Fest 2014 Issue 1

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THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

AUSTRALIAN COMPANY BACK TO BACK PUSH THE ETHICS OF ARTISTIC ENDEAVOUR INTO UNCOMFORTABLE TERRITORY

5–7 AUGUST 2014 — YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE FESTIVAL

August 1-24 KID BOX Summerhall – Main Hall (V26) 13:00 MISA-LISIN Summerhall – Old Lab (V26) 17:20 IMPRESSION OF TAIWAN EICC – The Lomond Theatre (V150) 17:00/18:00/18:30 KURAKURAW DANCE GLASS BEAD Dance Base – Studio 3 (V22) 18:30 EGGS OF BLESSINGS Dance Base – Studio 3 (V22) 20:00 www.taiwanseasonfringe.com facebook.com/taiwanseason twitter.com/taiwanseason

k s e D Hot 9.10PM (10.10PM)

7.35PM (8.35PM)

30 JULY - 25 AUGUST 2014

30 JULY - 25 AUGUST 2014

HOT DUB TIME MACHINE

BALLCOKU!T IT’TS AL SE TO

5PM (6PM)

30 JULY - 25 AUGUST 2014

NGE 2013

EDINBURGH FRI

12.30AM (2.45AM)

01 & 02, 07 - 10, 13 - 17, 20 - 24 AUGUST 2014

THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

FRIDGE

Your complete guide to the Festival

PUBLISHER

Sam Friedman EDITOR Evan Beswick CREATIVE DIRECTOR Matthew MacLeod DEPUTY EDITOR Tom Hackett THEATRE EDITOR-AT-LARGE Matt Trueman

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

“I always keep my mustard cold and my puffins warm. You can also see a Mexican puppet version of myself and a Michael Keaton era Batman s for emergencies” am Simmon

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COMEDY EDITOR-AT-LARGE Lyle Brennan WEB EDITOR & SUB EDITOR John Hewitt Jones PHOTO EDITOR 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 Learner 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.

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SAM SIMMONS: DEATH OF A SAILS-MAN 8:50pm – 9:50pm, 1–24 Aug, Not 11, 18, Underbelly, Bristo Sq.

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Contents 8 Ganesh Versus the Third Reich Pushing the ethics of artistic endeavour into uncomfortable territory

12 Fleeting Pleasures Improvised comedy is de facto banned from the Festival’s main award. Fest asks why

16 Katherine Ryan The Canadian newcomer tells us about crude jokes and death threats

18 - Comedy

From consummate crowd pleaser Luisa Omielan to punter-baiting Luke McQueen

43 - Theatre 66 - Music 68 - Kids 70 - Listings www.festmag.co.uk

Confirmation and Men in the Cities confront our reluctance for radical change

Baba Brinkman delivers some sure-footed rhymes in his rap guide to religion

Our child critics find joys aplenty in Pirate Gran and Alice in Wonderland

Your essential guide to what’s on at the world’s biggest arts festival 5–7 August 2014 fest

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THEATRE

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THEATRE

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Ganesh Versus the Third Reich pushes the ethics of artistic endeavour into uncomfortable territory. Australian company Back to Back use actors with disabilities to produce theatre which is as slippery, and as demanding, as it gets

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n SS officer, a Jew on the run, Hitler and Ganesh, the elephant-headed Hindu god – these are some of the parts in Ganesh versus the Third Reich, all of them potent, problematic roles stacked with questions about responsibility and representation. They’re all the more troublesome when played by actors who are, to use theatre company Back to Back’s phrase, “perceived to have intellectual disabilities.”

Can a performer with, say, Down’s Syndrome legitimately play a Holocaust victim? Can he or she grasp the enormity of that? Indeed, is that necessary – or is it enough to stand onstage in striped pyjamas? Ditto Ganesh and an elephant mask; Hitler and a gaffer tape tache.

All this makes Ganesh Versus the Third Reich as slippery as theatre gets. It raises questions of what we can’t and can’t put onstage, of who gets to make that decision, on what basis and in what way.

It looks at power structures and cultural control, at the ethics of representation, art and disability.

And that’s why Back to Back Theatre is a worldclass theatre company long before it is a disabled people’s theatre company. ‘Disability arts’ can be a problematic, catch-all term; one that implies, unwittingly, that disabled artists can’t be artists, per se, only disabled artists; that elevates participation over attainment, reduces disability to a special interest subject and limits itself to addressing nothing else.

Back to Back smashes all of that apart entirely.

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“We’re just trying to make great art,” insists Bruce Gladwin, the company’s artistic director of 14 years. “Any form of advocacy for people with disabilities comes from the fact that we’re trying to make great art.”

Since its foundation in 1987, against a backdrop of deinstitutionalisation in Australia, the company has always resisted the ‘disability arts’ label, seeking instead “the framework of a valid theatre company with its own idiosyncratic qualities.” Today, led by Gladwin, Back to Back is a permanent ensemble of actors – the last in Australia – all of whom are “perceived to have intellectual disabilities.”

That phrase—mealy-mouthed though it is—is very deliberate. It sidesteps the notion of self-definition, never confirming the actuality of a disability, let alone its extent. That means there’s a layer of unknowability at work. Usually, we assume that actors think as we do. It’s how we read motivation, calculation and reaction onstage. That’s not possible with Back to Back; perceived disability – or just perceived difference – forces us to project and presume. We come smack up against our own prejudices.

“There’s this dilemma,” Gladwin explains. “Are they acting or not? Are they playing a disabled person or a normal person in this moment? We try and make as much of that ambiguity as possible.

You’re never quite sure who these people are supposed to be on the stage. You’re never relieved of that tension.” u

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THEATRE t︎ That can lead to confrontation. At a post-show talk in Brussels, following a performance of Food Court, a show that moves from a portrayal of bullying to an abduction and a murder that echoes the James Bulger case, one audience member raised an objection. “Someone said, ‘I don’t believe these actors created this work.

I know these kind of people and I don’t believe they created this work.’ It was a question about authorship and exploitation, which is a great question for people to ask. People should be asking those questions.”

The incident spawned Ganesh Versus the Third Reich. Company members’ interests—in Ganesh, in comic book heroes—had already led Gladwin to the idea of “an epic hero’s quest: Ganesh travelling from India to Germany to reclaim the swastika, ending in the heart of darkness, Hitler’s bunker.”

“We just went: ‘there’s no way we can make that’,” Gladwin laughs. “We didn’t feel like we had a right. Just the issues of cultural appropriation: using this symbol of a god—no one’s Hindu in the company—and also representations of the Holocaust. It just seemed fraught.”

However, that Brussels question triggered the thought of “a fictionalised autobiography of our company,” intended to explore and problematise the relationship—or rather, the perceived relationship—between Back to Back’s actors and its director. “And if we were going to make a fictionalised autobiography,” Gladwin goes on, “we figured we should be making it about something that’s really difficult to make.” Re-enter Ganesh.

The resultant show, in which a company like Back to Back rehearse that Ganesh epic, ends up calling itself into question.

It asks whether an intellectually disabled actor can legitimately play Hitler, even as it has an intellectually disabled actor playing an intellectually disabled actor playing Hitler. (Got that?) It acknowledges a problem, then directly contravenes it. “I just liked the possibility that someone in the audience might stand up and go, ‘Stop, you can’t do this.

Enough. Too much.’ That’s what I felt in the rehearsal room.”

Gladwin expands. During one

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improvisation, a company member began stripping. He considered stepping in and stopping the exercise, protecting the performer. “There were other people in the room and I could feel their anxiety, but [the actors] were on a roll. It was terrifying, but I just thought, ‘Actually, this is gold.’”

It’s a question of provocation and exploitation; of authorship, control and care. There are safety measures in place – there have to be – and Back to Back’s process, which runs over several years, is founded on the actors’ interests. “A large part of my job,” explains Gladwin, “is curating the actors’ development. I’m constantly looking for challenges for the company.” So, an actor who often works alone might be coaxed towards performing a dialogue; someone who struggles with fluent speech might work towards a Shakespeare monologue. “By the time the actors have repeated it multiple

times in rehearsal, they’re incredibly comfortable with it – almost too comfortable.”

There’s a deeper question of consent, though. Just by stepping onto a stage, the actors signify their own disability. They can’t do otherwise. Are they aware of that? Are they in control of it? Gladwin’s not sure it matters: “When you’re making something, why not use everything to its fullest, including how an actor looks onstage?

Why deny yourself half the palette?”

There are, in other words, layers of meaning at work; one from within the work, one from outside of it. It’s problematic, yes, but that’s the beauty of it – and it’s why Ganesh is so full of signs and icons. As Gladwin says: “I like watching theatre that scares me.” n MATT TRUEMAN

Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, times vary, 9–12 Aug, £10

“I just liked the possibility that someone in the audience might stand up and go, ‘Stop, you can’t do this. Enough. Too much.’”

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COMEDY

THE NOISE NEXT DOOR’S COMEDY LOCK-IN

Fleeting Pleasures Hugely popular at the Fringe, improvised comedy is de facto banned from the Festival’s main award. Tom Hackett asks why

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mprovised comedy is huge at the Fringe. There are almost 70 shows falling into the category this year, splitting off into ever-more varied sub-genres: improvised musical theatre, improvised hip hop theatre, improvised contemporary Jane Austen-based theatre... the list goes on.

“I think that improv is definitely the most exciting thing to happen to the British comedy scene in the last 10 years,” says Daniel Roberts from Racing Minds, a relatively new addition to the Fringe stable whose quirky, long-form narrative shows contain much of the pathos and dramatic structure that you would expect from a good play. “There’s just been this explosion of possibility that everybody’s cottoning on to.”

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Audience enthusiasm is matched by critical praise – Roberts points out that based on the (albeit scientifically questionable) measure of aggregate star numbers Austentatious (the Jane Austen one) and Abandoman (the hip hop one) were up there with the best shows at last year’s Festival.

It seems curious, then, that however popular and highly praised these shows become, they cannot grab the Festival’s ultimate prize. The Edinburgh Comedy Awards have for some years excluded the form, a position questioned just after the close of last year’s Festival in a polite, articulate piece written for the comedy website Chortle, by Sam Pacelli of the hugely popular improvised comedy troupe The Noise Next Door.

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COMEDY

AAAANDNOW FOR SOM

ETHING COMPLETELY

IMPROVISED

“Anyone who thinks it’s easy to take a few suggestions off the audience and make people laugh is an idiot” “It seems to me really odd,” Pacelli tells Fest, “and not in keeping with the spirit of the awards, to exclude a certain bracket of comedy.” He stresses that “I don’t necessarily think that an improv troupe would win it,” but feels they should at least be in with a shot.

Nica Burns has been director and producer of the awards since 1984, and is keen to talk about her time in the early 1980s promoting and touring with improv troupes that included leading lights of the form such as Paul Merton and Josie Lawrence. “Anyone who thinks it’s easy to take a few suggestions off the audience and make people laugh is an idiot,” she says,

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her love and appreciation of the form readily apparent. “You might get one or two chuckles, but to sustain that for 50 minutes takes a tremendous amount of skill.”

But, she says, a very simple practical problem remains. “We got into terrible difficulty during the judging process, which was that the judges going on different nights had seen quite substantially different shows,” she explains. “So someone was saying ‘wasn’t it great when X happened’ and everyone else was saying ‘well no, that didn’t happen on our night.’”

None of the improv performers that Fest speaks to seems furious

about Burns’ position. But equally, none sees any good reason why improv shouldn’t be considered. Citing the review aggregates again, Roberts points out that “clearly, those reviewers weren’t all there on the same day.

So the best improv groups have learnt to be consistent.”

This slightly misses Burns’ point, which is not so much to do with consistent quality as it is with the practical problems thrown up by lack of consistent content. But here again all three improvisers counter that all live comedy is in fact different every night – standup especially. “When [Michael] McIntyre got his nomination, about 15-20 minutes was him just chatting to his audience,” Pacelli points out.

Burns says that even when legendarily chatty, ‘improvisational’ standups like Ross Noble and Jason Byrne have been nominated for the Award, they still “have quite a structure that they can fall back on when things go wrong,” a portion of written or pre-rehearsed material that is performed most nights and that is assessable on its own terms.

Ruth Bratt is a founding member of The Showstoppers, whose u

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COMEDY

SHOWSTOPPER! THE IMPROVISED MUSICAL

t︎ improvised musical practically invented the form for the UK and has been a Fringe favourite now for almost a decade. She concedes that improv is “a different kind of writing, because standups hone and they hone,” whereas for her troupe, “it’s always a first draft, it’s always a first night.”

Is there therefore a question mark over whether a show can possibly be as well-written as a tightly honed hour of scripted comedy? Pacelli thinks not: “We hope that pretty much everything we do would be funny if it was sketch, regardless of the fact that it’s improvised.” But given how many of the laughs in improv come from the stumbles, slips and close shaves that arise from the fact that the actors are thinking on their feet, it’s not an issue that’s easy to untangle.

Daniel Roberts contends that improv has become better at going beyond this kind of laughter in recent years. “I think that it’s an old-fashioned idea to exclude [improv comedy],” he says. Short-form ‘game’-type shows of the sort played by the

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Whose Line… team, back this year, are “hilarious stuff, but it’s not what you’d give an award to for artistic vision, I suppose. But now, if you want something beautiful, or subtle, or something that feels like it taps into what it means to be human…” he breaks off into eulogies about Cariad and Paul’s A Two-Player Adventure, a long-form improvised comedy that he describes as “the most beautiful show that I saw on the Fringe last year.”

Bratt agrees vigorously that improv can make people feel as well as giggle, and says that this is The Showstoppers’ main objective for certain shows. “Sometimes the audience want something serious,” she says.

“We’ve done things set in the First World War, which was not a funny show, because there’s nothing really that funny about it. I mean there is, but God you’ve got to be careful!” she laughs. The Showstoppers’ whole approach she says, is not to “go for the gag” but to “play the truth of what you’re doing,” and “of course there’s an emotional response to that, because you’re always showing your vulnerability at some level.”

Whether or not the emotional and thematic resonance of an improvised show can stand alongside that of a more thoroughly crafted one will remain a moot point for as long as the awards exclude them. But if improv comedy is ultimately too transient to give an award to, that to some is its strength and not its weakness. “For me that is the joy of impro,” says Bratt, “that this is the ultimate ephemera.

You’re making something for that night only, for that audience only.” And as long as audiences keep coming, that for some is reward enough. n TOM HACKETT

THE NOISE NEXT DOOR’S COMEDY LOCK-IN Pleasance Courtyard, 10:50pm – 11:50pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 12 Aug, £10 – £13 AAAAND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY IMPROVISED Pleasance Courtyard, 11:45am – 12:45pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, £7 – £9 SHOWSTOPPER! THE IMPROVISED MUSICAL Gilded Balloon , times vary, 1–24 Aug, not 21 Aug, £14 – £15

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THE BEST SHOWS AT THE FESTIVAL edfringe.com 0131 226 0000 pleasance.co.uk 0131 556 6550 gildedballoon.co.uk 0131 622 6552 assemblyfestival.com 0131 623 3030 www.eicc.co.uk 0844 847 1639

ALAN DAVIES

ALFIE MOORE

BEARDYMAN

ASSEMBLY 4

pLEASANCE GRAND

6-9 AUG 9pM

30 JUL - 25 AUG 4pM

15-17 AUG 11.15pM

MICHAEL MITTERMEIER

MY OBSESSION

pAUL MERTON’S pETE IMpRO CHUMS JOHANSSON

EICC

GILDED BALLOON NIGHTCLUB 11-25 AUG 9.40pM

pLEASANCE UPSTAIRS 30 JUL - 16 AUG 2.30pM

pLEASANCE GRAND 7-16 AUG 4pM

pLEASANCE BENEATH 30 JUL - 25 AUG 9.30pM

FRANCESCO DE CARLO

IGOR MEERSON

LLOYD LANGFORD

30 JUL - 25 AUG 10.50pM

30 JUL - 25 AUG 8.30pM

30 JUL - 25 AUG 6.50pM

SARA pASCOE

SARAH KENDALL

YACINE BELHOUSSE

pLEASANCE BUNKER 1

ASSEMBLY 2 30 JUL - 25 AUG 8.15pM

pLEASANCE BELOW

pLEASANCE TWO 30 JUL - 25 AUG 9.30pM

pLEASANCE JACK DOME

pLEASANCE THAT 30 JUL - 25 AUG 9.30pM

by arrangement With mandy Ward artist management

paul merton • rICHarD VranCH lee SImpSon • SuKI WeBSter anD mIKe mcSHane pleaSanCe tHe GranD 7-16 auGuSt 4pm

0131 556 6550 pleasance.co.uk 0131 226 0000 edfringe.com mickperrin.com comedystoreplayers.com paulmerton.com Photo: Caroline Webster

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COMEDY

ROLE MODEL?

She loves a funny dance, does a strong line in crude jokes and has received death threats from angry TV viewers. The Canadian born comic tells Fest about finding her voice Photos: Weronika Bachleda. Thanks to Quick & Plenty Café, Leven Street

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sk Katherine Ryan how she’s feeling about becoming the first comic to sell out her Fringe run and she’ll confess, “like a cheater”, because she’s only playing 11 nights. A homebody with two dogs, two rabbits and a young daughter, the Canadian-born Londoner is determined for Edinburgh to remain a relaxing “holiday”, where she can catch kids shows and as many standups as will let a five-year-old sneak in the back.

Performance was in Ryan’s blood from an early age – tap, jazz, ballet and piano, all channelled into the grotesque beauty pageants she evoked in her Fringe debut, Little Miss Conception. But most of all, she “valued comedy”.

“I loved making people laugh” she recalls. “Even when I did the pageants, I would sing the deep, male part of an Italian opera because I thought it was funny.

I didn’t want to be the centre of attention, I’m actually really shy and have few friends. I didn’t even know I wanted to be a comic. But I loved watching it. I loved creating comedy, even then.”

Early reviews of the 31-year-old implied her preoccupation with celebrity might hold her back. As it transpired though, being “comedically inspired by the ridiculousness of that religion” has been what’s made her, earning her burgeoning exposure on television, across the likes of Mock The Week and 8 Out of 10 Cats.

“Everything that I am is topical. I’m really interested in pop culture,” she affirms.

“My love of dissecting current events is why I was able to make that transition to panel shows. And I really enjoy the old model of late-night American chat. When I was little, my mother let me stay up and watch Letterman. I always wanted to write that opening monologue about the news.”

Ryan emphasises the importance of her daughter appreciating what she does, if only because “she’ll shy away from the performing arts - it’s not cool to follow your mum!”. She adds, “[Violet] respects me because she sees how hard I work.

“And I respect her, I don’t disparage her in any way on stage. When I embarrass her in the future, it’ll only be as a parent.”

So in Ryan’s new show, Glam Role Model, she doesn’t set herself up as an example. Quite the opposite. But she does believe it’s important that young people, and women especially, know that they have choices about who they seek to emulate.

“When Sara Pascoe and I were starting out, we only had a few,” she reflects.

“Maybe Victoria Wood or Jo Brand. Then later, Sarah Millican. Or in the US, Sarah Silverman and Tina Fey. But the next generation can see Sara, Angela Barnes, Susan Calman, Tiff Stevenson and Aisling Bea on television. They might not identify with what I do. But they might look at their styles and think ‘yes, that’s really inspired me, I could do this’. You need an array of different voices, male and female”.

Despite the recent BBC directive enforcing a quota of one woman per panel show, and the graphically sexual death threats she received on social media last

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“I never want to play the nice girl and I’m always pretty mean to boys I have crushes on”

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COMEDY

year, when one of her lines on Mock The Week was misinterpreted as offensive to Filipinos, she retains a thick skin. “I’m actually very calm about the direction [broadcast comedy is] going.

I’ve always been confident that the time will come when it’s pretty much 50-50 gender-wise. I’ve always felt at peace about that happening.”

Instead, the feminist streak coursing through her latest hour focuses on the phenomenon of glamour models, inspired, partly, by her finding out that Violet’s father cheated on her with one. Although “we have girls in Canada who get their tits out, we don’t have a name for it and it’s frowned upon,” she ventures. “It’s not mainstream like here.

Now, I can’t start to tell people how to live their lives. But it’s my assertion that, like it or not, these women are role models. They’re in the Big Brother house, in the jungle and on panel shows. They are celebrities”.

By contrast, as an “immigrant single mother”, she sees herself as “living proof that a young girl can do whatever she wants, no matter what odds are stacked against her.

“Why you’d want to throw all that away and be a decoration is something I struggle with. I’ve never seen a culture

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like the UK, where it’s fine and normal for little girls to want to grow up and get their tits out in a newspaper. It’s like saying ‘I want to grow up and be a necklace!’”

Rejecting pop icons like Nicki Minaj as a “sex cartoon”, after memorably spoofing her in a fat (arse) suit for Let’s Dance for Comic Relief—“I was pointing out the ridiculousness of bum implants for charity”—Ryan retains greater respect for Beyoncé.

“She plays the game beautifully, has reached the top and is sexy on her own terms”. Nevertheless, her intense, po-faced recreations of Ms Knowles’ vagina-gyrations also reflect that “you have to weave a bit of a pisstake through everything with an unyielding undertone of sex”.

And besides, “I do love a funny dance. I’ve never danced with a sexy dance face in my life, I’ve only ever danced for laughs.”

Remaining upfront, if self-effacing and playful when discussing sex, Ryan is reluctant to condemn Hooters, the North American restaurant chain with skimpy waitress uniforms, as she sees it as operating in the same way. She started performing standup while working at an outlet in Toronto, but only after

finding her “voice” by “learning that customers valued a good chat and you being quick on your feet. It was about more than just being sweet-looking and beautiful. I couldn’t work there again but it was invaluable experience.”

After co-starring in Pappy’s BBC Three sitcom Badults, bitchily demeaning Matthew Crosby—“I never want to play the nice girl and I’m always pretty mean to boys I have crushes on”—Ryan is developing her own pilot based on helping launch Hooters in the UK. Ultimately though, she’d like to return “to my first love”. Supporting US chatshow queen Chelsea Handler in London last month, “I would love, love, love to follow in her footsteps and do a format like that over here.

“What’s wonderful about comedy is that you don’t lose value with age.

I was mental at 16. But I love being a mum, being older. And my message in my show, especially for young people, is that no-one can take your voice away from you. It’s the one thing that gets stronger with experience.” n

JAY RICHARDSON

The Stand Comedy Club V, 6:45pm – 7:45pm, 31 Jul – 10 Aug, £10

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COMEDYREVIEWS Tom Neenan HHHHH A hauntingly funny solo debut from a man obsessed with B-movies and ghost stories...and Daphne du Maurier PAGE 34 Photo: Weronika Bachleda

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“Had tHe audience in stitcHes...Hilarious” HHHH The Age

“Heart-tugging and deeply funny” The Big issue

(praise for previous show)

(praise for previous show)

mickperrin.com edfringe.com

eicc 9pm edinBurgH

6-9 aug

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COMEDY

Lyle Brennan LEAD COMEDY CRITIC

Luisa Omielan: Am I Right, Ladies?!

HHHHH Luke McQueen: Now That’s What I Luke McQueen

HHHHH

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t’s gridlock in the Counting House as the Omielan faithful pile in. Party jams pump out over a tangible sense of excitement about what’s next from the first real free fringe phenomenon. As if 2012’s word-of-mouth smash What Would Beyonce Do? wasn’t clear enough in its female-first focus, this year’s title spells it out – and there are precious few Y-chromosomes in tonight.

That suits Omielan just fine. She’s a rabble-rousing woman on the edge, here once more to galvanise the troops into kicking back against a patriarchy that wants them to be skinny, meek and unambitious – miserable, in short. It’s a positive message, if not a new one – but for raw conviction, nobody can touch the woman with the CD-sized hoops in her ears. A packed room laps it up.

These days she’s off the rock-bottom that inspired her last show, yet happiness is still a way off. She craves romance, she’s been rejected by shallow Hollywood, and she demands the right to cry and to grow attached to men without being branded a “crazy bitch”. Omielan drives her points home with self-sacrificing abandon, Luke McQueen

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COMEDY

Luisa Omielan

both emotionally and physically. It’s cathartic, confessional standup that skips the intellect and goes straight for the gut.

Speaking of which, Omielan goes all-out when it comes to bits on body confidence. One minute she’s grabbing her spare tyre (“my present to myself”) and shaking it for emphasis.

The next she’s down to her control pants, barreling through the crowd.

Likewise, her material on overcoming the stigma of depression hinges on a self-ridiculing set piece to make a serious point. The story of how medication left her unable to cry leads into a mass weep-along to Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’, showing she can keep the big-night-out vibe alive while also powering through her mission to find strength in vulnerability.

