Category Archives: 5*

‘Lawrence of Arabia and ME’ (Annexe at theSpace @ Symposium Hall, until AUG 29)

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, 5*, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“Manages to medidate on the hot button topic of the Modern Middle East with seriousness, objectivity, and no small amount of drama.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

He is one of the most instantly recognised yet impossibly enigmatic figures of the 20th Century. A scholar, a servant of one empire, the arch-nemisis of another, a student of a civilisation that still is, a hundred years on, yet to refind its place.

We enter to find Lawrence haunting the stage. A deathly calm phantom faintly amused by the fascination we have for him. Few of us are more steeped in the Lawrence myth and legend than Oxford’s own Eamonn Gearon, the man who quite literally wrote the book on the Arab League. The shade of Lawrence is also here to watch Gearon deliver his life and times lecture, a stump speech which has been honed and polished across classrooms, book festivals, ocean liners, and now EdFringe.

Gearon is a gifted raconteur which, when combined with his world-class scholarship, delivers 50 minutes of memorable stage traffic which manages to medidate on the hot button topic of the Modern Middle East with seriousness, objectivity, and no small amount of drama. A distant cousin of Michael Collins – that beguiling Irish nationalist soldier statesman of the same vintage as Lawrence – Gearon delves with authenticity and insight into the idealistic yet murky affairs of British imperial policy. If you want to better understand the Middle East, and not simply have a yet more strident opinion about it, this is the show for you.

From Lawrence’s unusual childhood to his posthumous apotheosis in David Lean’s 1962 cinematic masterpiece, this is a pacey masterclass in storytelling done proper. It’s a humble hagiographic homage without pomp or excessive fanfare from a self-confessed fanboy. It’s exactly the right amount of appreciation for just how extra ordinary Lawrence truly was. The ghost leaves (or is that stays?) happy.

Come for the fresh perspective on an auld theme. Stay for the experience of seeing an uncloistered Don trying something different and succeeding. Get your thobes on and go see this!

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‘Jess Carrivick: For Your Consideration’ (Nook at Gilded Balloon Teviot until AUG 30)

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, 5*, Comedy, Gilded Balloon, Potterrow & Teviot, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“With many rapid costume changes and lively use of props, this is a highly theatrical show that goes way beyond the limits of mere stand-up comedy.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Two years ago, I saw a one-woman show at the 2024 Fringe by a young lady called Jess Carrivick. Entitled Attention Seeker and listed as a ‘Work in Progress’, I thought it a masterclass in how to stage a solo piece of comic theatre. This year she’s back with For Your Consideration, a madcap whirlwind of character-based solo sketch comedy, directed by Elf Lyons and produced in association with Rosie Nicholls and Avalon.

Carrivick has been either shortlisted or a finalist for more comedy awards than you can blow a raspberry at, and her undoubted talent has been praised by respected figures in the industry as “gearing up to conquer”. Her charismatic natural wit and flair for creating outlandishly funny characters is reminiscent of the late, great Peter Sellers (if he’d been female and looked a bit like the young Glynis Johns). Carrivick’s highly expressive face and her evocative talent for vocal impersonation combine to create a fast-paced succession of mercilessly parodic character-based vignettes, poking fun at day-to-day types ranging from pushy school mums to psychopathic cinema usherettes. One of Carrivick’s particularly memorable showbiz characters is Cassandra Della Treebourne, an elegantly wasted diva jazz chanteuse whose cigarette-raddled voice has more vocal fry than your local chippy – imagine a godforsaken, ageing lovechild of Judy Garland and Keith Richards.

With many rapid costume changes and lively use of props, this is a highly theatrical show that goes way beyond the limits of mere stand-up comedy. Use of projected Carrivick family videos as a framing device also bestows a certain cinematic quality. But the solid gold heart of this show is the sheer visual physicality of the solo performer. Two particular highlights were: a Chaplinesque ballet routine that had the audience – including me – hooting with shrieks of laughter at its surreal absurdity; the other was a mad sea captain-cum-wannabe mermaid who sang the most hilariously filthy sea shanty you’ll ever hear.

The intimate Nook auditorium at the Gilded Balloon Teviot was packed with a highly appreciative audience who left at the end with their sides having been completely split and their ribs thoroughly tickled. Give this woman a TV show, for goodness’ sake – she’s far more innovative than much of the predictable sketch-based comedy we see on the telly.

