Category Archives: EdFestivals

EdFringe Talk: Stefania Licari: Trust Me, I’m a Comedian

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2024 by

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“Obviously, I belong to the category of those going to Edinburgh and my life now completely revolves around it.”

WHO: Stefania Licari

WHAT: “Following her hit show Medico, Stefania Licari returns with a brand-new stand-up hour. Drawing on her experience as an NHS doctor, first-generation migrant, comedian and sometime endurance runner, she explores the diverse roles of women in today’s world. From the operating theatre to the theatre stage, via an ultra-marathon through the Sahara, Stefania reflects on the big question: what are we running to and from? Multi award-winning Stefania sold out venues and earned rave reviews for Medico. Her follow-up promises to deliver her most personal, thought-provoking and side-splitting material yet.”

WHERE: Underbelly, Bristo Square – Dexter (Venue 302) 

WHEN: 16:15 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my third consecutive time at Edinburgh. It’s an interesting mixture of emotions.
It feels like the comedy world is divided between those comics going to Edinburgh and those not going. Obviously, I belong to the category of those going to Edinburgh and my life now completely revolves around it.

From the preparations to the moment the festival starts and ends it’s a rollercoaster of looking forward to playing this amazing venue to then waking up in the middle of the night questioning why I’m going instead of getting a suntan on holiday for considerably less money.

It’s a constant reminder of how much you’re investing and the sacrifices you’re making to be there. It also doesn’t take much to knock your confidence, as the festival gets closer. It’s like the day before your period starts. In fact, I’d describe the weeks before Edinburgh as a hormonal challenge!

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2023 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

I tend to dive into things before I’m fully ready and every single Edinburgh has been like that so far. It’s like trying to run a marathon before you’re ready for a 10k. But it works!

I think that’s the way to go in life. If you wait for the right moment, then it might never happen.

Although it gives me a high-level of anxiety with the preparations and stress!

I think the universe rewards bravery. It’s tough, but in the grand scheme it works.

Tell us about your show.

I have a wonderful team. It’s myself as writer/perfomer. The director Chris Head and Nathan Cassidy who also helped with the writing. Production is by Ben Weaver-Hinks and publicity by Patrick Gough at Wilberforce PR.

My best friend Michael is also crucial. We have a tradition before every show that he tells me to ‘break a leg’. I don’t know any more if I want to hear that as encouragement or that I’m so freaking superstitious! I feel the show is landing with audiences in the way that we designed it. I wanted a show that made people stop and think.

Judging from the previews, I think we’ve achieved that. After the show, I’ve had both men and women telling me that the messages are powerful, and the narrative is so extraordinary that they’ve been moved by it. It’s encouraging and I wanted to do a stand-up show with layers of messages. It will be good if the show is funny as well!

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

It’s extremely heartwarming that many of my favourite comics are there. Definitely go and see my friends Nathan Cassidy and Elena Mazzon who both have fantastic shows. I’ve also just found out that the Australian comic Hannah Gadsby is performing near the same venue as me (Underbelly) next week. I’m such a fan and even by association, it’s so uplifting.

On a personal level, I have many friends who will be there, and we can support each other. It can be as simple as the right word, or a big hug and you get all the reassurance you need.

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‘I’d Like a Job Please’ (Venue 45, until Aug 10)

Posted in 3*, EdFestivals 2024, Rated: Nae Bad by

“Satire so biting it’s like dipping your toes in a paddling pool of cartoon piranhas.”

Editorial Rating: 3 (Outstanding)

Is it me or is there a dearth of jobs suitable for the graduates we produce? Clearly, it’s not just me since there is a show on this EdFringe that hits the nail squarely on the head. Here is a script that skewers the contemporary employment market with a satire so biting it’s like dipping your toes in a paddling pool of cartoon piranhas.

Sarah is a recent graduate, living at home, looking for a job. There isn’t much out there as the void said to the encompassing empty space an hour or two before the big bang. ‘Vacuous’ that is the word which springs to mind about the work available at the fuzzy end of the employment lollipop. BUT! Joy of joys, there’s an opening in an office (or is it a cult) pushing crappy products. There are downsides like terrible pay, life-sucking hours, and the nagging certainty that all you are doing is enriching crappy people sitting at the top of a broken pyramid. It’s a job doing zero social good and much societal harm.

Sarah hasn’t got much ambition beyond amassing a scintilla of self-respect. She shares existence with a cast of well-dodgy characters including toxic macho-hustler podcasters, carbon-copy women sapping the joy out of life with their singsong voices, and colleagues with less personality than the inside of a wet cardboard box. The only bright spot is Sarah’s mum whose sunny disposition is either totally naive or a lesson to us all.