So Omielan has secured the devotion of those she addresses, Beyonce-style, as her “bitches” (the catchphrase sounds a little self-conscious in her Hampshire tones). But when she talks about men, she prone to pandering to female followers with a simplistic them-and-us. Instead, it would be nice to see such a fearsome talker engaging more directly with those who are dragging her down.

Omielan’s party can whip up tribal solidarity, but those she seeks to challenge just haven’t been invited.

Much has been made of Omielan’s ability to create an arena-ready spectacle in a ramshackle free fringe venue.

But more often, these places house the experimental, the ill-advised and the insane. This year, though, there’s

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McQueen is a discomfiting, desperate presence, bordering on hostile, and the mask doesn’t slip for a second a Big Four show mad enough to give any of them a run for their money.

Luke McQueen’s new hour contains none of Omielan’s crowd-pleasing. He is struggling—mentally, artistically, financially—and if you want him to finish the show, you’re going to have to do your bit. When we first meet our tormentor, he’s catatonic on an office chair, his doughy physique covered only by a pair of boxers.

Nothing happens for a long time, until an audience member finds the courage to kick-start him like a coinop automaton.

For McQueen, that’s consent enough. He launches into an onslaught of intimidation (us) and humiliation (him). There’s a nonsensical opening singalong, shaggy dog stories and absurdist fragments of jokes, amounting to a style of comedy that feels distinctly, fascinatingly broken.

He’s a discomfiting, desperate presence, bordering on hostile, and the mask doesn’t slip for a second. His gaze doesn’t flit through the crowd, it burns into each of our eyes. His limbs are restless, and then there’s that expression on his face: not so much a

strained smile but a dead-eyed rictus that flickers on and off.

We’re given little in the way of context for how McQueen got this way.

Ostensibly he is degrading himself to impress his dad, who’s reluctantly played by one luckless ticket-holder.

But that’s as much of a backstory as he attempts, and there’s not much sense of the mind he’s lost.

Instead of a fully imagined character, McQueen seems more interested in finding ways to show off the strength of his nerve. He seems fascinated by—and comfortable with— the most excruciating self-abasement.

Witnessing him at work with this medium is a punishing experience, but it’s certainly a memorable one. n LYLE BRENNAN LUKE MCQUEEN: NOW THAT’S WHAT I LUKE MCQUEEN Pleasance Courtyard, 8:00pm – 9:00pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, £7.50 – £9.50 LUISA OMIELAN... AM I RIGHT LADIES?!

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 10:15pm – 11:15pm, 1–24 Aug, not 10, 17, free

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21

COMEDY

The Beta Males: Happenstance

HHHHH Fringe veterans and Chortle Award nominees the Beta Males have a reputation for cramming an improbable amount of material into their allotted hour, without the resulting show ever suffering for their speed. From the opening act’s motormouthed parody of British farce to the show’s surprisingly comprehensive finale, Happenstance never feels rushed in its execution, only athletic. Audiences will

Rhys Mathewson: Hombre Lobo

HHHHH At just 23 years-old, Kiwi comic Rhys Mathewson is a veteran in his native New Zealand, having already performed at seven international comedy festivals in Auckland and Wellington.

His 2013 Fringe debut, however, started his comedy emigration on rockier grounds after a forgettable first gig.

Now he has begun to settle down in the UK (London of course), and since then he’s suffered heartbreak and had just about all the takeaway chicken he

22 fest 5–7 August 2014

be glad to see such stamina, as there’s barely a joke worth missing, even if the performers do have to abuse raw coffee grounds to fit them all in.

As the scenarios pile up - a police chief haunted by his lack of a tragic backstory, a group of dads on a punishingly sensible holiday, a divorcee who invents a teleporter - audiences will soon realise that the sketches form an intricate, semi-linear narrative that, unlike many such grand designs at the Fringe, actually comes together.

A common staple of dark comedy is horror befalling the innocent, and the Beta Males deliver this in spades.

What’s noteworthy, beyond the almost

constant hilarity, is that such horrors never quite bypass our sense of tragedy while serving up the laughs. When one of the troupe explains that his graduation ceremony was infested by bears who ate his family, you genuinely feel for him. The grisly fate of a failed human cloning experiment is similarly heartbreaking. This balancing act between quiet sadness and loud comedy - though the emphasis is definitely on the latter - is tremendously difficult to pull off, but the Beta Males manage it with aplomb. n SEAN BELL

can stomach as a result. He arrives at the Fringe feeling equipped and wellarmed to actually say something.

The titular hombre refers to the rational cortex of the male brain, while the lobo—literally translating from Spanish as ‘wolf’—characterises the raw, animalistic thoughts of a lustful mind. Mathewson plays out argument and counter-argument as the two sides engage in warfare, poring over the break-up with his girlfriend but also harbouring unwanted misogynistic opinions. But this intelligent foundation is largely squandered, with recycled threads about fast food taken from last year’s show and a series of stories that are too ordinary to be funny.

Mathewson shows glimpses of

the smart humour with whitch he has built a name in New Zealand, with clever wordplay that, at times, sails above the heads of his audience altogether. It may be down to a slow start which never really manages to get the audience on-board, relying far too readily on jokes about his appearance—he was once summed up as New Zealand’s Zac Efron—and awkward sexual encounters. If he aimed for less superficial examination of his opinions, he could lose the lobo altogether and still produce searing comedy. n ANDREW LATIMER

Pleasance Courtyard, 7:00pm – 8:00pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 12 Aug, £9 – £11

Pleasance Courtyard, 8:30pm – 9:30pm, 1– 25 Aug, not 11, £9.50 – £10.50

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5–7 August 2014 fest 23

COMEDY David Elms: Nurture Boy

HHHHH Next to the bravado of some of his peers, musical comedian David Elms favours a softer sell. He’s a fey, clean-cut creature who simpers and mutters between ballads, edging into crowdwork that’s at odds with the soft voice and the baby-blue guitar.

“Who’s drinkin’ tonight?” and its intrusive follow-up introduce a style that revels in its own stiltedness.

There’s a loose structure here, a knowingly daft play-off between two personas. David is newly graduated, newly engaged, and blithely ploughing the wedding funds into his comedy. He’s been saddled with a privileged upbringing—sent up in misery memoir parody That Really Messed Me Up—but his alter-ego, Ingel, has had no such luck.

David is supposedly a character played by this lonely creep, a tangle of daddy issues who curses his creation’s contentedness. Vaguely German accent aside, not much distinguishes socially awkward Ingel from socially awkward David. But like most of Elms’ humour, this “convoluted character comedy” (his words) proudly exposes its own conceits.

As for the tunes, Elms’ sighing acoustic numbers amble in unexpected directions. Whether he’s teasing a love song out of the phonetic alphabet or subverting romcom cliches, he always abstains from the facile couplets perpetrated by lesser musical acts.

His experiments with audience participation, meanwhile, are less dependable. There’s an inventive courtship ritual by Ingel, and an inspired call-and-response where we all play his disciplinarian father, but a later set piece asks too much of the punter given a lengthy script in the closing minutes.

A quiet revolution? Not quite, but a distinctive debut nonetheless. n LYLE BRENNAN Pleasance Courtyard, 4:45pm – 5:45pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £7.50 – £9.50

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Celia Pacquola: Let Me Know How It All Works Out

HHHHH Here’s a tricky one: how can an eminently down-to-earth comic, someone whose stock-in-trade is pointing out folly, also visit psychics?

Anyone seeking to challenge Celia Pacquola on this contradiction needn’t bother – she’s way ahead of you.

As a quick straw poll suggests, she’ll be playing to sceptics all month. So this chirpy, self-assured Australian wastes no time rattling off the double standards her habit entails. She’s book-smart, she readily mocks mystics for their misspelt signs and fondness for purple, and— gleefully demolishing the trendy stranger who tried to seduce her with a twee, hand-made card—for the most part she brooks no bullshit.

Yet when a palm-reader drops a bombshell on Pacquola, it sends her spiralling into introspection, a health scare and a breakup. This might lose some of the audience were it

not for her brisk, gag-heavy style and the compelling argument that her therapy’s no different from any other. It’s merely an ego trip, she says, a reassurance that she’s not the one in control.

As themes go, Pacquola’s made a shrewd choice. Fortune-telling, with all its implications for fate and responsibility, neatly fits a shambolic 31 year-old trying to make sense of life. It’s also pliable enough for her to scuttle off on sillier observational tangents, then sneak back to the narrative at hand. Considering she’s mingling heartbreak and drinking alone with impressions of various beds, this takes no small amount of skill.

Like all the best story-based hours, it sustains the illusion that everything’s in there for a reason, and she toys with the expectation that she’ll check her watch and go “48 minutes – better have an epiphany”. But Pacquola is more honest than that, and with tonguein-cheek wit she executes a tricksy final play that, aptly, few could see coming. n LYLE BRENNAN Gilded Balloon , 8:00pm – 9:00pm, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £9.50 – £10.50

COMEDY Pomme Is French For Apple

HHHHH A hit at the Toronto Fringe and a labour of love for co-creators Liza Paul and Bahia Watson, Pomme Is French For Apple demonstrates from the outset that vagina dialogues are a lot more entertaining than vagina monologues.

While the title makes clear the Gallic translation, Paul and Watson quickly explain where the sketch show’s focus will lie: “In Jamaica, it means pussy.” Such is our infinitely explorable theme for the duration.

Once the initial novelty of two vaginas talking in West Indian accents has passed, audiences may be surprised to find that much of the comedy treads very familiar ground: the absurdities of the dating scene, idiotic men, overprotective mothers, self-delusion versus reality and some

minor scatology. However, such staple setups should be taken in the context of the show’s overall mission: this is conventional humour, pointed in a very specific, very necessary direction.

It is easy to say that women should be free to talk about their bodies and sex lives, but quite another to execute this principle with such bravado and flair, particularly in a comedy scene that has perhaps not entirely divested itself of misogynist tropes. A few of the skits are patchy (the problem with fart jokes is they’re all essentially the same joke) but Paul and Watson’s comedic, creative and musical talent shines through regardless.

It is traditional in such circumstances to warn off the easily embarrassed. But the human body does not deserve embarrassment.

Sometimes though, it does merit a few laughs. n SEAN BELL Underbelly, Cowgate, 3:20pm – 4:20pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, not 13 Aug, £9 – £10

Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel

HHHHH It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a successful show in possession of good reviews, must be in want of a bit of an upgrade.

And so, it would seem mighty churlish to upbraid Austentatious for their first major move this year, namely, a switch from the Free Fringe to the paid programme. Perhaps less so to whine at their second development, that of an apparent decrease in the quality of their Austen pastiche – not least in light of the adequate example above of the difficulty of retaining sense and dignity in any such endeavour.

But there it is. The nub of the matter here is that paid-for Austentatious simply isn’t, well, as Austenny as in times past. Of course, given that the group improvise an Austen novel from scratch each afternoon, there’s bound to be some variation across the ouvre.

But there’s a looseness here which feels routine, and which belies the

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group’s eminent talent. An abundance of lazy modernisms means that any departures from nineteenth-century parody (tonight, for instance, a sonnet about a boom box) don’t chime in delicious contrast to what could be tight, disciplined pastiche. Austen’s daring forms—exaggerated disunity of place, for instance—aren’t as lovingly replicated tonight in this ‘lost novel’ which takes place, rather boringly, in

one location.

This is, to an extent, splitting lace. Austentatious remains a feat of long-form improvisation with a laughs comparable in rate and scale to oh so many prepared sets across the Fringe.

At times tonight, it’s bodice-breakingly funny. n EVAN BESWICK Pleasance Dome, 1:40pm – 2:40pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 12 Aug, £9 – £11

5–7 August 2014 fest 25

COMEDY Romesh Ranganathan: Rom Wasn’t Built In A Day

for charity? Selfies for vanity more like.

Baby showers? Where are the presents for those whose lives are going to be impaired by these new additions to the human race, ones that grow up to value status over wisdom?

As a former teacher, Ranganathan clearly has plenty of bones to pick with the world around him. He does so with a seeping sardonicism rather than an explosive anger. Sometimes you think it might be good for him to have a little bit of a blow-up every now and then.

However, it’s not the absence of a good old-fashioned rant that arrests the closing sequences of the show but the distance he’s travelled away from some of the family hearth material. When he tries to reintroduce this context it feels disjointed – a hiccup in what is otherwise another solid showing. n JULIAN HALL

HHHHH Romesh Ranganathan’s newcomer nomination for the comedy awards last year hasn’t dulled his cynicism.

We pick up more or less where we left off, with him reluctantly seeking some kind of redemption.

The father of two doesn’t feel like an adequate dad, or indeed husband.

He can’t give up on his bad—or at least perceived bad—habits. According to his wife these include playing rap in the car when the kids are there and loving the sweary consequences.

But if he is flawed, we are going down with him. It’s human nature is to have the wrong priorities and Ranganathan pinpoints numerous examples in others with something approaching a grumpy glee. Selfies

Pleasance Courtyard, 8:15pm – 9:15pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 11 Aug, £8.50 – £11

Abigoliah Schamaun: It’s Pronounced Abigoliah Schamaun

HHHHH Despite having spent years honing her craft on some of New York City’s most bohemian stages, Abigoliah Schamaun remains firmly in the clutches of an upbringing in smalltown Ohio. She would doubtless agree with this statement, and while her show suggests that repressive life in Midwestern America has sown the seeds of her hedonistic lifestyle and confessional approach to standup, she seems less aware of the extent to which it has conditioned her expectations of audiences.

Former neighbours may well have been shocked by her burgeoning promiscuity and increasingly outlandish appearance, but tales of threesomes and contracting chlamydia retain little impact when wheeled out at the world’s largest arts festival. No longer a favourite subject of gossiping curtain-twitchers, the comedian’s

26 fest 5–7 August 2014

exploits simply aren’t as interesting as she continues to think. It’s by being a natural comic with an effortlessly engaging manner that she triumphs, despite telling one tired anecdote too many.

Abigoliah knows how to sell even the ropiest or most spur-of-the-moment material, and her honesty can be disarming when she touches on more incidental aspects of her life.

Though her latest hour is a structurally flawed attempt to present the kind

of coherent, thematically consistent show that Fringe audiences now demand, it’s exciting to watch genuine talent in the raw. This fiesty 28 yearold gives the impression of having arrived with a fully formed comedic voice already in place. If her material was up to the same standard as her performance, she would be unstoppable. n LEWIS PORTEOUS Gilded Balloon , 6:45pm – 7:45pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 11 Aug, £8.50 – £10

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5–7 August 2014 fest 27

COMEDY Harvey, Garvey and The Kane

HHHHH It’s quite possible that sketch comedy reached the pinnacle of its achievement with the genuinely fertile and often surreal scripts of 1990s – A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Smack the Pony and Big Train, for instance. It’s less successful, perhaps, when based on an overreliance on props and puns.

Where, you might ask, have all the good writers gone? Stephen Harvey, Marcus Garvey and Gareth Kane’s joint effort, however, has rekindled some of the fine wordplay and delightfully excruciating encounters we came to expect from the likes of Mark Heap and Sally Phillips.

From toffs to tykes, the trio races through a barrage of exquisitely silly sketches, from David Attenborough’s nature documentaries told from the perspective of the primates to reforming man-child boybands who have since gone stale. It’s a professional, trimmed routine aided by some quality acting and impressive preparation. The

dialogue itself is neat, though there’s a lot of familiar territory covered including awkward sex education and cheating lovers. While a lot of clichés are sidestepped, much of the inspiration behind the sketches feels recycled.

That said, all three are enormously gifted stage performers, and the chemistry of the ensemble feels natural. Stephen Harvey really shines; his rubbery face letting him indulge

in all manner of characters, including a rather horny grandmother. There’s space to fill the set with more of these cringe-worthy cariactures, and to develop some of them even further.

Still, it remains a dextrous and well-observed hour that can only benefit from further invention. n ANDREW LATIMER

Julian McCullough: Dream Girls

and diminished. These are small town stories lost in the big city.

Even McCullough seems unsure of his High Fidelty-style tour of his life. His eyes are cast downwards, he occasionally loses track, and punchlines arrive flustered and under-prepared, if at all.

Only when he finally casts off the structured part of the show, starts chatting to the crowd and draws on sparky repartee from another comic universe does he begin to land laughs beyond the sympathetic chuckle. It only serves to throw into further relief how watery his tales of romantic failure are.

His overarching lesson is that he always projected his dreams on to the girls he fell for, loving the idea not the person. Reality inevitably broke his heart. It is a realisation that should stand him good stead. His first experience of the Fringe might be all too painfully familiar. n EDD MCCRACKEN

HHHHH Julian McCullough genuinely seems like one of the good guys. If you see him on the street, say hello, ask him for a drink, and let him tell you about the quietly quirky ways in which he used to obsess over his former girlfriends – listening to Jeff Buckley songs in the dark, 90 love letters written over a summer, regretful tattoos.

Yes, take the 35 year-old American for a drink (non-alcoholic – he’s admirably on the wagon), and gently tell him that this – friends swapping stories of mildly embarrassing things they did in their youth - is the most natural habitat for his anecdotes.

On the Fringe stage, in front of a bunch if paying strangers, they are just exposed

28 fest 5–7 August 2014

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 4:55pm – 5:55pm, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £11 – £12

Pleasance Courtyard, 10:45pm – 11:45pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 11 Aug, £10 – £14

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COMEDY Al Lubel in... I’m Still Al Lubel

HHHHH The Fringe offers plenty of opportunity to watch relatively obscure comedians work hard for laughs from uncertain audiences. In these frequently tense situations, the performer has only their road-hardened skills to fall back on as they attempt to gauge and ultimately influence the mood of the room. This is very much how laconic American Al Lubel’s set plays out tonight, only the comedian sets himself apart with a neat line in wilful self sabotage.

Take the moment when he launches into a barely audible routine on eating disorders, with his mouth full of the granola bar that he produced from his pocket seconds earlier. Or how he chooses to warm up the late-night crowd by playing a compilation of Leonard Cohen songs.

His sung introduction is a hit, but any momentum is prevented from

building as he silently struggles to remove his radio mic, its cords forming complex, tangled knots in his hair.

After an hour of false starts, the delight that the man takes in deflating audiences so that he can go through the chore of seducing them all over again becomes apparent.

The wealth of tightly constructed one liners and twisted observations at Lubel’s disposal are proof that he

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TTO Starring ENNIO MARCHE

Directed and designed

could be a slick professional if only he wanted to. That he chooses not to, whether through laziness or some other instinct, makes him some kind of purist comedy hero. Whatever his motivations are, when Lubel decides to make us laugh, he absolutely gets the job done. n LEWIS PORTEOUS Pleasance Courtyard, 10:30pm – 11:30pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, £7.50 – £10

THE H LIVING BACEK’S PAPER !

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5–7 August 2014 fest 29

COMEDY Umbilical Brothers: KiDSHoW (not for kids)

HHHHH The Umbilical Brothers arrive at the Edinburgh Fringe from Australia for the first time in nine years – but they haven’t aged a day. Physical comedy duo Shane Dundas and David Collins inject their relentlessly twisted, farcical humour into a new show that’s definitely not for kids. They deal the art of mime as if it’s crack cocaine, imprison Mickey Mouse in an underground cellar and enact a disgustingly funny routine on the systematic murder of The Brady Bunch.

Dundas and Collins are clearly two gifted performers, with clowning, slapstick and standup techniques all powering the show.

But although the hook is that they are playing to an audience of children who turn out to be adults, the comedy is too infantile. The setup is clever but the gags are wasted,

along with their talents, as they blurt out Lee Evans-style sound effects.

Each thread entertains for the first few seconds but almost immediately wears thin – and then carries on for up to ten minutes.

The duo have aimed to reinvent themselves with a brand of comedy that lifts them away from the genuine kids’ shows that they’re known for.

But by maintaining a comparably daft, puerile format, they have completely cheapened and ultimately

thwarted their own skills. By playing games on stage for an hour, they will please the crowds and bring in the casual Fringe-goers, but the show taken as a whole is poorly judged and irritatingly commercial. Perhaps we will one day witness Dundas and Collins exhibiting their enviable talents without needing to channel them into knob gags. n ANDREW LATIMER

Joey Page: This is Not a Circus

type of meandering, unravelling narrative sums up both Page and his show. With huge, Russell Brandlike anecdotes on Ant and Dec, his ex-girlfriend and members of the audience, Page’s loquacious, articulate style can be as tiring to watch as it must be to perform.

When Page is in top gear, he really rockets through the show and the hour is almost at risk of getting away from us altogether. But he’s installed annoyingly clumsy and punctured sections involving his technician which, after interruption number four, completely gut the show’s energy and pace. He is a wordsmith and a marvellous raconteur, so it’s completely bizarre that he’s chosen to fill around a quarter of his show with peripheral guff. Perhaps adding gimmicks to this show is the very vice Page could give up. n ANDREW LATIMER

HHHHH Anyone who has seen standup comedian Joey Page on TV will know that there’s always a risk of getting motion sickness as the camera follows him. Watching him as he darts his way from left to right, prowling like a cheekier version of Alex DeLarge, can be like staring at a Newton’s cradle. His new live show This is Not a Circus maintains that shattering physical style in a gig full of puns, pauses and prizes.

We’re quickly told that the show is not about circus acts, but vices. That conceit is also dispelled, however, and we discover it’s actually about gameshows (Page’s central vice, he confesses). This

30 fest 5–7 August 2014

Gilded Balloon , 7:30pm – 8:30pm, 1–16 Aug, not 12, £12 – £13

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 10:45pm – 11:45pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 12 Aug, £9 – £10

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COMEDY

Eddie Pepitone: RIP America, It’s Been Fun

HHHHH Alex Edelman: Millennial

HHHHH Before this year’s Festival, recent university graduate Alex Edelman admits that there was never a “eureka moment” when it came to choosing standup comedy as a career. He spent $193,000 on a first-class American education but ultimately found himself playing to the circuit crowds of Boston and Los Angeles—and has found that very decision to be fertile ground for his material. This, along with bright, ma-

Talk About Something You Like

HHHHH ‘Insanity’, an oft-abused term, is a common subject in art, and even more common at the Fringe. It is such a tempting and potent metaphor that both artists and audiences are prone to forget what it really is. But this is Scotland, a nation that has been locked in an underreported mental health crisis for as long as anyone can remember. As such, it deserves to see Talk About Something You Like.

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Eddie Pepitone walks into his gig through the same door as his audience. He could be just another punter, obscured by a hat and scarf.

Intentional or not, it’s fitting for someone who would like, one assumes, to be considered to speak for the swathes of people left washed up by the corporate tide that only a minority can ride.

The tone for the show is set by the portly 55-year-old American asking us to clap our hands for ever more desperate and existential notions. We’re not asking enough questions, he says, we’re not feeling deeply enough, we’re distracted by what he calls ‘Gelato Syndrome’, where comforts blot out the pain of existence. It’s a theme that was evident in his Fringe debut two years ago, but while that was obscured by anti-comedy, this show is

more of an exploration and exposition of the concept.

The toothy comic presents various subversions; an ad for BP that comes clean about their global intentions; a mentally ill person allowed to address the crowd at a World Cup final to raise awareness; a re-imagining of a sponsored Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman.

Unsurprisingly, there is a split between those who think this is a laugh riot and those who may consider it a reason to riot. However, some of the imagery, such as testing out whether Tesco really do care about their customers by asking to have a lie down in one of the aisles, is irresistible. n JULIAN HALL

ture comedy on topics ranging from gay marriage to the US presidency, highlights Edelman as an essential young voice in standup.

It’s Edelman’s remarkable gift for storytelling which allows him to achieve such precision with the material. He performs with great natural flair in this Fringe debut, such that it’s hard not to immediately fall in love with him. He possesses a lot of the traits that new standups try to use as crutches—neuroticism, awkwardness and fidgety behaviour—but casts them aside to engage fully with such tricky topics as Israel and religion.

Edelman comes alive when satirising the contradictory problems

of the West: the US’ ludicrous economic divisions, how current generations don’t know life without the internet and a black President, and how university education does not guarantee you employment.

This is beautifully crafted, politically charged and confident comedy that sees Edelman rocket through the hour. A question mark is left hanging over whether or not Edelman feels fully part of Generation Y, given the intelligence of his set. Appropriate, as we’re left wishing for another hour of material. n ANDREW LATIMER

Byron Vincent offers an honest, imaginative, tragic and inspiring account of the time he spent in an NHS psychiatric unit. He explains how this came to be, what it was like, and the tenuous conclusions he has drawn in the aftermath. Vincent tries on bitterness and surreality for size, as most of us have, but neither can mask the deeply relatable human experience he articulates.

The show acts as a stark reminder that most artistic portrayals of mental illness either romanticise or stigmatise; Vincent does neither. He makes a brief, pointed mockery of the relationship between madness and creativity,

and makes it clear that those who find themselves institutionalised are often very, very aware of what the rest of the world thinks of them.