The tickets are worth every penny – you won’t see a funnier show at the Fringe this year.

 

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‘Heart Beats Strong’ (Pleasance Courtyard: Bunker Two, until AUG 31)

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, 5*, Dance, EdFestivals, Pleasance, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“A highly energetic performance, presenting stark, fast-paced vignettes contrasting the innocence and vulnerability of youth with the wild, dangerously carefree onset of adulthood.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

This is a lively coming-of-age story written and performed by Noah Manzoor, Kai Porter, and Alfie Wickham (collectively known as Kickdrum), and apparently based on their actual teenage diaries. In a highly physical production, themes such as cultural identity, sexuality, and the pressures of boyhood, adolescence, and the approach of manhood are explored in a punchy drama enhanced by music and dance, with a cinematic ambience bestowed by acrobatically effective use of hand-held lighting.

In the medium-sized black box studio of Bunker Two at the Pleasance Courtyard, the three young men delivered a highly energetic performance, presenting stark, fast-paced vignettes contrasting the innocence and vulnerability of youth with the wild, dangerously carefree onset of adulthood; all interspersed with highly synchronised bursts of vigorous street dance.

Whilst this is very much a young person’s show (at 67, I was the oldest person in the room by a country mile), their evocation of the crass boorishness and insensitivity of male childhood raised a wry smile; then the angst-ridden sexual fumblings involved in the onset of adolescence and then manhood gave rise to regular laugh-out-loud moments.

No punches are pulled in what is very much a vigorously in-your-face production, with the dark undercurrents of racism and homophobia often raising their ugly heads. Unfortunately, one other dark undercurrent was occasional external noise coming from the queue for another show outside the venue’s poorly-soundproofed door. However, the vigorous enunciation and projection of the talented onstage trio easily overcame this unwelcome backing track.

With the auditorium almost full for the show I saw in the very early stages of this year’s Fringe, it already looks like a pretty hot ticket – so I wouldn’t hang around if you wanted to see it.

 

‘King Lear’ (Venue 33, until AUG 24th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“An uncondescending condensing of the immortal classic by the acknowledged king of festive Fringe storytelling.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Pip Utton is the Edinburgh Fringe. His productions are insightful, playful, joyful, and memorable. He’s the most respected player among his fellow professionals and the most beloved among his devoted followers from across the footlights (me included). Getting out of a Pip Utton performance takes several ages of man. You go from mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms to second childishness and mere oblivion in the time it takes for everyone ahead of you in the exit line to gush their appreciation to the master. Utton is best known for his candid biopics. Churchill, Hitler, Dickens, Bacon, Thatcher, and Bob Dylan walk into a pub and the barman asks, “What will you have, Mr Utton?  This year we have simply Lear in an uncondescending condensing of the immortal classic by the acknowledged king of festive Fringe storytelling.

We enter to find no king, just Lear. Bereft of the trappings and dignity of power, here is a man who has learned the hard way that it is folly to grow auld without having first grown wise. In the depths of depression, with all his charms o’erthrown, Lear ponders on the cruel reversal of his fortune. Across town, at the National Portrait Gallery, nestled among the artistic jewels of Shakespeare’s great royal patron, James VI and I, are early sketches for the proposed flag of the newly reunited kingdoms of England and Scotland. This was one part of the Jacobean undoing of what, at the time, was seen as the historic Lear’s legacy – the disunion of the island of Britain. Lear is written as a deliberate contrast to James, the author, scholar, and father of sons, although, fun fact alert, it is through James’ only surviving daughter, married to the winter king of Bohemia, that we owe our present royal family.

Lear is Shakespeare’s other Shylock, a publicly bad character to whom bad things publicly happen. Utton’s instinctive feel for the humanity of the great and the good characters he uncannily inhabits downplays the madcap Toby Belchery of the recent retiree. Instead, Utton emphasises the subsequent family drama and ensuing unvirtuous betrayal. Although Catholic missionaries had begun arriving in China from the 1580s, precise knowledge of Confucianism and its emphasis on filial piety, moral governance, family and hierarchy was limited to a few pioneering Jesuits with whom Shakespeare could have had no correspondence. Yet there are uncanny parallels, not undisimilar to the Swan of Avon’s synthesis of the Florentine Machiavelli, who would not be translated into English until the 1640s. Truly, Shakespeare was not of an age, but for all time. Utton’s minimalist edition of Lear reopens the text like a scythe to an overgrown, weedy meadow.

