stand-Up #1 Laughing Horse @ The Blind Poet , 1–24 Aug, £free Adam Belbin: The Third Half of Next Year’s Show Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free The Birmingham Footnotes: Don’t Mind Me Citrus Club , 2–16 Aug, £free Anything Can Be a Podcast! Podcast!

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free Wendy Wason: Hotel California HHH Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£12 Funny For A Grrrl Stand in the Square, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £10 SomeNews Live Laughing Horse @ Dropkick Murphys, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free

Jeff Leach: Fit Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–22 Aug, £free Andrew O’Neill Mindspiders Whistlebinkies, 2–24 Aug, £free Bulletproof The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10 Danny Stinson’s Planet of the Dans Sweet Grassmarket, 11–15 Aug, £7 Sooz Kempner Defying Gravity Fingers Piano Bar, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free

17:20 Jonny Lennard: Tale Blazer Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11 Alfie Moore: The Naked Stun HHH Assembly George Square Studios, 12 Aug, £9 Hardeep Singh Kohli: Hardeep Is Your Love Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£12 Sam Avery: Rock and Dole Just the Tonic at The Caves, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£8 Joseph Morpurgo: Odessa Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50

17:25 Benny Boot: Greatest Hits Volume II Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£12

17:30 Dane Baptiste: Citizen Dane Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£12 David Morgan Social Tool Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10 BBC: Just a Minute BBC@POTTERROW, 12 Aug, £free

Jonny Pelham and George Zach - Subtitles Not Provided Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, £free Francesca Martinez: What The **** Is Normal?! - Show plus Book Q&A Venue150@EICC, 11 Aug, £14 Dan Nightingale is Trying His Best Not to Be a Dick Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£9.50 Barry Cryer and Colin Sell: Twittering On Gilded Balloon , 1–9 Aug, £11—£12 Mark Grist & MC Mixy: Dead Poets’ Death Match Assembly George Square Studios, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£12 Chris Kent: Corked Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£9.50 Gordon Southern: Your New Favourite Comedian Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, 19, £5—£12 James Christopher - Partially Sighted in All the Big Venues Banshee Labyrinth, 2–24 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free Pretending Things Are a C*ck Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £free Funmbi Omotayo and Prince Abdi: East Meets West Globe Bar, 4–24 Aug, not 18, £free Robert White - The Curious Incident of the Gag and the Gun-Crime… Plus More Stuff!

Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £5

Knightmare Live Level 2 Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £8—£13.50

❤ Celia Pacquola: Let Me Know How It All Works Out

HHHH

Gilded Balloon , 11 Aug, £9.50

Carly Smallman: Made in Penge Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free

17:35 Lucy Frederick and the Claw of Anxiety!

Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Present and Correct: Now Recruiting - Free Sportsters, 2–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free

17:40 Dan Schreiber: C*ckblocked from Outer Space HH Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 9, £6—£11 Music, Speech and the Sound of a Wheelbarrow Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£8

❤ Jason Cook: Broken HHHH Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £6—£11.50

17:45 Croft & Pearce: Give and Take Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, £5—£10

Bec Hill in... Ellipsis Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£9.50

Aaaaargh! It’s 101 Jokes in 30 Minutes!

Free Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, £free

Gary Little: The Thing Is The Stand Comedy Club, 4–25 Aug, not 18, £10

Clever Peter: The Dreams Factory Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am 76 fest 8–11 August 2014

Seymour Mace presents Questionable Time!

The Stand Comedy Club V, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 13, £8

Matt Price: The Maryhill Dinosaur Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, £free Lucy Beaumont: We Can Twerk It Out Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Matt Forde: The Political Party - Scottish Independence Special Assembly Roxy, 18 Aug, £8.50 Best of Oh So Funny - Free Southsider, 2–23 Aug, £free Comedy Showdown - Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–25 Aug, £free Toby: Fuzzbuzz Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11 Angry Young Women in Low Rise Jeans with High Class Issues Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, £5—£11 Shhh - An Improvised Silent Movie Gryphon@WestEnd, 4–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £10

17:50 The Canterbury Tales Remixed Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £7—£13 Phil Wang: Mellow Yellow Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10 A Controversial Title In Order To Sell Tickets The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8

17:55 Colin Cloud – The Forensic Mind Reader Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–23 Aug, not 12, £5—£10

18:00 Tim Renkow: At Least Hell Has Ramps Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, £5 The Craic Was Mighty Gryphon@WestEnd, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £10 Bridge Over Troubled Lager (Volume 2) The Assembly Rooms, 11–24 Aug, £15 Gamarjobat: Boxer Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £6—£13 Drink Carlin Sensibly Canons’ Gait, 1–23 Aug, not 11, £free Stuart Mitchell Work in Progress Laughing Horse @ The White Horse, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Is This What You Want?

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 10–24 Aug, £free The Pin Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£11 Rick Kiesewetter: No More Mr Rice Guy Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free Luke McGregor: I Worry That I Worry Too Much HHH Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£11 Afterbirth Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–8 Aug, £free Overlooked Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free Ian Smith – Flappable Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Comedy in the Dark Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £10 Will Adamsdale: Borders Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£12.50

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk @gildedballoon www.festmag.co.uk

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk Massive Dad Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £6—£9.50

John-Luke Roberts: Stnad-Up Voodoo Rooms, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £free

Nick Dixon and Sunil Patel: Two Wrongs Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £free

18:10

BBC: Comic Fringes BBC@POTTERROW, 9 Aug, £free BBC: Sketchorama BBC@POTTERROW, 11 Aug, £free Elaine C Smith The Assembly Rooms, 1–10 Aug, not 4, 5, £15 Greg Proops: The Smartest Man in the World Gilded Balloon , 5 Aug, 19 Aug, £12 Mike Newall is Here All Week (Almost) Just the Tonic at The Caves, 19–23 Aug, £5—£6 Angela Barnes: You Can’t Take It With You Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10 Cook and Davies Present: Planet Earth and All Who Sailed in Her Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–17 Aug, not 12, £6—£8 The Best of Irish Comedy The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, £12 Laughing Horse Free Pick of the Fringe Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free Folie à Deux Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 9, 12, 19, £6—£9 BBC: Free Thinking BBC@POTTERROW, 17 Aug, £free

Simply the West theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £9 Murder She Didn’t Write: The Improvised Murder Mystery Sweet Grassmarket, 1–16 Aug, not 6, 13, £6—£8 Every Loser Wins: with Kelly Wenham and Simon Salmon Chiquito, 2–23 Aug, £free Charlie O’Connor Dandyisms Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, £6—£11

18:15 The Brendon Burns Show The Liquid Room, 2–24 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £free Paperclips Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 1–24 Aug, £free

COMEDY LISTINGS Don’t Tell Anyone About Sarah Callaghan Laughing Horse @ Finnegan’s Wake, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free

18:20

Burke Shire St John’s, 1–23 Aug, not 8, 13, 20, £free

Jim Holland: Shoegazing Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £2.50—£7.50

Kevin Day: Standy Uppy Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 12, 19, £6—£11 Fern Brady and Peter Brush - Free Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, £free Nick Revell - Closet Optimist The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10 Auntie Rene’s Memory Box is the Smallest Museum in the World Hotel Ibis Edinburgh Centre South Bridge, 2–12 Aug, £free Australia is F*cked George Next Door, 10–23 Aug, £free Christian Reilly: Lost in Music Beat, 2–23 Aug, £free

The Maggy Whitehouse Experience Laughing Horse @ Ryrie’s, 2–24 Aug, not 6, £free

Electric-Hogg’s Dada Garden of Dark Delights - Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

Scottie Road the Musical - From Primark to Prison Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 11, 18, £free

Legion of Doom’s Fear and Laughter Wee Red Bar, 2–24 Aug, £free

Liz Peters: Toybox Cowgatehead, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free Alexander Bennett: Follow Me Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £free

18:05

Danny Buckler: Punch Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free

The Church of Zirconium Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7—£8

How Not to Pedal an Ocean Laughing Horse @ The Wee Pub, 1–24 Aug, £free

Absolute Improv! theSpace on the Mile, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 17, £6—£10

In Cahoots: Some Like It Hoots St John’s, 1–25 Aug, £free

Feminism for Chaps Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, £free Referendum and Dumber New Town Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 12, 13, £6—£12 Geezer Bird Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free Strudelhead Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Hollywood Film Fest C venues - C nova, 2–25 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£9.50

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk @gildedballoon www.festmag.co.uk

The Only Way is Downton Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £7.50—£12.50

Dr Professor Neal Portenza Performs His Own Autopsy Live On Stage.

One Night Only.

(Obviously). HHH Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £4—£8 Matt Forde: The Political Party - Scottish Independence Special Pleasance Courtyard, 20 Aug, £8.50 Lockdown Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£9 Lead Pencil: In Full HB Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10 Ben Champion: Cracking Up - Free Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free Four Screws Loose in The Big Screw Up Assembly George Square Gardens, 1–25 Aug, not 8, £6—£11.50 Rory O’Hanlon: Have Jokes Will Travel Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 18, £free Danny Mcloughlin Feels Alright Just the Tonic at The Tron, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10

18:25 Jojo Sutherland - In Conversation Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 1–23 Aug, £free The Best of The Real MacGuffins Underbelly, Bristo Square, 17–18 Aug, £11 Avent & Monie: Back to Front Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1–22 Aug, not 10, 17, £6—£9

Christian O’Connell: Breaking Dad Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–16 Aug, £7—£13.50

18:30 No Strings! An Improvised Comedy Musical... with Puppets!

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–16 Aug, £free Philharmonic of Wit Venue150@EICC, 1–24 Aug, not 21, £8—£14 Susan Calman: Lady Like Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–24 Aug, £7—£13.50 Amusia - Luc Valvona - Free Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, £free The Nualas in ‘Hello Again, We’re The Nualas’ Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £10—£14

Captains of Industry!

An Improvised Miscellany Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 17–23 Aug, £free Jack Dee’s Help Desk Assembly George Square Studios, 18–24 Aug, £14 Matt Roper: Wilfredo Deconstructed Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, £5 NewsRevue 2014 Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £9—£16.50

18:35 Suzi Ruffell: Social Chameleon Assembly George Square Studios, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

18:40 A Kitchen Nightmare Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£9 Devvo’s Deal or No Dealer Gaymeshow Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 1–24 Aug, prices vary

All Star Stand-Up Showcase Laughing Horse @ Dropkick Murphys, 1–23 Aug, £free

Aaah’m Votin YES Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £5

Miranda Sings Venue150@EICC, 13–17 Aug, £20

Thomas Pocket presents: Me (Oscar Jenkyn-Jones) Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50

Not Just a Funny Turn Gilded Balloon , 12 Aug, £18 Waiting for Hitchcock Hill Street Solo Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7—£12 Laughing Horse Free Comedy Selection Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free Old Jewish Jokes Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 12, 19, £9.50—£10 Aye Right? How No?: The Comedy Countdown to the Referendum with Vladimir McTavish & Keir McAllister The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10

Tom Binns Has Not Been Himself Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£14.50 Tim FitzHigham: Hellfire Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £7—£12.50 Fast Fringe Pleasance Dome, 1–23 Aug, £5—£10

18:45 Sy Thomas: Disasterpiece Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Lou Conran: Subject Matter Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–15 Aug, £free

Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ

8–11 August 2014 fest 77

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk

COMEDY LISTINGS Kai Humphries: Stuff Protocol Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£12.50 Tommy Rowson: Down and Out in Powys and London Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Milo McCabe: Troy Hawke HHH Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, £5—£10.50 Chris Turner: Pretty Fly Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, £6—£9 Russell Grant: Strictly Edinburgh Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 12, 18, £13—£14 Bobby Mair: Off Meds Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–24 Aug, not 17, 18, £free Kerry Godliman: Face Time The Stand Comedy Club V, 12–24 Aug, £9—£10 Ant Dewson and Mark Silcox: Life in the Bus Lane - Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free Holly Walsh: Never Had It Assembly George Square Studios, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£10 Kaile, Keeble and Kuntz Globe Bar, 13–24 Aug, £free Abigoliah Schamaun: It’s Pronounced Abigoliah Schamaun

HH

Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, £5—£10

❤ Katherine Ryan: Glam Role Model

HHHH

The Stand Comedy Club V, 1–10 Aug, £10

18:50 Lloyd Langford: Old Fashioned Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 9, 18, £6—£11.50 Imran Yusuf: Roar of the Underdog Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 17, £6—£11

18:55 Nina Conti - Work in Progress Assembly Roxy, 1–17 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Erich McElroy: The British Referendum

HH Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£10

19:00 Stuart Goldsmith: Extra Life Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£11.50 George and Co (The Solo Tour) C venues - C nova, 20–24 Aug, £8.50—£9.50 Zoe Lyons: Mustard Cutter Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, £5—£11

❤ Mr Swallow – The Musical

HHHH Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, £6—£14

Gary Lynch - Missed Life Crisis Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free An Introduction to Twerking Southsider, 2–23 Aug, not 13, 14, £free Red Bastard Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 11, 12, 18, £7—£13 One Man Breaking Bad The Famous Spiegeltent, 1–11 Aug, not 5, £15 Amused Moose Comedy Awards Gangshow theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 10 Aug, £10

❤ The Beta Males: Happenstance

HHHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11

Morgan & West: Parlour Tricks Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, £6—£12

Lazy Susan: Extreme Humans Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 The Irrational Fears of Rillettes Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free BBC: Just a Minute BBC@POTTERROW, 12 Aug, £free BBC: Edinburgh 2014 with Sue Perkins BBC@POTTERROW, 8 Aug, 15 Aug, 22 Aug, £free The Deepest Goldfish Basic Mountain, 15–16 Aug, £7 Darren Walsh: Chicken Meow!

Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 16, 17, 18, £3 Mark Restuccia Stooch Club Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £4—£6 Cal Wilson: It Could Have Been Me Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, £5—£10.50

Ward and Watts in... Journey to the Centre of the Office Serenity Cafe, 13–24 Aug, £free Zombie Science: Brain of the Dead C venues - C, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10.50 Ladies Live Longer: Volunteerology Just the Tonic at The Caves, 6–22 Aug, not 12, £5—£8.50

19:15 Nish Kumar: Ruminations on the Nature of Subjectivity Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£12 Iain Stirling: Everything Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10 Lloyd Griffith: Voice of an Angel, Body of a Trucker HH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50 AAA Stand-Up Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, £6—£11

Carey Marx: Abominable Canons’ Gait, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £free

19:20 Al Murray - The Pub Landlord’s Summer Saloon Assembly George Square Gardens, Various dates from 8 Aug to 23 Aug, £19.50

Hennessy and Friends: Murmurs Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £free

Brian Just the Tonic at The Caves, 20–24 Aug, £5 Al Murray: One Man, One Guvnor Special Previews Assembly George Square Gardens, 7–24 Aug, not 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, £12—£17.50 Craig Hill: Give Him an Inch...

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £10—£15.50

19:05 Light Relief Sweet Grassmarket, 1–24 Aug, £8.50

David O’Doherty Has Checked Everything Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8—£15

Ronnie Golden New Age Pensioner Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–17 Aug, not 12, £2.50—£7.50

May I Take Your Order? theSpace on the Mile, 2–9 Aug, £8

James Dowdeswell: Wine, Ale and I Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 11–24 Aug, £free

Tom Craine: Thoughts On Love (By a Man With None of the Answers) Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11

Nick Hodder: Insert Comedy Here Banshee Labyrinth, 2–24 Aug, £free

The Chronic Single’s Handbook theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 4–16 Aug, not 10, £8

Jimeoin - Is It...?!

Venue150@EICC, 1–24 Aug, £10—£17.50

Laurence Clark: Moments of Instant Regret Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£10

Big Value Comedy Show - Early Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50

Jo Caulfield: Cancel My Subscription The Stand Comedy Club, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10

Susan Murray’s F*ckwit Club The Liquid Room, 2–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free

One Foot in the Gays Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free

Lee Griffiths: Post Traumatic Sketch Disorder Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10.50

Charles Booth: Go Thank Yourself!

Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £free

Fred MacAulay: The Frederendum The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£15

Vikki Stone: Instrumental Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, £6—£12

The Weegies Have Pokled Edinburgh’s Pandas SpaceCabaret @ 54, 1–23 Aug, £7

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am 78 fest 8–11 August 2014

19:10

19:30 We Love Comedy Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free Rik Carranza: Charming Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free

Tickled Pig Presents Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 13, £free

Nando’s New Comedian of the Year 2014 Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 12 Aug, £5

Laughing Horse Free Pick of the Fringe Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free

The Edinburgh Festival Comedy Roast Gilded Balloon , 24 Aug, £12

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical Gilded Balloon , 22 Aug, £15 Thinking Standing Up Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free The Sheriff of Nottingham: A Musical Musing on Middle Management Hotel Ibis Edinburgh Centre South Bridge, 10–16 Aug, £free 37 Years of Childhood Laughing Horse @ Ryrie’s, 2–24 Aug, not 6, £free Outrageous Courageous Highly Contagious: Israeli Style Improv – Free Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free Elf Lyons - Underground Success Voodoo Rooms, 2–24 Aug, not 13, £free Jonny Donahoe: Class Whore Cowgatehead, 12–24 Aug, not 17, 18, £free Paul Currie: Release the Baboons Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, £5 Umbilical Brothers: KiDSHoW (not for kids) HH Gilded Balloon , 1–16 Aug, not 12, £6—£13 Darius Davies’ HBÖ Special Uncensored Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk @gildedballoon www.festmag.co.uk

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk Bookshop Fringe Encore Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 26–30 Aug, £5

Joe Bor: A Room with a Jew Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

Tiernan Douieb: Read Something Beat, 13–23 Aug, £free

Des Clarke: The Trouble with Being Des The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 3, 11, £10

David Mulholland’s Conspiracy St John’s, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £free Paul Foot: Hovercraft Symphony in Gammon # Major Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£12 Laughter on the Outskirts: The Return - Free Laughing Horse @ The Wee Pub, 1–24 Aug, £free Mark Dolan Changes the World Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£10 Tim Vine: Timtiminee Timtiminee Tim Tim To You HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £9—£17 Working Men’s Club Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free Comedy Gala 2014: In Aid of Waverley Care Edinburgh Playhouse , 19 Aug, £25 Dan Lees: Brainchild St John’s, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 11, 18, £free So You Think You’re Funny? Final Gilded Balloon , 21 Aug, £15 About 2.5% Ginger Comedy Showcase - Free Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 1–24 Aug, £free The Comedian and His Future Wife Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £free Jamie McCarney Spermologist Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free

19:35 Luke Toulson: LaidBack Grouch - Free Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, £free

COMEDY LISTINGS 19:45 Rob Deering: Musicface The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10 Spencer Brown Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free Nobody Gets Away Unscathed Fingers Piano Bar, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free

Alastair Clark: Vote Russell Brand Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, £free

Laugh Train Home Presents: Dropkick Comedy Laughing Horse @ Dropkick Murphys, 1–24 Aug, £free

Frisky and Mannish: Just Too Much Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 8, 18, £7.50—£15

Angus Dunican: The Great Indoors Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, not 14, 21, £free

19:40

Testiculating (Waving Your Arms Talking B*ll*cks)

Lisa-Skye: Bunny and Mad Dog Get High Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £4—£10 WitTank: Old School Secrets Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£12 The Bearpit Podcast Podcast Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £3 The Colour Ham Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–23 Aug, not 12, £8—£11 Craig Campbell: Thrilling Mic Hunt The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 17–24 Aug, £9—£10 Big Brass Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£9 One Man Breaking Bad The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 13–16 Aug, £12 Will Mars: As Good As My Audience Just the Tonic at The Tron, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£7 Bears in Space Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7—£12

HH Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–23 Aug, £free

Lewis Schaffer: Success Is Not An Option Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £5 Loretta Maine: Strong Independent Woman (Unless I Am Very Tired) Assembly George Square Gardens, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £5—£10 Gower Rangers Citrus Club , 2–23 Aug, not 12, 19, £free Alan Hudson: Trick Teaser Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 13, £5—£12

19:50 Men With Nectar Points Dragonfly, 2–23 Aug, £free An American’s Guide to Being Like, Totally British George Next Door, 2–24 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free Marlon Davis: Once Upon A Grime Assembly George Square Studios, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

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19:55 Danny Bhoy: 12 Nights, 12 Charities The Assembly Rooms, 1–11 Aug, £15 Oh My Godley!

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, £7—£12 David Kay The Assembly Rooms, 19–20 Aug, £12 Raymond Mearns Live Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free Jerry Sadowitz: Card Tricks and Close-up Magic The Assembly Rooms, Various dates from 15 Aug to 24 Aug, £17.50

20:00

Sean Nolan: The Joke Manifesto Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£9 Hannah Gadsby: The Exhibitionist Assembly George Square Studios, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£11.50 Des Bishop: Made in China Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£13 Rob Deb 20th Anniversary Edition Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–16 Aug, £free

❤ Celia Pacquola: Let Me Know How It All Works Out

HHHH

Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, 12, £5—£10.50

Pete Firman: Trickster Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £8.50—£15

[kuh-MEE-dee-uhn] The Stand Comedy Club V, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8

One Man Star Wars Assembly George Square Studios, Various dates from 1 Aug to 24 Aug, £12—£16

Billy Kirkwood’s Show Me Your Tattoo - One Night Only!

Studio 24, 15 Aug, £8

Luke McQueen: Now That’s What I Luke McQueen Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£9.50

101 Comedy Club - Free Laughing Horse @ The White Horse, 1–24 Aug, £free

Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall: Success Arms Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50

Tartan Ribbon Comedy Benefit Pleasance Courtyard, 12 Aug, £12

Anil Desai’s Last Night at the Movies Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free Katie Mulgrew: Happily Ever After

HHH

Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£10

Life Deconstructed Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 17–24 Aug, £free

Playing Politics Acoustic Music Centre @ St Bride’s, 15 Aug, 22 Aug, £12.50 Mark Simmons - Mr Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7—£9 Patrick Monahan: Adventures in Monahan Land Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, £5—£12

The Half Naked Chef Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 1–25 Aug, £5

One Man Lord of the Rings Assembly George Square Studios, Various dates from 2 Aug to 25 Aug, £14—£16

EastEnd Cabaret: Sexual Tension Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£11.50

Nathan Caton: Teenage Mutant Nathan Caton Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7—£11

Katia Kvinge presents Karacters Globe Bar, 2–23 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free Andrew Ryan: The Life of Ryan Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, £7—£8 James Acaster: Recognise Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£12 Katsura Sunshine, Sit Down Comedy Japanese Style!

New Town Theatre, 1–24 Aug, £7—£12

20:05 Sketch Appeal theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £5 Rhys Nicholson Eurgh Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6.50—£11.50 Improvabunga: Scared Scriptless theSpace on the Mile, 2–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £7

20:10 Alistair Green: Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8 Cariad & Paul: A Two-Player Adventure Pleasance Dome, 18–23 Aug, £9—£10 Mat Ricardo: Showman Pleasance Dome, 1–16 Aug, not 11, £6—£9.50 Steen Raskopoulos: I’m Wearing Two Suits Because I Mean Business Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6.50—£11.50 The Explorers Club Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free Alex Horne: Monsieur Butterfly Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£11

Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ

8–11 August 2014 fest 79

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COMEDY LISTINGS 20:15 Friends With Benefits Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 4–24 Aug, not 17, £free Rubberbandits: Continental Fistfight Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£14 Ivo Graham: Bow Ties and Johnnies Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10 Jon Bennett - Fire In The Meth Lab Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 13, 20, £6—£10.50 Sara Pascoe vs History Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£12 Eleanor Tiernan Help the Frigid Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free Mick Ferry: What’s Going On? Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£8 Lords of Strut: Chaos Assembly Roxy, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£12.50 American…ish Gilded Balloon , 6–13 Aug, £9.50—£10.50

❤ Alex Edelman: Millennial HHHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£11.50

Neel Kolhatkar in GENeration comedY Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£10 Romesh Ranganathan: Rom Wasn’t Built in a Day

HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7—£11

Stuck C venues - C nova, 13– 25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

Eric Davidson - The Independent State of Eric theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £10 Shelby Bond: Fauxmosexual Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 5–24 Aug, not 12, £free Carl Hutchinson: Here’s Me Show Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10 Christian Talbot: Hello Cruel World Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Dan Clark: Me, My Selfie and I Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£12.50

20:25 Nick Doody vs The Debonair Assassin Canons’ Gait, 2–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free

20:30 Carl Donnelly: Now That’s What I Carl Donnelly Vol. 6

HHH

Pleasance Courtyard, 1–23 Aug, not 13, £6—£10

BBC: Poetry Slam 2014 - Grand Final BBC@POTTERROW, 16 Aug, £free AKA MissD Cowgatehead, 1–16 Aug, £free Robert Newman’s New Theory of Evolution Stand in the Square, 1–25 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £12 Daniel Sloss– Really...?!

Venue150@EICC, 1–24 Aug, not 20, £10—£17.50 Gareth Morinan’s Play: Time Banshee Labyrinth, 2–24 Aug, £free

20:20

Wanted Sweet Grassmarket, 11–24 Aug, £8.50

The Evolution Will Be Televised Ciao Roma, 2–23 Aug, not 12, £free

Barnardo’s Big Comedy Benefit The Assembly Rooms, 18 Aug, £20

Laughing Horse Free Pick of the Fringe Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free

Josie Long: Cara Josephine The Stand Comedy Club, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 16, £11

Harriet Dyer: Barking at Aeroplanes Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free

Kraken Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7—£12

Damien Slash: Forward Slash Cowgatehead, 1–24 Aug, not 10, 11, 20, £free

John Robertson: The Dark Room Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50

Paco Erhard: Worst.

German. Ever.

Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free

Shappi Khorsandi: Because I’m Shappi...

Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£13 Chris Martin: Responsibilliness Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£12 Igor Meerson: Hou I lernt inglish Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50 Who Dares Grins Again 2014 Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free Lights! Camera!

Improvise! - The Improvised Movie Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£12.50 The Referendum Review Show!

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free Rhys Mathewson Hombre Lobo HH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£10.50 Simon Feilder: All The Things I’m Not Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£9 The Alternative Comedy Memorial Society Stand in the Square, 4 Aug, 11 Aug, 18 Aug, £10

20:35 Javier Jarquin: Joke Ninja Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£8 Rice ‘n’ Peas ‘n’ Caviar Madogs Cocktail Bar and Grill, 2–23 Aug, £free

20:40 Gerry Howell’s Portal of Discovery Voodoo Rooms, 2–24 Aug, £free

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am 80 fest 8–11 August 2014

The Voyage of The Narwhal Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£8 Paul McCaffrey: Paul Or Nothing Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–23 Aug, £6—£10

20:45 Jim Davidson’s Funeral Heroes @ The Hive, 12 Aug, £5 Bright Club: Scotland’s Fringe The Assembly Rooms, 18 Aug, £10 Infinitely More Deluded Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free 99 Club Stand-up Selection - Cowgate - Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free Billie Was Tap Dancing for the Seagulls St John’s, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 19, £free

Half Baked Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £free

Roger Swift and Patrick Draper - The Energy and the Apathy Laughing Horse @ Ryrie’s, 16–24 Aug, £free The Twilight Region Laughing Horse @ The Wee Pub, 1–24 Aug, £free Little Wheel presents: Confused About Y-Fronts!

Hotel Ibis Edinburgh Centre South Bridge, 2–9 Aug, £free The Best of Singapore Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 18–24 Aug, £free

❤ Frank Skinner: Man in a Suit

HHHH Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–24 Aug, £10—£17.50

The Barry Experience Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free Mark Nelson: Please Think Responsibly Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£12.50

Pun Run Gilded Balloon , 11 Aug, £6 Hurt and Anderson: Bringing Sketchy Back Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free An Evening With Patti DuPont St John’s, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Andrew Lawrence: Reasons to Kill Yourself The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £10

Baby Wants Candy: The Completely Improvised Full Band Musical Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £10—£15 Gareth Richards: Comedy in the Key of Gareth Beat, 2–23 Aug, £free

Chris Henry: Only the Good Die Young Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–23 Aug, £free Ben Norris: Benny on the Loose The Liquid Room, 10–21 Aug, £free

20:50 Michael Fabbri: Oversharing Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 11, £free Sam Simmons: Death of a Sails-Man Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £7—£13 Neil Hamburger Underbelly, Cowgate, 13–24 Aug, £10—£12 The Incredible Paul F Taylor Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 12, 19, £free

20:55 Tom Stade: Decisions Decisions The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £15

21:00 Jason Byrne in You Name the Show Assembly Hall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £10—£19.50 BBC: Bridget Christie Minds the Gap BBC@POTTERROW, 24 Aug, £free Russell Kane: Smallness Underbelly, Bristo Square, 20–22 Aug, £15 Stand Up for Shelter Underbelly, Bristo Square, 23 Aug, £20 Mark Watson: Flaws Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £9—£15.50 Eddie Pepitone: RIP America, It’s Been Fun HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7—£14

The Grandees: A Creepshow Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5

Paul Ricketts’ West End Story Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £3—£5

Pete Dobbing: Dobbing Kilderkin, 2–22 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

Tom Shillue: Impossible The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk @gildedballoon www.festmag.co.uk

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk Maff Brown: Born Again Comedian Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£12 What Does The Title Matter Anyway?

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 6–19 Aug, £16—£17.50 Dangerfield: Sex with Children Heroes @ The Hive, 4–23 Aug, £5 Tedfest Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50 Ricky and Dave Gigglelos Dragonfly, 1–25 Aug, £free Alpha Fail Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, £free Laughing Horse Free Comedy Selection Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

Sol Bernstein: Still Standing Just the Tonic at The Tron, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7—£9 Alan Davies: Little Victories Venue150@EICC, 6–9 Aug, £20 Joel Dommett: Finding Emo Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, £free Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards Show Underbelly, Bristo Square, 24 Aug, £14 No Strings Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £4—£8 The Axis of Awesome: Viva La Vida Loca Las Vegas Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 21, £8—£14

COMEDY LISTINGS A Bonanza of Festival Comedy and Cabaret Laughing Horse @ The Paradise Palms, 3 Aug, 10 Aug, 17 Aug, 24 Aug, £free

21:05 Mike Lawrence: The Gingerbeard Man The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 12 Aug, £10 Stephen K Amos: Work in Progress The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 12, 18, 19, £10 Jamie MacDonald: That Funny Blind Guy 2 - The Good, the Stag and the Ugly Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£7 Bob Doolally, Football Legend The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 11 Aug, 19 Aug, £10

21:10 B.J. Novak: One More Thing Assembly George Square Studios, 19–24 Aug, £16 Abandoman: Hot Desk Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £7.50—£15 Larry Dean: Scottish Comedian of the Year 2013 Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 1–24 Aug, £5—£12

21:15 Pierre Novellie is Mighty Peter Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£9.50 Justin Hamilton: Johnny Loves Mary Forever 1994 Assembly George Square Studios, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£10

The Split Note Sessions CC Blooms, 2–24 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free Richard Gadd: Breaking Gadd Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free Brent Weinbach: Appealing to the Mainstream Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£12 Tom Rhodes: Colossus Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, 21, £6—£12 Omar Hamdi +1 Globe Bar, 2–24 Aug, £free

Damian Clark: Go Ahead, Make My Damo Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, £9—£10 Sheeps: Wembley Previews Bedlam Theatre, 2–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50 Eddy Brimson Windy Piss Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free Tiff Stevenson: Optimist HH Gilded Balloon , 1–23 Aug, £6—£10

Markus Birdman: 2B or Not to Be The Stand Comedy Club V, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8

James Loveridge: Funny Because It’s True Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, £free

Plaza Suite theSpace on the Mile, Various dates from 2 Aug to 9 Aug, £10

Jim Davidson: No Further Action Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 18, £12—£15

A diverse programme of high quality professional dance from Wales presented daily between 18-25 August ZOO Southside (Venue 82)

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tel. 0131 662 6892

Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ

8–11 August 2014 fest 81

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COMEDY LISTINGS Complete Holmes and Shakeshaft Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free Sully O’Sullivan: Nationhood Laughing Horse @ The White Horse, 1–24 Aug, £free

21:20 Natasia Demetriou: You’ll Never Have All of Me Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50 Seann Walsh: Seann 28 Pleasance Courtyard, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 12, 18, 19, £7.50—£13 Andrew Doyle: Zero Tolerance The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8 Jimmy Carr – Funny Business Venue150@EICC, 15 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, 23 Aug, £18.50 Hold for Three Seconds theSpace on North Bridge, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £4

21:30 Guilt & Shame: Going Straight Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£10 Cookies and Cream Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–25 Aug, £free The New Wave Laughing Horse @ New Empire Bingo, 14 Aug, 21 Aug, £free

❤ Sarah Kendall: Touchdown

HHHH

Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£12

Hamell On Trial: The Happiest Man in the World Assembly George Square Studios, 11–25 Aug, £12—£15 Funny Women Awards Semi-Final 2014 Laughing Horse @ New Empire Bingo, 15 Aug, £free Künt and the Gang go to Mecca Laughing Horse @ New Empire Bingo, 22–23 Aug, £5 The Comedy Reserve Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£9.50

Henning Wehn: Eins, Zwei, DIY Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£11.50

Pete Johansson: Several Jokes Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£11

Evolution of iMaAN Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£10

Michael Downey: Blue Sometimes Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£12

21:25

Glenn Wool: Wool’s Gold Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 3, 11, 18, £7—£14

Never Mind the Bawbags!

Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 13, £free Ray Peacock: Here Comes Trouble Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10 Felicity Ward: The Iceberg Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£13

Justin Moorhouse: This is What I Am Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 2, £5—£11

Yacine Belhousse: Made in France Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 17, £6—£10.50

Dave Callan: A Little Less Conversation Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 12, 13, £6—£11

Paul Chowdhry: PC’s World Assembly George Square Studios, 1–10 Aug, £12—£13

Four Stories Four Songs Sweet Grassmarket, 11–24 Aug, £7

21:35 Henry Paker: Unpacked Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10 Back to the Hills!

Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£9 The Oxy Morons in...

Glistening Flanks theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £8 11 Films to Happiness Ciao Roma, 2–23 Aug, £free Casual Violence: Om Nom Nom Nominous - Free Voodoo Rooms, 1–23 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free Low Expectations: The Unpublishable Material Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–17 Aug, £5—£10

21:40 George Ryegold: Iron Face in a Velvet Beard Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, £6—£10 Jonny & The Baptists: The Satiric Verses Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£11 Michael Mittermeier: das Blackout Gilded Balloon , 11–25 Aug, £10.50—£12.50

Tim Key: Single White Slut Pleasance Courtyard, 13–25 Aug, £10—£16 Big Value Comedy Show - Late Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50

John Hastings Adventure Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£9.50

21:50 Quint Fontana ‘I Remember Me’ Voodoo Rooms, 2–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free

22:00

21:45

Laughing Matters Fundraiser Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 12–13 Aug, £10

Viv Groskop’s I Laughed, I Cried Cowgatehead, 1–14 Aug, not 7, £free David Trent: Live at the Pleasance Courtyard HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£12 Ed Gamble: Gambletron 5000

HHH

Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10

Nina Conti - Work in Progress Assembly Roxy, 11 Aug, 13 Aug, £10 Swedish Oddballs Cowgatehead, 19–23 Aug, £free Adam of the Riches Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, £7—£14 Beth Vyse: Get Up With Hands!

Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6.50—£10 Born in the 90s Cowgatehead, 1–26 Aug, £free

Alex Williamson: Dumb Things I’ve Done Gilded Balloon , 1–10 Aug, £10—£11

Pat and Paul Get Some Beans Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

Jem Brookes: Punusual Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, £free

Another Name for Thesaurus theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £5—£7

Bob Blackman’s Local Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 9–23 Aug, not 17, £free

82 fest 8–11 August 2014

50 Shades of Smay Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 1–8 Aug, £free John Robins: This Tornado Loves You Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£12

Jess Robinson: Mighty Voice Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6.50—£11.50

Tom Price: Not As Nice As He Looks Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 21, £6—£10

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am

Aaah’m Voting NO Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £free

Birthday Girls: Party Vibes Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £free Sketch Transfer Deadline Day Pleasance Courtyard, 18 Aug, £10 Stuart Black – The Crossroads Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free Aunty Donna Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £10 Michael Legge and Robin Ince Are Pointless Anger, Righteous Ire 3: Ooh Stick You, Your Mama Too... and Your Daddy Wee Red Bar, 2–12 Aug, £free Sunna Jarman: Family Tree Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free Daniel Sloss – Really...?! Extra Shows Venue150@EICC, Various dates from 8 Aug to 23 Aug, £17.50 Marcel Lucont Is Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8—£12

Scott Capurro Islamohomophobia: Reloaded The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10 IT Rock‘n’Roll: Business Trip to the Future Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1–24 Aug, £free Sarah Bennetto’s Funeral Pleasance Courtyard, 4–25 Aug, weekdays only, £9—£11 Shirley and Shirley: Late Night Lock In Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£11 Soho Comedy Club at the Fringe Freestival St Mary’s, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £free BBC: Live Music with Radio nan Gaidheal BBC@POTTERROW, 13 Aug, £free Sarah Bennetto’s Storytellers’ Club Pleasance Courtyard, Various dates from 9 Aug to 24 Aug, £12 Katerina Vrana: Feta with the Queen Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £free BattleActs! - Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 2–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free The Alternative Comedy Memorial Society Stand in the Square, 3 Aug, 10 Aug, 17 Aug, 24 Aug, £10 Zombie Science: Worst Case Scenario C venues - C, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10.50 Bronston Jones: What Comes Out - Free Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, £free Zapp and Dembina Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free Nev: Gold Laughing Horse @ The Wee Pub, 1–24 Aug, £free BBC: Asian Network Presents… Comedy BBC@POTTERROW, 14 Aug, £free

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0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk ❤ Nick Coyle: Double Tribute

HHHH

Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£10.50

Simon Amstell - Tour Previews Pleasance Courtyard, 4–12 Aug, £12 Foil, Arms and Hog: Loch’d Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, £7—£11 Brendon Burns and Colt Cabana Sit in a 150 Seater at 10pm and Provide the Commentary to Bad Wrestling Matches Stand in the Square, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £8 Sharma Sharma Sharma Sharma Sharma Comedian!

Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free The Mangina Funalogs Cowgatehead, 1–28 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, 25, £free The Best of Who’s Available Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 12 Aug, 19 Aug, £free Cardinal Burns Pleasance Courtyard, 15–23 Aug, not 18, £12—£13

22:05 Alan Anderson: Whisky For Dafties Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, Various dates from 4 Aug to 24 Aug, £15

COMEDY LISTINGS

The Shambles theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, £7—£8

Pumped!

The Voodoo Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £8—£10

Andrew Maxwell: Hubble Bubble The Assembly Rooms, 1–12 Aug, £15

Blind Mirth theSpace on the Mile, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £6

Jonny Awsum: Sexy Noises Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£8.50

22:25

Phlash! theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 13–23 Aug, not 17, £6

22:10 WOMANz Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Alun Cochrane: (Me Neither) The Stand Comedy Club, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10 Mike Lawrence: The Gingerbeard Man The Stand Comedy Club, 11 Aug, £10 Jay Handley: Free Comic Dragonfly, 2–23 Aug, £free

Imaginary Porno Charades Sweet Grassmarket, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, £7

22:20 Who Shot Hitler?

Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £2—£4 Fin Taylor: Real Talk Just the Tonic at The Tron, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50 Danish Face Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–23 Aug, not 12, £free Come Heckle Christ

HH

22:15 Japanese Terminatol is Back!

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £free Savvy Secrets of Successful Mistresses Paradise in Augustines, 4–10 Aug, £5—£10 The Good, the Bad and the Irish!

Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, £free Luisa Omielan... Am I Right Ladies?!

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 10, 17, £free

Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£9.50

Coppers Uncovered: The Walk of Shame Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10

Now You’re Just Being Silly Paradise in The Vault, 19 Aug, 20 Aug, 22 Aug, 23 Aug, £6

22:30 Isla Dogs: Down the Dogs CC Blooms, 2–24 Aug, £free Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre - And So Am I Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, £5—£11 Silky: Tribute Act The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8 Chelsea Manders: Don’t Tell My Dad Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£9

❤ The Circus HHHH Assembly George Square Gardens, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8—£16

Miss Glory Pearl: The Naked Stand-Up Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£8

50 Shades! The Musical. The Original Parody Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £10—£15

Phlash! theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 2–12 Aug, not 3, 10, £6

❤ Lou Sanders in

Sh*t-Faced Shakespeare Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, £6—£11.50

Another Great Show Again HHHH Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–24 Aug, £free BBC: Newsnight BBC@POTTERROW, 21 Aug, £free

Josh Widdicombe’s XFM Show Live!

Assembly George Square Studios, 9–12 Aug, £13

Dave Hughes: Pointless Assembly George Square Studios, 19–23 Aug, £14—£15

Craig Campbell: Thrilling Mic Hunt The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 15 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, 23 Aug, £10

Freddie Farrell: Lock, Stock and One Joking Farrell Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £free

Rob Rouse: Through the Looking Ass The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–14 Aug, £10

Sketch Bingo Laughing Horse @ The White Horse, 1–24 Aug, £free

Al Lubel in... I’m Still Al Lubel HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10 Fright Bus Service Necrobus, 1–23 Aug, £9 Hedluv and Passman: Doin’ it Dreckly Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, £5—£11 Ennio Marchetto: The Living Paper Cartoon Pleasance Courtyard, 1–15 Aug, not 11, £8—£14 Demi Lardner: Birds with Human Lips Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£10.50 Showstopper! The Improvised Musical Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 21, 22, £14—£15 One Thing Led to a Mother The Stand Comedy Club V, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8

Political Animal – Scottishreferendogeddon 2014 The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 17–21 Aug, £10 Scotland Stands Up Gilded Balloon , 8–24 Aug, not 21, £11.50—£12.50 Chris Ramsey: The Most Dangerous Man On Saturday Morning Television Pleasance Courtyard, 16–24 Aug, £12.50—£15 Return to Superglad Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free These Is You’re Lifes Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free Joke Thieves Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£7

22:35 Nancy Clench: Down Right Dirty Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 20–24 Aug, £8.50

’Tis Pity AL PorT

Mafia + Incest + Love + Violence 31 July - 16 August (12:15pm) Spotlites @ The Merchant Hall Tickets from: www.edfringe.com www.audleyandcoproductions.com

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e theatr

Stories of women in science

Venue18 14:35 July31 £5.00 August1–24 £8.50 (£7.50)

Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ

8–11 August 2014 fest 83

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COMEDY LISTINGS 22:40 ❤ Will Franken: The Stuff They Put in Sleep HHHH Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £10—£11 Scotland’s Pick of the Fringe Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £5 Sex with Animals Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £6—£10.50 Elephant Room Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £9—£15

22:45 Werewolf Erotica, She Wrote Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 18, £free Best New Sketch Act 2014: The Final Gilded Balloon , 18–19 Aug, £10 Titty Bar Ha Ha: Hard Time Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £5—£13 Mat Ewins: The Six Million Dollar Ewins Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, £6—£10 Richard Herring: Lord of the Dance Settee Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–24 Aug, £10—£14 Gein’s Family Giftshop: Volume 1 Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£9 Julian McCullough: Dream Girls HH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7—£14 Joey Page: This is Not a Circus HHH Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Joe Munrow: Misinformation Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free

Andrew O’Neill’s History of Heavy Metal Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£9.50

Nick Helm’s Two Night Stand in The Grand Pleasance Courtyard, 11–12 Aug, £15

The Comedy Zone Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10

BBC: Late Junction BBC@POTTERROW, 12–13 Aug, £free

22:50 Edinburgh Comedy Allstars Underbelly, Bristo Square, Various dates from 1 Aug to 23 Aug, £10.50—£16 Francesco De Carlo: Italians Do It Later Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50 The Horne Section: Milk the Tenderness Underbelly, Bristo Square, 7–24 Aug, £12—£14 The Noise Next Door’s Comedy Lock-In Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£13 Le Flop Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50

23:00 Ironbark Pumpkin and the Quest for the Lost Pudding Quaich of Ecclefechan Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–13 Aug, £free Adrienne Truscott’s Asking for It: A One-Lady Rape About Comedy Starring Her Pussy and Little Else!

Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 6–16 Aug, not 10, 11, 12, £8 Stephanie Laing: Nincompoop Globe Bar, 2–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free BBC: BBC Presents…

Edinburgh 2014 BBC@POTTERROW, 24–25 Aug, £free BBC: Jazz on 3 BBC@POTTERROW, 18–19 Aug, £free

BBC: Radio 1 Comedy BBC@POTTERROW, 11–12 Aug, £free McQueen: McQueen Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10 It Might Get Ugly Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10 AAA Stand-Up Late Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, £6—£11 Rainbow Rabbits with Rabies Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 1–11 Aug, £free Alfie Brown: Divorced from Reality (and My Wife) Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10 The Jest Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 The Comedian’s Comedian Podcast with Stuart Goldsmith Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 10 Aug, 17 Aug, 18 Aug, 19 Aug, 20 Aug, £5 Inspired By Mediocrity Cowgatehead, 5–17 Aug, not 10, 11, £free Chortle Student Comedy Award Final Pleasance Courtyard, 17–18 Aug, £8.50 Late Night Gimp Fight: The Worst of Late Night Gimp Fight Pleasance Courtyard, 21–23 Aug, £12 Tom Short and Will Hutchby: Only Child Syndrome Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 10, 12, 17, £2—£4 Nymphonerdiac Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 12–24 Aug, £free Brains Mcloud: 15 Reasons Why Justin Bieber is Gay Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 21–25 Aug, £5

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am 84 fest 8–11 August 2014

Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrghhh! It’s the Increasingly Prestigious Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards Show - and It’s Free!

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 22–23 Aug, £free

Laughdance: The Experiment Cowgatehead, 11–24 Aug, £free

Mark Watson’s Comedywealth Games Pleasance Courtyard, 7–16 Aug, £8.50—£11

Beardyman: One Album Per Hour Pleasance Courtyard, 15–17 Aug, £14

Stand-Up Comedy Live @ Le Monde Upstairs @ Le Monde, 3–21 Aug, not 8, 9, 15, 16, £10 Hate ‘n’ Live Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free BBC: BBC Presents…

BBC@POTTERROW, 3–23 Aug, not 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 20, 21, £free Foul Play. The F*cking Nasty Show Pleasance Dome, Various dates from 1 Aug to 23 Aug, £10—£12 The Comedy Cow: Prime Cut Outhouse, 1–9 Aug, not 5, £5

Best of So You Think You’re Funny?

Gilded Balloon , 6 Aug, 11 Aug, 12 Aug, 13 Aug, £10

23:20 American Roadshow Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £1—£5 Tom Rosenthal: Meme, Myself and I Pleasance Dome, 14 Aug, 18 Aug, 20 Aug, 22 Aug, 23 Aug, £10.50—£12.50

Comedian Matt Henry and Friends: A State of the Art Comedy Event Freestival St Mary’s, 1–25 Aug, £free

This is Your Trial Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, £6—£10.50

Late Night Dark Show Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free

The Alternative

A to Z Improv Comedy Kilderkin, 2–23 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free TAKE a coMEdian OUT! Pleasance Courtyard, 19–20 Aug, £10

Comedy Memorial Society Stand in the Square, 5 Aug, 12 Aug, 19 Aug, £10 Set List: Stand-Up Without a Net Stand in the Square, 1–25 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £12.50 McNeil and

Excited!!!

Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, £6—£8

Choose Your Own Comedy Adventure Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

Queens Of Pop: After Dark Electric Circus, 11–15 Aug, £8

Shaggers Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–23 Aug, £free

Best of Scottish

23:05

All at Sea Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1–23 Aug, not 16, £free

Cheaper Than Therapy Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7

23:10 Confessions of a Liverpudlian theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 14–16 Aug, £6

23:15 Jarred Christmas and Jack Hobbs: The Christmas and The Hobbit -A Beat Box and Stand-Up Collaboration Gilded Balloon , 18–20 Aug, £12 Comedy Monkey Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, £free

Voices in Your Head Gilded Balloon , Various dates from 1 Aug to 24 Aug, £5—£10 Scotsman and Irishman Walk Inde a Bar Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 4–21 Aug, not 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, £free Carter and Ollerton: Won’t Go Quietly Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 19, £free Fat Controller Comedy Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 3–24 Aug, not 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, £free

Pamphilon Go 8-Bit! Pleasance Dome, 8 Aug, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, 16 Aug, £10.50 Comedian of the Year Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 12, 13, 19, 20, £6—£13.50

23:30 Richard Tyrone Jones: What the F*ck is This?

Banshee Labyrinth, 2–24 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free Smells Like Shite...

Tastes Like Chicken Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–25 Aug, £free Marc Burrows in the Ten Best Songs Of All Time - Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–23 Aug, not 11, £free

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0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk I am, I am Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £5—£10 The Mac Twins: Mac Yourself at Home The Blackbird, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, 23 Aug, £10

23:40 WitTank: Old School Secrets Pleasance Courtyard, Various dates from 8 Aug to 23 Aug, £12 Russell Hicks: Unprepared Just the Tonic at The Tron, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Wil Hodgson’s Records in the Roof Just the Tonic at The Mash House, Various dates from 1 Aug to 23 Aug, £5 Afterhours Comedy Assembly Roxy, 2 Aug, 9 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, 23 Aug, £12.50 Diane Chorley Just the Tonic at The Caves, 18–24 Aug, £free

23:45 Licence To Laugh Comedy Club Laughing Horse @ The White Horse, 1–24 Aug, £free

Andy Field is a Giddy Manchild Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free Rob Deering’s Beat

COMEDY LISTINGS Comedy Countdown Gilded Balloon , 1–23 Aug, not 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, £5—£8

00:00

This Gilded Balloon , Various dates from 1 Aug to 24 Aug, £10—£11

From Pirates to Pop Stars Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 9–25 Aug, £free

23:50

No Context Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 2–8 Aug, £free

Katherine Ryan: Glam Role Model The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 8–9 Aug, £10

23:55 The Assembly Rooms Very Best of the Fest The Assembly Rooms, Various dates from 2 Aug to 23 Aug, £15 The Stand Late Show The Stand Comedy Club, Various dates from 1 Aug to 23 Aug, £15

23:59 Will Seaward’s Spooky Midnight

Just Jokes Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free

Ghost Stories!

Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, 20, £5—£8.50

Billy McGuire Ain’t Always Honest Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, £free

Best of the Fest Assembly Hall, Various dates from 1 Aug to 24 Aug, £10—£15

John Conway Tonight Pleasance Dome, 2–26 Aug, £6—£9.50 Late With Kate Canons’ Gait, 3–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free One Man Breaking Bad The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, Various dates from 18 Aug to 25 Aug, £12 Just the Tonic Comedy Club’s Midnight Show Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 2–25 Aug, not 13, £5—£12 Fright Bus Service Necrobus, Various dates from 9 Aug to 24 Aug, £9 Tomorrow! with Ron Lynch Just the Tonic at The Caves, 2–25 Aug, £3—£7 Spank!

Underbelly, Cowgate, 2–25 Aug, £10—£15.50

Edinburgh Toilet Duck Award – Grand Final Underbelly, Cowgate, 23 Aug, £9.50

00:05 Tom Rosenthal: Work in Progress Pleasance Courtyard, 16–17 Aug, £10

00:15 War! Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free Dr Ettrick-Hogg Presents The Bite - Free Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–25 Aug, £free The Room Assembly George Square Theatre, 4 Aug, 11 Aug, 18 Aug, 25 Aug, £8

00:20 Late Show Pleasance Courtyard, Various dates from 2 Aug to 24 Aug, £12.50—£14 IndieRound (Fool Members Club) with Bob Slayer & Tim Fitzhigham Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 1–26 Aug, £5

Improv from the

00:30 The Improverts: 25th Anniversary Bedlam Theatre, 3–24 Aug, £7.50 Sam Larner Can’t Say His R’s - With Other Guests Who Can Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–25 Aug, weekdays only, £free Mr Harris Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 2–25 Aug, £free Hidden Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 2–25 Aug, £free Free Fall Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, £free

00:45 Irish Late Night Mayhem Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 2–24 Aug, £free Young and Here Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–25 Aug, £free Luisa Omielan: What Would Beyoncé Do?!

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 23 Aug, £15.50 Spanktacular Underbelly, Bristo Square, Various dates from 9 Aug to 25 Aug, £15.50 W@nk the Dog - Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–25 Aug, £free

Crypt Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 16–25 Aug, £free

01:00 The 1am Apesh*t Show Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–26 Aug, £free Late’n’Live Gilded Balloon , 2–26 Aug, £10—£15 Late Night TED Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 18–25 Aug, £free A Catalogue of Characters Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–25 Aug, not 5, 12, 13, 19, £free Cosmonauts Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 2–13 Aug, £free

01:15 Trevor Feelgood: Sex Machine Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 11–24 Aug, £free Bring on the Apocalypse Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 2–9 Aug, £free

A dramatic unpredictable magic performance by actor and magician Robert Jägerhorn

6.30 pm 31 July - 24 August HILL STREET SOLO THEATRE tickets: 0131 226 0000 / universalartsfestival.com

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk @gildedballoon www.festmag.co.uk

Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ

8–11 August 2014 fest 85

THEATRE LISTINGS 06:30 Out of Water Summerhall @ Portobello Beach, 8–10 Aug, £10

09:00 Traverse Breakfast Plays Traverse Theatre, 12–24 Aug, not 18, £14

09:10 Homeless Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 11–16 Aug, £5

09:15 09:20 Inge at the Fringe Church Hill Theatre, 9 Aug, £5

09:25 Frozen theSpace on North Bridge, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £5—£7

10:00 Shakespeare for Breakfast C venues - C, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50 Pomegranate Jam Venue 13, 2–23 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £8 BigMouth Traverse Theatre, 23 Aug, £19 Unfaithful Traverse Theatre, 2 Aug, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £13—£19 Lippy Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £13—£19 Cuckooed Traverse Theatre, 3 Aug, 8 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £19 Theatre Uncut 2014 Traverse Theatre, 4 Aug, 11 Aug, 18 Aug, £8 SmallWar Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, £19 RIVERRUN Traverse Theatre, 9 Aug, 21 Aug, £19

10:15

10:45

Labour of Love Church Hill Theatre, 17 Aug, £5

Buffer theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–16 Aug, £7.50

William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors Church Hill Theatre, 9 Aug, £5

Fairway Manor Paradise in Augustines, 7–9 Aug, £7.50

Godspell Pilrig Studio, 9 Aug, £5 Through the Clouds theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £5

10:20 A Collection of Grimms’ Fairy Tales Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 18–23 Aug, £8 Dorian Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 14–16 Aug, £5 Antigone Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 11–16 Aug, £6 Alice in Concert Church Hill Theatre, 19 Aug, £5

10:25 Architects and Anarchists theSpace on Niddry St, 19–23 Aug, £8

10:30 Larkin’ About Valvona & Crolla, 6 Aug, 18 Aug, £10 Story Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing C venues - C too, 11–16 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 The Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£12.50

10:35 Kitty in the Lane Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, £7

10:40 The Madness of Tellaralette Seville theSpace on North Bridge, 19–23 Aug, £7

10:05

Harriet - Teen Detective!

Paradise in Augustines, 12–16 Aug, £8

Dying City theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 5–9 Aug, £7

Frozen theSpace on North Bridge, 18–23 Aug, £7

86 fest 8–11 August 2014

10:50 Nothing Summerhall, 5–17 Aug, £8.50—£10.50 Smoking Ban theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £7

11:00 Tea Time Story ZOO, 1–25 Aug, not 20, £4—£7 Glue theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–16 Aug, £8 The Box – Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 13–24 Aug, £free The Little Leaf Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 14–26 Aug, £free Donald Robertson Is Not a Stand-Up Comedian Traverse Theatre, 2 Aug, 8 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £18 Men in the Cities Traverse Theatre, 1 Aug, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £18 Where Is She Now, solo Shakespeare theSpace @ Venue45, 5–9 Aug, £5 Horizontal Collaboration Traverse Theatre, 3 Aug, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, 21 Aug, £18 The Carousel Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £18 Spoiling Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, £18

❤ The Fair Intellectual Club

HHHH

The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10

The Seussification of A Midsummer Night’s Dream theSpace on North Bridge, 1–9 Aug, £6—£7

It’s All About George Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–13 Aug, £free The Canterbury Tales Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 18–23 Aug, £9

11:05 The Trojan Women theSpace on the Mile, 11–16 Aug, £8—£10

11:10 Dylan Thomas: Clown in the Moon Assembly Hall, Various dates from 2 Aug to 25 Aug, £8—£10 These Are the Best Days: A Revue theSpace on the Mile, 19 Aug, 21 Aug, 23 Aug, £6 Like a Virgin theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 5–9 Aug, £8 Burton Assembly Hall, Various dates from 1 Aug to 23 Aug, £5—£10

11:15 Why Is Life Like Sparrows?

Venue 13, 17–23 Aug, £8 The Princess Initiative theSpace on the Mile, 18 Aug, 20 Aug, 22 Aug, £6 Punk Rock Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 18–21 Aug, £7 Welcome to the Moon and Other Plays Church Hill Theatre, 9 Aug, £5 From Up Here Church Hill Theatre, 8 Aug, £5 Guttermouth Venue 13, 2–16 Aug, not 11, £8

11:20 Two theSpace on Niddry St, 11 Aug, 13 Aug, 15 Aug, £7 Spring Awakening theSpace on Niddry St, 12 Aug, 14 Aug, 16 Aug, £7

11:25 I Am the Wind Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 18–23 Aug, £5

11:30 The Hunting of the Snark Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 11–15 Aug, £8 Shakespeare’s Villains theSpace on the Mile, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £5—£9 Hecat’s Poison: Enter the three Witches Quaker Meeting House, 4–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £5—£6 Dorothy Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 4–9 Aug, £7.50 Oliver Twist theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–16 Aug, £8 Pieces of Eight Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 11–16 Aug, £5 The Lu-Tings Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £8—£9 Flow With Me Greenside @ Nicolson Square, Various dates from 2 Aug to 9 Aug, £5—£10 Lavender Junction C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50 Dalloway Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8—£13

11:35 Alice in Wonderland theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £6

11:40 Happy Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, £6—£9 The Decline and Fall of Marcus Distilius theSpace on North Bridge, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £8 Wretch Like Me (or How I was Saved from Being Saved) theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £8.50

11:45 My Uncle’s Shoes New Town Theatre, 5–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £10

Plastic Rose Assembly George Square Studios, 1–17 Aug, not 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, £6—£11 The Dogs of War Assembly George Square Studios, Various dates from 2 Aug to 16 Aug, £9—£11

11:50 Smoking Ban theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £7 Forget Fire HHH C venues - C, 1–9 Aug, £8.50—£10.50 The Curious Incident of the Frog in My Sightline Zoo Southside, 10–25 Aug, £7 merry christmas, Ms Meadows Pleasance Dome, 19–25 Aug, £9.50—£12.50 The Electra Project theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £6

11:55 A. Loan Paradise in The Vault, 4–9 Aug, £7 The Usherettes theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–16 Aug, £8 Oleanna Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 3–9 Aug, £8

12:00 The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 11, £free Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10 The Initiate Summerhall @ Roundabout, Various dates from 2 Aug to 23 Aug, £10—£17 Dear Mister Kaiser Bedlam Theatre, 2–24 Aug, £5—£7 The Curing Room Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£13 Welcome to Terezin Gilded Balloon , 12–24 Aug, not 18, £8—£9

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE LISTINGS Last Christmas Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£11

Saint-Exupéry, a Pilot’s Story Assembly George Square Studios, 1–24 Aug, not 18, £5—£10

The Moth of August C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50

Feral Underbelly, Bristo Square, 14–24 Aug, £10—£11

❤ Hancock’s

I Have an Idea for a Film Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

HHH

Last Half Hour by Heathcote Williams

HHHH The Assembly Rooms, 1–10 Aug, £10

Low Tide in Glass Bay Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10 Pope Head: The Secret Life of Francis Bacon Laughing Horse @ Ryrie’s, 2–24 Aug, not 6, 13, £free The Hemline Index Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Animal Farm Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £10—£15 Tea for Tabitha Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 1–12 Aug, not 6, 10, £free Dead Wait Pleasance Pop-Up: The Game Lab, 2–17 Aug, not 5, 12, £8—£10 The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland

HHH Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 8, 9, 10, 18, £12—£14

Fern Hill and Other Dylan Thomas Assembly George Square Theatre, 18 Aug, £13 Early Doors HHH Pleasance Pop-Up: The Pub, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 19, £6—£10 First Class Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free Every Brilliant Thing Summerhall @ Roundabout, 5–22 Aug, not 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, £10—£15 McAlister in Wonderland theSpace on the Mile, 19–23 Aug, £8

www.festmag.co.uk

Absolutely Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 13–24 Aug, £free

12:05 Different is Dangerous theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 19–23 Aug, £6.50 National Loaf Paradise in The Vault, 4–17 Aug, not 11, £9 Landscape with Skiproads Summerhall, 4–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £8—£12.50 Pintsized Surprise Meeting Point @ The Playfair, 10–13 Aug, £10 Can Stand Up - Don’t Want To! theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 19–23 Aug, £5

12:10 The Hive Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£10 A Drinker Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 10–16 Aug, £8.50

12:15 Pentimento Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £5—£10 Clown Slut Dario’s Restaurant, 2–23 Aug, not 12, £free Banjo Man Laughing Horse @ The Blind Poet , 1–24 Aug, £free Once Upon a Nightmare Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 2–24 Aug, not 13, £free Dylan Thomas Return Journey - Bob Kingdom, Original Direction by Anthony Hopkins HH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11 Sweep Up the Stars Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£10 The 3rd Sector Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£9.50

12:25 The Height of the Eiffel Tower HHH Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £7—£12 Frank Sent Me Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, £6—£12

❤ Blood at the Root HHHH Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 12, £6—£12

Butterfly in Shades of Blue SpaceCabaret @ 54, 1–23 Aug, not 13, £8 The Make Up C venues - C, 10–16 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

12:30

Going Out West Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£9.50

12:20

❤ Near Gone HHHH

The Art of Falling Apart Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11

Sonnets for an Old Century Church Hill Theatre, 18 Aug, £5

Chasing Zeds theSpace on North Bridge, 18–21 Aug, £5

Tragedy of Tragedies: Or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb Pilrig Studio, 6 Aug, 8 Aug, £5

Tis Pity Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–16 Aug, £7.50

The Immigration Lottery theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £7—£9

Cushion theSpace on the Mile, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £5

The Waste Land Sisters Summerhall, 14–24 Aug, £10

Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10

Blood Brothers theSpace @ Venue45, 11–15 Aug, £7.50

Trojan Women theSpace on the Mile, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £5

A World Beyond Man Sweet Grassmarket, 1–17 Aug, not 11, £7.50

Labour of Love Church Hill Theatre, 19 Aug, £5

The Jungle Referendum C venues - C nova, 1–16 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

The Result of a Man and His Ponderings theSpace on North Bridge, 11–16 Aug, £5

Now Until the Hour Summerhall, 6–10 Aug, £9

Illyria-on-Sea Paradise in Augustines, 12–16 Aug, £8 Alice in Concert Church Hill Theatre, 17 Aug, £5

Summerhall, Various dates from 1 Aug to 23 Aug, £7—£10

The Pitiless Storm

HHH

The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £15

Things from Before Pt. 4 Venue 13, 2–23 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £8 Our Town: Louisville Church Hill Theatre, 9 Aug, £5 Conversations with Boring, Ugly People theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 10 Aug, £5

The God Box: A Daughter’s Story Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £7—£12

I’m Thinking of Leaving Facebook Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

Chaplin Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£12

Playback Impro Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free

Lunchtime with Patsy Cline Hispaniola, 2–23 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free The Time of Our Lies - The Life and Times of Howard Zinn HH Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£10 Verbatopolis C venues - C, 18–25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 Lippy Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, £19 Cuckooed Traverse Theatre, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, 21 Aug, £19 Birdwatchers’ Wives Summerhall, Various dates from 2 Aug to 24 Aug, £8—£12

Manuelita Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£12 Little Jokes Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–10 Aug, £6—£10 SingleMarriedGirl Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 11–16 Aug, £8—£10 ...and This is My Friend Mr Laurel Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £6.50—£11

12:45 Cirque Tsuki: Feast C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50 BigMouth Traverse Theatre, 19 Aug, £19 Unfaithful Traverse Theatre, 8 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £19 Chlorine Zoo Southside, 1–25 Aug, not 19, £5—£8

Absence Of...