Talk About Something You Like is a quietly brilliant piece of autobiographical theatre, a cutting critique of modern psychiatry and a brave attempt to turn life’s most difficult moments into comedy. Vincent reminds us of all the work that must be done, both in our treatment of mental illness and in our attitudes towards it. n SEAN BELL

Pleasance Courtyard, 9:00pm – 10:00pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 11 Aug, £12 – £14

Pleasance Courtyard, 8:15pm – 9:15pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, £8.50 – £11.50

Pleasance Courtyard, 2:15pm – 3:15pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 11 Aug, 18 Aug, £9 – £12

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5–7 August 2014 fest 33

COMEDY Jason Cook: Broken

HHHHH A master of intertwining the heart strings with the funny bone, with shows about his late father’s ill health and his own mortality, Geordie Jason Cook returns to the Fringe this year hto talk about a calamity all of his own making. Cook’s sitcom Hebburn is both the reason he has been away from the Fringe for a while and the reason for his latest travails. Lack of sleep, a heart condition and a good old-fashioned breakdown all result from a punishing schedule.

This is no industry odyssey though, as Hebburn is just one of a number of things that have “broken” him. Cook’s definition of damage

Tom Neenan: The Haunting at Lopham House

HHHHH It’s a delight to imagine the research that must have gone into Tom Neenan’s first solo hour, The Haunting At Lopham House. Radio drama, B-horror-films, and du Maurier’s literary ilk seem to lay the foundation for this airtight hour of Neenan’s occasionally manic flurry of meticulously constructed zingers. Neenan (formerly one half of comedy duo the

Vitamin

HHHHH The truism goes that good comedians are never afraid of silence. Italian physical comedian Carlo Jacucci is certainly fearless in that regard – he often seems more comfortable building wordless anticipation (of just hopping around the stage) than his audience does in enduring it. Though he has an obvious talent for clowning and a likeable, mischievous demeanor, this cannot obscure the regrettable lack of substance on offer.

For much of the show, Jacucci pursues a kind of Andy Kaufman-esque

34 fest 5–7 August 2014

includes being cut down to size by his wife and being inexplicably spurned by his daughter. But unlike previous shows, this one begins, middles and ends happily.

“So regional, so lazy, so racist” is how Cook himself characterises his opening banter. But, in truth, it’s so joyous and affectionate too. Meanwhile, his ability to cope with the most bizarre, cackling laughter from one audience member tonight was truly admirable and further helped him earn his spurs for inclusiveness.

Cook is always looking on the bright side. A deconstruction of the various therapists he has to coax him away from his stress-inducing habits defines this; he chooses the therapist who can play a joke on him before he can play one on them.

His closing family holiday routine picks up from a slight lull and wraps up the inherent tension between attempted relaxation and his pursuit of a laugh. Long may he follow that quest. n JULIAN HALL Pleasance Dome, 5:40pm – 6:40pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 4 Aug, 11 Aug, 18 Aug, £8.50 – £11.50

Gentlemen of Leisure along with Nish Kumar) knows his stuff, so to speak, and that mastery of the Edwardian ghost story form has allowed him to positively cram his hour full of wit.

And let us italicise cram.

A funny thing happens to audiences when confronted with that sheer volume of jokes: we’re forced to quantify them, to weigh up hits and misses in a way that a more subtle hand may have exempted us from. Fortunately, Neenan’s hits outweigh his misses tenfold, as evidenced by the lengthy pauses he must allow for his intimate Pleasance audience to collect themselves.

There is no doubt that Gentlement

of Leisure, whose mission statement was to provide the masses with a “unique comedic cornucopia of culture”, primed Neenan for this balance between purity of narrative form and the absurd. We’d love to see him tackle Cthulhu.

Neenan has managed to sprinkle wry, dry, occasionally punny humour on to antiquarian tropes with near flawless success. And that unyielding energy—as well as the inclusion of a character we’ll simply call “LBC”— make Neenan positively shine as a new solo artist. n ARIANNA REICHE

anti-humour; comedy so surreal, it does not require anything close to conventional jokes or punchlines.

That’s the idea, anyway. The reality is an opening that drags like a tugboat anchor, as Jacucci studiously renames audience members with absurdist sobriquets, before one of them is dragged onstage to experience bafflement up close. The rest of the performance follows in a similar fashion, with laughs only intermittently achieved by the utter self-confidence with which Jacucci throws himself around.

The show contains one inarguable moment of brilliance, which comes unbidden when Jacucci

transforms (via one of his frequent costume changes) into a human puppet of a caterpillar, only to find himself trapped within his own miniature stage. For a few minutes, the audience is privy to a minor masterpiece of silent comedy. Sadly, the rest of the show cannot live up to this standard, meandering through over-long dance numbers and word salad songs on the accordion.

It seems Jacucci is attempting to perfect a unique formula, but is still a long way from achieving his goal. n SEAN BELL

Pleasance Courtyard, 4:15pm – 5:15pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 12 Aug, £8 – £10

Assembly George Square Studios, 6:30pm – 7:30pm, 30 Jul – 3 Aug, £12

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5–7 August 2014 fest 35

COMEDY Sarah Kendall: Touchdown

Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho

HHHHH

HHHHH

It’s a brave move by Sarah Kendall, moments into her set, to throw away a key device in any standup’s toolkit. By retelling a breezy anecdote from her previous show— about getting away with calling her high school coach a cunt—she invites the laughs it got in 2012.

This time, though, she admits it was all a lie. Her mother was there back in 1992, and has challenged Kendall to tell everyone what really happened.

So unfolds a cinematic comingof-age tale, making no secret of the debt it owes to the Eighties teen movies of John Hughes. Sarah is a goofy loner, permanently sweatdrenched in the Australian heat and shunned by the girls on her rugby team. Then the coach’s daughter, Abby, comes along – popular, beautiful, yet with integrity beyond the clique queen cliché. They bond over a love of puerile graffiti—one of a few episodes Kendall expertly milks for callbacks—and a firm friendship blossoms, before an unwitting betrayal turns things sour.

Meanwhile, Sarah finds her first true love. That, too, hits a stumbling block of its own.

Kendall has a sharp ear for pacing, allowing the emotional peaks and troughs space to ring out. Each character is vividly drawn, never appearing without some recurring trademark quirk, whether it’s her shrill mum’s attempts at teen slang or the librarian’s hungover belches.

This supporting cast provides levity, while Kendall’s intensity keeps the audience gripped all the way to an affecting third-act reveal.

The premise that Kendall has this year forgone artistic licence does, given the polish of her storytelling, take some believing.

But this is a touching tale well told, and the show feels satisfyingly complete. n LYLE BRENNAN

When Margaret Thatcher died, certain quarters of the Left responded by organising and participating in public celebrations. As morally questionable as it may be to gloat at the demise of the elderly and frail, what’s surely worse is exploiting events of this nature for publicity or profit.

Remember the witless novelties that followed Michael Jackson’s passing?

Jimmy Savile’s? In a shock turn of events, Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho is far from the one-joke throwaway, and may very well turn out to be one of the funniest hours that this year’s Fringe has to offer.

It’s puerile stuff, but exactly the kind of humour that Ben Elton was delivering in the ‘80s. Behind the relentless innuendo lies a profound

Pleasance Courtyard, 9:30pm – 10:30pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £9 – £12

36 fest 5–7 August 2014

sense of political dissatisfaction; winking bonhomie masks a righteous contempt for the ruling class. And when it comes to the actions and beliefs of socially conservative bigots, it turns out the Village People’s camp buffoonery can make for as effective a protest song as the more pointed offerings of Elvis Costello and Billy Bragg.

The show imagines an alternative reality in which Thatcher realises the error of her ways over the introduction of the notorious Section 28 legislation, which banned the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools.

As she undertakes a tour of the UK’s gay clubs and meets her adoring audiences, there’s plenty of room for pathos. If only the Iron Lady had been less set in her ways, wouldn’t she and her subjects have been a lot happier? n LEWIS PORTEOUS Assembly George Sq. Gardens, 9:10pm – 10:10pm, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10 – £13

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5–7 August 2014 fest 37

COMEDY Katherine Ryan: Glam Role Model

HHHHH You’ll need your wits about you for this pop-feminism polemic. For while Ryan arrives at an unsentimental rallying cry for female self-worth, it’s only after pinballing her way through a who’s-who of tabloid fodder.

This panel show pro is in her element, slipping in astute takes on one buzz topic while homing in on another. From Harry Styles to Harry of Wales, Gaza to Magaluf, a blizzard of cutting topical references builds then abates just on the point of becoming overwhelming. She’s an unbeliever in a world that worships fame, a no-nonsense feminist who mauled Tulisa on TV, then laughed off the ensuing “rapey” abuse on Twitter.

Eventually, Ryan’s forthright style turns to personal matters. Front and centre is the time she snooped through a boyfriend’s phone, uncovering naked photos sent by a glamour model. With a brilliant caricature of this Essex airhead’s defence, she reaches her point: yes, women should do “woteva” they want – but thanks to a dearth of role models, that freedom’s being used to

self-destructive ends.

Ryan, a Canadian immigrant, claims an outsider’s take on Page 3 culture, but it’s not nationality that gives her perspective weight. It’s that she has a four-year-old daughter who will grow up among such influences. But don’t expect any Mumsnet outrage; she pulls no punches in a mischievous story of her perfect day at an “abortion spa”.

To close, attention turns to one

star who does deserve adulation.

Beyonce, with a gung-ho, hip-swivelling impersonation, is held up as the antidote to Miley Cyrus’s pathetic twerking. With that “victim’s dance” on one side, and Ryan and Queen B on the other, we’re left in no doubt as to who’s best trusted with the spotlight. n LYLE BRENNAN

Carl Donnelly

Donnelly’s hands, the trip feels like an adventurous night you might have in south London - finding out-of-the-way drinking dens and so forth - barring the odd free-roaming farmyard cow.

His closing scrape, which is set near Birmingham, is a classic example of Donnelley’s sense of adventure leading him astray; this time among suburbanites rather too desperate to let their hair down. He over-runs the punchline somewhat, but it’s a deftly layered anecdote nonetheless. The disappointing filling in the sandwich is the tale of drinking Ayahuasca, the shamanic, hallucinogenic Peruvian tea.

Like the tea itself, the preparation of the anecdote is fastidious. In this case the end result is disappointing on both levels. n JULIAN HALL

HHHHH Carl Donnelly tells us that his dad is not a sharer when it comes to his emotions. He is a man who would rather talk about the football than deal with feelings. His son, as we know, is quite the opposite. The way in which Donnelly conveys those feelings, however, is arguably as fixed as his father’s attitudes - three or four yarns delivered at a near unrelenting pace. But then, why break a pattern that has been so successful?

As the title suggests, this year’s show is a development on the hard time he has been having post-marital breakup, an event he touched on last year. Going to India was part of his plan to find his way back. Sounds like such a hackneyed journey doesn’t it? But in

38 fest 5–7 August 2014

The Stand Comedy Club V, 6:45pm – 7:45pm, 31 Jul – 10 Aug, £10

Pleasance Courtyard, 8:30pm – 9:30pm, 30 Jul – 23 Aug, not 13 Aug, £8.50 – £10

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COMEDY Stephen Carlin: Drink Carlin Sensibly

HHHHH It’s early in the run, it’s hot and there is a beam where the top of Stephen Carlin’s head should be. It feels very much like he is feeling all of these things (he certainly references the obscured view) as he nervously and erratically makes his way through his set.

There is no doubt that there are some passages of Carlin’s show that shine. For example, as an adjunct to his musings on the sins of the Yewtree generation and his squaring of that with the tendency to belittle young people, Carlin debunks Russell Brand’s sometimes empty prophecies artfully. Elsewhere, turns of phrase raise genuine guffaws, but linking them are pauses longer than they need to be. A stuttering rhythm undercuts the momentum that Carlin needs to achieve to completely carry his audience.

Between the more obviously observational patter on drinking and cultural differences, Carlin tries to up the stakes of stories and takes them to ludicrous levels. Sometimes this pays off—a joke about fracking in his back garden is a successful flourish—and sometimes not. In the closing sequence he recalls an earlier, overblown revenge fantasy to try and tie things up at the end. While not

Dan Schreiber: C*ckblocked from Outer Space

HHHHH It was apparently only in the last two years that Dan Schreiber came to terms with how “fucking geeky” he is. Up until this point, we’re told, he was in denial. Of course, it could be that the performer was never a geek, or that there’s no such thing as geekiness. It’s hard to tell. Despite having written an hour-long show almost entirely filled with references to geekdom, Dan shies away from

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falling flat exactly, it can’t carry him to the finish line.

The ending is rather an abrupt, abortive affair and the Scot finishes as uncertainly as he begins. Although gentle by demeanour, Carlin will

surely need to toughen up and drive through his routines with more vigour as the run wears on. n JULIAN HALL

explaining what the term actually means to him. He seems like a confident, handsome man with a privileged background and successful career in radio, but since he keeps identifying with an ultimately meaningless term, it’s best that the audience surrender and accept him as an underdog.

Against all the odds, from beneath the crushing weight of his self-imposed otherness, Schreiber has produced a solid show targeted toward audiences in search of gentle late-afternoon laughs. He doesn’t strike out at any point over its duration, but neither does he say or do anything particularly memorable.

The entertainer has an obviously

sincere interest in bizarre facts, many of which form the basis of more substantial routines, but his tendency to simply recite trivia betrays a lack of creativity on his part. His efforts to convey enthusiasm for these nuggets of information, meanwhile, result in a delivery style that can at best be described as cloying and one-note.

It’s only when Schreiber relinquishes some control of his show by engaging in unpredictable audience interaction that C*ckblocked from Outer Space shows any promise of taking off. n LEWIS PORTEOUS

Pleasance Courtyard, 8:30pm – 9:30pm, 30 Jul – 23 Aug, not 13 Aug, £8.50 – £10

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 5:40pm – 6:40pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 9 Aug, £10 – £11

5–7 August 2014 fest 39

COMEDY Testiculating (Waving Your Arms Talking B*ll*cks)

HHHHH In one of his rare moments of focus, Eric Lampaert introduces the concept of “neurotica”: standard issue, 50 Shades-style smut punctuated with psychological fixations and modern anxieties. Sexual neuroses are certainly no new concept in standup, but this well-constructed bit provides a glimpse into the show we would have loved to see: one of raw honesty, thematic coherence, and actual fully-structured jokes. Instead, Testiculating is a palsied, themeless stew of anecdote and observation (the “-al comedy” has been omitted intentionally).

An earnest list of show rules, including “don’t be late” and “don’t heckle”, precedes an unstructured and unflowing list of life’s strangenesses, including death certificates and phonemics. There is a distinct lack of attention to adding punchlines to these observations, to the effect that they stand on their own only as they would coming from the mouth of a charismatic dinner party guest. When we reach the more personal topics of his experiences with psychotherapy and homelessness we’re eager for some kind of skewing that might lend insight, as is crucial to the craft of comedy (right?). We get none of this, except a vague sense that somewhere in his chaotic attempt at narrative, Lampaert does indeed have an interesting story to tell.

In his defense, Lampaert rolls well with the punches. He is both seasoned and likeable, and his audience involvement is thoughtful, without feeling like the time-wasting ploy it so often is.

Regardless, by the time he plays himself off with a song about racism (apropos of very little), we’re desperate for the downstairs bar. n ARIANNA REICHE Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 7:45pm – 8:45pm, 1–23 Aug, free

40 fest 5–7 August 2014

Ed Gamble: Gambletron 5000

HHHHH Many people will know this already, but Ed Gamble is a safe bet. It’s been seven years since he started working with Avalon stablemate Ray Peacock, so he’s had quite a lot of bedding in Fringe-wise. Gamble’s debut may feel like a long time coming, but good on him for biding his time – some comedians don’t, and they regret squandering that debut moment.

The result of this prudence is a pleasing hour showing that Gamble has range: quick quips and longer stories, youthful exhuberance and ebullience, but also the abiity to vary the pace.

Unfortunately this range doesn’t really have much in the way of shape.

It’s sort of about Gamble being badass, but then again it isn’t. Does it matter?

Even the most throwaway conceits can

be overlooked if everything else hangs together. Trouble is it doesn’t quite.

Gamble’s diabetes, his trip to Detroit, his reluctant participation on a lads’ weekend and consequent hijinx are disparate elements sometimes held together with slightly giddy overstatment and material that doesn’t always do him justice.

Where he does do himself justice, he’s using insightful phrases and conjuring some memorable imagery. Gamble teeters on the brink of making his story protagonsists—such as the posh Ruperts and Henrys on the lads’ holiday—fully dimensional, and would surely find more mileage if he coloured them in a bit more.

This debut suggests Gamble has more colours on his palate and that, despite his patient wait for a debut, he will be bringing his canvas out again soon. n JULIAN HALL Pleasance Courtyard, 9:45pm – 10:45pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, £8.50 – £10

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5–7 August 2014 fest 41

COMEDY Ellie White: Humans

HHHHH

David Trent

HHHHH David Trent has an amazing body. It is bulbous, hairy, and goosefleshed. Not only is it probably quite cuddly, but it is his prime weapon in his war against the world, and one that he deploys liberally and effectively.

We get our first peek of it in his opening salvo, a technological takedown of Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ video. Armed with a digital projector, two screens and a laptop, he deconstructs the creepy lyrics and the leering imagery, getting shoutier with every tawdry image on screen and with every Newspeak justification from its performers.

And then, like a comedic exclamation mark, he superimposes himself dancing in the video, modesty protected only by some Y-fronts. In the face of a world awash with the objectification

42 fest 5–7 August 2014

the female body, he is fighting quivering flesh with quivering flesh.

That is just one depressing aspect of contemporary life that Trent unleashes his paunch and PowerPoint against. Many more follow. It is this bellowing self-deprecation and sly use of video technology that saves his show from being a routine exercise in gunning down fish in barrels.

Yes, we know that the Blurred Lines video is misogynistic, that former BNP leader Nick Griffin’s cookery video is unspeakably surreal and unintentionally hilarious, and that former education secretary Michael Gove’s take on the history of rap is as compelling as a car crash. But Trent’s endearing, righteous and frequently rather funny exasperation earns him the right to belly flop into the middle of this well-tilled ground. n EDD MCCRACKEN Pleasance Courtyard, 9:45pm – 10:45pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, £9 – £12

Debut free Fringe acts bring certain images to mind: ones of clumsily delivered material, lukewarm audiences, and odd venues. Only one of this list (hint: Viva Mexico on Cockburn Street) applies to Humans, Ellie White’s Invisible Dot-backed character hour. And while this is indeed White’s first solo show, her pedigree shines through every vocal shift and costume change. Part of The Dot’s dream team of ‘New Wave’ superfriends, White has had a busy year indeed. But it has left her tangibly stronger than most of her contemporaries. Humans is close to pitch-perfect.

It’s a tall order to take the focus away from the taco hut flanking your stage. Or the multi-coloured paper lamps. Or the horchata machine whirring upstairs. But White’s range of characters somehow complements the venue’s strangeness, and her deadpan charm occupies every inch of the packed-out room. Her characters range from a precocious sixth form graduate-cum-left-wing-poet, to a pained, frightened contender for the Miss Haringey beauty pageant. We are quizzed on our knowledge of David Gray and invited to a cat’s eighteenth birthday. Her characters are both vibrant and unnerving.

White is a small-framed powerhouse with startling range and a masterful command of her craft.

While maybe not the most fun you can have in a cantina basement, White’s hour provides us with a close second.

Whether you’re trying to accrue insiderish ‘I knew her when...’ comedy cred, or you’re simply after a remarkably fun afternoon Fringe Hour, Humans is not to be missed. n ARIANNA REICHE Viva Mexico, 2:30pm – 3:20pm, 2–23 Aug, not 13, free

THEATREREVIEWS KlangHaus HHHHH Where have the animals gone? Evocative sights and sounds make for an eerie afternoon in a dissection laboratory PAGE 55 Photo: Weronika Bachleda

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5–7 August 2014 fest 43

THEATRE

Matt Trueman LEAD THEATRE CRITIC

Confirmation

HHHHH Men in the Cities

HHHHH

C

hris Thorpe and Chris Goode want to talk about change – or rather our apparent incapacity for change. In very different ways, their two solo shows pick at our inability—whether innate or ingrained—to consider any sort of alternative, despite the political and economic quagmire we find ourselves in.

Thorpe’s more on the nose about all this. In Confirmation, created with Rachel Chavkin of the TEAM, he looks at opposing, seemingly irreconcilable belief systems. As such, the fiercely liberal Thorpe sought out “a proud National Socialist,” Glen, to see if they could manage a dialogue across ideologies.

First though, Thorpe talks us through confirmation bias. Human beings, he explains, are predisposed to accept anything that confirms our existing beliefs and to dismiss anything that challenges them. Thus, over time, our opinions bed themselves in.

We become entrenched, destined to disagree forever.

Knowing that, when Thorpe rattles off Glen’s ideas, of Jewish conspiracies and Muslim invasions, you notice your brain trying to scramble his words. You have to force yourself to listen, and really listen, to the argument beneath.

And just as Thorpe did, you’ll probably find some sense therein.

Glen’s basic principles are fairly Chris Thorpe in Confirmation

44 fest 5–7 August 2014

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THEATRE

Men in the Cities

sound: egalitarian and anti-elitist.

Thorpe’s start from the same place.

It seems your conclusions could go either way.

That makes Confirmation feel seriously dangerous: a vital thought experiment in a safely sealed room.

It lets you entertain the other, to take an alternative seriously. “The more I know of Glen,” says Thorpe, “the more I have to let him in.” And that means giving up your own certainties, questioning the benefits of immigration, even, it seems, doubting the Holocaust.

The resultant show is fiercely potent. These words—all of which, Thorpe spits at a microphone—are not just words. They don’t preach hate.

They are hateful. They carry a phenomenal charge and they change the atmosphere of a room. It’s like Thorpe has written an electrical storm.

The question is how much you tolerate intolerance – and at a certain point, Thorpe has to back away and retreat to his trench. Better no change, than change for the worse.

Chris Goode diagnoses a different sort of stalemate in Men in the Cities: one based in empty, inert consensus.

He argues that society excludes the very alternatives that might make real change possible.

Stood onstage, in front of a skyline of office fans, Goode starts his story with a dawn chorus of alarm clocks.

Across the city, all these men wake up.

A newsagent, Rehan; two lovers, Ben and Matthew; a pensioner, Jeff; Rufus, 10 today. And many more besides.

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What do they share?

Humanity, certainly, and masculinity. Blood recurs in the writing. So does sex.

Goode follows them in fragments, snapping between their stories.

They’re all individuals with their own routine, their own sense of humour, their own hang-ups, beliefs and memories. Each has their own damage too: Ben commits suicide, Jeff mourns his wife, Rufus watches gay porn non-stop.

What do they share? Humanity, certainly, and masculinity. Blood recurs in the writing. So does sex.

But they also share two landscapes: the city with its phallic skyscrapers, and the mass media narrative. This is the day after Lee Rigby’s murder and all these men hear the same radio reports, see the same pictures and read the same headlines. As Goode reminds us early on, “You don’t get to choose the news.”

So who does? Politicians. Editors.

Celebrities. Businessmen. Establishment men. Cameron’s verdict on Rigby’s killers—“Life should mean life”— echoes around the city. So do the adverts that try to sell us all the same thing. Moneymen make the world go round. Capitalists call the shots.

Goode’s real concern is with

those who stand on the edges.

Throughout, he equates queers with extremists – or, at least, blurs the two together. The city seems to preserve its own interests. It spits out difference and dissent. Society, says Goode, is stuck in a spin-cycle and it’s destined to repeat—no, to exacerbate—its mistakes.

Men In The Cities is much, much more layered than this. The fragmented form perfectly conveys an atomised society and Goode even writes himself in. It’s as if he’s focusing on the details, that can be pinned down, to find some wider truth. It’s an extraordinary text: honed, humorous and, right at the end, hopeful. As those fans finally kick in, the winds of change still seem possible after all. n MATT TRUEMAN

CONFIRMATION Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 4:35pm – 5:55pm, 31 Jul – 23 Aug, not 1 Aug, 3 Aug, 10 Aug, 17 Aug, £14 MEN IN THE CITIES Traverse Theatre, times vary, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, not 4 Aug, 11 Aug, 18 Aug, £18

5–7 August 2014 fest 45

THEATRE

Circus Incognitus

HHHHH A clown’s beauty is in his or her lack of shame at disguising tremendous skill in unattractive goofiness, purely for the pleasure and entertainment of others. And it’s this huge-hearted humility that runs through Jamie Adkins’s solo show, anchoring his precarious acrobatics and cartoon danger in childlike delight.