Serious Billy Productions was founded three years ago by a group of University of Warwick students. Following sold-out productions at Warwick they have teamed up with Oxford Revue Alumni to develop ‘I’d Like A Job Please’. It’s obvious from the getgo that there is some serious talent under the hood of this Caterham Roadsport which, like its road-going automotive counterpart, is light, fast and occasionally furious.

There are some real highlights including the bizarre company away day as well as Sarah’s posh-adjacent friend’s horrible relationship with her horrible mother. This young company does grotesqueness like Gilray although not always with his joie de vivre. Fine satire admits the truth while seeing the possibilities however dim and uncertain. This is a generation with every reason to be angry that the economy is not simply a mess, it’s a beached, very dead whale carcass riddled with self-important wormish bloviators left high and dry by the tides of analogue, digital, and now AI-enhanced rushing up and down a polluted foreshore.

This is why there’s every reason to be positive, especially if you’re a supermart, superbright Russell Group graduate with a collective flair for real-world fantasy. Knowing that the rat race is a con is the first step on the road to a happy life. This is a cast-heavy production with a surprising lack of off-stage production going on. Where is the website? Where is the front of house work before curtain up? Where are the nuts and bolts a well-scaffolded production cannot do without? What’s on stage shows so much promise, but this unstretched canvas needs a frame and a focus so as to stand out from another very crowded market. It will be interesting to read their #EdFringeTalk25 10 months from now.

I hope that Serious Billy Productions will be returning and reflecting after this short run. They are ones to watch and they have something to say. Get your off-the-peg Next Sale work coats on and go see this!

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‘Achilles, Death of the Gods.’ (Venue 152, Aug 9-10, 12-17, 19-25)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2024, Rated: Outstanding by

“If you like the Ian McKellen reading of ‘The Odyssey’ you will love Jo Kelen’s telling of ‘The Illiad’.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

“Sing, O muse, of the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.”

To be honest, I had never expected to encounter the muse herself but here she is persona personalmente. Memory’s daughter is a dark-eyed classicist with a grip on her material tighter than how a Cyclops holds his dinner. We enter to discover nothing more complicated than a camping stool and a table, the latter dressed in red with three candles as well as jugs for water and wine. This is as close as many of us will get to the authentic experience of having a storyteller rock up to our mead hall, take the best seat by the fire, and sing a story for their supper.

And what a story we have tonight. The hugely ambiguous amorality tale of when the barbarians were at the gates. Women plundered like cattle. Men butchered like goats for the spit. The highest of high drama so familiar and yet… and this is the good bit… delivered so fresh. This is a story that lives in our cultural marrow, yet Jo Kelen tell it as fresh as the spring flowers which upsprang from the Earth on which Zeus and Hera were making the divinity with two backs. If you like the Ian McKellen reading of ‘The Odyssey’ you will love Jo Kelen’s telling of ‘The Illiad’. She is as poised and perfectly to the point as when Colin Firth beats up a pub full of yobos at the start of ‘The Kingsman’ franchise.

This is an EdFringe show and with only 45 minutes runtime so something had to be cut. Kelen has made the bold (and certainly definitely probably controversial) choice to leave out the gods – who have taken themselves off to lounge around in fruit baskets at the Paris Olympics. What is left is more. More of the bromance. More of the anger. More of the self-centeredness. More of the sacrifice. More of heroism and yes, more of the brutality and more of the suffering. This is an unapologetically bold and self-confident production which makes no effort to accommodate our Celtic predisposition towards swiftly flowing changes of rhythm and tone. This is the classics done classically and, if you are fortunate and sensible enough to secure a ticket, it will be recalled for time immemorial as a classic of EdFringe24.

Get your bronze armoured coats on and go see this!

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‘The Old Queen’s Head’ (Venue 8, Aug 9-22)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2024, Rated: Outstanding by

“David commands attention in the way that the Field Officer in Brigade Waiting commands the Trooping of the Colour.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the head of Queen Elizabeth II appeared on more coins, stamps, in more photos, on more film, sculptures, and paintings than any other human being in history. “We have to be seen to be believed” is a quotation often attributed to our late, much-lamented monarch. So it’s not at all surprising that many people feel a deep personal (spiritual even) bond with the longest-serving head of the Church of England.

David Patterson adopted Elizabeth as his spirit guide early in life. It was something he shared with his grandmother and carried with him through school and high school and on to the lofty heights of student politics at East Fife College. Elizabeth was there, in a sense, at every step of his journey as a closeted gay man. Coming out for David involved asking some deep and meaningful questions about his self-imposed, Elizabeth-inspired mantra to avoid being “’too much, too obvious, too different.”