Gilded Balloon , 13–15 Aug, £5

SmallWar Traverse Theatre, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 24 Aug, £19

12:35

RIVERRUN Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £19

Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 5 Aug, 6 Aug, 8 Aug, 9 Aug, £5 L’Annunciazione – The Annunciation Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 23–24 Aug, £6 Giulietta theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £8 Error 404 Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–23 Aug, not 12, £3.50—£7

12:40 The Trip Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £6 Sunday Morning Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8—£11 Winky HHH Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£10

The Zulu Assembly Hall, 2–25 Aug, not 11, £12—£13 A Slight Ache Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 13, 20, £6—£9 The Duchess of Malfi C venues - C nova, 1–16 Aug, £8.50—£10.50 SOS - Save Our Spaces Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–10 Aug, £3—£6

12:50 300 to 1 - Free Banshee Labyrinth, 2–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free Goodbye Gunther Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 18, £6—£10 Candide: The Optimist theSpace on North Bridge, 18–23 Aug, £8—£10 Forever Young theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 11–16 Aug, £8

8–11 August 2014 fest 87

THEATRE LISTINGS Inevitable Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 18–23 Aug, £4 Beowulf: The Blockbuster Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£11

Hand Made in China: Moons, Migration and Messages Summerhall, 11–24 Aug, £3 Woyzeck Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 12, £9—£10

Passing Sentence Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 4–9 Aug, £5

Till Death theSpace on North Bridge, 11–16 Aug, £5

Sochi 2014 Pleasance Courtyard, 1–21 Aug, not 11, £6—£9

A Little Nonsense Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£11

12:55 How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found ZOO, 1–16 Aug, £7—£8.50 NSFW C venues - C nova, 10–25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 Chewing the Fat Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 2–13 Aug, not 3, 10, £8—£11 Good Timin’ Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 14–23 Aug, not 17, £8—£11

13:00 Outings HHH Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 21, £12—£13 Sleeping Beauty Institut français d’Ecosse, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £5—£10 Standing on Lego Paradise in Augustines, 22–23 Aug, £8 Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10

❤ Dr Longitude’s Marvellous Imaginary Menagerie HHHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£12.50 A Play, a Pie and a Pint - Upstairs at Le Monde Upstairs @ Le Monde, 3–21 Aug, not 8, 9, 15, 16, £12 Rants, Bantz and Comas theSpace on North Bridge, 18–21 Aug, £5

Night Bus HH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £6—£11 I Promise I Shall Not Play Billiards The Royal Scots Club, Various dates from 5 Aug to 12 Aug, £9.50 Antigone theSpace on the Mile, 19–22 Aug, £5 The Psychosocial Gathering theSpace on the Mile, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £4—£7 Government Inspector Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£9.50 Larkin’ About Valvona & Crolla, 14 Aug, £10 Italia ‘n’ Caledonia Valvona & Crolla, 23 Aug, £12 John Muir. Rhapsody in Green Valvona & Crolla, 6 Aug, 8 Aug, 11 Aug, 16 Aug, 24 Aug, £12 Indian Peter’s Coffee House Valvona & Crolla, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 15 Aug, 17 Aug, £12 Pioneer Zoo Southside, 1–25 Aug, £7—£12

13:05 First World Problems C venues - C south, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50 Reduced Shakespeare Company in The Complete History of Comedy (abridged) Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £10—£13

88 fest 8–11 August 2014

Fundamentalists theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £10

Leaving Home Party Summerhall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £8—£12

Rebecca CANCELLED C venues - C, 17–23 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

A Split Decision The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10

Who Rowed Across Oceans theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 12–16 Aug, £7

MacBraveheart: The Other Scottish Play The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10

1 Green Bottle C venues - C cubed, 2–9 Aug, £8.50—£9.50

13:35

This Way Madness Lies theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £7

13:20

Seven Missed Meals Leads to Anarchy theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 18–23 Aug, £5

13:10 The Boy in Blue Quaker Meeting House, 11–15 Aug, £5 The Selkie and the River God Sweet Grassmarket, 11–25 Aug, £8 Beneath the Dark Paradise in Augustines, 4 Aug, 6 Aug, 7 Aug, 8 Aug, 9 Aug, £6 Grow theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £5 Inevitable theSpace on the Mile, 19–23 Aug, £5 Scandimania: Gods of Ice and Fire Sweet Grassmarket, 1–10 Aug, £8 Buffer theSpace on North Bridge, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £7.50

13:15 Donald Robertson Is Not a Stand-Up Comedian Traverse Theatre, 3 Aug, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, 21 Aug, £18 On the Upside Down of the World HHH Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8—£13 Eden Gate C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50 Lovecraft’s Monsters - Free Laughing Horse @ The Wee Pub, 1–24 Aug, £free The Carousel Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, £18

Blood Wedding theSpace @ Venue45, 5–8 Aug, £7 King Ubu C venues - C, 10–16 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 Wanderlust Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 2–15 Aug, not 12, £6—£7 Running Into Me Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10 Quadrophenia theSpace on the Mile, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £8 This is Where We Live Assembly George Square Studios, 1–10 Aug, £5—£10 Let It Fall (After King Lear) Assembly George Square Studios, 12–23 Aug, not 18, £8—£10

13:25 Silk Road Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 18, £5—£11 Decade Paradise in The Vault, 4–17 Aug, not 11, £8 Siblings C venues - C, 1–9 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

13:30 Dead Wait Pleasance Pop-Up: The Game Lab, 2–17 Aug, not 5, 12, £8—£10 The Closure of Craig Solly: A Dark Monologue by Russell Kane Underbelly, Bristo Square, 18–24 Aug, £12.50—£14.50 Odd Shaped Balls Gryphon@WestEnd, 4–16 Aug, not 10, £8.50

Where to Begin Church Hill Theatre, 16 Aug, £5 Property Rites Church Hill Theatre, 15 Aug, £5 In the Surface of a Bubble ZOO, 1–25 Aug, £5—£9 Antiquithon HH Institut français d’Ecosse, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £5 Don’t Let Go HHH Bedlam Theatre, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£8.50 Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10 Forgotten Voices Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £8—£14.50

Teenage Dirtbag theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, Various dates from 2 Aug to 9 Aug, £5—£6 Land of Smiles H Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £5—£12 The Hardybutts Boys Paradise in Augustines, 12–17 Aug, £5 Now’s the Hour The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10 Chrysalis Paradise in The Vault, 4–16 Aug, not 11, £4—£5.50

13:40 In The Window Assembly Hall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8—£13 Mind The Gap theSpace @ Venue45, 12–16 Aug, £7

Cutting Off Kate Bush

HHH

Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£11

13:45

The Duel Venue150@EICC, 5–23 Aug, not 11, 18, 21, £10

The Day Sam Died New Town Theatre, 5–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £10

Romeo and Juliet C venues - C cubed, 10– 25 Aug, £8.50—£10.50

Blackout Thistle King James Hotel, 1–10 Aug, £free

Horizontal Collaboration Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £18

Julie Burchill: Absolute Cult HHH Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £6—£12.50

Spoiling Traverse Theatre, 1 Aug, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £18

Red Tap/Blue Tiger Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7—£11

Odd Shaped Balls Gryphon@WestEnd, 18–23 Aug, £8.50 Obscura Gryphon@WestEnd, 1–16 Aug, not 10, £6—£10 Pondling Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

Lorraine & Alan Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 9, £6—£10

The Picture of Dorian Gray C venues - C, 18–23 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

Bottleneck Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£13

Love is a Cat Skin Rug Laughing Horse @ The Blind Poet , 14–24 Aug, £free

A TED* Talk with Clay JW Crowne (*not affiliated with TED.com, its members, fellows, organisers, partners, subsidiaries, sponsors or stockholders) Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 12, £5—£9 Victims of Influence Venue 13, 2–23 Aug, not 8, 9, 10, 11, £8 Mock Tudor HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£10 KATE Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£9

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE LISTINGS Echolalia Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, 19, £9—£10 Men in the Cities Traverse Theatre, 2 Aug, 8 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £18

14:00 Momma Was a Bad Mutha theSpace on the Mile, 11–16 Aug, £9

13:50

Glue theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £8

Live Forever Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11

Domestic Labour: A Study in Love HHH Summerhall, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £10—£12

The Result of a Man and His Ponderings theSpace on North Bridge, 18–21 Aug, £5

Sweater Curse: A Yarn about Love Sweet Grassmarket, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8

Chasing Zeds theSpace on North Bridge, 11–16 Aug, £5

Macbeth Lauriston Halls, 4–8 Aug, £free

The Initiate Summerhall @ Roundabout, Various dates from 5 Aug to 21 Aug, £15

Bill Clinton Hercules Assembly George Square Studios, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8—£13

Hamlet and Ophelia C venues - C, 1–9 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 Lungs Summerhall @ Roundabout, Various dates from 2 Aug to 23 Aug, £10—£17 LABOURatory Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 18–21 Aug, £4 Years to the Day Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10

13:55 15% of The Seagull Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 2–17 Aug, £7 Backstage in Biscuit Land HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–16 Aug, not 4, 11, £6—£11

Signal Failure Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£10

#MyWay HHH Pleasance Dome, 1–16 Aug, £6—£9.50

You, Me and the World HHH Zoo Southside, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 12, 19, £7—£9

Wireless Theatre Presents: Couples Who Changed the World Pleasance Dome, 18–25 Aug, £10

14:25

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Edinburgh Elim, 19 Aug, 21 Aug, £8

That Sinking Feeling SpaceCabaret @ 54, 1–14 Aug, £4—£8

Two theSpace on Niddry St, 12 Aug, 14 Aug, 16 Aug, £7

My Rabbi New Town Theatre, 5–24 Aug, £10—£12

14:05 Antiquithon HH Institut français d’Ecosse, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £5 Brotherhood theSpace on the Mile, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £5—£7

❤ The Capone Trilogy: Loki HHHH

Pvt. Wars theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 19–23 Aug, £5

C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £11.50—£13.50

No Guts, No Heart, No Glory Sandy’s Boxing Gym, 18 Aug, 19 Aug, 20 Aug, 21 Aug, 25 Aug, £12 MacBheatha Summerhall, 11–24 Aug, not 18, £12.50 Faulty Towers The Dining Experience B’est Restaurant, 1–26 Aug, not 2, 9, 16, 23, £45 Making It! Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–25 Aug, not 18, £7—£10

Sleeping with Beauty Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 18 Aug, £4

Invisible Walls Summerhall, 1–12 Aug, £8—£12

Factor 9 Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £8—£13

Such a Nice Girl just Festival, 15–24 Aug, £10

www.festmag.co.uk

Warrior just Festival, 1–13 Aug, £5—£10

13 Sunken Years The Assembly Rooms, 11–24 Aug, not 18, £13

Blind Pleasance Courtyard, 17–25 Aug, £9—£12

The 56 Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, £6—£10

Who’s Afraid of Michael Gove? theSpace @ Venue45, 18–22 Aug, £7

Café Ruse Zoo Southside, 1–25 Aug, not 13, 20, £5—£8

Shakespeare, His Wife and the Dog Summerhall, 5–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £8—£14

Back Door theSpace on the Mile, 18–23 Aug, £8

The Importance of Being Earnest C venues - C too, 10–25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

Silent Voice HHH Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £9—£13 The Tarzan Monologues Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

Jim theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £5—£8 The Baron Conspiracy C venues - C south, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50

14:10 Unsung C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50 Medea theSpace on North Bridge, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £4—£6 Wingman Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6.50—£12 We Have Fallen Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, £6—£11 Angel: Take This Body theSpace on North Bridge, 18–23 Aug, £8 Renfield theSpace on the Mile, 18–23 Aug, £5 Skellig theSpace on the Mile, 11–15 Aug, £7.50

The Domino Effect theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 4–14 Aug, not 10, £5—£8

14:15 Show Off Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 19, £6—£11 Bad Boys: Whisky Theatre Valvona & Crolla Scottish Foodhall@Jenners, 20 Aug, 24 Aug, £15

❤ Talk About Something You Like

HHHH

Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £7—£12

Normal/Madness Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 The Road to Skibbereen C venues - C, 10–25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

Alice in Concert Church Hill Theatre, 15 Aug, £5

Baba Brinkman - The Rap Guide to Religion

The Anima Project C venues - C nova, 3–9 Aug, £9.50—£10.50

Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£10.50

A Year with Frog and Toad Church Hill Theatre, 9 Aug, £5

Spring Awakening theSpace on Niddry St, 11 Aug, 13 Aug, 15 Aug, £7 The Hollywood Ten theSpace on Niddry St, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £5 Lady Madonna theSpace on the Mile, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £10

14:30 Beyond a Joke Saughtonhall United Reformed Church, 9 Aug, £7 Six Billion Suns ZOO, 8–16 Aug, £8 History from the Past ... But Now! Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1–24 Aug, £free Amazing Grace Palmerston Place Church, 15–16 Aug, £10

Riding With Night Pilrig Studio, 5 Aug, 8 Aug, £5

The Horses Quaker Meeting House, 11–16 Aug, £7

Glass Church Hill Theatre, 8 Aug, £5

The Sorcerer’s Tale Mayfield Salisbury Church, 9 Aug, 16 Aug, £10

Footloose Church Hill Theatre, 19 Aug, £5

14:20 Telling Tales C venues - C nova, 17–24 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 Black is the Color of My Voice Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 13, £5—£10 Hamlet theSpace on North Bridge, 11–16 Aug, £8 Altamont C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10.50

Paras Over the Barras St. Serf’s Halls, 9 Aug, 16 Aug, £10 Woody Allen’s Writer’s Block St Ninian’s Hall, 9 Aug, 16 Aug, £12 Woodbine Willie Edinburgh Elim, 13 Aug, 15 Aug, 16 Aug, £11 After Aria The Printworks , 15–16 Aug, £8 TalkFest 2014: 01 Traverse Theatre, 11 Aug, £6

HHH

Staggered theSpace on North Bridge, 22–23 Aug, £22 Government Inspector ZOO, 17–25 Aug, £5—£8 Sparks C venues - C cubed, 1–9 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 TalkFest 2014: 02 Traverse Theatre, 18 Aug, £6 The Pure, the Dead and the Brilliant The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 18, £15 Confusions Paradise in The Vault, 19–23 Aug, £7 Who Did I Think I Was? Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, £free My Obsession HH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–16 Aug, £5—£9 Keeping Up with the Joans HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7—£13.50

14:35 No Belles Sweet Grassmarket, 1–24 Aug, £8.50 A Midsummer Night’s Dream theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–16 Aug, £8.50—£9

14:40 The Europeans Part Two Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £5 Watching Windows theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, Various dates from 2 Aug to 9 Aug, £6—£8 White Rabbit Red Rabbit Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, £5—£11 Antiquithon HH Institut français d’Ecosse, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £5

8–11 August 2014 fest 89

THEATRE LISTINGS Mercury Fur C venues - C, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £9.50—£11.50