Dressed in shabby vintage dungarees with a semi-permanent worried expression­— even when he’s gleefully acing a trick—Adkins leads us

Dylan Thomas Return Journey

HHHHH You may have missed it for all the WWI commemorations, but it’s also the centenary of poet Dylan Thomas’ birth. This means that there are a number of Thomas-themed events at this year’s Fringe, including this show directed by none other than Anthony Hopkins. But though there’s a lilting sense of Welshness running through the show, I’d rather Dylan Thomas

46 fest 5–7 August 2014

through an hour of graceful slapstick that echoes with the ghosts of silent movie icons. Chairs see-saw under his balance, citrus fruits become deadly missiles and ping-pong balls materialise with undignified timing from his gullet, before being incorporated into a juggling act that masks fiendish difficulty with silky nonchalance.

As with all good clown shows there are unconventional solutions to silly problems (how to create your own drum roll? Why, by tossing a nut onto a snare drum of course), rickety furniture and audience interaction.

But there are also moments of great elegance, when Adkins duets with a

bowler hat, tumbling it up his arms and across his back. Above all Adkins’s persona has the sense of being recognisably classic while remaining remarkably fresh. There aren’t many shows you could comfortably take both your great-granny and your littlest niece along to, but this is one of them. And if the beauty of clown is in its humility, the beauty of the Fringe is in being able to legitimately watch a clown show at four in the afternoon. n LUCY RIBCHESTER

Return Journey were a single fare.

Bob Kingdom plays a lecturing Thomas, joining us in suit and trainers for no apparent reason other than to wax lyrical about banal moments in his life and declaim poetry as if summoning spirits. In stops and starts, he bores with insubstantial monologues and jokes which flop to the floor with a deafening thud.

What little life there is in the text is sapped out by Kingdom’s monotonous voice, which makes the whole endeavor sound like a poorly judged mid-afternoon reading on Radio 4 rather than a piece of live theatre.

It’s like Sir Anthony turned up one afternoon, drank a cup of coffee and told the actor where to stand.

The poems themselves are infrequent, separated from the action by a shift in light and an increased gravity in Kingdom’s voice. They bear little relation to the main thrust of the piece, however, and fail to add anything to our understanding of the poet.

This is one for only the most hardcore Dylan Thomas aficionados.

If there are any. n DAN HUTTON

New Town Theatre, 4:00pm – 5:05pm, 31 Jul – 24 Aug, not 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 18 Aug, £12 – £14

Pleasance Courtyard, 12:15pm – 1:30pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 12 Aug, £9 – £11

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EXPLORE THE BEST OF NEW ZEALAND AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVALS Eight NZ Fringe shows plus more

hAKA

Assembly Hall 2:00pm

dUCK, deAth And the tUlip Summerhall 10:00am

the fACtOrY

Assembly Hall - 7:15pm

On the Upside dOwn Of the wOrld Assembly Roxy - 1:15pm

BlACK fAGGOt

Assembly Roxy - 5:30pm

the GenerAtiOn Of Z Assembly George Square 9pm & 11:30pm

strAnGe restinG plACes

Assembly George Square - 3:30pm

BlACK GrACe

Assembly Roxy - 7:20pm

A sliCe Of new ZeAlAnd OUtside AssemBlY rOxY

BAckyARD AT THE ROXy BAR 2 Roxburgh Place Until 25 Aug, 11am-1pm

0131 623 3030 Book now atoffice: assemblyfestival.com Box

nZatedinburgh.com www.festmag.co.uk

5–7 August 2014 fest 47

THEATRE

On the Upside Down of the World

HHHHH The Maori word for mother, “whaea”, is pronounced as “fire”. In Arthur Meek’s play, based on the memoirs of 19th-century New Zealand settler Mary Ann Martin, it’s an aptly elemental association for the maternal role.

Motherhood in this world is also likely to burst into flame, leaving behind burnt fingers and scorched earth.

For Mary, wife of the first Chief Justice of New Zealand, motherhood means both the raising of a young

Civil Rogues

HHHHH With Shakespeare In Love just opening in London, you’d think it’d be a little longer before we started seeing more Jacobethan capers in the same vein.

Tim Norton’s Civil Rogues broadly copies Stoppard’s winning formula of taking a Shakespearean play and subverting its context, creating a sketchy romp in the process. There’s the usual men-dressed-as-women, long-speeches-about-theatre and a smattering of knowing-quotes-for-the-geeks, but it’s an enjoyable sixty minutes all the same.

48 fest 5–7 August 2014

Maori boy and the fostering of an entire nation. It’s also presented as one of the few options available to her as a woman, and one that she seizes and subverts with both hands, defying the expectation that she remain quietly in the background.

The play’s critique of colonialism is not as delicately sketched as its comments on restrictive Victorian womanhood, and it eventually opts for a bluntly stated message about the impact of empire building on New Zealand and its native population. Less direct, though more uncomfortable is its narrator’s parental attitude towards the Maori people, one that is at once protective

and patronising.

Meeks’ monologue is engagingly delivered by Laurel Devenie, who adeptly conjures the rich backdrop of Mary’s life in New Zealand and the wide range of supporting characters.

Tony Rabbit’s ladder-cluttered design, however, feels a little superfluous, creating an imposing atmosphere that highlights the play’s essential lack of theatricality. Interesting as Meeks’ play is, it’s hard to shake the suspicion that it, like the memoirs that inspired it, would be just as happy on the page. n CATHERINE LOVE

Set during Cromwell’s reign, Norton begins with a performance of Romeo and Juliet being broken up by order of the Lord Protector, scattering the rogues far and wide. We follow Charles, Will and Richard, who run away in their dresses and have to keep up the guise in Lady Margaret Cavendish’s household, testing their acting abilities. Scenes of a farcical nature ensue.

Marieke Audsley’s direction struggles to hide the showcase-like nature of the production, but draws out some solid performances from the cast all the same. Elliott Ross, Laurie Davidson and Sam Woolf provide a

sturdy centre to the show as the three players, and Kate Craggs as Cavendish is a peevish orchestrator of events. It’s a cohesive ensemble, and does the best it can with a less-than-original script.

This is a spirited defence of theatre which isn’t quite completely coloured in, with the hefty and complex plot struggling to convey a real sense of jeopardy or farce either way.

Civil Rogues has nothing in it that you haven’t seen before, but it just about manages to pull it off. n DAN HUTTON

Assembly Roxy, 1:15pm – 2:30pm, 31 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £11 – £13

Pleasance Courtyard, 5:00pm – 6:00pm, 31 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £8.50 – £11

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE The Ruby Dolls: Fabulous Creatures

HHHHH One of the retorts most regularly flung at feminism is that it lacks a sense of humour. Can’t you take a joke? It was just a bit of banter.

The Ruby Dolls can definitely take a joke, and they can tell a pretty mean one too. But if there’s going to be humour, it will be on their terms.

Fabulous Creatures is the Ruby Dolls’ fierce, funny and tuneful answer to the misogyny that continues to seep into all corners of modern culture.

Their wacky cabaret musical appropriates and subverts multiple narratives, upturning everything from Jane Austen to fairytales to TV talent contests. All of a sudden, Fanny from Mansfield Park is a half-goat celebrity wannabe, mentored by Mary Poppins and forced to perform in front of millions to win Edmund’s hand in marriage.

The wit is as sharp as it is surreal, attacking an impressively wide range of targets. The conflicting expec-

tations heaped upon women, the pressures of social media and the sexualisation of female pop stars all take heavy blows, but the Ruby Dolls’ weapon of choice is ridicule rather than outright rage. Jolted out of context, so much of this everyday sexism becomes laughably ludicrous, while the central goat gag is a metaphor that just keeps on giving.

In the end, the Ruby Dolls’ invention doesn’t quite match their ambition and the momentum begins to flag in the final third. But it’s hard not to cheer for a show that laughs so ferociously in the face of misogyny.

changes can be, at times, tonally beautiful. It’s unclear at first what Meeks is actually doing: over time however, he massages the audience into the minds of these two women – often forgetful, volatile and selfish.

But only as we near the final act do we realise the eroding nature of these minds, as if we ourselves are trapped by the women’s longing for a glorious past.

As this drama unfolds however, the dialogue starts to jar. It is often too direct, too obviously comic,

when the pair berate each other over the tritest memories. It conveys their hot-bloodedness well at first, but becomes hard to stomach and ultimately too wordy. The powerful, gut-wrenching moments never arrive, and all dialogue that draws attention to the lack of these moments ends up sounding plain cheesy. n ANDREW LATIMER

n CATHERINE LOVE

Assembly Checkpoint, 3:00pm – 4:10pm, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 12, 19, £11 – £12

Keeping Up with the Joans

HHHHH Award-winning North East writer Philip Meeks returns to the Fringe with a complete mirror image of 2013’s Fringe First-winning Kiss Me Honey, Honey! Belly laughs are replaced with heartache, as Meeks authors a sober tragicomedy about dementia.

Recognised stage and screen stars Katy Manning and Susan Penhaligon, joined by Arron Usher, feature as two elderly amateur dramatic stars, reliving the glory days as leads in George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan. But on the evening they received their most cherished review, neither can remember who played the part of Joan.

The lounge of the pair’s care home acts as an unforgiving juxtaposition to the memories they conjure.

As the two women argue about their fierce rivalry, talent, grudges and dashed success, returning to the lounge with the simplest of lighting

www.festmag.co.uk

Pleasance Courtyard, 2:30pm – 4:00pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 12 Aug, £11.50 – £13.50

5–7 August 2014 fest 49

THEATRE The Capone Trilogy: Loki

HHHHH While this ambitious series of plays invites audiences to enter the ganglands of early twentieth century Chicago, Loki is more parts screwball comedy than stylish crime caper. Coming on like The Thin Man as reimagined

by Noël Coward, this is a frantically paced bedroom comedy, albeit one with a haunting, misanthropic undertone. The line separating real and imaginary characters remains blurred throughout, as does that which divides experience and fantasy.

However clouded the nature of protagonist Lola Keen’s circumstances, her pathetic fate remains absolute and uncontestable.

The Capone Trilogy: Vindici

HHHHH “Forgive me, but I thought of you as more of a cliché.” When this line is spoken by Vindici, a psychologically disturbed Italian American detective plucked from the pages of noirish crime fiction, its implication is that the femme fatale he’s addressing has acted against type. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Jethro Compton’s Capone Trilogy is a glorious celebration of cliché, and

The Capone Trilogy: Lucifer

HHHHH Pity the cast of director Jethro Compton and writer Jamie Wilkes’ follow up to their acclaimed Bunker Trilogy.

While audiences may carry themselves like martys as they shuffle into an unbearably stuffy mock-up of a downat-heel room in Chicago’s Lexington Hotel, they are merely tourists. For the duration of the Fringe, this poorly-ventilated, low-ceilinged attic is the actors’ world, and for them to perform a trio of gruelling shows in it each each day

50 fest 5–7 August 2014

Suzie Preece carries this dizzying confection and proves herself a brilliantly versatile talent. David Calvitto and Oliver Tilney likewise shine in multiple roles as the men in her life, her tools of self-inflicted chaos and disarray. Throughout one particularly tempestuous day, fiances, lovers, relatives and policemen all come to call on Lola, but so too do a couple of corpses. In trying determinedly to keep her head above water, the glamourous starlet finds herself cast out into a sea of lies, infidelity and murder, with only her liquor-dulled wits to keep her afloat.

Foreshadowing some of the events that will take place in the Capone Trilogy’s other two installments, Loki is the most accessible of Jethro Compton’s studies into the lost souls who surrendered themselves to the infamous Lexington Hotel. Jamie

Wilkes’ scripts have a tendency to err toward slavish parody, but his writing here, like the cast’s performances, is playful and unselfconscious. n LEWIS PORTEOUS C venues - C nova, 2:00pm – 3:05pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, £11.50 – £13.50

fans of the genre to which it pays homage will have already come across each of the three characters found in this instalment more times than they’d care to remember. Their motivations are clear from the beginning and the various plot twists thrown our way serve to reassure rather than surprise.

A classic revenge tragedy, Vindici makes little attempt at narrative innovation, yet isn’t content to coast on stylised period detail and sharp one liners. Its action takes place in a tiny performance space reminiscent of a dank 1940s Chicago slum. Paper peels off the walls and the silhouette of a

ceiling fan cuts through whatever dim light there is. With benches running along either side of the room, the play becomes a truly immersive experience for the audience. Indeed, once the characters’ witty dialogue begins to dry up, they opt instead for intense histrionics that leave many in open mouthed shock. Self-consciously cinematic and yet entirely tangible, this mini-epic of voyeurism, death and corruption is an addictive hit in the making. n LEWIS PORTEOUS

without the aid of oxygen masks, is a sign of rare dedication.

It’s the Lucifer installment of the saga for which the sweltering temperature proves most appropriate.

Each play is an exercise in escalating tension, but this portrait of a 1930s gangster attempting to consolodate his power within the underworld, while concealing the precarious nature of his existence from a glamourous young wife, is a particularly deft exercise in chest-tightening claustrophobia.

He may be an anonymous crime fiction cipher, but as we watch sweat trickle out from beneath the fedora of David Calvetto’s cornered protagonist,

the events unfolding metres from our equally moist faces seem brutally real. The blasé acknowledgement of a killing with which Lucifer opens gives way to a toxic, existential dread.

Nick, a close associate of the recently incarcerated Al Capone, has no way of knowing whether he resides at the top of his industry or is next in line for a gangland slaying. It’s his proud insistence on asserting control over his environment that drives events to an extremely satisfying, albeit emotionally and physically violent conclusion. n LEWIS PORTEOUS

C venues - C nova, 8:40pm – 9:45pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, £11.50 – £13.50

C venues - C nova, 6:00pm – 7:05pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, £11.50 – £13.50

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE

‘The horrors of war and the joyfulness of life are bound up together in this magnificent show’ Scamp Theatre and Carey Marks present

Michael Morpurgo

by author of War Horse adapted & directed by Simon Reade starring Andy Daniel WhatsOnStage

Sunday Herald

Sunday Express

British Theatre Guide

-

2.45PM (4PM) 30 JULY - 25 AUG www.festmag.co.uk

5–7 August 2014 fest

51

THEATRE

You, Me and the World

HHHHH There are enemas and then there are coffee enemas. Then, of course, there are coffee enemas in shows scheduled twice daily for the duration of the Fringe. Olly Hawes might not have thought this through.

He’s taken over a tiny portacabin round the back of Zoo Southside and plastered its walls with post-it notes, all arranged by category: dance styles, earliest memories, last shags.

It’s like he’s trying to catalogue

Janis Joplin: Full Tilt

HHHHH Janis Joplin, as director Cora Bissett has cannily realised, is a figure who seems to belong in the theatre. This was a woman who “prepared real hard at being spontaneous”, who invented fearless onstage alter-ego “Pearl”, who had to keep performing because if the mask slipped there might turn out to be nothing underneath.

It’s apt, then, that Angela Darcy is a performer through and through, uncannily animating Joplin in this

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every single thing in existence, from quantum string to the actual universe itself. And to do so, he’s devised a gameshow—part quiz, part party game—to harvest our knowledge for his collection.

That’s us and the world sorted, then. The “me” comes in whimsical confessionals about meeting people, mostly over coffee, and about nightclub courtships, where drunken men dance badly at unimpressed women.

One question recurs: Do people make love in the same way they dance? Deep down though, Hawes is asking another: How—in a system of nanoscopic subparticles; in a world of seven billion people; in a universe

14 trillion light-years wide±does anyone ever find love? And yet, as you and your neighbour ponder dancing and shagging, there’s some small chance you’ll do just that.

This is a scruffball of a show, loveable largely because Hawes is too, with his blustery, puppyish charm. It doesn’t all add up, and it doesn’t do everything it wants, but it’s certainly cute and entertaining – even if form and content feel mismatched at times. After all, nothing says love like a caffeinated colon. n MATT TRUEMAN

tribute to her final days. Her ‘Pearl’ sways, stomps and sings with raw, wounded passion, while Janis, the shadow of her onstage presence, swigs Southern Comfort and looks dismally in the mirror. Darcy is relentlessly intense in the central role, as dark one moment as she is shimmering the next. Her Joplin is one of undiluted extremes.

There’s a danger, as with all rock biographies, of romanticising the giddy swirl of drink, drugs and premature death that has become enshrined in pop cultural mythology. Peter Arnott’s script steers clear of this for the most part, drawing attention instead to

the depths of Joplin’s loneliness, but there is nonetheless something intoxicating about the singer’s shambolic and ultimately destructive personality.

Much of this is down to the blistering central performance, which transforms theatre auditorium into euphoric gig. No doubt about it, this is Darcy’s show. As a result, it can feel like an experience that has been tailored around her extraordinary talent rather than one that is driven by its subject. But she does put on one hell of a show. n CATHERINE LOVE

Zoo Southside, times vary, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 12, 19, £9

Assembly Checkpoint, 8:50pm – 9:50pm, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £12 – £13.50

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE

Simon Callow in Juvenalia Assembly Hall 15:30 31 Jul – 25 Aug

Antonio Forcione: No Strings Attached Assembly George Sq 21:10 8 – 17 Aug

A new show about the original Englishman in New York

Quentin Crisp Naked Hope

50 Shades! The Musical.

The Original Parody Assembly Hall 22:30 31 Jul – 25 Aug

Mush a new play bY KARLa Crome

and

ME

31 July - 24 Aug

Underbelly coWGATE, Iron belly @mushandme #mushandme www.mushandme.co.uk

Gilded Balloon 3pm Festival Highlights.com % 0131 622 6552 www.festmag.co.uk

5–7 August 2014 fest 53

THEATRE Lands of Glass

HHHHH As director Annie Rigby explains in the playbill, the confluence of discovering Brendan Murphy’s magnificent self-made glass orchestra and the possibility of adapting Alessandro Baricco’s eponymous novel for the stage seemed too fortuitous to pass up.

The result is sometimes fascinating, but not entirely successful.

The story takes place in the town of Quinnipak, where the eccentric inhabitants circle the local glassworks, the creativity of which feeds their dreams, often with destructive consequences.

The slightly magical-realist plot encompasses an orphan’s cruelly imposed destiny, a maddening musical composition, and the disastrous construction of a railway line that acts as an allegory for the human capacity to dream too big.

The glass orchestra itself, comprising a variety of enchanting, glimmering instruments, is so wonderful it almost excuses the production’s flaws. Framed by purple light, its sound is otherworldly and beautiful, and it can be exploited in so many ways that it never loses its charm or fades into the background. Sadly, the play does not match the tools it has at its disposal.

The cast performs well, if somewhat cartoonishly, but are let down by the loose, vague material with which they work.

Despite the orchestra that acts as the play’s centrepiece, the production mysteriously feels the need to pile on further technological gimmicks - malfunctioning loudspeakers scattered throughout the audience - which are not nearly as delightful.

Still, a special mention should go to Beccy Owen, whose singing and character arc tie the production together, just as it threatens to fragment and collapse. n SEAN BELL Summerhall, 4:35pm – 5:45pm, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 16, 19, £9 – £12

54 fest 5–7 August 2014

Circa: Beyond

HHHHH “There’s a line between human and animal, between madness and sanity, between logic and dream.”

So goes Beyond’s setup – and one which plays out in remarkably simple brushstrokes. Less an exploration of psychological tropes and troubles, it rather provides a loose aesthetic over which the Australian circus artists drape their sequence of stunning feats and movements.

In many ways, Beyond’s strength lies as much in what it doesn’t attempt as in the acrobatic exploits it does. Sensibly, the troupe don’t over-egg the central conceit, with the animalistic aesthetic providing inspiration for routines rather than forcing them into a constraining narrative. Striking contrasts are set up: the elegance of balance set against

the muscle necessary to pull it off.

Beautiful, contorting pairs of bodies hint at aggressive sexuality, with limbs forced into uncomfortable positions by strength and gravity. The movements are uncanny, dangerous and, at times, breathtaking.

But, hard as it is to tire of accomplished stunts and acrobatics, the dreamlike vibe is a tough one to sustain. There’s a disappointing amount of repeated movement, and a nagging sense that routines have been extended to the length of (albeit superb) musical choices.

Still, it’s difficult not to be awed by a man in a bear suit shimmying up a Chinese pole to a soundtrack of Bach’s Goldberg Variations – fortunately, in this instance, not all 31 of them. n EVAN BESWICK Underbelly, Bristo Square, 7:00pm – 8:00pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 20 Aug, £16.50 – £18.50

THEATRE

KlangHaus

HHHHH The cage doors are open. The animals have gone. Escaped? Or eliminated? These rooms are tiled and lab-like. There are plugholes in the floor. Somewhere, down the corridor, there’s a musical growl: the low snarl of an electric guitar. Then, out of a metallic cell, steps a man with a bass drum.

KlangHaus is an art-rock gig in a disused animal hospital. That sounds so benevolent. In your head, terrible things have happened here. You see

How Does A Snake Shed Its Skin

HHHHH Marilyn Monroe. Margaret Thatcher.

Virginia Woolf. They are, in Susanna Hislop’s estimation, “the Holy Trinity of womanhood: the brains, the brawn and the boobs.”

Hislop stands onstage as an amalgamation of this trio: blonde curls and a beauty spot, shoulder pads and a power suit, wellington boots and stone-filled pockets. “Happy birthday, Mrs Dalloway,” she coo-coo-cachooes, as the three become one being, one Goddesshead.

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rabbits pinned down and petrified, horses rearing up. And, with electro four-piece The Neutrinos cooking up this menacing soundscape—encroaching bass riffs, ghostly guitars and Karen Reilly’s squawking vocals— the laboratory comes alive. The whole thing feels like an exorcism, channelling the spirits of beasts, all of them mutilated in the name of science.

This is theatre made of nothing more than sound and space. It’s a gig that places you two feet from the band, closer even, and that’s exciting enough in itself. As is the space itself: a network of corridors and observa-

tion points with no natural light and a faintly medicinal smell.

Walk past a doorway and you’re blasted by noise: a furious drum solo that seems like so many screams.

Sometimes KlangHaus goes quiet, hauntingly so. Reilly drags a chain over the concrete floor. Two voices harmonise into a cutesy music-box refrain: “And the song sings on / When the butcher’s gone.” A saw emits this tiny, high-pitched howl. This is evocative, eerie stuff, certain to burrow into your bone marrow. n MATT TRUEMAN

How Does A Snake Shed Its Skin is a Cassetteboy-style mash-up of their words, some public and iconic, others private; thoughts delivered into diaries, real selves kept from the world. Monroe’s depression. Thatcher’s diets. Woolf’s insecurity. All three adopt this image of womanhood, this external shell—armour—be it sex, power or feminine charm. But behind it, all of them are faltering and fragile.

Hislop gives a performance of real aplomb: playing three serviceable caricatures on shuffle with fizz and folly.

Eventually, a fourth woman appears: Hislop herself, as revealed to her childhood diary. And, in it, the same concerns emerge: weight,

looks, boyfriends, ambitions. Gradually, delicately, the personal starts to leak out: Hislop’s history of mixed anxiety and depression, of bipolar disorder, of OCD. It echoes these idols. They just didn’t show it.

Performed with all the off-beat humour that second-wave feminism brings to the table and no hint of shame, How Does A Snake Shed Its Skin becomes a call to arms: not militant and forthright, but honest, vulnerable and human. It calls on all of us to be ourselves, flawed as we are, so that others might follow suit. n MATT TRUEMAN

Summerhall, times vary, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £6 – £12

Summerhall, 4:35pm – 5:35pm, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 19, £7 – £12.50

5–7 August 2014 fest 55

THEATRE The Time of Our Lies: The Life and Times of Howard Zinn

HHHHH At its best, theatre can offer a vital way of accessing history in the present. Animated on stage, historical events can speak to contemporary issues, sparking a lively and often surprising dialogue.

When theatre becomes little more than a history lesson, however, the past feels more like a different country than ever.

The Time of Our Lies treads a precarious line between the two, attempting to use history to instruct and galvanise, while at the same time injecting it with a theatrical thrill. Touching on conflicts from World War II to Iraq, its unifying thread is historian Howard Zinn, whose anti-war stance was triggered by his experiences as a bombardier in the US Army Air Force. His words pepper Bianca Bagatourian’s text, offering a springboard for sequences of song and movement.

It certainly doesn’t want for ideas: the injustices of the battlefield, the mechanisation and dissociation of warfare, the use of God as justification for war, conflict as media-fuelled entertainment. The show is also armed with a barrage of different styles and techniques – distractingly so.

Despite brief blasts of brilliance, it feels as though the company are still frantically throwing stuff at the wall and waiting to see what sticks.

With fewer clashing aesthetics and more attention to its structure, The Time of Our Lies could be a powerful piece, and it still might be with further development. But sadly the political anger of the show’s impulse gets smothered by all the different tactics it employs along the way. n CATHERINE LOVE Gilded Balloon , 12:30pm – 1:30pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £9 – £10

56 fest 5–7 August 2014

Dracula

HHHHH Dracula, a book built of shadows, mist and thinly-repressed carnality, is a naturally brooding work. It mopes with Victorian gothic gusto.

