Edinburgh Festival Fringe: 5 shows to see this year

Looking for something to see at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year, but not sure where to start? We take a look at five shows you should add to your list. Jack Docherty in The Chief – No Apologies 2 – 15 August, 8pm. Gilded Balloon Patter House. Calling all sitcom fanatics to grab their…

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Fringe: Going coco-nuts for improvised fun and laughs

I’m not usually a fan of improvised comedy, it can so easily retreat into crudity or banality. Not from this cast of five, they are intelligent, fast, fun to watch and very funny. A word is thrown out from an audience member and they are off. How they manage to navigate from ‘somewhere in Europe’,…

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Fringe: An early show that’s worth getting up for

White Girls is one of the earlier shows of the day and well worth setting your alarm clock to make sure you go. The show tells the tale of naive voluntourism within the Calais Jungle refugee camp. This could have turned into a political rant at the incompetence and uselessness of global governments. It wasn’t,…

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Fringe: True stories of an incredible life well lived

There are some people that can make their lives complicated, there are others for whom life is complicated, then there is Fiona Goodwin. The title of her monologue, A Very British Lesbian, gives it away: she is a lesbian. Everything conspired to keep her in the closet, her religion, her country and her mother’s desire…

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Fringe: Who dictates the news in The Nights

If I were a playwright, I would like to write like Henry Naylor. Henry Naylor has been described, correctly, as ‘one of our best new playwrights’. He writes like Hemingway, not a word is wasted and he has that extraordinary ability to fill up the imagination without verbosity. The story deals with the shambolic fall-out…

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Fringe: Lucie Pohl offers a mixed bag of laughs

Okay, here’s a few things you should know about stand-up comedian Lucie Pohl. Firstly, she’s a short (5ft 1in) and hyperactively talented German-born New Yorker who dances like no-one’s watching and is inventively potty-mouthed. Despite being pint-sized, this failed former actor (her words) nevertheless exudes the sort of charisma which registers on Geiger counters. She…

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Edinburgh Fringe Review: Gusset Grippers

An absolute must for women who have experienced childbirth and/or are ‘ of a certain age’. This slick, incredibly funny show is written and presented by Elaine Miller, physiotherapist, mother and recovered incontinent who enjoys revealing the wonders of the pelvic floor and how to get yours in tip-top shape (men and women) which will…

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