Travesti Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 5, 19, £6—£11

Grace and the Sea Sweet Grassmarket, 4–9 Aug, £10

The Ruby Dolls: Fabulous Creatures

Rants, Bantz and Comas theSpace on North Bridge, 11–16 Aug, £5

Blind Hamlet Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 12, 18, £10—£15

Barbara and Yogashwara’s Safe Space theSpace on Niddry St, 6–20 Aug, not 10, 14, 18, £8

Assembly Checkpoint, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 12, 19, £8—£12

Dead Fresh theSpace on North Bridge, 18–21 Aug, £5

Superfluous Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 17–25 Aug, £9

Tea and Jamboree with Queenie Greenside @ Royal Terrace, Various dates from 2 Aug to 23 Aug, £8

Mush and Me Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£11

Bloom Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10

14:45 Endgame by Samuel Beckett Paradise in The Vault, 4–10 Aug, £7.50 Paradise Lost Gryphon@WestEnd, 1–16 Aug, not 10, £6—£10 Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10 Hound of the Baskervilles theSpace @ Venue45, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £5—£7 The Real Inspector Hound C venues - C nova, 10–25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 Icarus ZOO, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £5—£8 Mark Ravenhill: Product Assembly Hall, 1–20 Aug, £10—£14 Evil Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–9 Aug, £8 Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £7—£12.50

14:50 Prelude to a Number Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 2–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £8—£11 Saving Graces at St Mabel’s Paradise in Augustines, 21–25 Aug, £5 Raymondo Summerhall, 11–24 Aug, £11

14:55 Games of Love and Chance Bedlam Theatre, 18–23 Aug, £7.50 The Burning Crowd Just the Tonic at The Caves, 11–24 Aug, not 12, 17, £10 Alive Paradise in The Vault, 19–25 Aug, £7 Post-Its (Notes on a Marriage) Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 14–24 Aug, £2—£4 Where the World Is Going, That’s Where We Are Going Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £12.50

15:00 Larkin’ About Valvona & Crolla, 13 Aug, 17 Aug, £10 Kingmaker Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£14 Mallory: Beyond Everest C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50 The Sorcerer’s Tale Mayfield Salisbury Church, 23 Aug, £10 The Caddington Affair Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 2–16 Aug, not 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, £7 John Muir. Rhapsody in Green Valvona & Crolla, 7 Aug, 9 Aug, 19 Aug, 22 Aug, £12 Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope HHH Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £11—£12

90 fest 8–11 August 2014

Under Milk Wood Assembly Hall, 11 Aug, £15 Drowning Scott Greenside @ Nicolson Square, Various dates from 3 Aug to 15 Aug, £7

HHH

Ctrl+Alt+Delete Zoo Southside, 1–24 Aug, not 7, 13, 20, £5—£7 Mmm Hmmm Zoo Southside, 10–16 Aug, £10 SingleMarriedGirl Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 18–23 Aug, £8—£10

Help Yourself Central Hall, 9 Aug, 13 Aug, 14 Aug, £9

Swimming Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6.50—£11

Dog, Book and Scandal Gryphon@WestEnd, 1–16 Aug, not 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, £8

Party in the USA! Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£12

Bannockburn Quaker Meeting House, 4–16 Aug, not 10, £8

Gordon theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £7

Zelda- The Last Flapper by William Luce Hill Street Solo Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7—£10 Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10 The Estate Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 18–23 Aug, £8 Anorak of Fire The Royal Scots Club, 12–16 Aug, £8

15:05

The Blazers theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–16 Aug, £6—£7 Pennyroyal Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£10 (The Reel) Macbeth C venues - C south, 3–9 Aug, £9.50—£10.50 Munich theSpace on the Mile, 19–23 Aug, £7 Amy K theSpace on the Mile, 18–23 Aug, £6

15:15 Please Don’t Cry (At My Funeral) Zoo Southside, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£8 Mug Shot Paradise in Augustines, 12–16 Aug, £5 Our Town theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 6 Aug, 10 Aug, £5 Unfaithful Traverse Theatre, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, 21 Aug, £19 The Lieutenant of Inishmore Hill Street Drama Lodge, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 12, 13, 20, £7—£12.50

15:25 Squidboy Underbelly, Bristo Square, 16–25 Aug, £11—£12 Red Jungle Fowl Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£8 The Match Game Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–14 Aug, £6—£9.50 Jestia and Raedon C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50

15:30

From Up Here Church Hill Theatre, 9 Aug, £5

The Penelopiad C venues - C, 10–25 Aug, £8.50—£10.50

Lippy Traverse Theatre, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £19

Dead Wait Pleasance Pop-Up: The Game Lab, 2–17 Aug, not 5, 12, £8—£10

Cuckooed Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £19 The Virtuous Burglar Paradise in Augustines, 5–9 Aug, £7 RIVERRUN Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, £19

15:20 Eating Diamonds theSpace on the Mile, 4–8 Aug, £4 Pomme is French for Apple HHH Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£10

Guinea Pigs on Trial Summerhall, Various dates from 2 Aug to 23 Aug, £5 The Greatest Liar in All the World Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Lear’s Daughters C venues - C nova, 1–16 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 Strange Resting Places Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £9—£12

The Queen’s Speech Gryphon@WestEnd, Various dates from 2 Aug to 15 Aug, £8

Now We Are Pope: Frederick Rolfe in Venice theSpace on North Bridge, 18–23 Aug, £8

The Most Serious Ailments of St Krank’s Bedlam Theatre, 4–9 Aug, £9

Smoking Kills theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £5.50

The Bunker Trilogy: Morgana C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £11.50—£13.50

A History of Falling Things theSpace on the Mile, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £7

Vanity Bites Back Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£8

Crazy Glue HH Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £7—£11

Away From Home Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8—£12

Are You Lonesome Tonight Summerhall, Various dates from 1 Aug to 22 Aug, £5

Fearnot Wood Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–17 Aug, not 12, £5—£8.50

Chariot: The Eric Liddell Story Palmerston Place Church, 23 Aug, £11

Race by David Mamet Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £9—£13

The Sleeping Trees Treelogy Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £6—£9

The Matchmaker Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £9—£14 Ruskin Live Scottish National Gallery, 11 Aug, 12 Aug, 14 Aug, 15 Aug, £10

15:10

Bottom’s Dream Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 1–16 Aug, not 10, £7—£9

I’m Not Like Other Girls theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 4–9 Aug, £7

NYC - A Subway Tale Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 6–9 Aug, £4.50

The Lover theSpace on Niddry St, 18–23 Aug, £8

Where to Begin Church Hill Theatre, 17 Aug, £5 Property Rites Church Hill Theatre, 16 Aug, £5 Swiss Cheese Ghillie Dhu, 18 Aug, 25 Aug, £free

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE LISTINGS The Secret Wives of Andy Williams Underbelly, Cowgate, Various dates from 1 Aug to 24 Aug, £6—£10

Simon Callow in Juvenalia Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 11, 18, £10—£20

❤ Spine HHHH

Hot Cat Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£12.50

Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£11

SmallWar Traverse Theatre, 8 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £19 Antiquithon HH Institut français d’Ecosse, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £5

Scaramouche Jones Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7—£14 Conversations with Boring, Ugly People theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 7 Aug, 9 Aug, £5

Dracula Sweet Grassmarket, 4–17 Aug, £8

Till Death theSpace on North Bridge, 18–21 Aug, £5

Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10

King David’s Wives St Cuthbert’s Church, 15–23 Aug, not 19, £free

Dead Fresh theSpace on North Bridge, 11–16 Aug, £5

www.festmag.co.uk

The Bastard Children of Remington Steele Underbelly, Cowgate, Various dates from 2 Aug to 23 Aug, £9—£10

15:35 Much Ado About Zombies theSpace on the Mile, 11–16 Aug, £8 I Killed Rasputin Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–24 Aug, £10—£14.50 When It Rains HH Pleasance Dome, 2–23 Aug, not 6, 11, 18, £8—£10.50 This Wide Night C venues - C nova, 10–25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 Hamlet Private Eye theSpace on North Bridge, 4–9 Aug, £7 A Midsummer Night’s Dream theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £8.50—£9

Post-Its (Notes on a Marriage) Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 16 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, 24 Aug, £4

15:40

Alison Jackson: A Story in the Public Domain (La Trashiata) Summerhall, 21–24 Aug, £10—£15

15:45

Berkoff the Inimitable Summerhall, 13–14 Aug, £15

Human St John’s, 1–14 Aug, £free

The Future for Beginners HH Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £8—£10

Horizontal Collaboration Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, £18

Llais/Voice theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £7

The Carousel Traverse Theatre, 1 Aug, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £18

Sleight & Hand Summerhall, 15–19 Aug, £5—£12 The Man Who Almost Killed Himself Summerhall, 7–11 Aug, £5—£12

147 Questions About Love Dance Base, 1–17 Aug, not 4, 11, £8—£10 18b ZOO, Various dates from 1 Aug to 25 Aug, £8

See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil Sweet Grassmarket, 20–24 Aug, £9 We Never Land C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 9, £8.50—£10.50 Queen B ZOO, Various dates from 2 Aug to 24 Aug, £8 Donald Robertson Is Not a Stand-Up Comedian Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £18 Men in the Cities Traverse Theatre, 3 Aug, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, 21 Aug, £18

15:50 Show 6 Summerhall @ Roundabout, 2–17 Aug, not 7, 14, £11—£14

8–11 August 2014 fest 91

THEATRE LISTINGS 16:00 Like Fireworks, Like Butterflies theSpace on North Bridge, 4–16 Aug, £10 Nzinga - Warrior Queen just Festival, 1–9 Aug, not 5, £10 Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10 A Game of Soldiers Lauriston Halls, 19–23 Aug, £10 Contractions C venues - C nova, 10–25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 Hand Made in China: Moons, Migration and Messages Summerhall, 11–24 Aug, £3 FOMO: The Fear of Missing Out Underbelly at Forth 1, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8—£13 Love. Guts. High School.

Sweet Grassmarket, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£9 Life with Crayons Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–9 Aug, £5 My Luxurious 50 Square Feet Life just Festival, 11 Aug, £10 Our Jackie Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, £6 Fundamentalists just Festival, Various dates from 18 Aug to 25 Aug, £10 Reduced Shakespeare Company in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (Revised) Pleasance Courtyard, 17–25 Aug, £12—£17 The Man Who Would Be King ZOO, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £6—£9 No Guts, No Heart, No Glory Sandy’s Boxing Gym, 22–24 Aug, £12 Scots: Double Bill Duddingston Kirk Manse Gardens, 5–16 Aug, not 10, 11, £8

16:05 Tadzio Speaks ...

Death in Venice Revisited theSpace on North Bridge, 18–23 Aug, £8 The Return of Savonarola theSpace on the Mile, Various dates from 1 Aug to 22 Aug, £5—£10 Antiquithon HH Institut français d’Ecosse, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £5 Macbeth - Son of Light theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £8 Tell Me Your Secrets and I’ll Shout Them Out theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £7.50 The Trial of Jane Fonda HH The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £16 The Tulip Tree- The Love Story of J Enoch Powell theSpace on Niddry St, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 17, £8—£10 An Evening with Dementia theSpace on the Mile, Various dates from 2 Aug to 23 Aug, £10 The Constant Soldier theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £7

Julius Caesar in Original Pronunciation Gryphon@WestEnd, 1–9 Aug, £8 The Last Piemen theSpace on the Mile, 18–23 Aug, £8

16:15 Jack Gryphon@WestEnd, 12–16 Aug, £6 The Exchange Zoo Southside, 1–25 Aug, £10 Dead Letters C venues - C cubed, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50 Much Ado About Nothing theSpace @ Venue45, 18–23 Aug, £8 Boxman H Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, £5—£10 Circumcise Me Gilded Balloon , 1–15 Aug, not 2, 9, £11 News Junkie Paradise in The Vault, 19–25 Aug, £6—£7 Godspell Pilrig Studio, 8 Aug, £5 LaborActorial New Town Theatre, 6–14 Aug, £10 Spoiling Traverse Theatre, 2 Aug, 8 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £18 Jamaica Farewell

16:10

HH

The Piece of Paper Paradox theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £6.50—£8

Maybe New Town Theatre, 16–24 Aug, £10

The Confessions of Gordon Brown Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 13, 20, £10—£16 Freak Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£11 How to Achieve Redemption as a Scot Through the Medium of Braveheart HHH Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£11 Broke Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£12

92 fest 8–11 August 2014

Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, £6—£11

16:20 Anthem for a Doomed Youth Assembly Roxy, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £8—£13 Alice in Concert Church Hill Theatre, 16 Aug, £5 Bitesize Chekhov Zoo Southside, 1–25 Aug, £10

16:25 Gagging for It SpaceCabaret @ 54, 1–23 Aug, not 17, £5—£9 As You Like It Pilrig Studio, 9 Aug, £5

Wolf Whistle Paradise in The Vault, 4–17 Aug, not 11, £6 A Year with Frog and Toad Church Hill Theatre, 4 Aug, 8 Aug, £5

16:30 Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10

Casual Encounters theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £5—£8

Inheritance Blues Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11

How does a Snake Shed its Skin? HHH Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 19, £7—£12.50

Cirque Tsuki: Parade C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50

Flat Pack theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 19–23 Aug, £8

Hamlet C venues - C too, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50

Hats Off To Laurel and Hardy Sweet Grassmarket, 16–17 Aug, £9

The Press-Ganged Fool Paradise in Augustines, 8–10 Aug, £5

Woman Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–8 Aug, £10

St Joan Bedlam Theatre, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £8

Shooting the White Eagle Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£7

Theatre on a Long Thin Wire Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, £5—£10 Ernest and the Pale Moon Pleasance Courtyard, 3–25 Aug, not 12, £9.50—£12.50 Conflict in Court New Town Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £10—£12 God Is in My Typewriter Hill Street Solo Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7—£10 The Collector Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£11 Kiss Me Honey, Honey!

Gilded Balloon , 24 Aug, £12.50 Lunch Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£8 Hamlet and Ophelia Go Swimming Gryphon@WestEnd, 5–8 Aug, £5 Henry V: Here and Now Gryphon@WestEnd, 12–16 Aug, £5 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£14.50

Confirmation Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 2–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £11—£14

16:40 Forty-Five Minutes theSpace @ Venue45, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £5—£9 Nougat for Kings Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 binôme – Souris Chaos Institut français d’Ecosse, 6–17 Aug, not 11, 12, £5—£7 The Importance of Being Earnest theSpace on the Mile, 11–16 Aug, £9 The Dirty Talk C venues - C, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £9.50—£11.50 Jay-Z and Me: A Fast Talking Memoir Sweet Grassmarket, 1–17 Aug, not 11, £8 A Walk in the Dust Sweet Grassmarket, 15 Aug, £6

16:45 Lie Back and Think of England C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10.50

16:35

Green Snake C venues - C, 20–25 Aug, £11.50—£12.50

Lands of Glass HHH Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 16, 19, £9—£12

Yellow Fever Venue 13, 2–23 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £8

16:50 Tender Napalm C venues - C nova, 10– 25 Aug, £9.50—£11.50 Just Paradise in Augustines, 12–17 Aug, £8 Guess Who: Meinzeye or Cold Corner?

Sweet Grassmarket, 4–10 Aug, £7 Hiraeth Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£11

16:55 Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £6—£10.50

17:00 Momma Was a Bad Mutha theSpace on the Mile, 18–23 Aug, £12 Dead Wait Pleasance Pop-Up: The Game Lab, 2–17 Aug, not 5, 12, £8—£10 Tick Tock Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, £9.50 Nathan Penlington: Choose Your Own Documentary Gilded Balloon , 10–25 Aug, £10.50—£12.50 Little on the inside Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £9—£12 Woyzeck!