Action To The Word’s production, however, broods more like a teenage boy locked in his bedroom.

The music, the lust, and the emoting are all cranked off the scale. Heck, they’ve even invented a lesbian doctor to complete the adolescent male fantasy.

The result is an utterly silly steampunk version of Bram Stoker’s tale of the undead Transylvanian count and his pursuit of Mina Harker.

The whole thing plays like a Muse concept album. Fitting, then, as several of the songs, all played live by the versatile and impressive cast, are by the pomp rockers. Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ is reprised several times for

added alienation.

Mercifully, Dracula knows and embraces its ridiculousness. The production slobbers over the nubile young flesh of its cast as a vampire would. Lacy bodices and chiselled chests abound.

It is at its best in its opening half, when the plot gives it space to laugh at its own gory high camp. But as the final confrontation with Dracula approaches, an air of seriousness tightens around the show. As if to compensate, the lights get brighter, the music gets louder, the pomp gets pompier, and the whole thing struggles to support the weight of its own daftness.

Like the vampire himself, the show is visually seductive and has many dark charms, but upon reflection lacks a bit of soul. n EDD MCCRACKEN Pleasance Courtyard, 9:20pm – 10:35pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £11 – £14

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

LIGHT LIGHT

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

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

Presented by Warwick Arts Centre and China Plate.

Commissioned by Northern Stage and Battersea Arts Centre

By Chris Thorpe and Rachel Chavkin

PLAY DOUGH Unlimited Theatre

A playfully interactive show about money for everyone aged 7+, by Clare Duffy

“Utterly compelling”

“Right on the money”

The Guardian on Chris Thorpe’s There Has Possibly Been an Incident

The Guardian

4.35pm (1hr 20) 2 – 23 AUG (not 3, 10, 17) 11am (1hr 10) 2 – 23 AUG (not 3, 10, 17) Venue 73 NORTHERN STAGE AT KING’S HALL Box Office 0131 477 6630 Book Online northernstage.co.uk www.festmag.co.uk

5–7 August 2014 fest 57

THEATRE

Mock Tudor

HHHHH Hampton Court Palace is in disrepair.

The armour is rusty, the floorboards creak and the maze is unkempt.

Worse, the “costumed interpreters” who play out the life of Henry VIII just don’t seem to cut it anymore in a tech-obsessed world. Their slimy boss, Kent (Fraser Millward), wants to exchange the traditional visitor experience for a Google Glass interactive extravaganza.

Lily Bevan’s Mock Tudor finds languid comedy in the unlikely world of

I Promise You Sex and Violence

HHHHH David Ireland’s plays tend to ride roughshod over the standards of polite society. Political correctness is his bête noire and he can’t stand softly-softly, happy-clappy liberal hypocrisy. Here, he goes gunning for our tiptoeing tolerance of race, gender and sexuality, but ties himself in knots along the way.

Ireland shows us a triangle of friends. Bunny (Keith Flemming) is bisexual, but nobody knows. His flatmate Charlie thinks he’s gay.

58 fest 5–7 August 2014

Tudor re-enactors and, though it could go further, points out some interesting tensions in the difference between the “past-past” and “future-past”. Oscillating between backstage and performance, we take the role of day visitors watching well-rehearsed playlets turn into deranged debacles.

Though the story sometimes lacks depth and nuance, comedy and character are central here; from Bevan’s confused portrayal of the Spanish Catherine of Aragon to Will Rastall’s Sam, who plays the King with the blind arrogance of Toast of London, the gags charge at us with all the force of a joust. There’s also some intelligent

and affecting acting from Sophie Bleasdale’s Jess, who re-enacts Tudor life for fun and takes the whole thing just a little too seriously.

Mock Tudor’s overarching message may seem a little reactionary in its fervent nostalgia, but Bevan’s firm grasp on sympathetic characters makes for an enjoyable sixty minutes.

These guys may not know their pheasants from their forsooths, but their impromptu rendition of ‘Billie Jean’ is the best you’ll find in any museum in the land. n DAN HUTTON

Best mate Raymond thinks him straight. He self-defines differently with each: touchy-feely with Charlie, building-site blokey with Raymond.

Bunny’s white. He’s male. He gets to do that; to keep control of his labels.

Meanwhile, Charlie identifies as a feminist, but her fondness for a good shag means she’s often dubbed a slut.

Likewise Raymond, who sees himself as white according to his upbringing, but, being mixed race, is more usually deemed black.

But all this gets confused by a scattergun plot. Bunny sets his two friends up and their blundering blind date leads – inexplicably – to an equally blundering bondage and roleplay session. Bunny, always pulling

the strings, attempts to railroad proceedings into a three-way.

Is all this about white patriarchy? Or is it about the possibility of co-existing contradictions – slutty feminists, consensual rape and the like? Really, who can tell? Ireland’s determination to be daring – chucking dildos and faecal fetishes around willy-nilly – capsizes the play into juvenilia, and each of his characters behaves so irrationally, you want to escort them offstage and into care.

Something of a shambles, to be honest. n MATT TRUEMAN

Pleasance Courtyard, 1:45pm – 2:45pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £8 – £10

Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 6:35pm – 7:35pm, 31 Jul – 23 Aug, not 1 Aug, 7 Aug, 14 Aug, 21 Aug, £14

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE Crazy Glue

HHHHH Can a relationship—or a show, for that matter—exist on sparks of attraction alone? Physical theatre company Single Shoe Productions take a relationship from courtship to marriage to grief and resentment, implicitly asking that question throughout. The piece they have created certainly has glimmers of charm, but whether or not that’s enough for the long haul is another question.

With no words, precise physical characterisation and lots of cartoonish sound effects, Single Shoe’s pair of performers tell the simple narrative of two people bound together by marriage and the eponymous crazy glue. Their style of storytelling borrows from clowning and the visual language of silent movies, applying exaggerated gestures and gleeful slapstick to the most everyday of actions.

This is familiar Fringe fare, its stretched grins and carefully choreographed tomfoolery as ubiquitous as ukuleles and one-man shows.

There are moments of true invention amongst all the knowing, well-worn tropes, but Crazy Glue is at its best when briefly swapping silliness for poignancy. In the aftermath of catastrophe, its characters become suddenly unmoored, the jolting sense of loss providing a welcome injection of raw human emotion.

As a fifteen minute sketch, Single Shoe’s premise would be engaging, sweet, smart even. At just under an hour, it stretches its already thin whimsy to breaking point. There’s no doubt that it’s slickly executed for what it is, but the substance beneath the clowning is as fragile as its central romance – and not everything can be stuck back together. n CATHERINE LOVE

Julie Burchill: Absolute Cult

HHHHH If you don’t know who Julie Burchill is, your life will be none the worse for it, but you may find only limited appeal in this satire of British journalism’s only Thatcherite Stalinist. Conversely, if you are familiar with Burchill, you might find her portrayal so brutally accurate that watching it becomes as unpleasant as listening to the woman herself.

The play acts as a sequel to Tim Fountain’s Julie Burchill Is Away, an homage to Keith Waterhouse’s Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell, another exploration of dissolute hackery. Waterhouse’s achievement was to make Bernard more entertaining than he ever was in reality, whilst staying true to his character. Fountain, retreading familiar ground, cannot do the same for Burchill, who sits in her Brighton flat providing embittered commentary on

her career, contemplating Celebrity Big Brother and doing cocaine.

Lizzie Roper is excellent as Burchill, replicating her trademark screech faultlessly. Nevertheless, it is difficult to caricature a figure who has been a self-parody for decades. The play’s bravery is that it has no illusions about what Burchill is: Fountain characterises her largely as a boor and a bigot. Its weakness is that it cannot bring itself to sit in judgement of her – perhaps that is the audience’s role. Instead, Fountain finds her so pathetic as to be deserving of sympathy.

There are effective moments.

Near the end, as the world around her turns unfriendly, Burchill retreats into self-pity and wraps herself in the Israeli flag. Not a subtle image, but a potent one, now more than ever. n SEAN BELL Gilded Balloon , 1:45pm – 2:45pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 6 Aug, 13 Aug, 20 Aug, £11.50 – £12.50

Assembly Roxy, 3:05pm – 4:05pm, 31 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, 18 Aug, £9 – £11

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THEATRE Black Faggot

HHHHH If this provocative offering from playwright Victor Roger is anything to go by, New Zealand’s gay community revolves around two polarised archetypes. Some homosexuals, we observe, are insecure closet cases. They lack the fortitude to embrace their sexual predilections and spend their days feigning disgust at that which clearly arouses them. Others, by contrast, are assertive, self-actualised alpha males who meet bigoted confrontation head on, trash-talking their aggressors with the zeal of slighted PE teachers. “And what?” one character bellows after another has applied the show’s title to him. “Bring it on motherfucker!” A partisan audience whoops in support.

Black Faggot mostly mines its humour and pathos from the eternal conflict between pride and fear, and

Ablutions

HHHHH For the most lethal drug in the western world, alcohol has a mixed relationship with the arts. For every work awash with unquestioning beer-soaked bonhomie, there is a darker twin, drinking alone in the corner, ushering its liver and soul into the abyss.

Ablutions, the stage adaptation of Booker-nominated Patrick DeWitt’s debut novel, is closer in spirit to the latter, but manages to smudge its bleak edges with a certain wooziness.

It is alcoholism, then, in form as well

has the good sense to sprinkle its content with broad laughs. Witness the high maintenance queen who throws a tantrum whenever his ejaculating lover dents the resale value of his furniture!

Pity the young boy unable to comprehend the role played by his brother’s special friend! Behold the office worker who regales his straight colleague with an explicit recollection of a satisfying night’s anal sex, after having endured a boastful rundown of the latter’s vanilla sex life!

There’s definitely an element of preaching to the converted whenever Black Faggot strays into polemical territory. However, this theatrical sketch show is all about a minority taking ownership of the tools of its own oppression. Not only does it succeed on this front, but it’s also frequently hilarious. n LEWIS PORTEOUS Assembly Roxy, 5:30pm – 6:30pm, 31 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £11.50 – £12.50

as content.

We meet the bartender in his Hollywood bar, a place of barfly ghosts and broken drinkers. His marriage is dissolving along with his internal organs. The pains of reality—rent payments, a crummy job, health worries, relationships—are dulled through pills and cans of Budweiser.

Despite this oppressive scenario, FellSwoop Theatre have flecked the play with a dreamy sense of unreality.

Music is played live throughout, songs waft in and out, scenes repeat, occasionally with different outcomes, premonitions come true.

In the play’s signature and most impressive scene, the bartender’s

spiritual keening takes him to the mighty Grand Canyon. He just wants to feel something, anything. But all he sees is a massive hole in the ground.

He sees what is missing. He stares into the abyss, and it slays him.

Ablutions is both a groggy and sobering work. The performances are uniformly excellent, the use of music and spliced narrative leavens what could be doughy subject matter. Ultimately, however, it is a play to admire, rather than love. This is theatre as a stiff drink. There is nothing bubbly here. n EDD MCCRACKEN Assembly Roxy, 5:35pm – 6:40pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, 18 Aug, £9 – £11

A New Play Combining Text & Physical Theatre

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www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE The Trial of Jane Fonda

HHHHH “Would someone please tell me why anyone should give a shit about what Jane Fonda has to say?” These are the words of a disgruntled army veteran striding indignantly across the stage.

One can only assume that writer/ director Terry Jastrow meant for the depths of this man’s ignorance to be immediately apparent to audiences, but the character actually makes a salient point.

Why should anyone concern themselves with the politics of a particular Hollywood star, regardless of how many enjoyable movies and successful fitness tapes they’ve appeared in over the years? The posters promoting this transplanted courtroom drama suggest that we make up our own minds regarding the extent to which Fonda loved America in the 60s, but it turns out that Jastrow has decided to do this for us. Perhaps

he sensed the apathy with which this flaccid dramatisation would be met.

It’s true that Fonda’s diplomatic behaviour during the American offensive on Vietnam sparked a great deal of controversy at the time, her decision to pose for photos atop the enemy’s artillery alienating many a US servicemen. Likewise, the late 80s really did see her spend an afternoon in Waterbury, Connecticut, confronting war veterans intent on boycotting lo-

cation shoots for the much maligned romantic drama Stanley and Iris. For her to win the respect of these men must have been a major personal victory, but there’s absolutely no satisfaction to be had from watching an infallable celebrity triumph over an assortment of scarred blue collar Joes, as we do here. n LEWIS PORTEOUS The Assembly Rooms, 4:05pm – 5:25pm, 30 Jul – 24 Aug, not 11 Aug, £16

Modern One Belford Road, Edinburgh Free Admission generationartscotland.org

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THEATRE Cutting Off Kate Bush

HHHHH It might have disappointed Lucy Benson-Brown that her new one-woman show Cutting Off Kate Bush didn’t sell out in 15 minutes, as the titular star did in real life in March of this year. The show arrives at an opportune moment however, as interest in the gorgeously ghostly music of Bush has been revived with details of her first tour in 35 years. But rather than simply saluting the legacy of the English songwriter, Benson-Brown and director Sam Curtis Lindsay have channelled Bush into an oddly glamorous Bildungsroman about repression and loneliness.

Benson-Brown plays Cathy, a fraught 27-year-old scrambling through a mid-mid-life crisis. Adjusting to her father’s “new” girlfriend, she rummages through old boxes under the stairs while house-sitting for them.

Within, she discovers her mother’s old Kate Bush records and finds these ethereal tracks to possess a great nostalgic power. As Cathy slips deeper into solitude, she resurrects her singing and dancing talents that were stifled during childhood and starts to post videos of herself online, building a huge digital fanbase.

The innate theatricality of Bush’s music is what prompted Benson-Brown to design a show from it.

This route into discussing our attitudes to social media, the Internet and the value of relationships is certainly inventive, controlled, even cunning—

Silent Voice

HHHHH The opening of Silent Voice is all sparks and bangs, and you’d be forgiven for thinking the rest of the show will follow in the same vein.

After this impressive, intense start, however, things start to sag beneath overwraught dialogue and repetitive staging ideas.

This is an on-the-run narrative with a lot of running. Forrest Gump levels of the stuff. Four young South African men, struggling to pay their

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and Benson-Brown is a beautifully lyrical storyteller—but the drama doesn’t truly gel with the music. Instead, it often feels like a showcase of Benson-Brown’s talents. She doesn’t fully explore the complex notions of

family that are brought up, leaving us wholly entertained but ultimately unfulfilled. n ANDREW LATIMER

way and with hungry mouths to feed, steal a small fortune and spend 60 minutes running away, encountering various obstacles along the way. Betrayal, emotions and shouting follow.

It’s a tight narrative, but there are ideas used that smack of someone frantically trying out everything to see what works. Hence the running.

And the strange mist shower. And the rag doll puppets. There’s even a segment of audience interaction where it’s completely unclear what our roles are.

The language is sticky, schoolplay fare too: “I know I need money

to survive, but I’m not sure this is the way to do it,” says one character. “If only we can make it to the safe house, we will be safe,” says another. To give them their due, the quartet of actors do the best they can with a script which forces them to oscillate emotionally for the duration. There’s some attempt at socio-political commentary here, but beyond the abilities of our actors, Silent Voice doesn’t contain much substance. n DAN HUTTON

Gilded Balloon , 1:30pm – 2:30pm, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £10 – £11

Assembly Roxy, 2:00pm – 3:10pm, 31 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £12 – £13

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

l cia

I s UR age NO Dam t

es

Gu

EL nd HACIS a C MI of N e

Sp

‘THRILLING! HAD MY HEART PUMPING!’

ar

HUFFINGTON POST

‘THE MUSICAL OF THE MOMENT.’

‘EXTRAORDINARY! BREATHTAKING!’

MAXIM ITALY

LA SPLASH

St

siddharthathemusical.co.uk

31 July - 24 August (not 6, 13 August) 6.10pm Festival Highlights.com

www.festmag.co.uk

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THEATRE standingOUTstanding

HHHHH There aren’t many dancers who bare their souls in Q&A sessions at the end of their solo shows. But then, there aren’t many dancers like Lucia August. “I’m turning 62 tomorrow,” she tells us proudly in the third section of her triple bill. “And I haven’t gotten on a scale in 20 years.”

August’s mission in standingOUTstanding is to try to inspire people to achieve their dreams, in the same way she was inspired to return to her childhood love of dancing in her fifties. Yes, the concept may sound a little ‘motivational speaker’.

But there is nothing contrived or hokey about the way August goes about her quest, presenting two subtle, airy pieces that toy with narratives about breaking free.

She is warm and brim-full of conviction, both as a dancer and speaker, her presence at first suggesting poet rather than performer. She dresses in billowing silk, conducts the air with her arms while telling us a story, precisely curves out phrases and palms her full stops.

“I really love that first piece,” she tells us afterwards. “I dance for myself.” Sometimes it shows. A dancer of tremendous joy, August occasionally disappears so deeply into her performance she seems to forget we are there. But this is all put right at the end of the show when, after a shy hiatus, the crowd pour out their hearts over how much it has meant to them to see her perform. “I’m 62 as well,” says one woman, “and I’ve always wanted to dance." n LUCY RIBCHESTER Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1:55pm – 2:40pm, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £8

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Dirty Decadence

HHHHH The ugly world of the über-rich comes under the microscope in Theatre With Teeth’s sassy, pacy ballet, based on Laura Wade’s play Posh, and set to a medley of remixed classical tunes and dubstep beats.

Three everyman dandies, two debutantes and an unlucky maid gather one night to flirt, carouse and neck back whisky, which in due course lures to the surface bitter rivalries and repressed desires. The story may be pared back to the bare bones — relationships bubbling into high tragedy — but this allows the cast scope to riff on their strong archetypal characters in a way that hints at Matthew Bourne’s influence lurking behind the scenes.

The dance is at its best when at its nastiest, with mincing mockery and chilly mirroring used to illustrate

the cold competitive streaks between apparent friends. Salacious looks are passed, trysts are spied upon, and more than one fiery pas de deux erupts into clawing and climbing.

Meanwhile, C Nova’s tiny stage heightens the snarling pressure-cooker atmosphere, giving the lie to the decorum of those graceful chiffon skirts and pristine dickie bows.

The university-based troupe sticks with impressive focus to their tale, never veering into indulgence even when impassioned solos and turbulent duets take the limelight. But at the end of the day the dancers are students, and there is a little roughness around the edges. With a bit more complexity to the choreography however, and a smidge more polish to the execution, this could be one firecracker of a show. n LUCY RIBCHESTER C venues - C nova, 12:00pm – 12:45pm, 1–22 Aug, not, 19 Aug, £7.50 – £9.50

www.festmag.co.uk

C theFestival Sally E Dean

Something’s in the Living Room

Tokyo Tapdo!

Courage Performers

Elsewhere and Otherwise with Peppermint Muse

Sushi Tap Show

Pirates of Men’s Pants

6 – 25 Aug 3.00pm C cubed

30 Jul – 25 Aug 4.45pm C

10 – 16 Aug 4.50pm C cubed

DEM Productions

Straylight Australia and Bee Loud

Cambridge University ADC

God on Trial

English Cabaret Hour

30 Jul – 25 Aug 8.30pm C

10 – 25 Aug 2.15pm C

30 Jul – 16 Aug 7.50pm C nova

31 Jul – 25 Aug 5.20pm C south

Scéal Eile

Music Theatre Warwick

Five Point One with C theatre

31 Jul – 9 Aug 2.30pm C cubed

30 Jul – 25 Aug 6.15pm C

31 Jul – 25 Aug 8.00pm C south

Lysistrata

Sparks

The Road to Skibbereen

The Improv Musical

Notoriously Yours

Hyde & Seek

30 Jul – 25 Aug 6.35pm C nova

English Cabaret with C theatre

C theatre

Shakespeare for Breakfast

30 Jul – 25 Aug 10.00am C

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.

www.festmag.co.uk

5–7 August 2014 fest 65

MUSIC&CABARET

Ivy Paige: Kiss & Sell

HHHHH

Baba Brinkman: The Rap Guide to Religion

HHHHH Dirk Murray ‘Baba’ Brinkman, late of Vancouver, performs barefoot.

Audiences may find themselves wondering if this is some kind of religious symbolism, or the punchline to a joke that never quite arrives. Perhaps they’re simply seeking meaning where there is none to be found. That in itself is a neat little commentary on the unique mixture of rhythm and theological argument that Brinkman brings to the Fringe.

Through self-penned hip-hop and spoken word interludes, Brinkman takes us through a hyper-condensed account of religious belief, primarily via the lens of evolutionary psychology. Crucially, he can rap. He won’t redefine the artform or anything, but his flow is decent and his rhymes

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defiantly imaginative (Brinkman is ballsy enough not only to rhyme “providence” with “obvious”, but also to call himself out for doing so). Still, his vocal skills are more consistent than his comedy, which rarely fails in execution, but is often so restrained one could almost fail to notice it.

Songwriter-in-residence at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (and you can see why), Brinkman undoubtedly has the intellectual curiosity his subject demands. Unfortunately, the show encounters a problem familiar to the many ambitious Fringe productions that try to compress whole fields of ideas into a breezy hour of entertainment: many of its threads feel unfinished and unexplored. Meanwhile, it often seems that Brinkman is holding his own passionate atheism in check out of politeness. He would do well to remember: good rappers are rarely so polite. n SEAN BELL

The great 2000s burlesque revival succeeded in cementing the scene, both at the Fringe and in the popular imagination. A few years later, most of the novelty acts have faded away, while the ones backed up by actual talent have endured. As her latest return to Edinburgh demonstrates, Ivy Paige is definitely among the latter.

For those unfamiliar with Lucinda Ryan’s corset-clad alter-ego, Ivy Paige is not a modernising update or a postmodern reimagining, but pure, classic burlesque, tinged with a little self-parody. The running joke throughout is that, for all Paige’s sparkling pretentions of glamour and class, she cannot hide a streak of vulgarity a mile long – not that she particularly wants to. The end result is the mind of Mae West in the body of Bettie Page, with the appetites of Anna Nicole Smith thrown in.

While the banter is as unapologetically unsubtle as ever—and sometimes depends on how good-natured the audience is feeling—the real draw is, as always, Paige’s voice, so huge and powerful it seems impossible that it could emerge from such a tiny form.

Whether working her way through cabaret classics, pop covers or original material composed by Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ Pete Saunders (who remains her stalwart accompanist on the piano), Paige reminds us that, behind the sequins and double-entendres, she is a serious musical talent with considerable range. While those who have seen her previous Fringe offerings may find some parts familiar, the shameless Ms Paige’s best moments bear repeating. n SEAN BELL

Gilded Balloon , 2:30pm – 3:30pm, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £9.50 – £10.50

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 10:55pm – 11:55pm, 1–24 Aug, not 11 Aug, £11–£12

www.festmag.co.uk

MUSIC&CABARET Glen Matlock: I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol

HHHHH In an attic somewhere there must lie an unused comedy script for An Audience with The Sex Pistols. In the late 1970s, the idea of these anarchy-brewing, establishment-gobbing teenage rebels swapping tales with light entertainment lugubriousness between genial punk sing-alongs would have been ripe for a send up.

Well, on the evidence of Glen Matlock’s show, satire plus time equals reality. This is an enjoyable hour of rockabilly punk songs, stories brimming with dropped names and lessons in Cockney rhyming slang.

Matlock was the Sex Pistol’s original bassist, before making way for the doomed Sid Vicious in early 1977. Since then the skinny young gunslinger formed several other bands and has grown into an aspiring raconteur.

He’s not quite there yet though. In true punk style, he appears under-re-

hearsed. Often stories featuring Iggy Pop, Billy Connolly and Cher trail off like a forgotten punchline. He seems more convinced of himself when singing, blasting through ‘God Save the Queen’, ‘Pretty Vacant’ and some of his later work.

For those who know the Sex Pistols and love punk, this is should be manna. For the uninitiated, however, it could be like an agnostic attending a revival meeting.

Legend has it that everyone who saw the Sex Pistols in their first Manchester gig formed their own band. Matlock’s show won’t have a similar Damascene effect on punters, but it might convince a few aging punks that, like Glen, it’s now okay to wear comfy slippers and enjoy a cuppa. n EDD MCCRACKEN Assembly George Sq. Gardens, 7:30pm – 8:40pm, 31 Jul – 6 Aug, £15 – £18

Circo Aereo & Thomas Monckton:

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

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KIDS Pirate Gran An amazing pirate adventure play, as reviewed by Isabella Kinver-Tait, aged six Pirate Gran is an amazing adventure pirate play. The main character is Gran, she is a real pirate with a silly pet crocodile called Noopey. Her shipmates ask Gran to go to the pirate games on Palm Tree Island, where she has to face against three other pirates. It is very funny, especially the songs. The actors are silly and crazy and the crocodile is very funny. I liked the costumes and how they are able to turn Gran’s living room furniture into a pirate ship. I think that my friends would like it and that it would be good for children aged 4-10. I would love to go again!