Truth be told, I haven’t liked Lear since I first saw the play. It was that 1997 staging at the Leicester Haymarket, the one in which Kathryn Hunter became the first woman to play the title role professionally (I’m still amazed anyone could get paid for a performance that bad). Ponderous, maudlin, a script written for achktors to perform more than for audiences to be entertained by. Lear can bring out the worst kind of feet-apart shouty overemphasis when done to death. By stark contrast, EdFringe’s quiet legend, Pip Utton, brings the play and the role to life as never before or not in a long time. “Walk softly, and carry a big stick”, advised Theodore Roosevelt. Among his properties Utton has just such a big stick. His performance is as soft and rich as an ostrich egg boiled for an hour and is best enjoyed in the cheerful company of friends who know they are in for a big treat.

Come for the familiar megastar doing something a bit different. Stay for an intelligent, gentle performance. Get your magisterial cloaks on and go see this!

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‘Evelyn’ (Venue 39, until AUG 23rd)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Outstanding by

“Elena Guitti (as Evelyn) brings an extraordinary depth and clarity to the ordinary humdrum in this satire of daily life and routine.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Daily life sucks. So many things to wipe, dust, dry, and so forth. Too little time to do it all in. Plus, there’s the whole… you know… finding meaning in a seemingly vast and incomprehensible universe to be getting on with. Our protagonist, Evelyn, emerges onto the stage from inside of a washing machine. Cramped, hot, bothered, she is relentlessly bombarded by external noise which confuses without comforting.

Elena Guitti (as Evelyn) brings an extraordinary depth and clarity to the ordinary humdrum in this satire of daily life and routine. Guitti is the Artistic Director of Piccolo Teatro Libero, in Brescia, Lombardy. There she is at the centre of a vibrant cultural community space and respected theatre school which give this (undeniably) out there production a rooted and grounded feeling.

The show is written and directed by the storied and storytelling Giacomo Gamba, the versatile Italian actor, director, playwright, and teacher whose work blends movement, storytelling, and visual theatre. Gamba has created several award-winning productions such as ‘Petrol’ (2012) which won First Prize at the Valleyfield International Festival in Montreal, Canada, before landing at EdFringe16. This year’s show showcases movement and physicality that looks and feels like how humans look and feel. There is none of the uniform, artificial camp which dominates the mainstream. By the time Evelyn gets back in her washing machine, we have been on a journey into ourselves and back again.

Here is Fringe theatre doing what it is supposed to do. Challenging yet always engaging. Visual by visibly pushing ordinary boundaries. Here is a confident stride down a highend catwalk to who can tell exactly where. Here is a paced and pacy production that is as tight a use of the time as I am guessing Guitti finds the fit inside her domestic appliance. Come for a piece of physical theatre that is not afraid to be entertaining. Stay for a masterclass from some of the best and the brightest in the sector. Get your tabàros on and go see this!

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‘The Listies: Make Some Noise’ (Venue 17, until AUG 25th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Outstanding by

“Australia’s other great kids’ entertainment export.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Is it even EdFringe if you haven’t seen The Listies? Richard Higgins and Matt Kelly are Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis before the bromance soured. Their formula is part The Goons, part Python, with a triple unfiltered shot of classic Roald Dahl added to the mix. If you’ve ever rewatched clips of Dahl performing to a crowd, then you have some idea of agitation and excitement charging through The Listies’ audience of 4-400 year aulds before, during, and after the magic and mayhem.

This year’s edition hasn’t got the same narrative arc, and I kind of wish it did, but I’m guessing I’m the only one. This show runs like a W.A.W.I.P. (Wacky Arm Waving Inflatable Person), it’s light but durable material through which so much energy is being pumped that it just stands up and does its thing. Even without a plot – have they lost it? – the onstage chemistry between the sardonic Higgins and the effervescent Kelly is what makes this the standout show of the moment – Australia’s other great kids’ entertainment export.

In her EdFringe notebook, the one with Lano and Woodley on the cover, Daughter 1.0 (10yrs) wrote: “I thought that the Listies was really funny. It had me constantly laughing really hard for a long time. I especially liked the part where the baby (which was accidentally bought on Amazon) sand a song while being sent to sleep. In the end, Baby would have to go to Space! It seemed the right place for him to go though. I also liked their adience Interactions like the orchestra they created. THe orchestra included: A squeaky crab, a triangle (played with a spoon) and burping. The worst part of the show was the end though, I could happily watch the Listies all day! I highly recommend this show.”

