With the Edinburgh Festival Fringe due to kick-off on August 4, we’ve taken a look at some of the best theatre shows to see in the Capital as part of the world’s largest arts festival.
Performers from all over the world will be putting on thought-provoking and sometimes shocking shows in Edinburgh next month. We’ve picked shows of all genres to interest everyone, from hardened theatre-goers to those who have never visited a theatre before.
. Anna Lou Larkin: Le Wine Club
Popular Glaswegian cabaret performer Anna Lou Larkin takes the role of sommelier as she brings her solo show to Edinburgh for a mid-afternoon wine tasting paired with a murder mystery. Audiences are invited to join the chanteuse for a tipple as she sets out to solve the mystery of who killed her lover, whilst indulging in the world of wine and adding splashes of accordion-based musical comedy and magic for good measure. Anna Lou Larkin has studied wine up to WSET Level 4 and will bring her real-life experience to the stage in this funny wine-infused cabaret where all of-age audience members are invited to join Anna for a tipple. Gilded Balloon, Patter Hoose (Nip), 2 – 27 August (not 16), 3pm. Photo: Karla Gowat
. House of Life
One-part sermon, one-part purge, three-parts party, House of Life is a travelling musical cult collective hosted by the camp and glitter clad RaveRend with one mission - to make the audience happy, at any cost. Made up of alumni of the BAFTA-winning Television Workshop, Nottingham based Sheep Soup uses live music with loop pedals, sampled voices and audience interaction to create a feel-good, open hearted and celebratory cabaret theatre show. Inspired by the places where people come together to heal through music, joy and noise – church, festivals, protests, football matches, raves – the audience is taken through an eight-step programme of how to get content. They are encouraged to join in with the RaveRend and move to the music, creating their own community for one-night-only, which means that no two shows are the same. Underbelly Cowgate, Belly Dancer, 3 - 25 August, 8.55pm. Photo: Annabelle Mastin-Lee (Mobius London)
. Raising Kane
With set, props and performer all in black and white, David Shopland explores the life of one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Orson Welles, in a brand-new solo show. After continuously having his theatre style and work ethic compared to Welles by friends and family, Shopland is stepping back onstage for the first time in a decade to portray the historic figure. In 1941 a precocious young upstart of New York's glittering theatre scene tried his hand at making a movie and accidentally created the greatest motion picture of all time. Shopland energetically delves into the making of Citizen Kane and the trials and tribulations of Welles' life, based on real interviews and recordings, while also reflecting on his own history and self-analysis in anachronistic moments. AssemblyGeorge Square Studios, Studio 4, 3 – 28 August (not 14 & 21), 12pm. Photo: Annabelle Mastin-Lee (Mobius London)
. Funeral
Celebrating the finiteness of things in a theatrical ritual, the new show from Ontroerend Goed brings people together in a gently participatory show to ask how we mark a personal loss when religion no longer connects us. When his father died a few years ago, director Alexander Devriendt decided to hold his funeral in a church, despite not being religious himself. Now, he brings audiences together to sit in the dark, light candles, sing, eat, drink and celebrate as Funeral reflects on what ritual we turn to in times of mourning. Zoo Southside, Main House, 4 – 27 August (not 7, 14 & 21), 10am, and 11:20am from August 18 Photo: Ans Brys
5. Lear Alone
Using just King Lear’s lines from Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy to explore themes of loneliness, ageing and homelessness, Lear Alone is a study of one man's vulnerability as he confronts and negotiates a digital world. As Shakespeare’s King loses his power, his sanity and his home, so does the actor playing Lear as he tries to find his voice and his place in a world that is rendering him invisible. Lear Alone is the theatrical realisation of And Tomorrow Theatre Company’s five-part Arts Council-funded web series which was presented in partnership with CRISIS and which won the Off West End Award for Best Online Series 2022. The Space Triplex, Studio, 4 - 19 August (not 13), 3.05pm. Photo: Sarah Lawrie
6. The Society for New Cuisine
Taking a Buddhist allegory and turning it into a dark satirical fable, East-Asian writer and performer Chris Fung’s debut one man show addresses consumerism, existentialism and a need that can never be satisfied. When a man goes through a cataclysmic awakening, he takes stock of his life and finds himself wanting. Partly inspired by a real-life experience, partly inspired by the swathes of workers in the UK, USA and China who left well paid jobs during the pandemic,The Society for New Cuisine follows the character as he seeks to find new purpose and meaning. His journey sees him confront societal taboos and takes him to increasingly dark extremes until finally he is persuaded that he’ll find satisfaction in an irreversible, bloody decision. Underbelly Cowgate, Iron Belly, 3 – 27 August (not 14), 6.40pm. Photo: Annabelle Mastin-Lee (Mobius London)
7. Polko
By journalist turned playwright Angus Harrison, Polko is a dark memory play centred around three characters: one who’s returned home under a cloud of failure, one who never left home, and one who disappeared. Inspired by reports during lockdown of young people moving back to live with their parents, and it being the largest such migration since the Great Depression, the play is about being back where you started, and the refuge that memory can be when it seems like the future’s been cancelled. Polko is set entirely in the front-seats of a car parked in a hometown that Emma doesn’t remember, that Joe has been left behind in, and that the missing Polko has been seemingly driven from. ROUNDABOUT@ Summerhall, 2 - 27 August (not 8, 15 & 22) 11.50am. Photo: Annabelle Mastin-Lee (Mobius London)
8. Casting the Runes
With puppets, set and props made using recycled materials, Fringe stalwarts Box Tale Soup bring M.R. James’ chilling supernatural thriller back to life with their signature style of puppet-based literary adaptation. The two-hander pays homage to a writer considered the grandfather of British horror (inspiration for writers such as Susan Hill and Lovecraft), taking audiences on a ride through dark magic and intrigue, and further establishing the company as one of the go-to creators of classic Gothic theatre. Carefully crafted with tense original music, bespoke puppets, and a shape-shifting set, it follows the increasingly sinister haunting of an academic after he’s given some mysterious runes. Pleasance Courtyard, Pleasance Above, 2 - 27 August (not 16), 11:45am. Photo: Annabelle Mastin-Lee (Mobius London)