Underbelly, Bristo Square, times vary, 31 Jul – 25 Aug, not 13 Aug, £10 – £11

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland A great puppetry show as reviewed by Harper Clark-Tonberg, aged eight This is a show that’s really good! It begins when a little girl called Alice dreams she sees a white rabbit who is worried about being late. If that happened to me, I would say ‘quieten down!’, but instead Alice follows him into a rabbit hole.

She begins an amazing adventure where she meets fantastic creatures like a caterpillar, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. The funniest bit was when the flowers were chattering and the characters were moving around the table at the tea party. The dormouse was asleep in a teapot - that’s not a comfy bedroom! This show has brilliant puppets all moved by two actors who do awesome voices and the set is really clever - everything comes out of just one suitcase. I would really recommend it. theSpace on North Bridge, 12:05–12:55pm, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £9

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KIDS The Cat in the Hat

HHHHH For a book designed to help children to read, The Cat in the Hat has had a rich life ex-libris. First it was made into a film and then Katie Mitchell adapted it for the National Theatre’s stage. Were that other staple of 1950s literacy aids, Janet and John, ever to be receive a theatrical incarnation, I imagine they would conduct themselves much better than Dr Seuss’s fun-focussed feline. There’s not much good behaviour in this noisy revival of National Theatre production, but then what can you expect from a world where balls (real and imaginary) squeak, honk, and fart; hand puppet fish gawp orgasmically; and bubbles rain down from the ceiling?

Ashley Bates is purringly camp in the title role, and, as Thing One and Thing Two, Richard Dipper and Andrew Beckett are anarchy personified, expertly strutting that oh-so-delightful line between frightening and funny. If at times they seem a mite pervy, it all

adds to the fun.

In fact, the production is at its best when the anarchy on stage tips over into the auditorium. I won’t give away any of the play’s surprises but I did, briefly, end up desperately ducking for safety while children rioted in the aisles (parents, be very afraid).

This is a lively retelling of Dr

Seuss’s classic, the physical theatre is deftly managed, and although the children took a while to warm up (I was with the children on this), by the end they had been entirely won over. n MIRANDA KIEK Pleasance Courtyard, times vary, 30 Jul – 25 Aug, not 11 Aug, £9 – £11

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St Mary’s Calne Presents

The Brown Felt Hat

by Tony Layton An enthralling Drama by RADA-trained performers

A3 Landscape Poster: Usable Area 420mm x 250mm

It’s 1942 in a British seaside hotel.

Secrets are unravelled and exposed.

An amateur production by arrangement with Stagescripts Ltd

www.thespaceuk.com

Venue

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5–7 August 2014 fest 69

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theSpace on the Mile Box Office 0131 510 2382 boxoffice.onthemile@thespaceuk.com

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0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk

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 Claire Rowley – The Mouth Trap!

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–6 Aug, £free

10:30

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

Baby Wants Candy Workshops Assembly Checkpoint, 9 Aug, 16 Aug, 23 Aug, £15

AhhGee Podcast Live theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 12–16 Aug, £6

BBC: MacAulay and Co BBC@POTTERROW, 5–22 Aug, weekdays only, £free

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

11:15

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 Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–22 Aug, not 11, £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 The Quest for a Bacon Number Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £1—£3

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

Cupcakes with Colebrook and Khoshsokhan Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1–24 Aug, £free

Jana and Heidi Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–23 Aug, not 6, 11, 17, 18, £6—£9.50

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

12:20 Jenan Younis: A Masterclass in Anger Management Paradise in The Vault, 12–17 Aug, £free

The Lunchtime Special Just the Tonic at The Tron, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£6

Tony Law: Enter the Tonezone The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £11

Ian D Montfort’s Midday Seance Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 1–25 Aug, £5—£8

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

12:30

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

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am 70 fest 5–7 August 2014

Richard Brown: This Is Not for You Hotel Ibis Edinburgh Centre South Bridge, 2–23 Aug, £free

Pam Ford Happy in Your Skin Too Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 18–24 Aug, £free

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

13:00

Abi Roberts’ Musical CID Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, £5—£9.50

Marigold Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£6

Spitfire! Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 5–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free

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

Challenge Accepted Suruchi, 1–25 Aug, £free

12:55

Afternoon Delight Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5

Big Value Comedy Show - Lunchtime Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £4—£6

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

Julia Sutherland is Feeling Kind of Funny The Stand Comedy Club, 5 Aug, £10

LOLympics Live - Free Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–17 Aug, £free

12:15

Gilligan’s Island Laughing Horse @ Dropkick Murphys, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free

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

The Tight Six Comedy Showcase Ciao Roma, 2–23 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free

Pab, Comedy and Poetry Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, Various dates from 1 Aug to 22 Aug, £free

Making the Move Just the Tonic at The Caves, 4–17 Aug, £5

12:50

Patrick Turpin: A Brother for Jonathan Bannermans, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £free

Jon Pearson: Last Supper Whynot? , 2–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £free

What Shall We See Today?

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

All the Fun of the Fairburn Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, not 19, £free

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

12:45 Settle Down Electric Circus, 18–22 Aug, £free

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

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0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk 13:05 Austerity Pleasures Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £free The Improveteers! theSpace on the Mile, 12–16 Aug, £3

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

The Beta Males Sessions: Richard and The Storybeast Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free

Dan Nicholas’ Conversation Garden George Next Door, 2–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

Hannah and Barri: Telly Box Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 11–24 Aug, £free

The Night I Died Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 11–15 Aug, £5

Four On Demand Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 18, £free A Robot Presents Comedy - Free Cowgatehead, 3–24 Aug, not 15, £free Nicky Wilkinson and Friends St John’s, 1–25 Aug, £free

13:15 Together in Electra Dreams - Free Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–9 Aug, £free

Just Like That! The Tommy Cooper Show Gilded Balloon , 18–25 Aug, £10—£12

Yes Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free

Surname and Surname: Last Year’s Show (But Better) Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

Liam Williams: Capitalism 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 Live Scriber: Doodle-a-thon-edy!

Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 6–10 Aug, £5

Kwame Asante: Basket Case Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 11–24 Aug, £free

Matthew Collins: My Favourite Waste of Time Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 1–24 Aug, £free

Tamar Broadbent: All

By My Selfie Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £free

COMEDY LISTINGS

Phil Kay: The Wholly Viable II Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 16–25 Aug, £5

13:25 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

The Walking Dead The Liquid Room, 1–24 Aug, £free

Jen Brister - Wishful Thinking Whistlebinkies, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free

Amused Moose Comedy’s Laughter Awards Final theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 17 Aug, £12.50

Who Ya Gonna Call?

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

Claire Ford: ConsciousMess St John’s, 1–25 Aug, £free

13:20 Caimh McDonnell: Southbound and Down Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 12, 19, £free Sam Brady: Kindness Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

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

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

13:35

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

14:00

Fat Girl Slim Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £1—£3

Arthur Smith Sings Leonard Cohen (Vol. 2) Pleasance Courtyard, 15–24 Aug, £11—£12

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 David Jesudason: Things My Dad Says Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free Pippa Evans: Don’t Worry, I Don’t Know Who I Am Either Bannermans, 2–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free Phill Jupitus: Shirking Progress The Stand Comedy Club V, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10 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 Fall Girl Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 12, £5—£11 Once Upon a Time in a Sketch Group Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

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

The Improvised Improv Show - Free Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, £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

14:05 Ruby Wax: Sane New World The Assembly Rooms, 1–7 Aug, £15 Kids With Beards - Quest for the Golden Beard Just the Tonic at The Caves, 15–24 Aug, £free 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

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

BBC: Radio 4’s Bookclub BBC@POTTERROW, 23 Aug, £free

The Exeter Revue: Sketchy At Best Ciao Roma, 2–23 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £free

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

Falafel, Houmous and Baba Ganoush Stand in the Square, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8

The Oxford Revue Presents – Free Jam House , 2–23 Aug, £free Hooray for Ben Target Banshee Labyrinth, 2–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free BBC: The Culture Studio with Janice Forsyth BBC@POTTERROW, Various dates from 4 Aug to 13 Aug, £free

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

Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ 5–7 August 2014 fest

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COMEDY LISTINGS Francesca Martinez: What The **** Is Normal?! - Show plus Book Q&A Venue150@EICC, 9 Aug, £14

14:25 Josh Howie - AIDS: A Survivor’s Story Canons’ Gait, 2–23 Aug, not 11, £free

POD Comedy Princes Mall, 2–24 Aug, £free

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

We The Chemicals Cowgatehead, 1–8 Aug, £free

14:30

Best of the Fest Daytime Assembly George Square Gardens, 1–24 Aug, £8—£12.50

Ken Crystal Afternoon Showcase Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free

Booze, Bombs and Haggis Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free

Worst Show On the Fringe - Free George Next Door, 2–25 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 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

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

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

14:35

The Edinburgh Revue and You Can Too Opium, 2–23 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free

Baby Wants Candy present The Improv All Star Explosion!

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £7—£12

Aidan Killian: Jesus Versus Buddha Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £5

Nathaniel Metcalfe: Trivial Pursuits Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 13, £free

Sameena Zehra: Homicidal Pacifist The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8

Henry von Stifle: Working Class Hero (With a Valet) St John’s, 1–25 Aug, not 10, 17, £free

Tom Toal in Prequel Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 11, £free

Rat: Induction Just the Tonic at The Tron, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £4—£7

My Sister Says I’m Special Laughing Horse @ Ryrie’s, 2–24 Aug, £free

Eric and Little Ern Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £14—£15

Stuart Laws When’s This Gonna Stop?

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

14:40

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am 72 fest 5–7 August 2014

The One-Eyed Men’s Cult of Lactos Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £2—£4 Old Men Walking Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 8–17 Aug, £free The Quest for Coolness Sweet Grassmarket, 1–25 Aug, £8.50

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

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

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

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

15:00 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 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

The Marijana Method Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Ctrl-Alt-Sketch Citrus Club , 2–23 Aug, £free

14:50

Gledhill and Callaghan Pilgrim, 2–23 Aug, not 18, £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 Separate But Equal Thistle King James Hotel, 1–25 Aug, £free 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

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0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk

COMEDY LISTINGS

Jenny Collier: Love in the Time of Collier Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–22 Aug, £free

Surname & Surname: Bang!

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

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

15:05

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

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

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

15:20 Short & Curly - Who Dunnit?

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

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

15:15

15:25

Skimprov Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £1—£8 I Need A Doctor: The Whosical Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, 19, £6—£11.50 The Anglo-Irish Glee Tent Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–25 Aug, £free

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

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

Charmian Hughes: Raj Rage!

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

Catriona Knox Thinks She’s Hard Enough Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10

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

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

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

15:30

A Bridge Over Toddled Warder Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £free

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

Max Dickins: My Groupon Adventure Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

Free Footlights Jam House , 2–23 Aug, £free Kevin J: The Urban Truth Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free

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Makes Something of Himself Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free

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

Andrew Bird - Up Against It Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 17–24 Aug, £free

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

Hilarity Bites Comedy Club: Showcase Show Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free

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

Someone’s Pinched Me Yoghurt!

George Next Door, 17–23 Aug, £free

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

Jeremy Hunt and Other Spelling Mistakes Wee Red Bar, 17–23 Aug, £free

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

Hatty Ashdown: Hurry Up Hatty Laughing Horse @ The Wee Pub, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free

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

The Spork Conspiracy Wee Red Bar, 2–16 Aug, £free

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

15:45

Prof’s Olympic Legacy Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1–15 Aug, £free

Spencer Jones is The Herbert Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £3

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

Alistair Williams and Daryl Perry Love You St John’s, 17–24 Aug, £free

John Robertson: A Nifty History of Evil The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8

Deborah Frances-White: Half a Can of Worms Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11

MommAutism - A Love Story Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 1–25 Aug, £free

Amused Moose Comedy Awards Gangshow theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 10 Aug, £9 FunBags a Go-Go! St John’s, 1–23 Aug, not 8, 13, 20, £free Seriously Now! - Free Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, £free 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 Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, £5—£12 Brydie Lee-Kennedy Repeats On You Cowgatehead, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £free Toast with Ruth E. Cockburn Viva Mexico, 2–23 Aug, not 9, £free Jody Kamali: One Man Variety Show Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free Nutjob Laughing Horse @ Finnegan’s Wake, 1–25 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, 24, £free The Thinking Drinkers’ Guide to the Legends of Liquor The Famous Spiegeltent, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £9—£11

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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

Six Steps to Joy Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 18, £free

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

Deadly Dungeon Murder Mystery!

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

15:40

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

thedungeons.com/Edinburgh

Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ 5–7 August 2014 fest 73

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COMEDY LISTINGS 15:50 Neil Henry’s Impossible Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, £6—£10 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

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 Steve Day Faces the Deaf Sentence Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–7 Aug, £free 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 Glenn Cosby: Food Junkie Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£14 Cariad and Louise’s Character Hour Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free Narin Oz: Addicted to Love C venues - C south, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £4.50—£6.50 Dancing with the Inflatable Colonel Suruchi, 13–25 Aug, £free Candy Gigi: I’m Not Lonely Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £5 Rob Auton: The Face Show Banshee Labyrinth, 2–23 Aug, not 3, 12, £free

Alfie Moore: The Naked Stun Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, £6—£11 Do You Remember Rock’n’Roll Radio?

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free Twins Laughing Horse @ The Blind Poet , 1–24 Aug, not 18, £free Paul Merton’s Impro Chums Pleasance Courtyard, 7–16 Aug, £12.50—£14.50 Staple/face are...

Going Down Fighting Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7—£8 Cambridge Footlights International Tour Show 2014: Real Feelings Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, £6—£10.50 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 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

16:05 Floe-Joe’s Music and Character Platter theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £7

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

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

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

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

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

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

16:15 ❤ Tom Neenan: The Haunting at Lopham House HHHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 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 Big Society Thistle King James Hotel, 1–25 Aug, £free Lucie Pohl: Hi, Hitler Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£9 Learn to Laugh with Keep Calm and Improv C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 Old Folks Telling Jokes Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7 Freddie Farrell and Friends Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £free

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am 74 fest 5–7 August 2014

Cracker Jokes - Free Pilgrim, 2–23 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 The Usual Rejects Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free

16:20 Joz Norris: Awkward Prophet Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10 Musical Comedy Awards Showcase Underbelly, Bristo Square, 9–10 Aug,

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 #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

16:30

Rachel Parris: Live in Vegas 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 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 BBC: Simon Mayo Drivetime BBC@POTTERROW, 18–21 Aug, £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 Jollyboat: Five Stars, F*****ck Yeah!

Beat, 2–23 Aug, £free ComedySportz UK Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 17–24 Aug, £free

Nathan Cassidy: Date of Death Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free Sketchbox St John’s, 1–23 Aug, not 5, 11, 12, 13, 19, £free Dead Ghost Star Cowgatehead, 1–23 Aug, not 11, £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

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

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

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

Modern One Belford Road, Edinburgh Free Admission generationartscotland.org

Untitled-2 1

02/08/2014 09:27 Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ

5–7 August 2014 fest 75

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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

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 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

Adam Belbin: The Third Half of Next Year’s Show Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

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

The Birmingham Footnotes: Don’t Mind Me Citrus Club , 2–16 Aug, £free

17:30

Anything Can Be a Podcast! Podcast!

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free Wendy Wason: Hotel California 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

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

Carly Smallman: Made in Penge Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free

17:35

Barry Cryer and Colin Sell: Twittering On Gilded Balloon , 1–9 Aug, £11—£12

Lucy Frederick and the Claw of Anxiety!

Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £free

Mark Grist & MC Mixy: Dead Poets’ Death Match Assembly George Square Studios, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£12

Present and Correct: Now Recruiting - Free Sportsters, 2–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free

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 Bec Hill in... Ellipsis Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£9.50 Gary Little: The Thing Is The Stand Comedy Club, 4–25 Aug, not 18, £10 Seymour Mace presents Questionable Time!

The Stand Comedy Club V, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 13, £8

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am 76 fest 5–7 August 2014

Knightmare Live Level 2 Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £8—£13.50

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 Aaaaargh! It’s 101 Jokes in 30 Minutes!

Free Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, £free Clever Peter: The Dreams Factory Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11 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 BBC: World Have Your Say BBC@POTTERROW, 5 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 Massive Dad Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £6—£9.50 Nick Dixon and Sunil Patel: Two Wrongs Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £free

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

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk 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

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 The Maggy Whitehouse Experience Laughing Horse @ Ryrie’s, 2–24 Aug, not 6, £free Scottie Road the Musical - From Primark to Prison Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 11, 18, £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

John-Luke Roberts: Stnad-Up Voodoo Rooms, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £free

18:10 Simply the West theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £9

Don’t Tell Anyone About Sarah Callaghan Laughing Horse @ Finnegan’s Wake, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £free Burke Shire St John’s, 1–23 Aug, not 8, 13, 20, £free

COMEDY LISTINGS Kevin Day: Standy Uppy Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 12, 19, £6—£11 Hollywood Film Fest C venues - C nova, 2–25 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£9.50 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

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

Christian Reilly: Lost in Music Beat, 2–23 Aug, £free

Ben Champion: Cracking Up - Free Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

Electric-Hogg’s Dada Garden of Dark Delights - Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

Four Screws Loose in The Big Screw Up Assembly George Square Gardens, 1–25 Aug, not 8, £6—£11.50

Legion of Doom’s Fear and Laughter Wee Red Bar, 2–24 Aug, £free

Rory O’Hanlon: Have Jokes Will Travel Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, not 18, £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

18:20 The Only Way is Downton Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £7.50—£12.50 Jim Holland: Shoegazing Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £2.50—£7.50

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

Dr Professor Neal Portenza Performs His Own Autopsy Live On Stage.

One Night Only.

(Obviously).

Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £4—£8

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

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 Sensing Humour in English Edinburgh Language Centre, 5–6 Aug, £free

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

All Star Stand-Up Showcase Laughing Horse @ Dropkick Murphys, 1–23 Aug, £free

Devvo’s Deal or No Dealer Gaymeshow Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 1–24 Aug, prices vary

Miranda Sings Venue150@EICC, 13–17 Aug, £20

Tom Binns Has Not Been Himself Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£14.50

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 Captains of Industry!

An Improvised Miscellany Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 17–23 Aug, £free

Tim FitzHigham: Hellfire Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £7—£12.50 Fast Fringe Pleasance Dome, 1–23 Aug, £5—£10 Aaah’m Votin YES Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £5 Thomas Pocket presents: Me (Oscar Jenkyn-Jones) Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50

18:45 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

Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ 5–7 August 2014 fest

77

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COMEDY LISTINGS Ant Dewson and Mark Silcox: Life in the Bus Lane - Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free

18:55

Holly Walsh: Never Had It Assembly George Square Studios, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£10

Erich McElroy: The British Referendum Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 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

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 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 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

Nina Conti - Work in Progress Assembly Roxy, 1–17 Aug, not 12, £6—£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 Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, £6—£14 Gary Lynch - Missed Life Crisis Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £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

18:50

Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11

Lloyd Langford: Old Fashioned Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 9, 18, £6—£11.50

Morgan & West: Parlour Tricks Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, £6—£12

Imran Yusuf: Roar of the Underdog Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 17, £6—£11

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 The Weegies Have Pokled Edinburgh’s Pandas SpaceCabaret @ 54, 1–23 Aug, £7

19:05 The Chronic Single’s Handbook theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 4–16 Aug, not 10, £8 Light Relief Sweet Grassmarket, 1–24 Aug, £8.50 May I Take Your Order? theSpace on the Mile, 2–9 Aug, £8 Tom Craine: Thoughts On Love (By a Man With None of the Answers) Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11 Jo Caulfield: Cancel My Subscription The Stand Comedy Club, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10

19:10 Ladies Live Longer: Volunteerology Just the Tonic at The Caves, 6–22 Aug, not 12, £5—£8.50

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am 78 fest 5–7 August 2014

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

Al Murray - The Pub Landlord’s Summer Saloon Assembly George Square Gardens, Various dates from 8 Aug to 23 Aug, £19.50 Vikki Stone: Instrumental Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, £6—£12

19:15 AAA Stand-Up Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, £6—£11 Lee Griffiths: Post Traumatic Sketch Disorder Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10.50 David O’Doherty Has Checked Everything Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8—£15 James Dowdeswell: Wine, Ale and I Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 11–24 Aug, £free Nick Hodder: Insert Comedy Here Banshee Labyrinth, 2–24 Aug, £free 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 Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50 Charles Booth: Go Thank Yourself!

Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £free Tickled Pig Presents Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 13, £free Laughing Horse Free Pick of the Fringe Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free Carey Marx: Abominable Canons’ Gait, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £free

19:20

Laurence Clark: Moments of Instant Regret Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£10 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 Big Value Comedy Show - Early Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50 Ronnie Golden New Age Pensioner Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–17 Aug, not 12, £2.50—£7.50

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 Nando’s New Comedian of the Year 2014 Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 12 Aug, £5 The Edinburgh Festival Comedy Roast Gilded Balloon , 24 Aug, £12 Fred MacAulay: The Frederendum The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£15

Susan Murray’s F*ckwit Club The Liquid Room, 2–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free Jimeoin - Is It...?!

Venue150@EICC, 1–24 Aug, £10—£17.50 One Foot in the Gays Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free Hennessy and Friends: Murmurs Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £free 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 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

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

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk Joe Bor: A Room with a Jew Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free Des Clarke: The Trouble with Being Des The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 3, 11, £10 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 Bookshop Fringe Encore Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 26–30 Aug, £5 Tiernan Douieb: Read Something Beat, 13–23 Aug, £free 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 Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £9—£17

19:35 Frisky and Mannish: Just Too Much Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 8, 18, £7.50—£15 Luke Toulson: LaidBack Grouch - Free Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, £free Alastair Clark: Vote Russell Brand Cabaret Voltaire, 2–23 Aug, £free

19:40 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 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

COMEDY LISTINGS 19:45 Testiculating (Waving Your Arms Talking B*ll*cks)

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 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 Laugh Train Home Presents: Dropkick Comedy Laughing Horse @ Dropkick Murphys, 1–24 Aug, £free Angus Dunican: The Great Indoors Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, not 14, 21, £free

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 Pete Firman: Trickster Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £8.50—£15 One Man Star Wars Assembly George Square Studios, Various dates from 1 Aug to 24 Aug, £12—£16 Luke McQueen: Now That’s What I Luke McQueen Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£9.50 Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall: Success Arms Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50

19:50

Anil Desai’s Last Night at the Movies Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free

Men With Nectar Points Dragonfly, 2–23 Aug, £free

Katie Mulgrew: Happily Ever After Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£10

Big Brass Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£9

An American’s Guide to Being Like, Totally British George Next Door, 2–24 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free

Patrick Monahan: Adventures in Monahan Land Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 11, £5—£12

One Man Breaking Bad The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 13–16 Aug, £12

Marlon Davis: Once Upon A Grime Assembly George Square Studios, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

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

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

19:55

One Man Lord of the Rings Assembly George Square Studios, Various dates from 2 Aug to 25 Aug, £14—£16

Nathan Caton: Teenage Mutant Nathan Caton Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7—£11

Billy Kirkwood’s Show Me Your Tattoo - One Night Only!

Studio 24, 15 Aug, £8

Katia Kvinge presents Karacters Globe Bar, 2–23 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £free

101 Comedy Club - Free Laughing Horse @ The White Horse, 1–24 Aug, £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 Life Deconstructed Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 17–24 Aug, £free The Half Naked Chef Heroes @ Bob & Miss Behave’s Bookshop, 1–25 Aug, £5 EastEnd Cabaret: Sexual Tension Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£11.50 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 BBC: The Jazz House BBC@POTTERROW, 6 Aug, £free 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, £5—£10.50

[kuh-MEE-dee-uhn] The Stand Comedy Club V, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8

Tartan Ribbon Comedy Benefit Pleasance Courtyard, 12 Aug, £12 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

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 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 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

Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ 5–7 August 2014 fest 79

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk

COMEDY LISTINGS 20:15 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 Friends With Benefits Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 4–24 Aug, not 17, £free

Christian Talbot: Hello Cruel World Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10

Rhys Mathewson Hombre Lobo HH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£10.50

Josie Long: Cara Josephine The Stand Comedy Club, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 16, £11

Dan Clark: Me, My Selfie and I Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£12.50

Simon Feilder: All The Things I’m Not Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£9

Shelby Bond: Fauxmosexual Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 5–24 Aug, not 12, £free The Evolution Will Be Televised Ciao Roma, 2–23 Aug, not 12, £free Eric Davidson - The Independent State of Eric theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £10

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

Rubberbandits: Continental Fistfight Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£14

Chris Martin: Responsibilliness Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£12

Ivo Graham: Bow Ties and Johnnies Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

Igor Meerson: Hou I lernt inglish Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50

Best of So You Think You’re Funny?

Gilded Balloon , 1–5 Aug, £10

Who Dares Grins Again 2014 Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free

Jon Bennett - Fire In The Meth Lab Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 13, 20, £6—£10.50

Lights! Camera!