This is a deeply personal story ringing with universal truths. David commands attention in the way that the Field Officer in Brigade Waiting commands the Trooping of the Colour. His material is mustered, drilled, rehearsed and regimented BUT it is never stiff or stilted. This is a lively performance sparkling with spontaneity like a tira sparkles on the head of a blushing newlywed. The set is precisely the right kind of minimal, reflecting each stage of this coming-out journey. Every detail of this production has been considered and curated so as to highlight and understate in all the right places. This is how storytelling at the Fringe should look and feel.

Come for the personal journey. Stay for the lively portraiture of the supporting characters in David’s life. Get your royal rainbow coats on and go see this!

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‘Aaaand Now for Something Completely Improvised’ (Venue 17, Aug 9-11)

Posted in 3*, EdFestivals 2024, Rated: Nae Bad by

“This is a fun show by fun people for folks who aren’t minded to splash all their Fringe cash on dead parent, my house was bombed by moomins, what’s the point of existence? serious and sombre stuff.”

Editorial Rating: 3 Stars (Nae Bad)

We enter to find the troupe dishing out Opal Fruits, interacting with the audience, and getting the energy levels up. It’s a very welcoming space. You can feel the energy crackling. It’s obvious that the chaps on stage really enjoy working together and we’re all invited to share the bromance. An absent-minded grandparent is about to tell a story to his grandlings, but what story? Any suggestions?

What follows is an entirely unpredictable series of vignettes, sidebars, and recurring characters. When the chaps ask if anyone has ever heard of Sunderland Footballer Len Shackleton, not actually the brother of Earnest, it’s all I can do to stop my Geordie GetYourCoatsOn colleague, the one with a still unwritten play about Colin Veitch, from launching into his favourite before, during, and after dinner lecture – luckily he’s busy chewing on an Opal Fruit.

Over the course of the hour we’re in the sea. We’re on an island. We’re on a rollercoaster of madcappery and bonkersosity that provides much merriment. This is a fun show by fun people for folks who aren’t minded to splash all their Fringe cash on dead parent, my house was bombed by moomins, what’s the point of existence? serious and sombre stuff.

I have to admit I raised an eyebrow when I read the show’s listing at EdFringe.com – “Improv Legends” is a strong sell. It’s also an admission that the show is not new. So is it still fresh? Is it still quick-witted? Certainly, these Oxford Imps almuns have appeared (and are appearing) in some of the best-known improv shows at the festival including ‘Austentatious’ and ‘Adventures of the Improvised Sherlock Holmes’. Definitely, they are good at what they do. However, undeniably, there is a flatness and a whiff of complacency. Like an undergased, overpriced pint in a plastic glass from a popup bar there’s something there that’s missing. At several points, when the ball slips into dead air, I find myself wishing Len Shackleton would give the boys a talking-to in the dressing room about the importance of possession and positioning.

I would like to see this show getting back to basics and resting on a few fewer laurels. The best thing about improv is that it exists only in the moment, so the moment matters more than anything before or after. There’s plenty more Fringe in the sea lads, so stop treading water. This improv needs improving if the best days are still ahead.

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‘Chokeslam’ (Venue 8, Aug 9-10, 12-25)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2024, Rated: Outstanding by

“Tegan Verheul might not be doing any of the moves. She might not be that comfortable standing on a chair even, but she delivers an inspiringly fearless performance.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

I don’t know anything about professional wrestling except that it has something to do with ‘Moana’ and the greatest movie ever made – ‘The Scorpion King’. Tegan Verheul on the other hand fell head over heels in love with pro-wrestling even as she fell in and then out of love with her husband. It’s not hard to see why creative people would be drawn into the high-energy, high-stakes, high-cannot-believe they just did that world within a world of big muscles, big personalities, and even bigger rivalries.

Pro wrestling immediately captures the imagination in a way that only the very top six or seven Fringe productions about the impacts of climate change on inland colonies of kittiwakes during the prohibition era can. Is mass appeal crass appeal? Who chuffing cares if it makes people happy?!

Tegan Verheul might not be doing any of the moves. She might not be that comfortable standing on a chair even, but she delivers an inspiringly fearless performance that will leave you feeling like you too could just about pull off an Inverted Death Valley driver on the grandmother of whichever EBay bidder it was who jumped in at the last minute and stole that mint condition Saraya Jade Bevis action figure from under your nose.