C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50 Barbara and Yogashwara’s Safe Space theSpace on Niddry St, 6–20 Aug, not 10, 14, 18, £8

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE LISTINGS TalkFest 2014: 01 Traverse Theatre, 11 Aug, £6 The Knee Jerk of Sloth ZOO, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £5—£8 Dim Diolch theSpace on the Mile, 4–9 Aug, £6 Symphony by Ella Hickson, Nick Payne and Tom Wells

HHH Assembly George Square Gardens, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £10—£15

TalkFest 2014: 02 Traverse Theatre, 18 Aug, £6 Man Enough Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 1–24 Aug, £free Sophie Wu is Minging, She Looks Like She’s Dead Wee Red Bar, 2–24 Aug, £free You, Me and the World HHH Zoo Southside, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 12, 19, £7—£9 A Walk at the Edge of the World Summerhall @ The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 1–24 Aug, not 7, 11, 18, £8—£12 Haggis Haggis Haggis Scottish Storytelling Centre, 4–24 Aug, not 12, 13, 14, £10 Civil Rogues HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£11 Riding the Midnight Express with Billy Hayes Upstairs @ Le Monde, 3–21 Aug, not 8, 9, 15, 16, £16.50

17:05 The Blazers theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £6—£7

An Audience With Shurl Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–23 Aug, £7 A Drinker C venues - C nova, 4–8 Aug, £9.50—£10.50 Singarevva and the Palace Sweet Grassmarket, 12–17 Aug, £7 Driving with the Parking Brake Up theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £7 The Trojan Women theSpace on the Mile, 18–23 Aug, £8—£10 Gidion’s Knot theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 4–16 Aug, not 10, £9 The Cagebirds C venues - C cubed, 1–9 Aug, £8.50—£10.50 El Britanico!

(Wrestling Reality) theSpace on the Mile, 11–16 Aug, £6

17:10 ❤ Hayani HHHH Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £9—£13

Soldier Box theSpace on North Bridge, Various dates from 2 Aug to 22 Aug, £6—£8 Perfection C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £8.50—£10.50

17:15 Bad Boys: Whisky Theatre Valvona & Crolla Scottish Foodhall@Jenners, 6–23 Aug, not 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, £15 Moonshine, Medicine and The Mob: Whisky Theatre Valvona & Crolla Scottish Foodhall@Jenners, 13 Aug, 20 Aug, £15

Chris is Dead theSpace on the Mile, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £8

Spectrum theSpace on North Bridge, Various dates from 3 Aug to 23 Aug, £6—£8

Linwood No More theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 4–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £10

Unprescribed Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £5—£9

www.festmag.co.uk

MenSWEAR Collection: Three, Two, F*ck C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50 Occupied Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £9 The Last Motel Sweet Grassmarket, 1–10 Aug, £8 Treasure Island theSpace on Niddry St, 1–23 Aug, £10—£11 Life on the One Wheel ZOO, 17–25 Aug, £8 Safeword Sweet Grassmarket, 20–24 Aug, £8 Light Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £7.50—£13

17:20 The Sonneteer Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £8—£14 Klip Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £6—£11 Shakespeare’s Avengers Assembleth Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 1–9 Aug, £2—£5

17:30 Dead To Me Summerhall @ Roundabout, 6–23 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £8—£11 Burger Van Thistle King James Hotel, 1–25 Aug, £free

❤ Black Faggot HHHH Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£12.50

Where to Begin Church Hill Theatre, 18 Aug, £5 Property Rites Church Hill Theatre, 17 Aug, £5 PratFall theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 18–23 Aug, £5 So It Goes Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£10.50 After Aria The Printworks , 14–16 Aug, £8

Your Fragrant Phantom C venues - C cubed, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10.50 Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10 Yellow Moon: The Ballad of Leila and Lee theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £8 Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits St Cuthbert’s Church, 11–15 Aug, £10

17:35 Monkeys and Typewriters theSpace @ Venue45, Various dates from 12 Aug to 23 Aug, £5 The Ukulele Evangelists Bang One Out theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £8 Harry the King Zoo Southside, 10–25 Aug, £9 Ablutions HHH Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£11

17:40

Cuckooed Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, £19 John Muir. Rhapsody in Green Valvona & Crolla, 13 Aug, 18 Aug, 20 Aug, £12 Indian Peter’s Coffee House Valvona & Crolla, 14 Aug, £12 Phone Whore: A One Act Play With Frequent Interruptions Sweet Grassmarket, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £8.50 The Great Gatsby Assembly Roxy, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £10—£14 SmallWar Traverse Theatre, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, £19

17:50 Compulsion Paradise in The Vault, 19–25 Aug, £8 The Greenville Ghost C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50 21st Century Poe: Moyamensing Paradise in The Vault, 4–17 Aug, not 11, £8

Motortown Sweet Grassmarket, 18–24 Aug, £8.50

Off the Curtain SpaceCabaret @ 54, 1–9 Aug, £5—£7

True Brits Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£10

17:55

Hamlet SpaceCabaret @ 54, 11–16 Aug, £8—£10

17:45 Newton’s Cauldron Paradise in The Vault, 2–17 Aug, not 11, £5—£7 The Human Voice Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 18–25 Aug, £10 BigMouth Traverse Theatre, 21 Aug, £19 Larkin’ About Valvona & Crolla, 8–12 Aug, weekdays only, £10 The Lieutenant of Inishmore Hill Street Drama Lodge, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 12, 13, 20, £7—£12.50

Antigone C venues - C, 17–25 Aug, £9.50—£11.50 The Alchemist Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£10

18:00 Yellow Moon: The Ballad of Leila and Lee Bedlam Theatre, 12 Aug, £5 Unfaithful Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £19

Shakespeare in the Garden: A Midsummer Night’s Dream C venues - C south, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50 Voca People Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, 19, £8—£16 Fundamentalists Gryphon@WestEnd, 4–9 Aug, £10 Amore - The Romantic Poets Mayfield Salisbury Church, 4–8 Aug, £8 Lippy Traverse Theatre, 8 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £19 Mata Hari In Eight Bullets Acoustic Music Centre @ St Bride’s, 15 Aug, 16 Aug, 17 Aug, 19 Aug, 20 Aug, £15 RIVERRUN Traverse Theatre, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £19 High Vis Princes Mall, 1–25 Aug, £free Trailer Park Plays Laughing Horse @ Gorgie City Farm, 7–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £free Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10 Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles National Library of Scotland, 11–22 Aug, weekdays only, £6 Victorian Vices – Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls theSpace on Niddry St, 1–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £8—£11

❤ The Capone Trilogy: Lucifer

HHHH

C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £11.50—£13.50

The Object Lesson Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £9—£14

Macbeth Lauriston Halls, 4–8 Aug, £free

My Luxurious 50 Square Feet Life just Festival, 9–10 Aug, £10

The Interview Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10

The Duck Pond Bedlam Theatre, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£8

8–11 August 2014 fest 93

THEATRE LISTINGS 18:05 Blooded theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £free—£6 When My Time Comes theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £5 Belfast Boy Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, £7.50—£10 Casting the Runes theSpace on the Mile, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £5—£10 Title and Deed by Will Eno Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8—£13

Donald Robertson Is Not a Stand-Up Comedian Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, £18 Weekend Breaks The Royal Scots Club, 11–16 Aug, £12 To Chekhov With Love: Afterplay and The White Peacock (Two One-Act Plays) Quaker Meeting House, 4–9 Aug, £6 Footloose Church Hill Theatre, 18 Aug, £5

18:20

18:10

Nevada: It Ain’t Just About Vegas, Baby!

Church Hill Theatre, 4 Aug, 8 Aug, £5

The God That Comes Summerhall, 13–24 Aug, not 18, £12

Charmolypi Summerhall, 9–24 Aug, not 18, £10

Chef Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–17 Aug, £6—£10.50

Sonnets for an Old Century Church Hill Theatre, 15 Aug, £5

18:15 Labour of Love Church Hill Theatre, 16 Aug, £5 Spoiling Traverse Theatre, 3 Aug, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, 21 Aug, £18 Love Thy Neighbour Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, £5 Letters Home Edinburgh International Book Festival, 9–25 Aug, not 12, 19, £10—£15 Bunbury Is Dead Cafe Camino, 2–23 Aug, not 15, £free Electra: An American Gothic theSpace @ Venue45, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £6—£7 Death Shall Have No Dominion Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 1–23 Aug, not 19, £free Too Cool to Care Venue 13, 2–23 Aug, not 11, £8 The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha ZOO, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £9 Hamlet Pilrig Studio, 9 Aug, £5

The Three Peaks Quaker Meeting House, 11–16 Aug, £8

18:25 The Basement Project Church Hill Theatre, 9 Aug, £5 A Modernist Event C venues - C south, 3–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50 Wastwater C venues - C nova, 1–16 Aug, £8.50—£10.50

18:30 Silence in Court New Town Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £10—£12 The Flood Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £12 The Duchess of Malfi The Royal Scots Club, 4–9 Aug, £10 He Had Hairy Hands

HHH

Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £6—£11.50

Mental Pleasance Pop-Up: The Bedroom, 7–24 Aug, not 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, £10 Broken Dolls (Razbitye Kuklu) C venues - C cubed, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10.50 Horizontal Collaboration Traverse Theatre, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £18 The Carousel Traverse Theatre, 2 Aug, 8 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £18 Light Killer Summerhall, 9–24 Aug, £7—£11 Torsten The Bareback Saint Assembly George Square Studios, 5–16 Aug, £16—£19

18:35 Hyde & Seek C venues - C nova, 3–25 Aug, £8.50—£10.50 Deprescos theSpace @ Venue45, Various dates from 11 Aug to 22 Aug, £5 George Orwell’s 1984 theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £8 Doctor Marigold’s Prescriptions theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £7 Working Title: The Orpheus Project C venues - C too, 2–25 Aug, £8.50—£10.50 I Promise You Sex and Violence HH Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 2–23 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £11—£14 Old Gristle theSpace @ Venue45, Various dates from 12 Aug to 23 Aug, £5

18:40

Boosters ZOO, 4–24 Aug, £5—£9

Punk Rock theSpace on North Bridge, 18–23 Aug, £7

Men in the Cities Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £18

You’re Never Too Old Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£10

94 fest 8–11 August 2014

18:45 The HandleBards: The Comedy of Errors Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh - West Gate, 6 Aug, 8 Aug, 10 Aug, £12 Tales from the MP3 Summerhall, 10–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £10.50—£12.50 Measure for Measure theSpace on North Bridge, 4–9 Aug, £8 Lace Up theSpace on North Bridge, Various dates from 4 Aug to 22 Aug, £8 Death is the New Porn theSpace on North Bridge, Various dates from 3 Aug to 23 Aug, £6—£8 A Brief History of Scotland - We Done Loads!

Sweet Grassmarket, 2–24 Aug, £9.50 James Bannon: Running with the Firm Assembly Roxy, 18–24 Aug, £10 Noughts and Crosses Paradise in Augustines, 12–17 Aug, £10 The HandleBards: Macbeth Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh - West Gate, 7 Aug, 9 Aug, £12 Pathos: Can You Kill for Love? theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 1–9 Aug, £7 Trainspotting HHH Hill Street Drama Lodge, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £7—£14

18:50 Awkward Conversations with Animals I’ve F*cked Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£10.50 Chris Dugdale: More Magic and Mischief Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£12 Beans On Toast Zoo Southside, 1–25 Aug, not 18, £5—£9

18:55

19:05

Forever Young theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 18–23 Aug, £8

Stackard Banks is Self-Discovered Ciao Roma, 2–23 Aug, not 12, £free

19:00 Help Yourself Central Hall, Various dates from 7 Aug to 14 Aug, £9 Naked in Alaska Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£10 Vincent Goes Splat

HHH

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

Bazaar and Rummage C venues - C nova, 1–16 Aug, £8.50—£10.50 I’m Not Pale, I’m Dead Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£11 The Despondent Divorcée C venues - C cubed, 1–25 Aug, not 8, 9, £8.50—£10.50 A Midsummer Night’s Dream Edinburgh Elim, 19 Aug, 21 Aug, £8 Legion Buccleuch Free Church, 19–23 Aug, £free Dead Wait Pleasance Pop-Up: The Game Lab, 2–17 Aug, not 5, 12, £8—£10 Miss Julie Scottish Storytelling Centre, 11–15 Aug, £10 Can’t Stay Away! theSpace on Niddry St, 1–23 Aug, £9—£11 My Name is Saoirse Scottish Storytelling Centre, Various dates from 1 Aug to 19 Aug, £10 X and Y Scottish Storytelling Centre, Various dates from 6 Aug to 24 Aug, £10 Barbara and Yogashwara’s Safe Space theSpace on Niddry St, 6–20 Aug, not 10, 14, 18, £8 And I Ran With The Gang – The Story Of The Original Bay City Roller Upstairs @ Le Monde, 3–21 Aug, not 8, 9, 15, 16, £12

Olaudah Equiano: The Enslaved African theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £8 Hamlet theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 18–23 Aug, £8—£10 Don Quixote theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £5 Faith theSpace on the Mile, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £6

19:10 Winter of Our Discotheque Paradise in The Vault, 12–25 Aug, not 18, £8 Britannia Waves the Rules Summerhall @ Roundabout, Various dates from 3 Aug to 10 Aug, £11—£14 Backstage Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 6–19 Aug, £8—£10 Candy Cigarettes theSpace on the Mile, 19–23 Aug, £8 Can You Spare a Crime Serenity Cafe, 2–12 Aug, £free The Canterbury Crawl theSpace on the Mile, 19–23 Aug, £5 And the Horse You Rode in On Paradise in Augustines, 4–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £7 Beats North Summerhall @ Roundabout, 11–23 Aug, not 14, 21, £11—£14

19:15 The Player’s Advice to Shakespeare C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £9.50—£11.50 Chariot: The Eric Liddell Story Palmerston Place Church, 19–22 Aug, £11 Rut Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 1–10 Aug, £free

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE LISTINGS 3,000 Trees by George Gunn Gryphon@WestEnd, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £8 Play It ‘Til We Get It Right Church Hill Theatre, 8 Aug, £5

19:20

A Game of Soldiers Lauriston Halls, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £10

Claustrophobia ZOO, 1–25 Aug, not 18, £9—£10

Relatively Speaking Murrayfield Parish Church Centre, 6–16 Aug, not 10, £10.50

Mary, the Last Farewell Edinburgh Elim, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £8

Keep Smiling Through The Brunton , 8 Aug, £15

Doing Time With Number 5 Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, £7

❤ How to Disappear Completely HHHH

The Bunker Trilogy: Agamemnon C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £11.50—£13.50

Leave Me Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 10–25 Aug, £7

In Control Paradise in The Vault, Various dates from 3 Aug to 25 Aug, £6.50—£7

Beyond a Joke Saughtonhall United Reformed Church, 4–9 Aug, £7

Rats!

Paradise in The Vault, Various dates from 2 Aug to 24 Aug, £6.50—£7

19:25 Critical! (A Sociopath’s Guide to Influencing Edinburgh Fringe Reviewers) Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 2–9 Aug, £8 Frankenstein: UnBolted Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £1—£9

19:30 Swing Dance Base, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £8—£10

www.festmag.co.uk

Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£11.50

The Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour Outside the Beehive Inn, 1–31 Aug, £14

Paras Over the Barras St. Serf’s Halls, 4–15 Aug, not 10, £10 Woody Allen’s Writer’s Block St Ninian’s Hall, 4–16 Aug, not 10, 14, £12 Woodbine Willie Edinburgh Elim, 12–16 Aug, £11 Mary Stewart Duddingston Kirk Manse Gardens, 6–24 Aug, not 11, 12, 18, 19, £10 Pre-View: Traverse Theatre, 11 Aug, 18 Aug, £6

19:35

Kiss Me Honey, Honey!