Improvise! - The Improvised Movie Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£12.50

20:20 Carl Hutchinson: Here’s Me Show Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10

The Referendum Review Show!

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

The Alternative Comedy Memorial Society Stand in the Square, 4 Aug, 11 Aug, 18 Aug, £10 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

Pete Dobbing: Dobbing Kilderkin, 2–22 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

Kraken Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7—£12

Damien Slash: Forward Slash Cowgatehead, 1–24 Aug, not 10, 11, 20, £free

Chris Henry: Only the Good Die Young Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–23 Aug, £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

Ben Norris: Benny on the Loose The Liquid Room, 10–21 Aug, £free

Roger Swift and Patrick Draper - The Energy and the Apathy Laughing Horse @ Ryrie’s, 16–24 Aug, £free

20:50

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

Gareth Morinan’s Play: Time Banshee Labyrinth, 2–24 Aug, £free

Jim Davidson’s Funeral Heroes @ The Hive, 12 Aug, £5

Wanted Sweet Grassmarket, 11–24 Aug, £8.50

Bright Club: Scotland’s Fringe The Assembly Rooms, 18 Aug, £10

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 Harriet Dyer: Barking at Aeroplanes Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free Shappi Khorsandi: Because I’m Shappi...

Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£13

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 5–7 August 2014

Half Baked Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £free

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

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 Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–24 Aug, £10—£17.50 This Show Has Nothing To Do With Penguins Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1–7 Aug, £free The Barry Experience Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

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

Mark Nelson: Please Think Responsibly Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£12.50 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 The Grandees: A Creepshow Heroes @ The Hive, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5

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 Paul Ricketts’ West End Story Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £3—£5

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

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk Tom Shillue: Impossible The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10 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

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

Ricky and Dave Gigglelos Dragonfly, 1–25 Aug, £free

Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards Show Underbelly, Bristo Square, 24 Aug, £14

Alpha Fail Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, £free

No Strings Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £4—£8

COMEDY LISTINGS The Axis of Awesome: Viva La Vida Loca Las Vegas Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 21, £8—£14

Bob Doolally, Football Legend The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 11 Aug, 19 Aug, £10

A Bonanza of Festival Comedy and Cabaret Laughing Horse @ The Paradise Palms, 3 Aug, 10 Aug, 17 Aug, 24 Aug, £free

21:10

21:05

Abandoman: Hot Desk Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £7.50—£15

Richard Gadd: Breaking Gadd Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £free

Larry Dean: Scottish Comedian of the Year 2013 Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn, 1–24 Aug, £5—£12

Brent Weinbach: Appealing to the Mainstream Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£12

21:15

Tom Rhodes: Colossus Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, 21, £6—£12

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

B.J. Novak: One More Thing Assembly George Square Studios, 19–24 Aug, £16

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

Omar Hamdi +1 Globe Bar, 2–24 Aug, £free

Markus Birdman: 2B or Not to Be The Stand Comedy Club V, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8 Plaza Suite theSpace on the Mile, Various dates from 2 Aug to 9 Aug, £10 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 Gilded Balloon , 1–23 Aug, £6—£10

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

a LECTURE SERIES

a LECTURE SERIES

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

A diverse programme of high quality professional dance from Wales presented daily between 18-25 August ZOO Southside (Venue 82)

tel. 0131 662 6892

01 – 25 August

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

Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ 5–7 August 2014 fest 81

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COMEDY LISTINGS James Loveridge: Funny Because It’s True Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, £free

Felicity Ward: The Iceberg Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£13

Jim Davidson: No Further Action Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 18, £12—£15

21:30

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

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

21:20

❤ Sarah

Natasia Demetriou: You’ll Never Have All of Me Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10.50

HHHH

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 Henning Wehn: Eins, Zwei, DIY Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£11.50 Evolution of iMaAN Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£10

21:25 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

Kendall: Touchdown 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 Pete Johansson: Several Jokes Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£11 Michael Downey: Blue Sometimes Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£12 Glenn Wool: Wool’s Gold Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £7—£14

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

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

Jess Robinson: Mighty Voice Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6.50—£11.50 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

Low Expectations: The Unpublishable Material Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–17 Aug, £5—£10

Ed Gamble: Gambletron 5000

HHH

Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£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

Justin Moorhouse: This is What I Am Gilded Balloon , 1–24 Aug, not 2, £5—£11

Michael Mittermeier: das Blackout Gilded Balloon , 11–25 Aug, £10.50—£12.50

Pat and Paul Get Some Beans Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

Tom Price: Not As Nice As He Looks Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 21, £6—£10

Alex Williamson: Dumb Things I’ve Done Gilded Balloon , 1–10 Aug, £10—£11

Bob Blackman’s Local Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 9–23 Aug, not 17, £free

82 fest 5–7 August 2014

22:00

Birthday Girls: Party Vibes Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £free

21:45

David Trent: Live at the Pleasance Courtyard HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£12

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am

Quint Fontana ‘I Remember Me’ Voodoo Rooms, 2–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free

Laughing Matters Fundraiser Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 12–13 Aug, £10

Casual Violence: Om Nom Nom Nominous - Free Voodoo Rooms, 1–23 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

Jonny & The Baptists: The Satiric Verses Pleasance Dome, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£11

John Robins: This Tornado Loves You Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£12

21:50

Viv Groskop’s I Laughed, I Cried Cowgatehead, 1–14 Aug, not 7, £free

George Ryegold: Iron Face in a Velvet Beard Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, £6—£10

50 Shades of Smay Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 1–8 Aug, £free

John Hastings Adventure Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£9.50

11 Films to Happiness Ciao Roma, 2–23 Aug, £free

21:40

Aaah’m Voting NO Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £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 BBC: BBC Presents…

BBC@POTTERROW, 7 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

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

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk Nick Coyle: Double Tribute 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

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

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

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

Come Heckle Christ Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£9.50

Chelsea Manders: Don’t Tell My Dad Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£9

Coppers Uncovered: The Walk of Shame Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10

The Circus 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 Another Great Show Again Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–24 Aug, £free

Sh*t-Faced Shakespeare Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, £6—£11.50

BBC: Newsnight BBC@POTTERROW, 21 Aug, £free

Josh Widdicombe’s XFM Show Live!

Assembly George Square Studios, 9–12 Aug, £13

One Thing Led to a Mother The Stand Comedy Club V, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8

Craig Campbell: Thrilling Mic Hunt The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 15 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, 23 Aug, £10

Dave Hughes: Pointless Assembly George Square Studios, 19–23 Aug, £14—£15

Rob Rouse: Through the Looking Ass The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 1–14 Aug, £10

Freddie Farrell: Lock, Stock and One Joking Farrell Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £free

So You Think You’re Funny?

Gilded Balloon , 1–7 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

Political Animal – Scottishreferendogeddon 2014 The Stand Comedy Club III & IV, 17–21 Aug, £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

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

AL PorT

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Gilded Balloon, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ 5–7 August 2014 fest 83

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk

COMEDY LISTINGS 22:35 Nancy Clench: Down Right Dirty Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 20–24 Aug, £8.50

22:40 Will Franken: The Stuff They Put in Sleep 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 The Comedy Zone Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10

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 Nick Helm’s Two Night Stand in The Grand Pleasance Courtyard, 11–12 Aug, £15 Mark Watson: Flaws Pleasance Courtyard, 5–6 Aug, £14 BBC: Late Junction BBC@POTTERROW, 12–13 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

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 Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrghhh! It’s the Increasingly Prestigious Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards Show - and It’s Free!

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 22–23 Aug, £free

AAA Stand-Up Late Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, £6—£11

Mark Watson’s Comedywealth Games Pleasance Courtyard, 7–16 Aug, £8.50—£11

Rainbow Rabbits with Rabies Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 1–11 Aug, £free

Stand-Up Comedy Live @ Le Monde Upstairs @ Le Monde, 3–21 Aug, not 8, 9, 15, 16, £10

Alfie Brown: Divorced from Reality (and My Wife) Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10

Hate ‘n’ Live Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free

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 Scotland Stands Up Gilded Balloon , 1–5 Aug, £6—£12.50 Late Night Gimp Fight: The Worst of Late Night Gimp Fight Pleasance Courtyard, 21–23 Aug, £12

Enjoy comedy, cabaret, theatre & more Open every night until 5am 84 fest 5–7 August 2014

Tom Short and Will Hutchby: Only Child Syndrome Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 10, 12, 17, £2—£4

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 Excited!!!

Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, £6—£8 Queens Of Pop: After Dark Electric Circus, 11–15 Aug, £8

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 Laughdance: The Experiment Cowgatehead, 11–24 Aug, £free Best of So You Think You’re Funny?

Gilded Balloon , 6 Aug, 11 Aug, 12 Aug, 13 Aug, £10 Beardyman: One Album Per Hour Pleasance Courtyard, 15–17 Aug, £14 Comedian Matt Henry and Friends: A State of the Art Comedy Event Freestival St Mary’s, 1–25 Aug, £free Late Night Dark Show Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, £free A to Z Improv Comedy Kilderkin, 2–23 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

Cheaper Than Therapy Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7

Confessions of a Liverpudlian theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 14–16 Aug, £6

Fat Controller Comedy Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 3–24 Aug, not 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, £free

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 This is Your Trial Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, £6—£10.50 The Alternative 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 Pamphilon Go 8-Bit! Pleasance Dome, 8 Aug, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, 16 Aug, £10.50

Choose Your Own Comedy Adventure Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free

Best of Scottish Comedian of the Year Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 12, 13, 19, 20, £6—£13.50

All at Sea Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey, 1–23 Aug, not 16, £free

23:10

Carter and Ollerton: Won’t Go Quietly Cowgatehead, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 19, £free

TAKE a coMEdian OUT! Pleasance Courtyard, 19–20 Aug, £10

Shaggers Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–23 Aug, £free

23:05

Scotsman and Irishman Walk Inde a Bar Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 4–21 Aug, not 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, £free

Voices in Your Head Gilded Balloon , Various dates from 1 Aug to 24 Aug, £5—£10

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

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

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon.co.uk Marc Burrows in the Ten Best Songs Of All Time - Free Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–23 Aug, not 11, £free

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 Just Jokes Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £free Billy McGuire Ain’t Always Honest Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, £free

COMEDY LISTINGS 23:59 Will Seaward’s Spooky Midnight Ghost Stories!

Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, 20, £5—£8.50

Best of the Fest Assembly Hall, Various dates from 1 Aug to 24 Aug, £10—£15

Comedy Countdown Gilded Balloon , 1–23 Aug, not 3, 4, 10, 11, 17,

Andy Field is a Giddy Manchild Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

18, £5—£8

Rob Deering’s Beat This Gilded Balloon , Various dates from 1 Aug to 24 Aug, £10—£11

Stars

23:50

No Context

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

00:00 From Pirates to Pop Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 9–25 Aug, £free

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 2–8 Aug, £free

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 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

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 Improv from the 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 5–7 August 2014 fest 85

THEATRE LISTINGS 06:30

10:15

Out of Water Summerhall @ Portobello Beach, 8–10 Aug, £10

The Actor’s Nightmare Pilrig Studio, 7 Aug, £5

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 Play It ‘Til We Get It Right Church Hill Theatre, 7 Aug, £5

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

Labour of Love Church Hill Theatre, 17 Aug, £5 Our Town theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 7 Aug, £5 William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors Church Hill Theatre, 9 Aug, £5

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 Harriet - Teen Detective!

Paradise in Augustines, 12–16 Aug, £8

Hamlet Pilrig Studio, 6 Aug, £5

Frozen theSpace on North Bridge, 18–23 Aug, £7

Godspell Pilrig Studio, 9 Aug, £5

10:45

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 Punk Rock Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 4–7 Aug, £4 Antigone Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 11–16 Aug, £6 Alice in Concert Church Hill Theatre, 19 Aug, £5

10:25 The Basement Project Church Hill Theatre, 6 Aug, £5 A Year with Frog and Toad Church Hill Theatre, 5 Aug, £5 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 Secret Collector Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 4–7 Aug, £7

RIVERRUN Traverse Theatre, 9 Aug, 21 Aug, £19

Our Town: Louisville Church Hill Theatre, 7 Aug, £5

10:05

The Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£12.50

Dying City theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 5–9 Aug, £7

10:35

86 fest 5–7 August 2014

Paper Play Paradise in Augustines, 4–6 Aug, £7.50 Buffer theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–16 Aug, £7.50 Fairway Manor Paradise in Augustines, 7–9 Aug, £7.50

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

Two theSpace on Niddry St, 11 Aug, 13 Aug, 15 Aug, £7

The Fair Intellectual Club The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10

Spring Awakening theSpace on Niddry St, 12 Aug, 14 Aug, 16 Aug, £7

The Seussification of A Midsummer Night’s Dream theSpace on North Bridge, 1–9 Aug, £6—£7

11:25

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 24 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

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

11:50 Smoking Ban theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £7 Forget Fire 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

Oliver Twist theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–16 Aug, £8

The Electra Project theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £6

Pieces of Eight Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 11–16 Aug, £5

11:55

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

From Up Here Church Hill Theatre, 8 Aug, £5

The Decline and Fall of Marcus Distilius theSpace on North Bridge, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £8

Inge at the Fringe Church Hill Theatre, 7 Aug, £5

The Dogs of War Assembly George Square Studios, Various dates from 2 Aug to 16 Aug, £9—£11

merry christmas, Ms Meadows Pleasance Dome, 19– 25 Aug, £9.50—£12.50

11:40

11:20

Plastic Rose Assembly George Square Studios, 1–17 Aug, not 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, £6—£11

Dorothy Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 4–9 Aug, £7.50

Welcome to the Moon and Other Plays Church Hill Theatre, 9 Aug, £5

Guttermouth Venue 13, 2–16 Aug, not 11, £8

11:45 My Uncle’s Shoes New Town Theatre, 5–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £10

Happy Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, £6—£9

Wretch Like Me (or How I was Saved from Being Saved) theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £8.50

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

HHH

Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£11

The Moth of August C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50 Hancock’s Last Half Hour by Heathcote Williams 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

First Class Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 1–24 Aug, £free

A Drinker Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 10–16 Aug, £8.50

Every Brilliant Thing Summerhall @ Roundabout, 5–22 Aug, not 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, £10—£15

Blood Brothers theSpace @ Venue45, 11–15 Aug, £7.50

McAlister in Wonderland theSpace on the Mile, 19–23 Aug, £8

The Immigration Lottery theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £7—£9

Saint-Exupéry, a Pilot’s Story Assembly George Square Studios, 1–24 Aug, not 18, £5—£10 Feral Underbelly, Bristo Square, 14–24 Aug, £10—£11 I Have an Idea for a Film Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £free 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

The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland

Landscape with Skiproads Summerhall, 4–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £8—£12.50

Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 8, 9, 10, 18, £12—£14

Pintsized Surprise Meeting Point @ The Playfair, 10–13 Aug, £10

Fern Hill and Other Dylan Thomas Assembly George Square Theatre, 18 Aug, £13

Can Stand Up - Don’t Want To! theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 19–23 Aug, £5

HHH

Early Doors Pleasance Pop-Up: The Pub, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 19, £6—£10

www.festmag.co.uk

The Result of a Man and His Ponderings theSpace on North Bridge, 11–16 Aug, £5 Trojan Women theSpace on the Mile, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £5 Cushion theSpace on the Mile, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £5 Chasing Zeds theSpace on North Bridge, 18–21 Aug, £5

12:15 Riding With Night Pilrig Studio, 7 Aug, £5 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

12:10

Monster Madness Church Hill Theatre, 6 Aug, £5

The Hive Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

Midsummer / Jersey Church Hill Theatre, 5 Aug, £5

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

Chaplin Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£12

Conversations with Boring, Ugly People theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 10 Aug, £5

Now Until the Hour Summerhall, 6–10 Aug, £9

I’m Thinking of Leaving Facebook Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, 1–24 Aug, £free

The Waste Land Sisters Summerhall, 14–24 Aug, £10

12:25 The Height of the Eiffel Tower Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £7—£12

Labour of Love Church Hill Theatre, 19 Aug, £5

Frank Sent Me Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, £6—£12

Tis Pity Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–16 Aug, £7.50

Blood at the Root Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 12, £6—£12

Our Town theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 5 Aug, £5

Butterfly in Shades of Blue SpaceCabaret @ 54, 1–23 Aug, not 13, £8

12:20 The Art of Falling Apart Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11 The Jungle Referendum C venues - C nova, 1–16 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 Sonnets for an Old Century Church Hill Theatre, 18 Aug, £5 Illyria-on-Sea Paradise in Augustines, 12–16 Aug, £8 Alice in Concert Church Hill Theatre, 17 Aug, £5 Nevada: It Ain’t Just About Vegas, Baby!

Church Hill Theatre, 7 Aug, £5 The God Box: A Daughter’s Story Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £7—£12

The Make Up C venues - C, 10–16 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

12:30 Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10 Going Out West Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£9.50 Near Gone Summerhall, Various dates from 1 Aug to 23 Aug, £7—£10 The Pitiless Storm 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

Playback Impro Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £free A World Beyond Man Sweet Grassmarket, 1–17 Aug, not 11, £7.50 Tragedy of Tragedies: Or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb Pilrig Studio, 6 Aug, 8 Aug, £5 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 Absence Of...

Gilded Balloon , 13–15 Aug, £5

12:35 Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 5 Aug, 6 Aug, 8 Aug, 9 Aug, £5

5–7 August 2014 fest 87

THEATRE LISTINGS 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 Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£10 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 SmallWar Traverse Theatre, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 24 Aug, £19 RIVERRUN Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £19 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

Dr Longitude’s Marvellous Imaginary Menagerie 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 Hand Made in China: Moons, Migration and Messages Summerhall, 11–24 Aug, £3 Woyzeck Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 12, £9—£10

Inevitable Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 18–23 Aug, £4

Till Death theSpace on North Bridge, 11–16 Aug, £5

Beowulf: The Blockbuster Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£11

A Little Nonsense Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£11

Passing Sentence Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 4–9 Aug, £5

Night Bus Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £6—£11

Sochi 2014 Pleasance Courtyard, 1–21 Aug, not 11, £6—£9

I Promise I Shall Not Play Billiards The Royal Scots Club, Various dates from 5 Aug to 12 Aug, £9.50

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 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

88 fest 5–7 August 2014

Reduced Shakespeare Company in The Complete History of Comedy (abridged) Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £10—£13 Fundamentalists theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £10 Who Rowed Across Oceans theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 12–16 Aug, £7 This Way Madness Lies theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £7 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

Antigone theSpace on the Mile, 19–22 Aug, £5

Inevitable theSpace on the Mile, 19–23 Aug, £5

The Psychosocial Gathering theSpace on the Mile, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £4—£7

Scandimania: Gods of Ice and Fire Sweet Grassmarket, 1–10 Aug, £8

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

Buffer theSpace on North Bridge, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £7.50

The Carousel Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, £18 Leaving Home Party Summerhall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £8—£12 MacBraveheart: The Other Scottish Play The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10

13:20 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

13:15

13:30

Welcome to the Moon and Other Plays Church Hill Theatre, 5 Aug, £5

Dead Wait Pleasance Pop-Up: The Game Lab, 2–17 Aug, not 5, 12, £8—£10

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 Closure of Craig Solly: A Dark Monologue by Russell Kane Underbelly, Bristo Square, 18–24 Aug, £12.50—£14.50

1 Green Bottle C venues - C cubed, 2–9 Aug, £8.50—£9.50 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 Institut français d’Ecosse, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £5 Don’t Let Go 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 Cutting Off Kate Bush HHH Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£11 The Duel Venue150@EICC, 5–23 Aug, not 11, 18, 21, £10 Romeo and Juliet C venues - C cubed, 10–25 Aug, £8.50—£10.50 Horizontal Collaboration Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £18 Spoiling Traverse Theatre, 1 Aug, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £18 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 Love is a Cat Skin Rug Laughing Horse @ The Blind Poet , 14–24 Aug, £free

Odd Shaped Balls Gryphon@WestEnd, 4–16 Aug, not 10, £8.50

A Split Decision The Assembly Rooms, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £10

Lorraine & Alan Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 9, £6—£10

13:35

Bottleneck Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£13 Rebecca C venues - C, 17–23 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

Teenage Dirtbag theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, Various dates from 2 Aug to 9 Aug, £5—£6 Land of Smiles Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £5—£12

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE LISTINGS 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

The Initiate Summerhall @ Roundabout, Various dates from 5 Aug to 21 Aug, £15

Café Ruse Zoo Southside, 1–25 Aug, not 13, 20, £5—£8

Hamlet and Ophelia C venues - C, 1–9 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

HHHH

13:40

Lungs Summerhall @ Roundabout, Various dates from 2 Aug to 23 Aug, £10—£17

In The Window Assembly Hall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8—£13

LABOURatory Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 18–21 Aug, £4

Mind The Gap theSpace @ Venue45, 12–16 Aug, £7

Years to the Day Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10

13:45

13:55

The Day Sam Died New Town Theatre, 5–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £10 Blackout Thistle King James Hotel, 1–10 Aug, £free Julie Burchill: Absolute Cult

HHH

Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £6—£12.50

Red Tap/Blue Tiger Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7—£11 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

15% of The Seagull Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 2–17 Aug, £7 Backstage in Biscuit Land Pleasance Courtyard, 1–16 Aug, not 4, 11, £6—£11 Blind Pleasance Courtyard, 17–25 Aug, £9—£12 Sleeping with Beauty Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 18 Aug, £4 Factor 9 Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £8—£13 Back Door theSpace on the Mile, 18–23 Aug, £8 The 56 Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, £6—£10

14:00

Mock Tudor HHH Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

Momma Was a Bad Mutha theSpace on the Mile, 11–16 Aug, £9

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

Glue theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £8

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

13:50 Live Forever Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11 The Result of a Man and His Ponderings theSpace on North Bridge, 18–21 Aug, £5 Chasing Zeds theSpace on North Bridge, 11–16 Aug, £5

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Domestic Labour: A Study in Love

HHH

Summerhall, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £10—£12

Sweater Curse: A Yarn about Love Sweet Grassmarket, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8 Macbeth Lauriston Halls, 4–8 Aug, £free Bill Clinton Hercules Assembly George Square Studios, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8—£13 Signal Failure Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£10

❤ The Capone Trilogy: Loki 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 Shakespeare, His Wife and the Dog Summerhall, 5–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £8—£14 Invisible Walls Summerhall, 1–12 Aug, £8—£12 Such a Nice Girl just Festival, 15–24 Aug, £10 Silent Voice HHH Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £9—£13 The Tarzan Monologues Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£10 The Importance of Being Earnest C venues - C too, 10– 25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 Warrior just Festival, 1–13 Aug, £5—£10 You, Me and the World HHH Zoo Southside, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 12, 19, £7—£9 A Midsummer Night’s Dream Edinburgh Elim, 19 Aug, 21 Aug, £8 My Rabbi New Town Theatre, 5–24 Aug, £10—£12

14:05 Antiquithon Institut français d’Ecosse, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £5 Brotherhood theSpace on the Mile, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £5—£7 13 Sunken Years The Assembly Rooms, 11–24 Aug, not 18, £13

Pvt. Wars theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 19–23 Aug, £5

Normal/Madness Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£10

Jim theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £5—£8

The Road to Skibbereen C venues - C, 10–25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50

The Baron Conspiracy C venues - C south, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50

Riding With Night Pilrig Studio, 5 Aug, 8 Aug, £5

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 Who’s Afraid of Michael Gove? theSpace @ Venue45, 18–22 Aug, £7 #MyWay Pleasance Dome, 1–16 Aug, £6—£9.50 Wireless Theatre Presents: Couples Who Changed the World Pleasance Dome, 18–25 Aug, £10 That Sinking Feeling SpaceCabaret @ 54, 1–14 Aug, £4—£8 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

William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors Church Hill Theatre, 5 Aug, £5 Glass Church Hill Theatre, 8 Aug, £5 Midsummer / Jersey Church Hill Theatre, 7 Aug, £5 Footloose Church Hill Theatre, 19 Aug, £5 Godspell Pilrig Studio, 6 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 Alice in Concert Church Hill Theatre, 15 Aug, £5 The Anima Project C venues - C nova, 3–9 Aug, £9.50—£10.50

14:25 A Year with Frog and Toad Church Hill Theatre, 9 Aug, £5 Two theSpace on Niddry St, 12 Aug, 14 Aug, 16 Aug, £7 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 The Horses Quaker Meeting House, 11–16 Aug, £7 The Sorcerer’s Tale Mayfield Salisbury Church, 9 Aug, 16 Aug, £10 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 Baba Brinkman - The Rap Guide to Religion HHH Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£10.50 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 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

5–7 August 2014 fest 89

THEATRE LISTINGS 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 Institut français d’Ecosse, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £5 Mercury Fur C venues - C, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £9.50—£11.50 Rants, Bantz and Comas theSpace on North Bridge, 11–16 Aug, £5 Dead Fresh theSpace on North Bridge, 18–21 Aug, £5 Tea and Jamboree with Queenie Greenside @ Royal Terrace, Various dates from 2 Aug to 23 Aug, £8 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