Just like the megastars she’s describing, Verheul has a pedigree scaffolding her rise to greatness. I don’t know if The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama or the Guildhall School of Music and Drama offer programmes in pro wrestling, but maybe it’s time they did. It is a joy to hear one highly trained professional throw so much love and light on the work, dedication, struggles, and legacy of those working another cultural seam. This is a show that hits all the high notes (with a steel chair) even for an admittedly disinterested newbie. This is a show that simply crushes those same high notes (and makes them cry for their meemaw) with the wrestling super fans in the audience who are on the edge of their seats from the get-go and on their feet stomping like Rey Mysterio just slammed Silo Sam into the mat.

The show is structured with a double-helix. It’s a fan’s starstruck journey and it’s also a woman’s heartsick journey. There is a pretty hefty shovel in my garage and I would take it kindly if you would bash my brains out with it the very moment I ever turn down a woman like Tegan Verheul. But somebody did! Repeatedly! leaving Tegan feeling starved of love even as her cup of wrestling friendships overflowed.

If you have ever felt underappreciated, this is a show for you. If you have ever wondered what it takes to step back, re-evaluate, pick a new life course, abandon the disappointing but familiar present and take a chance on the possibility that you too deserve to be loved and happy, then this is a show for you. If you are totally unmoved by pro wrestling but simply love a cracking bit of storytelling delivered by a professional at the top of their game and loving it, then this a show for you.

Get your Wrestlemania coats on and go see this!

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EdFringe Talk: Songs for a (Brave) New World – Free

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2024 by

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“My show is a satirical cabaret.”

WHO: Richard Lewis

WHAT: “Songs for a (Brave) New World. Richard Lewis follows up last year’s hit show A Cabaret called Hamlet by looking at the state of the world in 2024. Whether it’s politics, digital dating, Trump, green issues or political correctness, Richard finds a musical reason to spotlight the natural absurdity of the human race – and if that’s not your cup of tea, just sit back and enjoy the piano playing! ‘Not only is Lewis’ patter quick-fire and knowledgeable, but his piano playing is sublime’ **** (JonathonBaz.com, 2023).”

WHERE: PBH’s Free Fringe @ Fingers Piano Bar – Fingers Piano Bar (Venue 221) 

WHEN: 16:20 (50 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

I’m from Edinburgh and did my first show here when I was 10 for the Edinburgh International Festival. Since then I’ve done numerous shows here both at the fringe and the Edinburgh International festival.

The fringe is great, but always a challenge. With the EIF, you just get a fee which makes your life a lot easier!

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2023 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

The biggest thing is, I’m very grateful to be an Edinburgh resident. God knows how anyone else is able to afford it…

Tell us about your show.

My show is a satirical cabaret looking at contemporary themes such as digital dating, politics, environmental issues and anything else I could think of.

I try to mix as many musical styles as possible as my background is in classical as well as pop and musical theatre.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

I confess, I haven’t seen anything else as yet! I’m doing two shows a day and rehearsing a third one.

I am musical director on Wallis at The Space and very very happy to plug my excellent colleagues on that show.

From the 19th to the 25th, I do Liberace in his own words.

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EdFringe Talk: The Techtonics: 44 Days of Liz Truss (A Cappella)

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2024 by

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“I went into the 2023 festival as a tourist with zero information on it other than that Fleabag originated there.”

WHO: Alex Christopherson

WHAT: “It’s been a bumpy few years in UK politics, and one story is particularly comical: Liz Truss’s stint as prime minister. In 44 days, Trussonomics tanked the economy, her cabinet made more U-turns than Mr Bean on a roundabout and, after one meeting, the Queen passed away. Who could be more fitting to tell this story than an all-male a cappella group of nerds from Imperial College London? Not just any group though: the only UK group to have won the ICCAs! Yes, that’s the competition in Pitch Perfect.”

WHERE: Gilded Balloon Patter House – Doonstairs (Venue 24) 

WHEN: 11:30 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Even though I actually put Edinburgh as my insurance university, the first time I ever visited was for the Fringe last year and I fell in love with both the city and the festival. I had never seen such an amazing and diverse display of the arts which, as a performer my whole life, was really special. It’s not the first time the group has been to the Fringe though – back in 2016 The Techtonics had a sell-out show, though none of the current members were there. Once the trauma of those stressful few months had been forgotten, talk of going back resurfaced, and that’s when I had this idea…. the alumni still think we are crazy.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2023 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

What haven’t I learned? I went into the 2023 festival as a tourist with zero information on it other than that Fleabag originated there. Now we’re about to start our run at the 2024 festival with a show I’ve written, directed, and am starring in! Safe to say there has been a lot to learn, and I’ve gained a real appreciation for just how much work goes into putting on a stage show. It seems endless, but it’s worth it!