This show is a burptastic fartathon with off-colour jokes aplenty of which my sainted grandmothers would not have approved. Still, it takes intelligence and class to be this consistent. This is a silly show for smart people as well as for people who haven’t tried being smart yet. Life is short and childhood especially so. Parents and carers can rely on The Listies to make memories worth remembering. Come for the best comic pairing since Whoopee met Cushion. Stay for unarguably the best kids’ comedy show in town. Get your ripstop nylon coats on and go see this!

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‘Murder She Didn’t Write’ (Venue 8, until AUG 24th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“This show has energy like a tower full of bells in a fenland flood has energy.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Let’s do something that never happens in a whodunit and cut to the chase. Does this show live up to the hype? Yes. Yes, it really, Really, REALLY does. How so? Because this cast could improv the phonebook (are those still a thing?) and make it funny. Besides which not one of them would look out of place in shot next to Carmichael as Wimsey or Suchet as Poirot. This show looks like this show should look. It’s as if Chris Van Allsburg had the idea of being trapped in a board game but stuck with Cluedo instead of pointlessly inventing Jumanji. 

We enter to find it’s Peter Baker in the detective’s hot seat today. Baker once played Trigger in ‘Only Fools And Horses The Musical’ at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, but today he’s in more Reg Rexis from ‘Health and Efficiency’ mode. He’s swave. He’s sexy. He’s a know-it-all who doesn’t quite remember to remember the corpse’s name.

Rachel Procter-Lane, Catlin Campbell (as Morag, the one what it was done to), Stephen Clements, Mathew Whittle, as well as Oh Bugger Chat GPT Can’t / Won’t Tell Me (as the one what done it) are an eclectic range of uniformly smart, sassy, and sophisticated improvers who fill the 70 minutes with stage traffic that’s as pacy as the Orient Express in summer. Campbell, the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Bristol Improv Theatre, has a properly lovely voice, more of that, please, especially since Sara Garrard is at the piano – seriously, Chat GPT I don’t think that’s the dude’s name (maybe their website needs updating?).

This show has energy like a tower full of bells in a fenland flood has energy. Sometimes it misses the really clever things I would have said. Today Campbell died with a caber up her backside – “It was alimentary, my Dear Watson.” Yet, this show is a witty and worthy annual presence in the city that’s home to both Conan-Doyle’s letter to his auld medical school lecturer crediting Joseph Bell as the inspiration for Holmes, as well as Doyle’s PhD thesis on syphilis – both written in a hand so neat as to unmask him instantly as a total bam.

Improv either works or it doesn’t. This format really works as stagecraft and light entertainment. It’s a crowd pleaser because the crowd is pleased, as well they should be. Come for the current cult classic. Stay for Christiean sumptuousity. Get your Burberry trench coats on and go see this!

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‘Biff to the Future’ (Venue 3, until AUG 24th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“Butt-head-ressed by a pedantic depth of knowledge of and nerdish insight into the immortally classic original material.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Nae Bad)

Blockbuster (yet cult) movie franchise PLUS double Olivier Award-nominated direction PLUS writing and performance by a Reduced Shakespeare Company alumn EQUALS theatre so sensational it might have been routed through a flux capacitor. “Tell me, Future Boy, who’s President of the United States in 1985?” There’s a charm and an innocence to the movies, none of which is generated by one of the greatest movie villains of all time, the bozo bully Biff Tannen – the possibly probably love child of Shooter McGavin and Dr Evil.

Here are elements of the trilogy mixed, mashed, and lovingly upcycled into a homage worthy of the great Thomas F. Wilson himself. The stories are told from Biff’s perplexed and (rather unpolysyllabic) perspective. As all of the parts, Joseph Maudsley, hits all the notes, from Marty McFly on C6 (≈ 1046.5 Hz) down to the irascible Mr. Strickland on C2 (≈ 65.4 Hz). It’s like Maudsley’s playing an 80s electric keytar – which he is at one point. There’s prop gags, word play, surrealist riffs and improv, plus some properly totes hilar audience interaction, all butt-head-ressed by a pedantic depth of knowledge of and nerdish insight into the immortally classic original material.

Biff in the movies is a rather two-dimensional character – more Gilray than Hogarth. The genius of Maudsley’s approach is to add on existential dimensions that have you feeling pangs of sympathy for Hill Valley’s gobbiest gobshite like he’s sitting in his tent the night before Bosworth Field feeling sorry for himself.