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

Prelude to a Number Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 2–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £8—£11

Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope Gilded Balloon , 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £11—£12

Saving Graces at St Mabel’s Paradise in Augustines, 21–25 Aug, £5

Grace and the Sea Sweet Grassmarket, 4–9 Aug, £10

Raymondo Summerhall, 11–24 Aug, £11 Travesti Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 5, 19, £6—£11 Blind Hamlet Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 12, 18, £10—£15 Superfluous Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 17–25 Aug, £9 Mush and Me Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £6—£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

Barbara and Yogashwara’s Safe Space theSpace on Niddry St, 6–20 Aug, not 10, 14, 18, £8 Under Milk Wood Assembly Hall, 11 Aug, £15 Drowning Scott Greenside @ Nicolson Square, Various dates from 3 Aug to 15 Aug, £7 Help Yourself Central Hall, 9 Aug, 13 Aug, 14 Aug, £9 Dog, Book and Scandal Gryphon@WestEnd, 1–16 Aug, not 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, £8 Bannockburn Quaker Meeting House, 4–16 Aug, not 10, £8

Alive Paradise in The Vault, 19–25 Aug, £7

Zelda- The Last Flapper by William Luce Hill Street Solo Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £7—£10

Post-Its (Notes on a Marriage) Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 14–24 Aug, £2—£4

Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10

Where the World Is Going, That’s Where We Are Going Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 18, £12.50

The Estate Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 18–23 Aug, £8

15:00

The Queen’s Speech Gryphon@WestEnd, Various dates from 2 Aug to 15 Aug, £8

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

90 fest 5–7 August 2014

Anorak of Fire The Royal Scots Club, 12–16 Aug, £8

The Most Serious Ailments of St Krank’s Bedlam Theatre, 4–9 Aug, £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

Bottom’s Dream Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 1–16 Aug, not 10, £7—£9 NYC - A Subway Tale Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 6–9 Aug, £4.50 The Ruby Dolls: Fabulous Creatures

HHH

Assembly Checkpoint, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 12, 19, £8—£12

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 Swimming Pleasance Dome, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6.50—£11 Party in the USA! Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£12

15:05

15:15 Please Don’t Cry (At My Funeral) Zoo Southside, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£8

Red Jungle Fowl Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£8

Play It ‘Til We Get It Right Church Hill Theatre, 5 Aug, £5

The Match Game Underbelly, Bristo Square, 1–14 Aug, £6—£9.50

Our Town theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 6 Aug, 10 Aug, £5

Jestia and Raedon C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50

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 From Up Here Church Hill Theatre, 9 Aug, £5 Lippy Traverse Theatre, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £19

Gordon theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £7 The Blazers theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–16 Aug, £6—£7

The Virtuous Burglar Paradise in Augustines, 5–9 Aug, £7

Pennyroyal Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £6—£10

RIVERRUN Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, £19

Munich theSpace on the Mile, 19–23 Aug, £7 Amy K theSpace on the Mile, 18–23 Aug, £6 Now We Are Pope: Frederick Rolfe in Venice theSpace on North Bridge, 18–23 Aug, £8 Smoking Kills theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £5.50 A History of Falling Things theSpace on the Mile, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £7 Crazy Glue HH Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £7—£11

15:10 I’m Not Like Other Girls theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 4–9 Aug, £7 The Lover theSpace on Niddry St, 18–23 Aug, £8

Squidboy Underbelly, Bristo Square, 16–25 Aug, £11—£12

Mug Shot Paradise in Augustines, 12–16 Aug, £5

Cuckooed Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £19

(The Reel) Macbeth C venues - C south, 3–9 Aug, £9.50—£10.50

15:25

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 The Bunker Trilogy: Morgana C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £11.50—£13.50 Vanity Bites Back Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£8 Away From Home Assembly George Square Theatre, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8—£12 Fearnot Wood Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–17 Aug, not 12, £5—£8.50 Race by David Mamet Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £9—£13

15:30 The Penelopiad C venues - C, 10–25 Aug, £8.50—£10.50 Dead Wait Pleasance Pop-Up: The Game Lab, 2–17 Aug, not 5, 12, £8—£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 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 Are You Lonesome Tonight Summerhall, Various dates from 1 Aug to 22 Aug, £5 Chariot: The Eric Liddell Story Palmerston Place Church, 23 Aug, £11 The Sleeping Trees Treelogy Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £6—£9 The Secret Wives of Andy Williams Underbelly, Cowgate, Various dates from 1 Aug to 24 Aug, £6—£10 Spine Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £6—£11

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THEATRE LISTINGS

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5–7 August 2014 fest 91

THEATRE LISTINGS SmallWar Traverse Theatre, 8 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £19 Antiquithon Institut français d’Ecosse, 1–23 Aug, not 11, 18, £5 Dracula Sweet Grassmarket, 4–17 Aug, £8 Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10 Dead Fresh theSpace on North Bridge, 11–16 Aug, £5 Simon Callow in Juvenalia Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 11, 18, £10—£20 Hot Cat Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£12.50 Scaramouche Jones Pleasance Courtyard, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £7—£14 Conversations with Boring, Ugly People theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 7 Aug, 9 Aug, £5 Till Death theSpace on North Bridge, 18–21 Aug, £5 King David’s Wives St Cuthbert’s Church, 15–23 Aug, not 19, £free 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 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 Berkoff the Inimitable Summerhall, 13–14 Aug, £15 The Dispute Summerhall, 1–5 Aug, £5—£12 The Future for Beginners HH Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £8—£10 Llais/Voice theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £7 Sleight & Hand Summerhall, 15–19 Aug, £5—£12 The Man Who Almost Killed Himself Summerhall, 7–11 Aug, £5—£12 Alison Jackson: A Story in the Public Domain Summerhall, 21–24 Aug, £10—£15

15:45 Human St John’s, 1–14 Aug, £free Horizontal Collaboration Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, £18 The Carousel Traverse Theatre, 1 Aug, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £18 147 Questions About Love Dance Base, 1–17 Aug, not 4, 11, £8—£10 18b ZOO, Various dates from 1 Aug to 25 Aug, £8 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

92 fest 5–7 August 2014

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 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

16:10 The Piece of Paper Paradox theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £6.50—£8 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 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 Glass Church Hill Theatre, 6 Aug, £5 Hamlet Pilrig Studio, 7 Aug, £5 Monster Madness Church Hill Theatre, 7 Aug, £5 News Junkie Paradise in The Vault, 19–25 Aug, £6—£7 Godspell Pilrig Studio, 8 Aug, £5 The Actor’s Nightmare Pilrig Studio, 6 Aug, £5 LaborActorial New Town Theatre, 6–14 Aug, £10 Spoiling Traverse Theatre, 2 Aug, 8 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £18 Jamaica Farewell Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, £6—£11 Maybe New Town Theatre, 16–24 Aug, £10

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 The Press-Ganged Fool Paradise in Augustines, 8–10 Aug, £5 St Joan Bedlam Theatre, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £8 Our Town: Louisville Church Hill Theatre, 5 Aug, £5 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

16:35 Lands of Glass

HHH

Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 16, 19, £9—£12

Casual Encounters theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £5—£8 How does a Snake Shed its Skin? HHH Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, 19, £7—£12.50 Flat Pack theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 19–23 Aug, £8

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THEATRE LISTINGS Woman Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–8 Aug, £10 Shooting the White Eagle Just the Tonic at The Caves, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£7 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

Guess Who: Meinzeye or Cold Corner?

Sweet Grassmarket, 4–10 Aug, £7

You, Me and the World HHH Zoo Southside, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 12, 19, £7—£9

Soldier Box theSpace on North Bridge, Various dates from 2 Aug to 22 Aug, £6—£8

Hiraeth Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£11

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

Perfection C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £8.50—£10.50

Haggis Haggis Haggis Scottish Storytelling Centre, 4–24 Aug, not 12, 13, 14, £10

Bad Boys: Whisky Theatre Valvona & Crolla Scottish Foodhall@Jenners, 6–23 Aug, not 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, £15

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

The Importance of Being Earnest theSpace on the Mile, 11–16 Aug, £9

Tick Tock Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, £9.50

The Dirty Talk C venues - C, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £9.50—£11.50

Nathan Penlington: Choose Your Own Documentary Gilded Balloon , 10–25 Aug, £10.50—£12.50

Jay-Z and Me: A Fast Talking Memoir Sweet Grassmarket, 1–17 Aug, not 11, £8

Little on the inside Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £9—£12

A Walk in the Dust Sweet Grassmarket, 15 Aug, £6

Woyzeck!

C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50

16:45

Barbara and Yogashwara’s Safe Space theSpace on Niddry St, 6–20 Aug, not 10, 14, 18, £8

Lie Back and Think of England C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10.50 Green Snake C venues - C, 20–25 Aug, £11.50—£12.50 Yellow Fever Venue 13, 2–23 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £8 Inheritance Blues Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £6—£11 Cirque Tsuki: Parade C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £7.50—£9.50 Hamlet C venues - C too, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £8.50—£10.50

16:50 Tender Napalm C venues - C nova, 10–25 Aug, £9.50—£11.50 Just Paradise in Augustines, 12–17 Aug, £8

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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 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

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 Chris is Dead theSpace on the Mile, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £8 Linwood No More theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 4–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £10 An Audience With Shurl Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–23 Aug, £7

17:15

Moonshine, Medicine and The Mob: Whisky Theatre Valvona & Crolla Scottish Foodhall@Jenners, 13 Aug, 20 Aug, £15 Spectrum theSpace on North Bridge, Various dates from 3 Aug to 23 Aug, £6—£8 Unprescribed Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £5—£9 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

A Drinker C venues - C nova, 4–8 Aug, £9.50—£10.50

The Last Motel Sweet Grassmarket, 1–10 Aug, £8

Singarevva and the Palace Sweet Grassmarket, 12–17 Aug, £7

Treasure Island theSpace on Niddry St, 1–23 Aug, £10—£11

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 Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £9—£13

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 Motortown Sweet Grassmarket, 18–24 Aug, £8.50 True Brits Assembly Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £5—£10

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 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 Off the Curtain SpaceCabaret @ 54, 1–9 Aug, £5—£7

17:55 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

5–7 August 2014 fest 93

THEATRE LISTINGS 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 Macbeth Lauriston Halls, 4–8 Aug, £free The Interview Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, £6—£10 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

The Object Lesson Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £9—£14 My Luxurious 50 Square Feet Life just Festival, 9–10 Aug, £10 The Duck Pond Bedlam Theatre, 2–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£8

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

18:10

The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha ZOO, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £9 Hamlet Pilrig Studio, 9 Aug, £5 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

18:20

Torsten The Bareback Saint Assembly George Square Studios, 5–16 Aug, £16—£19

Nevada: It Ain’t Just About Vegas, Baby!

Church Hill Theatre, 4 Aug, 8 Aug, £5

18:15 Labour of Love Church Hill Theatre, 16 Aug, £5

Bunbury Is Dead Cafe Camino, 2–23 Aug, not 15, £free

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

Riding With Night Pilrig Studio, 6 Aug, £5 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

94 fest 5–7 August 2014

Measure for Measure theSpace on North Bridge, 4–9 Aug, £8

Light Killer Summerhall, 9–24 Aug, £7—£11

RIVERRUN Traverse Theatre, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £19

Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles National Library of Scotland, 11–22 Aug, weekdays only, £6

Broken Dolls (Razbitye Kuklu) C venues - C cubed, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10.50

Footloose Church Hill Theatre, 18 Aug, £5

The Three Peaks Quaker Meeting House, 11–16 Aug, £8

Letters Home Edinburgh International Book Festival, 9–25 Aug, not 12, 19, £10—£15

Vincent Goes Splat

Death is the New Porn theSpace on North Bridge, Various dates from 3 Aug to 23 Aug, £6—£8

Sonnets for an Old Century Church Hill Theatre, 15 Aug, £5

Somebody I Used to Know Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 6, 13, 20, £8—£10

Tales from the MP3 Summerhall, 10–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £10.50—£12.50

Mental Pleasance Pop-Up: The Bedroom, 7–24 Aug, not 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, £10

The Carousel Traverse Theatre, 2 Aug, 8 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £18

Chef Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–17 Aug, £6—£10.50

Love Thy Neighbour Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, £5

Help Yourself Central Hall, Various dates from 7 Aug to 14 Aug, £9

Midsummer / Jersey Church Hill Theatre, 6 Aug, £5

Mata Hari In Eight Bullets Acoustic Music Centre @ St Bride’s, 15 Aug, 16 Aug, 17 Aug, 19 Aug, 20 Aug, £15

Trailer Park Plays Laughing Horse @ Gorgie City Farm, 7–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £free

19:00

The HandleBards: The Comedy of Errors Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh - West Gate, 6 Aug, 8 Aug, 10 Aug, £12

Lace Up theSpace on North Bridge, Various dates from 4 Aug to 22 Aug, £8

The God That Comes Summerhall, 13–24 Aug, not 18, £12

High Vis Princes Mall, 1–25 Aug, £free

18:45

Men in the Cities Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £18

Horizontal Collaboration Traverse Theatre, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £18

To Chekhov With Love: Afterplay and The White Peacock (Two One-Act Plays) Quaker Meeting House, 4–9 Aug, £6

Lippy Traverse Theatre, 8 Aug, 14 Aug, 20 Aug, £19

Spoiling Traverse Theatre, 3 Aug, 9 Aug, 15 Aug, 21 Aug, £18

Boosters ZOO, 4–31 Aug, £5—£9

Charmolypi Summerhall, 9–24 Aug, not 18, £10

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 As You Like It Pilrig Studio, 5 Aug, £5 Wastwater C venues - C nova, 1–16 Aug, £8.50—£10.50

18:35 Hyde & Seek C venues - C nova, 1–25 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

18:30

I Promise You Sex and Violence HH Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 2–23 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £11—£14

Silence in Court New Town Theatre, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £10—£12

Old Gristle theSpace @ Venue45, Various dates from 12 Aug to 23 Aug, £5

The Flood Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £12

18:40

The Duchess of Malfi The Royal Scots Club, 4–9 Aug, £10 He Had Hairy Hands Pleasance Courtyard, 1–25 Aug, not 13, £6—£11.50

Punk Rock theSpace on North Bridge, 18–23 Aug, £7 You’re Never Too Old Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug, not 12, £5—£10

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 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

Naked in Alaska Assembly Roxy, 1–25 Aug, not 11, 18, £6—£10

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

19:05

18:55

Stackard Banks is Self-Discovered Ciao Roma, 2–23 Aug, not 12, £free

Forever Young theSpace @ Symposium Hall, 18–23 Aug, £8

Olaudah Equiano: The Enslaved African theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £8

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE LISTINGS 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 Welcome to the Moon and Other Plays Church Hill Theatre, 6 Aug, £5 From Up Here Church Hill Theatre, 5 Aug, 7 Aug, £5

www.festmag.co.uk

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

19:30 Swing Dance Base, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £8—£10 A Game of Soldiers Lauriston Halls, 1–16 Aug, not 3, 10, £10

Rut Laughing Horse @ Bar 50, 1–10 Aug, £free

Relatively Speaking Murrayfield Parish Church Centre, 6–16 Aug, not 10, £10.50

3,000 Trees by George Gunn Gryphon@WestEnd, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £8

Keep Smiling Through The Brunton , 8 Aug, £15

Play It ‘Til We Get It Right Church Hill Theatre, 8 Aug, £5

19:20 Doing Time With Number 5 Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, £7 The Bunker Trilogy: Agamemnon C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £11.50—£13.50 In Control Paradise in The Vault, Various dates from 3 Aug to 25 Aug, £6.50—£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

How to Disappear Completely Underbelly, Cowgate, 1–24 Aug, not 13, £6—£11.50 Leave Me Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 10–25 Aug, £7 Beyond a Joke Saughtonhall United Reformed Church, 4–9 Aug, £7

Claustrophobia ZOO, 1–25 Aug, not 18, £9—£10 Mary, the Last Farewell Edinburgh Elim, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £8 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

The Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour Outside the Beehive Inn, 1–31 Aug, £14

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest theSpace @ Venue45, 11–16 Aug, £7

Kiss Me Honey, Honey!

Gilded Balloon , 17 Aug, 18 Aug, 19 Aug, 20 Aug, 23 Aug, £12.50

The Really Big Diamond theSpace @ Venue45, 19–23 Aug, £7

Amazing Grace Palmerston Place Church, 13–15 Aug, £10

Tinderbox Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £8—£10

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

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

19:45 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

19:55 Last Call C venues - C cubed, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10.50

20:00 Victorian Vices – The Picture of Dorian Gray theSpace on Niddry St, 1–23 Aug, not 10, 17, £8—£11

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 Soften the Grey theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 18–23 Aug, £8 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

19:40

No Guts, No Heart, No Glory Sandy’s Boxing Gym, 22–24 Aug, £12

According To His Need C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7.50—£9.50

Sins of Seven Tables Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £3—£7

So What If I Dance?

Sweet Grassmarket, 1–17 Aug, not 3, 6, 13, £5—£7

The Sorrows of Young Werther theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 13–15 Aug, £6

5–7 August 2014 fest 95

THEATRE LISTINGS 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 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 A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts Northern Stage at King’s Hall, 2–17 Aug, not 7, 14, £11—£14 William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors Church Hill Theatre, 6 Aug, £5 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 The Basement Project Church Hill Theatre, 7 Aug, £5 Sex, With Benefits Sweet Grassmarket, 1–10 Aug, £8.50 As You Like It Pilrig Studio, 7 Aug, £5

20:30 Tragedy of Tragedies: Or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb Pilrig Studio, 5 Aug, 9 Aug, £5 Dead Wait Pleasance Pop-Up: The Game Lab, 2–17 Aug, not 5, 12, £8—£10 Unfaithful Traverse Theatre, 6 Aug, 12 Aug, 17 Aug, 23 Aug, £19

20:35 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 Great Artists Steal theSpace @ Venue45, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £5—£9 The Rose of Jericho theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 3, 10, 17, £6—£10

Out of Water Summerhall @ Portobello Beach, 8–10 Aug, £10

The Noctambulist Paradise in The Vault, 2 Aug, 4 Aug, 5 Aug, £4—£8

The House of Bernarda Alba theSpace on Niddry St, 1–23 Aug, £9—£11

20:40 ❤ The Capone

Larkin’ About Valvona & Crolla, 4 Aug, 5 Aug, 7 Aug, £10

Trilogy: Vindici

HHHH

C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £11.50—£13.50

Cuckooed Traverse Theatre, 2 Aug, 7 Aug, 13 Aug, 19 Aug, 24 Aug, £13—£19

Darkle theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–23 Aug, not 10, £10—£11

The Flood Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £12

What Do You Mean Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, not 12, 19, £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 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 Shrew C venues - C cubed, 1–25 Aug, £7.50—£9.50 Lysistrata C venues - C, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £10.50—£12.50 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

96 fest 5–7 August 2014

Sleeping with Beauty Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 19 Aug, £4

20:45 A Few Good Men Greenside @ Royal Terrace, 3–9 Aug, £12 Standing on Lego Paradise in Augustines, 19–21 Aug, £5—£8 Mates Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 1–16 Aug, not 10, £10 East Paradise in The Vault, 6–10 Aug, £7 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

Trainspotting Hill Street Drama Lodge, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £7—£14

The Lieutenant of

SmallWar Traverse Theatre, 5 Aug, 10 Aug, 16 Aug, 22 Aug, £19

Fragile ZOO, 1–25 Aug, £8.50—£9.50

Lodge, 1–24 Aug, not 6,

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 Assembly Checkpoint, 1–24 Aug, not 12, 19, £10—£13.50

Actors Paradise in The Vault, 12–25 Aug, not 18, £6.50—£8 The Merchant of Venice Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 18–23 Aug, £9

20:55 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 Private View Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 4–24 Aug, not 12, £7 A Journey Round My Skull Summerhall, 18 Aug, £11 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 Mata Hari In Eight Bullets Acoustic Music Centre @ St Bride’s, 6 Aug, £10

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 Dave! theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 14 Aug, 16 Aug, 18 Aug, 20 Aug, 22 Aug, £7 Candide: The Optimist theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 1–12 Aug, £5—£10 A Quartet of Chekhov Farces theSpace on the Mile, 11–16 Aug, £7—£8

Inishmore Hill Street Drama 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 Inge at the Fringe Church Hill Theatre, 6 Aug, £5

Lady GoGo Goch Summerhall, 1–24 Aug, not 4, 11, 18, £11—£12

Dracula HHH

Totally Devoted theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £6—£9

1–25 Aug, not 11,

Seated Reservations theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11 Aug, 13 Aug, 15 Aug, 19 Aug, 21 Aug, £7

Machine: Book to

The Brown Felt Hat theSpace on the Mile, 5–8 Aug, £8

not 12, £4—£8

21:10 Guaranteed Nudity theSpace on the Mile, 11–23 Aug, not 17, £6

❤ Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho HHHH Assembly George Square Gardens, 1–24 Aug, not 11, £8—£13 Honest theSpace @ Jury’s Inn, 18–23 Aug, £8

Pleasance Courtyard, £8—£14

Paperback Time the Future Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 1–24 Aug,

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

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

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

www.festmag.co.uk

THEATRE LISTINGS 22:05 21:35

21:55

Neverland theSpace @ Venue45, 11–16 Aug, £9

The Noctambulist Paradise in The Vault, 6–10 Aug, £8

The Temptation of St Anthony theSpace @ Venue45, 18–23 Aug, £8—£9

22:00

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 Assembly George Square Studios, 1–25 Aug, not 11, £7—£15

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 Wuthering Heights Summerhall, 10–24 Aug, not 15, 18, £12.50 X and Y just Festival, Various dates from 1 Aug to 19 Aug, £5—£10 The Bunker Trilogy: Macbeth C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, £11.50—£13.50

21:45

Drunk Lion Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 1–24 Aug, £free

No Name theSpace @ Venue45, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £6—£7

Gidding’s Ward Greenside @ Nicolson Square, 11–16 Aug, £5

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

www.festmag.co.uk

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

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 Real Fake White Dirt Sweet Grassmarket, 7–10 Aug, £8.50 Loose Soul Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, 1–25 Aug, £9

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 Glass Church Hill Theatre, 7 Aug, £5 Monster Madness Church Hill Theatre, 5 Aug, £5

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

22:40

23:20

Engels! The Karl Marx Story Double Bill theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 19–23 Aug, £10

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 Et Tu Elvie C venues - C, 1–25 Aug, £8.50—£10.50

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

Smoking Ban theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 11–16 Aug, £7

Trainspotting Hill Street Drama Lodge, 1–24 Aug, not 5, 12, 19, £7—£14

22:20

The Devil Without C venues - C nova, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £8.50—£10.50

Kim Noble: You’re Not Alone Traverse Theatre, 19–24 Aug, £13—£19

Nevada: It Ain’t Just About Vegas, Baby!

Church Hill Theatre, 6 Aug, £5

Mafia on Prozac theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 1–9 Aug, not 3, £4—£8

Cheesed Off Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 1–12 Aug, not 6, £free

Footloose Church Hill Theatre, 16 Aug, £5

23:30 Tape C venues - C too, 14– 16 Aug, £8.50—£9.50 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

5–7 August 2014 fest 97

FELICITY WARD:

Ten Things I Did Today Underbelly, Bristo Square, 9:25pm – 10:25pm, until 25 August

I woke up and watched some Orange is the New Black because I have an addictive personality.

1

Walked past a massive poster of me, which makes it looks like my cockatoo is staring at a bum cheek.

Always nice to be humbled by walking past a massive photo of my face, followed closely by a flyer of that same face, absolutely torn to shreds.

3 6

4

Saw a sign and missed smoking. It was always there for me when I needed it...if I paid for them, and liked the idea of terminal emphysema.

7 I always eat well during the Fringe and this is no exception: a Snickers for dinner.

Ran into Van Badham and Bobby Mair at Black Medicine Cafe. Partly to enjoy caffeinated drinks, mostly to get out of the rain.

8

9 98 fest 5–7 August 2014

2

Never go to the toilet alone.

Always take a buddy. My trusty cubicle companion is Celia Pacquola.

10

5 Decided that Edinburgh Fringe is too relaxing, so I thought I’d train to Glasgow and host a lunchtime cabaret show at the Commonwealth Games. It was going better than expected but then a small hurricane blew through and air-lifted several people into nearby towns. There is a photo of me side-stage, and then actually on stage, with an umbrella. At that point the gig had to be called off. In true Scottish style, the survivors were quite happy to go on with the show.

Just to keep the days nice and long, I finished with a gig at Late’n’Live. What do uni students love? Late night comedy and selfies. So in an attempt to broach a new demographic I combined the two. I’m the one in the panda jumper. The table did not break under my powerful arms. www.festmag.co.uk

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5–7 August 2014 fest 99

by arrangement with Lisa Thomas managemenT presents

the times

Full Autumn Tour details at

jasonbyrne.ie @theJasonByrne