Would you like to know what we’re seeing in Edinburgh today? I thought you would!
Here’s the schedule for 25th August:
12.55 – Mass Effect, Summerhall. From the Edinburgh Fringe website:
“Mass Effect is an award-winning, high-intensity performance. Together, the cast push their physical limits, deal with exhaustion, motivation, and group dynamics. Spatial patterns carve out complex running formations and team collaboration becomes key, as they push to the limits of their physical thresholds, moving beyond exhaustion. Members of the local community join the stage in the end of the performance. Pumping up the energy to offer that last push to keep going, filling the theatre with an energetic pulse and a total Mass Effect. A tremendous spectacle that fills the room with vitality and joy. Part of #Danish.”
This should be an invigorating way to start the day – even if it is in the afternoon!
15.30 – Bacon, Summerhall.
“Bacon. Sophie Swithinbank, directed by Matthew Iliffe, produced by HFH Productions. The return of the multi award-winning play, Bacon is an unflinching and unexpectedly humorous look at masculinity, sexuality and power, through the dizzying lens of youth. Winner of the Tony Craze Award and three Off-West End Awards for Best Director and Best Performance in a Play. First performed at The Finborough Theatre, London. ‘Utterly compelling… beautiful and devastating to watch’ **** (Stage). ‘You will laugh, you will cry and you will be breathless when you leave’ ***** (Everything-Theatre.co.uk). ‘Unmissable’ ***** (Everything-Theatre.co.uk).”
I booked for this on the strength of the reviews – so I hope they are honest! Should be good.
17.15 – Nan, Me and Barbara Pravi, Summerhall.
“In 2021, Hannah Maxwell moved back to the Home Counties to care for her recently bereaved grandmother. But this show isn’t about that. It’s about France’s Eurovision star Barbara Pravi, who’s just lovely. In between cooking, cleaning and Countdown, Maxwell escapes into an intensifying fantasy of ballroom dances, heartfelt ballads, fluent French and definitely-not-creepy plots to engineer a meet-cute with a random foreign celebrity. It’s La La Land meets Mission Impossible meets Hannah’s nan. ‘Sublime one-person theatre’ (TheAdelaideShow.com.au). ‘Hannah Maxwell is a future star’ (ToDoList.london).”
This is the second play of the Fringe to feature Eurovision – Barbara Pravi, if you don’t know her, is a superb French singer and her Eurovision song Voilà is an instant classic. If it involves Eurovision, I want to see it.
20.15 – Gold, The Space on the Mile.
“A thrilling and hilarious new comedy featuring 1980s music, terrible dancing, hidden gold and guilty secrets. Julie and Dave live in suburbia, with an Uptown Girl daughter, a nice house and a huge secret which has held them together for 40 years. They met in 1983, when the music was gold, the fashion was gold, and Julie and Dave stole a lot of gold from a very bad man. Four decades later, how are they going to sell it and, more importantly, avoid the elderly psychopath who wants revenge – and his gold back?”
Another rather esoteric sounding play, but hopefully it will be entertaining!
21.40 – Don Biswas – The Revolution Will Be Disorganised, Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose.
“Politically charged gag merchant Don Biswas returns to the Fringe to take on the status quo. A unique comic voice, Don looks at politics through the lens of dyspraxia and autism. The show takes a passionate – if uncoordinated – stab at the big issues: from the cost-of-living crisis to conspiracy theories. As seen/heard on the BBC Asian Network, Rosie Jones’s Box Ticker, and in his BBC Radio 4 comedy special Neurotypical.”
A new name to me, and I’m looking forward to hearing his style of political comedy!
23.10 – Tarot: Hive Mind, Pleasance Courtyard.
“Late night and loose, Hive Mind is a gameshow in which contestants have to crowdsource their way to victory. We came up with this idea while eating a Mexican meal. Come watch Tarot go all shiny floor and sequins and try and crowdsource their way to a format. ‘Bark out loud funny… the whole show is startlingly live’ **** (Guardian). ‘One of the balls-out funniest show of the Fringe’ **** ½ (Chortle.co.uk). ‘A very nice Mexican meal’ ***** (Tarot).”
This is the second of the two Tarot shows this Fringe – having loved them so much last year, it’s no-brainer to see as much of them as possible this year!
Check back later to see how we enjoyed all these shows!