I properly love Piccolo Tent at Assembly George Square Gardens, but it’s not quite the perfect stage for this staggeringly affectionate tribute. There’s one prop gag which is impossible to see from the back, which is a shame because it’s one of the funniest. Maudsley fills the space like he’s filling a 1946 Ford Super DeLuxe with manure. The comedy piles on and on, for the first and only time this Fringe, I am wishing the running time was longer.

Come for the nostalgia. Stay for the freshness. Put your custom-made red quilted puffer vests on and go see this!

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‘The Bubble Show®’ (Venue 3, until AUG 17th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“Mr Bubbles has toured the world with this show and every step on his journey has made it faster, higher, stronger.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Happiness is very much like bubbles, and bubbles are very much like happiness. The potential for both is everywhere. Coming in every shape and in size, it just needs someone special to make the magic happen right there before our eyes. Beloved EdFringe fixture Mr Bubbles is that someone special. Over the years, his deceptively simple act has enchanted audiences young and auld, including some who were young and are now a wee bit aulder.

We enter Piccolo Tent at Assembly George Square Gardens to find the instantly recognisable and some less familiar tricks of Mr Bubble’s trade, as well as the costumes and props which make this show a game of two halves. First, there’s the science section. Helium bubbles. Square bubbles. Bubbles within bubbles. Bubbles with children inside. Bubbles filled with smoke, every bubble a wonder and delight. Second, there’s the sensory, super-chilled section. Finally, there are the supermassive (no, seriously, they’re chuffing ginormous) bubbles.

In her EdFringe notebook, the one with a woodcut of Agnes Pockels doing the dishes on the cover, Daughter 1.0 (10yrs) wrote: “I really enjoyed the bubble Man. I really liked how he created all kinds of Interesting bubbles. I also liked his adience Interactions and how he was bubbly and exiting. I also liked going Inside a bubble. I also enjoyed his bubble animals and his beautiful bubble art.”

A lifetime ago, in 2019, I wrote of Mr Bubbles, “He is young and his show feels like it will ripen with age.” Six years on, and that prediction has been fulfilled and then some. The same beautiful, delightful, twinkling energy is here. The same pace, precision, and purpose is here, but there’s that same powerful difference as between a photo taken with The Bubble Space Telescope versus one snapped by James Webb. The depth, the contrasts, the overall impact is lightyears ahead of where we were.

Mr Bubbles has toured the world with this show and every step on his journey has made it citius, altius, fortius. It is an Olympian feat, and rediscovering The Bubble Show® feels akin to a beachcomber finding blue seaglass or a narwhale’s tusk. In the delightful setting of Piccolo Tent, this show is fast approaching utter perfection.

Come for the bubbles. Stay for the bubbles. Get your Dolce & Gabbana 1990s Bubble Wrap Jackets on and go see this!

 

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‘Knightclub’ (Venue 53, until AUG 23rd)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“A pun-tastic crowd pleaser that’s as smart as it is sensationally funny.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Spruce Moose Comedy build on their growing reputation for zany antics and playful performances in this latest comedy rocking our EdFringe world. This year, it’s monks getting into bad habits. Tamothy and Brother Jack are dreaming of life beyond the cloister and the cloying smugosity of their Abbot. Tamothy dreams of being a touring tournament knight and with the beefy and by no means adverse to bending an already broken taboo Brother Jack by his side, who’s to stop him… except a scheming rival and a pack of dastardly Frenchmen determined to wreak havoc, wreck the peace of Europe, and capture the King.

Here is that most glorious thing, a pun-tastic crowd pleaser that’s as smart as it is sensationally funny. This is the most fun cast you are likely to find. Horribly young, horribly cocky, horribly talented, having a horribly lovely time. It’s enough to make you stick Spruce Moose Comedy in your must-see column year after year. Their justifiable confidence in the work and in each other keeps the momentum steady as we hurtle through scene after scene packed with mirthful mayhem.

There’s slapstick, wordplay, character comedy, history jokes, farce and an (almost) deep and meaningful meditation on the value of friendship and the dangers of temptation. At 50 minutes, the show is razor sharp and packed to the gunwales. This is a cast you’ll be boasting of having seen back when. Come for the silliness. Stay for the feeling of being in on something at the beginning. Get your chainmail coats on and go see this!

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