Tell us about your show.

Weirdly, the group was formed as part of the Imperial College Croquet Society in 2008 when a group of guys realised they had a mutual love of A Cappella. Over many generations of “techtoddlers” we’ve released three albums, been on international tours and won and hosted competitions, but this show is something very new for us.

I came up with the idea myself just after Liz’s chaotic premiership back in Autumn 2022 as the group were planning what to do the following Summer. Eventually we decided not to go to Fringe and instead head on tour to the USA, but the idea stuck with me. When the same conversations happened ahead of the next academic year, I teamed up with Alex Li (together we are called Alex Squared) to pitch the show again. Our president, Robert Brickle, joined to produce the show and friend of the group Mari Dickenson came on to choreograph. Its been a roller-coaster ride putting this together, especially alongside Summer term at university! We did manage to preview the show back in June though, so are very excited to be coming to Fringe next week!

What have we got planned for after the Fringe? Well, that’s up to the returning and new members of the group! Sadly, this is my last project with the group, but it won’t be over right after our last show because we are making a film of the show too!

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

Where to begin? Of course I have to recommend our A Cappella partners in crime from the University of Bath, Aquapella. Unlike our show, theirs is just an hour of music (no politics!), but boy is their music good. If you see two A Cappella shows this year, make it them and us, and, better still, we’re in the same venue, one after the other!

My other university group recommendation is Musical Theatre Warwick: The Improv Musical. Every show is different and based on audience prompts, but somehow the singers and jazz band come up with a full soundtrack right in front of you!? I really don’t know how they do it, but its incredible and hilarious every time.

Moving away from student groups, I am super excited to see Newscast and No Such Thing as a Fish live at the Fringe! These two podcasts are where a lot of my random/topical facts come from for our own show!

Of course, my inpiration isn’t just podcasts… I am an absolute sucker for stand up comedy and topical panel shows, so I can’t wait to go see Hannah Gadsby and Tiff Stevenson.

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‘A Montage of Monet’ (Venue 236, Aug 9-10, 12-17)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals, EdFestivals 2024, Greenside, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“An aged-up Stephen Smith plays the eponymous artist with all the power and emphasis that can be mustered by a younger actor playing an old man.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

This is a very engaging and thoughtful show presenting the life, loves, and art of the legendary French impressionist painter, Claude Monet. As we are shown, the great artist’s private life was certainly full enough of drama, crisis, and angst to justify a play. This production, a piece of well-crafted new writing by Joan Greening, takes us on a journey to Belle Epoque Paris and beyond, offering much entertaining insight into the bohemian world of these creative types whilst shattering a few myths about what drives their urge to paint.

The small, black box Mint Studio of Greenside @ George Street is simply transformed into the artist’s world by means of a few props and we see Monet’s instantly recognisable works projected onto a blank canvas standing on an easel. An aged-up Stephen Smith plays the eponymous artist with all the power and emphasis that can be mustered by a younger actor playing an old man. Two characteristics of this production give it a very intimate feel. The lighting is deliberately kept fairly low – much at odds with the bursting colour of Monet’s canvases, but subtly encouraging introspective focus on the man himself. Secondly, the monologue is quietly underscored by original piano music by Joseph Furey playing in the background. I’m not usually a fan of incidental music in theatre, but this gently melodic accompaniment adds a wistful backdrop to Monet’s tale.

The human story behind the legendary paintings is often fascinating and revealing. Monet was no saint: an aesthete, but no angel. The roller coaster of his love life often belies the tranquillity evoked by his art. His relationships with fellow artists were often complex, whilst catastrophic events in his own life often threatened his very ability to create his works. Spiced with moments of humour and wit, there are also many surprising revelations concerning the stories behind some of his most celebrated images. No spoilers here, but I’ll never look at his famous Water Lilies paintings in the same way again, having been told how the subject matter in his garden pond at Giverny was so beautifully arranged. There was even a word of warning for us critics in learning how the name of the genre Impressionism arose from some laboured mockery by an infamous and now largely forgotten journalist.

Of the many solo shows on offer at the Fringe, a number are always biographical dramatisations of some historical person’s life: often a literary or show business figure, or more rarely, an artist. The problems inherent in representing an artist’s life on stage include: the sedentary nature of their work; talented individuals leading often dull and uneventful private lives; and the difficulty of making drama from the creation of still-life in the shape of a canvas or sculpture. In a different show I saw earlier this week, we watched an actor physically recreate a painting brush-in-hand as she spoke to the audience in character as the artist in question; very talented and skilled, but not great theatre and more suited to the radio. This production does not make the same mistake and is thus well worth going along to see.

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