Gilded Balloon , 17 Aug, 18 Aug, 19 Aug, 20 Aug, 23 Aug, £12.50

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest theSpace @ Venue45, 11–16 Aug, £7

Amazing Grace Palmerston Place Church, 13–15 Aug, £10

The Really Big Diamond theSpace @ Venue45, 19–23 Aug, £7

Mojo C venues - C, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £9.50—£11.50 Where to Begin Church Hill Theatre, 15 Aug, £5 Property Rites Church Hill Theatre, 18 Aug, £5 At the Illusionist’s Table The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, 1–22 Aug, not 3, 7, 9, 10, 17, £59

Tinderbox Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £8—£10 A Journey Round My Skull Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £11—£12 Making Light theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £7

19:40 Sins of Seven Tables Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £3—£7

19:45 Kaspar Venue 13, 2–23 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £8 The Sorcerer’s Tale Mayfield Salisbury Church, 2–22 Aug, not 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, £10 Bond!

ZOO, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£12 Blood Orange Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £14.50

19:50 21 Things You Should Know About Toronto’s Crack-Smoking Mayor Sweet Grassmarket, 1–24 Aug, not 2, £5—£8.50 Keeping Abreast Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £8—£13 God on Trial C venues - C nova, 1–16 Aug, £9.50—£11.50

20:00 Victorian Vices – The Picture of Dorian Gray theSpace on Niddry St, 1–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £8—£11 No Guts, No Heart, No Glory Sandy’s Boxing Gym, 22–24 Aug, £12 So What If I Dance?

Sweet Grassmarket, 1–17 Aug, not 3, 6, 13, £5—£7 Faulty Towers The Dining Experience B’est Restaurant, 3–26 Aug, not 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, £49.50 God’s Own Country Zoo Southside, 1–25 Aug, £8—£10 (Un)tied Sweet Grassmarket, 20–24 Aug, £8 Notoriously Yours C venues - C south, 3–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50 Pint Size Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free Grimm C venues - C too, 1–16 Aug, £8.50—£10.50

20:05 The Quant Hill Street Solo Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£10

19:55

Soften the Grey theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £8

Last Call C venues - C cubed, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10.50

Enigma - Emmy Goering (Hitler’s Diva) theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £7

Marijan theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 1–23 Aug, not 13, 14, 15, £7.50 An Extraordinary Light theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £6—£8

20:10 According To His Need C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£9.50 The Sorrows of Young Werther theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 13–15 Aug, £6 The 24 Hour Mystery Play Paradise in Augustines, 20 Aug, 22 Aug, 24 Aug, £7 Upper Lip theSpace on the Mile, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 16, £6—£8 Before Us Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£10.50 All Through the Night Quaker Meeting House, 4–9 Aug, £6

20:15 The Actor’s Nightmare CANCELLED Pilrig Studio, 8 Aug, £5 Labour of Love Church Hill Theatre, 18 Aug, £5 Captain Amazing Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 18 Aug, 19 Aug, 20 Aug, 22 Aug, 23 Aug, £14

8–11 August 2014 fest 95

THEATRE LISTINGS A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 2–17 Aug, not 7, 14, £11—£14 Lippy Traverse Theatre, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, 21 Aug, £19 Nancy Dell’Olio: Rainbows From Diamonds Gilded Balloon , 14–24 Aug, £11—£13 Midsummer / Jersey Church Hill Theatre, 8 Aug, £5

20:20 Chatroom C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £9.50—£11.50 Sonnets for an Old Century Church Hill Theatre, 17 Aug, 19 Aug, £5

20:25 Sex, With Benefits Sweet Grassmarket, 1–10 Aug, £8.50

20:30 Tragedy of Tragedies: Or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb Pilrig Studio, 5 Aug, 9 Aug, £5

Rumours The Royal Scots Club, 11–16 Aug, £12 John Muir. Rhapsody in Green Valvona & Crolla, 14 Aug, 23 Aug, £12 Indian Peter’s Coffee House Valvona & Crolla, 6 Aug, 9 Aug, 12 Aug, 18 Aug, £12

Take Me Home: A One-woman Odyssey George Next Door, 2–23 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free

The Carousel Traverse Theatre, 3 Aug, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, 21 Aug, £18 The Bridge just Festival, 1–25 Aug, not 2, 11, 18, 24, £10 Sirens Summerhall, 12–24 Aug, not 18, £8—£12.50 My Luxurious 50 Square Feet Life just Festival, 11 Aug, £10

20:35

Great Artists Steal theSpace @ Venue45, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £5—£9

Out of Water Summerhall @ Portobello Beach, 8–10 Aug, £10

The Rose of Jericho theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £6—£10

Standby for Tape Back-Up Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8—£10 Italia ‘n’ Caledonia Valvona & Crolla, 11 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 21 Aug, £12

Mates Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1–16 Aug, not 10, £10

Lysistrata C venues - C, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £10.50—£12.50

Unfaithful Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, £19

The Flood Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £12

Standing on Lego Paradise in Augustines, 19–21 Aug, £5—£8

East Paradise in The Vault, 6–10 Aug, £7

Dead Wait Pleasance Pop-Up: The Game Lab, 2–17 Aug, not 5, 12, £8—£10

Cuckooed Traverse Theatre, 2 Aug, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £13—£19

A Few Good Men Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 3–9 Aug, £12

Shrew C venues - C cubed, 1–25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

The Importance of Being Earnest as Performed by Three F*cking Queens and a Duck theSpace on North Bridge, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £9—£11

The House of Bernarda Alba theSpace on Niddry St, 1–23 Aug, £9—£11

20:45

20:40 ❤ The Capone Trilogy: Vindici

HHHH C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £11.50—£13.50

Darkle theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 10, £10—£11 What Do You Mean Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 12, 19, £10 Sleeping with Beauty Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 19 Aug, £4

96 fest 8–11 August 2014

Terror Paradise in The Vault, 12–24 Aug, not 18, £10 The Cold Clear Elsewhere Cafe Camino, 2–23 Aug, not 15, £free The Rooftops Of Paris Laughing Horse @ Ryrie’s, 2–15 Aug, not 6, 11, £free Donald Robertson Is Not a Stand-Up Comedian Traverse Theatre, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £18 The Wonderful World of Dissocia The Royal Scots Club, 4–9 Aug, £10 Men in the Cities Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, £18 SmallWar Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £19 RIVERRUN Traverse Theatre, 3 Aug, 8 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £19 Serve Cold Gryphon@WestEnd, 11–16 Aug, £8

20:50 Punk Rock Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 18–23 Aug, £6

❤ Janis Joplin: Full Tilt HHHH

The Merchant of Venice Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 18–23 Aug, £9

A Quartet of Chekhov Farces theSpace on the Mile, 11–16 Aug, £7—£8

20:55

Lady GoGo Goch Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £11—£12

The Villains, the Vote and the Black, Black Oil Sweet Grassmarket, 18–24 Aug, £7

21:00 Horizontal Collaboration Traverse Theatre, 8 Aug, £18 Spoiling Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, £18

Totally Devoted theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £6—£9 Seated Reservations theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11 Aug, 13 Aug, 15 Aug, 19 Aug, 21 Aug, £7 The Brown Felt Hat theSpace on the Mile, 5–8 Aug, £8

21:10

Private View Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 6–24 Aug, not 12, £7

Guaranteed Nudity theSpace on the Mile, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £6

A Journey Round My Skull Summerhall, 18 Aug, £11

Queen of Soho

Big Brother: Blitzkrieg Sweet Grassmarket, 4–17 Aug, £8.50 The Generation of Z: Edinburgh Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 19, £8—£12 Hunter and Johnny ZOO, 1–25 Aug, £9 3,000 Trees: The Death of Mr William MacRae Sweet Grassmarket, 1–24 Aug, £8 Trainspotting HHH Hill Street Drama Lodge, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £7—£14 Fragile ZOO, 1–25 Aug, £8.50—£9.50 Return to the Voice Summerhall @ St Giles Cathedral, Various dates from 7 Aug to 25 Aug, £15 Hibrow In-Conversations Summerhall @ Roundabout, 8 Aug, 15 Aug, 22 Aug, £10

21:05

Assembly Checkpoint, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £10—£13.50

Dave! theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 14 Aug, 16 Aug, 18 Aug, 20 Aug, 22 Aug, £7

Actors Paradise in The Vault, 12–25 Aug, not 18, £6.50—£8

Candide: The Optimist theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 1–12 Aug, not 3, £5—£10

❤ Margaret Thatcher HHHH

Assembly George Square Gardens, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8—£13

Honest theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 18–23 Aug, £8

21:15 Horizontal Collaboration Traverse Theatre, 2 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £18 Spoiling Traverse Theatre, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £18 Replay C venues - C cubed, 1–25 Aug, £8.50—£10.50 Connected SpaceCabaret @ 54, 18–23 Aug, £8 The Lieutenant of Inishmore Hill Street Drama Lodge, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 12, 13, 20, £7—£12.50 Not I and Rockaby theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 14–16 Aug, £5 666 DSM: A Dark Comedy about Sanity, Society and Spirituality Venue 13, 2–23 Aug, not 11, £8 F18K theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £8 Super Tramp Zoo Southside, 1–25 Aug, £9

21:20 Dracula HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8—£14 Paperback Time Machine: Book to the Future Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £4—£8 London Life SpaceCabaret @ 54, 11–16 Aug, £10

21:25 Barge Baby C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10.50

21:30 The World Mouse Plague Summerhall, 13–24 Aug, not 18, 19, £8—£10 Thief Hill Street Solo Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £10 Send More Paper Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 21 Aug, £14 The Unholy Trinity theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £12

21:35 Neverland theSpace @ Venue45, 11–16 Aug, £9 The Temptation of St Anthony theSpace @ Venue45, 18–23 Aug, £8—£9

21:40 Punk Rock Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 17 Aug, £7 I Before You theSpace on North Bridge, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £6 Phantom Pain theSpace on North Bridge, 11–16 Aug, £7.50 GoldDust theSpace on North Bridge, 18–23 Aug, £5 The Post Show

HHH Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£15

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE LISTINGS 21:45 No Name theSpace @ Venue45, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £6—£7 The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union C venues - C cubed, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50

21:50 Snoutology for Beginners Summerhall, 18–24 Aug, £5—£7

21:55 The Noctambulist Paradise in The Vault, 6–10 Aug, £8

22:00 Candide Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 18–22 Aug, £7.50 Swiss Cheese Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 18 Aug, £free Mata Hari In Eight Bullets Acoustic Music Centre @ St Bride’s, 7–23 Aug, not 9, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, £10—£15

The Bunker Trilogy: Macbeth C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £11.50—£13.50 Drunk Lion Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 1–24 Aug, £free Gidding’s Ward Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 11–16 Aug, £5 Milk Presents: Self Service Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 2–23 Aug, not 3, 7, 14, 21, £8—£11 My Name is Saoirse just Festival, 6–23 Aug, not 16, 17, 18, 19, £10 Gambit Theatre Presents: Contrast Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1–9 Aug, £9 Sanitise Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

22:05 MenSWEAR Collection: Spunk C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50

22:10 The Noctambulist Paradise in The Vault, 12–17 Aug, £8

Wuthering Heights Summerhall, 10–24 Aug, not 15, 18, £12.50

Real Fake White Dirt Sweet Grassmarket, 7–10 Aug, £8.50

X and Y just Festival, Various dates from 1 Aug to 19 Aug, £5—£10

Loose Soul Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, £9

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22:15 We Were Kings theSpace on the Mile, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £5—£7 Refresh: Stories of Love, Sex, and the Internet theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £5—£7 Tape C venues - C too, 10–25 Aug, not 14, 15, 16, £7.50—£9.50 The Bastard Queen theSpace on Niddry St, 18–23 Aug, £7 A Male Soprano Paradise in The Vault, 4–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £7 Footloose Church Hill Theatre, 16 Aug, £5

22:20 Biding Time (Remix) Summerhall, 5–23 Aug, not 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18, 22, £6—£12

22:25 Hamlet theSpace on North Bridge, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £4—£7.50

22:30 And They Played Shang-a-Lang The Assembly Rooms, 13–24 Aug, £12—£15 Looking for Paul Wunderbaum Summerhall, 14–23 Aug, £12.50 Larkin’ About Valvona & Crolla, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, 16 Aug, £10

The Babysitters C venues - C cubed, 1–16 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven artSpace@StMarks, 5–23 Aug, not 10, 11, 17, 18, £10—£12 A Virgin’s Guide To...

Rocky Horror New Town Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £12—£14 Return to the Voice Summerhall @ St Giles Cathedral, 6 Aug, 13 Aug, 14 Aug, 15 Aug, 20 Aug, £12—£15

22:35 Smoking Ban theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–16 Aug, £7 The Devil Without C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10.50 Mafia on Prozac theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £4—£8

22:40 Engels! The Karl Marx Story Double Bill theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 19–23 Aug, £10

Et Tu Elvie C venues - C, 1–25 Aug,

23:00 This Is Living Bedlam Theatre, 2–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £7—£9

Bloody Trams Traverse Theatre, 5–10 Aug, £10

Shed Brain Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 14–24 Aug, £free

23:10 Case Number Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 20–24 Aug, £6

23:15 What a Gay Play C venues - C, 1–24 Aug, £8.50—£10.50

Trainspotting HHH Hill Street Drama Lodge, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £7—£14

22:45 Calypso Nights Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

22:55 Puzzle the Puzzle C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £8.50—£10.50

Kim Noble: You’re Not Alone Traverse Theatre, 19–24 Aug, £13—£19

Cheesed Off Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 1–12 Aug, not 6, £free

23:30 Tape C venues - C too, 14–16 Aug, £8.50—£9.50

£8.50—£10.50

Dinner is Swerved C venues - C nova, 8–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £15.50—£19.50 Bonenkai Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10 The Generation of Z: Edinburgh Assembly George Square Theatre, Various dates from 1 Aug to 24 Aug, £8—£12 Against Nothingness or 3cm Above an Empty Head Summerhall, 18–24 Aug, £10 Séance Sweet Grassmarket, 4 Aug, 8 Aug, 15 Aug, 22 Aug, £10

23:55 Alice theSpace on North Bridge, 6–23 Aug, not 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, £10—£14

00:00 City Of the Blind Online at www.

DavidLeddy.com (with Traverse Theatre), 2–25 Aug, £8.99 Eggs Collective Get A Round Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 2–25 Aug, £free

8–11 August 2014 fest 97

RICHARD FRY:

Ten Things I Did Today Gilded Balloon, 12:30pm – 1:30pm, until 25 August

My new Edinburgh best friends, Bumble and Jeff, took me to the park first thing for a game of ball.

2

I tell jokes about how chubby I’ve got so it helps if I have this for breakfast. Nice!

I bumped into my favourite Hollyoaks actress, Lizzie Roper.

She gave me her autograph (and her number). Exciting!

4

3

I cried when the lovely Siobhan in Scayles music shop told me how much this beautiful guitar cost.

Please come and see my show so I can buy it.

Bought a new T-shirt to do my show in. I now think I’m the coolest guy in Edinburgh. Shame nobody else does.

6

5

I talk to a lot of flyerers. They are the backbone of this festival and they know their stuff. Especially this one.

Having a quick busk outside the Gilded Balloon to tempt people in.

8

7

Lindsay in the GB box office had some Fizzy Flying Saucers so me and Bec Hill sang at her till she gave us some.

Walked home past Summerhall and waited for them to light the bonfire. They didn’t.

10 98 fest 8–11 August 2014

1

9

It can be lonely doing a one-man show at the Fringe so I decided to Skype Lizzie Roper. It was fun. I love Edinburgh.

www.festmag.co.uk

Elephant Room Assembly Hall 22:40 Until 25th Aug Three Magicians. One Show. Zero boring stuff.

Penn and Teller, meet Wayne and Garth. And another guy. …One of the coolest places in town. New York Times

Title and Deed

by Will Eno Assembly Hall 18:05 Until 25th Aug Daring, spectacular and hilarious New Yorker Leaves you happily word-drunk. New York Times Sunday Times Critics’ Pick

www.festmag.co.uk

8–11 August 2014 fest 99

by arrangement with Lisa

Thomas managemenT presents

the times

Full Autumn Tour details at

jasonbyrne.ie @theJasonByrne