Reviews & features: Fringe

How to visit the Edinburgh Festival

A guide to getting the best from the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe

The phrase 'planned itinerary' might might be at odds with the spirit of chaos and wild abandon you associated with your visit to the Edinburgh Festival. The brutal truth is that shows do sell out, so book tickets to things you definitely want to see.

Edinburgh Fringe comedy podcasts 2012

Enjoy shows by Shaun Keaveny, Greg Proops and Richard Herring without the need to visit Edinburgh

There are so many Fringe shows on in August every year it is impossible to see them all. The good news is more and more shows are being recorded live and put on the internet for you to download and listen to at your leisure.

Tim Key interview: the poet discusses Edinburgh, Alan Partridge and 'sexy baths'

Comedy Award winner brings his Masterslut show to the 2011 Fringe

The List has just presented Tim Key with two pages of facts about himself. ‘This is a very good piece of research,’ he says, commending the 16-year-old work experience person who compiled them. ‘I didn’t get to do anything like this on work experience.

Bubblewrap and Boxes turns cardboard boxes into children's show

Playing around with the post at 2011 Edinburgh Festival

As any young child will tell you, there’s no end of things you can do with a cardboard box. Melbourne-based theatre company Asking For Trouble discovered it too, when they turned a pile of unwanted boxes into packages and parcels to create award-winning…

Trevor Noah: The Racist

Identity crisis makes for hilarious comedy

It takes a particular kind of individual to get up on stage and open their soul to a room of strangers in order to achieve ratification for their existence. Part of that drive might come from the oft-cited routes about having learned to use humour to…

Oh, the Humanity and Other Good Intentions

Marvellous quintet of short plays with excellent performances

Marvellous quintet of short plays with excellent performances Isn’t self-consciousness a ball-ache? It ups the ante, rather, as if all eyes are on you and you’re barely making sense, let alone delivering the goods, and you still haven’t found what…

Re-Animator at Edinburgh Fringe - "We’re throwing blood all over the audience!"

54 gallons of blood and gore in play based on cult 80s film

Stuart Gordon holds a grisly place in movie trivia. ‘It’s true, I had the all-time record for most amount of fake blood used in a film,’ the director confirms, referring to the 24 gallons of corn syrup-based thick red gunge poured into his cult 1985…

Scotrail announce expanded Edinburgh Festival 2012 train timetable

Additional night services to Glasgow, Dundee, Perth and North Berwick

New late-night train services to and from Edinburgh will make it easier for those outside the city to visit the 2012 festival. In Glasgow, there will be a Fringe box office at Queen Street station from July 27. Tickets bought online in advance can be…

Return of the Close Up Magician

Phenomenal close-hand tricks from a consummate performer

Close-hand magician Lewis Barlow is a likeable performer. Unlike Derren Brown and his ilk, Barlow creates a show where magic is not swamped by the overbearing personality of the performer, but rather one where magic takes the centre stage. Beginning…

As Ye Sow

Strong performances and mounting tension in well-conceived ghost story

Without the use of special effects horror can be quite tricky to bring to the stage with the result that ghost stories are usually the sub-genre of choice for the theatre. The audience can fill in the gaps that clever editing or CGI would usually…

Temper Temper: The Pain of Desire

Weimar rock ‘n’ roll from an unforgettable performer

The edges between live concert and theatrical performance bleed together in this full band show instigated by creative director Wendy Bevan. It begins as we await outside, the sound of piano flourishes being prepared echoing through the…

Jim Jefferies talks offensiveness and sobriety ahead of 2012 Fringe show Fully Functional

Aussie comedian on bad reviews, Fully Functional and US sitcom Legit

Jim Jefferies used to do a joke about getting a lift from a ‘tiny, hot, young girl’. He couldn’t believe his luck when she offered him a ride back into Los Angeles after they’d just spent the day working on a film-set. Before driving off in her…

Scamp Theatre bring Tiddler and Other Terrific Tales to life at Fringe 2012

Stage version of hugely successful Julia Donaldson children's book

With so many shows to choose from at the Fringe, it’s always handy when a tried and tested company returns carrying a guarantee of quality. All those who saw Scamp Theatre’s production of Stick Man in 2010 will be pleased to know that the talented…

Gemma Goggin - Get Laid or Die Trying

Hilarious and graphic sex tales

Bridget Jones meets Victoria Coren in the formidably busty and bright-eyed form of Gemma Goggin, a woman in her 30th year seeking desperate and dubious routes to love.

My Name is Margaret Morris

Forgotten hero dances back to life

You would think, having invented a new way of moving, married a famous artist and been the driving force behind Scottish dance for years, that people would remember you. Sadly, the name Margaret Morris is likely to prompt a ‘who?’ from most people these…

Crave

Raw and powerful from the very beginning

Royal Holloway Theatre’s restaging of Sarah Kane’s penultimate play explores four characters disillusioned with life due to excess, abuse and loneliness. Raw and powerful from the very beginning, Kane’s fluid, poetic script dominates a piece that makes…

Nude

Non-gratuitous meanderings for art’s sake

Don’t worry, there is no gratuitous nudity in Nude, just two actors flexing and posing their naked bodies in close proximity to the front row. But it’s all done in the name of art, and the context of a life drawing class, in which the reluctant audience…

Zimbani

Stretching an ingenious sketch to breaking point

Comprising two perky male leads and a woman referred to throughout as 'The Secretary', this elongated sketch details a plot to kidnap an African dictator (the titular Zimbani) in an overwrought pastiche of 70s spy adventures. It resembles Garth…

Debbie Does Dallas - The Musical

There’s a very fine line between a send-up of a ropey cultural item and something that’s just plain ropey. Almost from its shrill opening bars it becomes crystal clear that Debbie Does Dallas – The Musical has crossed the line. The fundamental…

Stonewall

Doubtless huge progress has been made regarding gay rights in recent decades but there are still reports of gay people being persecuted across the world.

Greg Proops

Natural storyteller paints even overhashed topics a new shade of funny

Greg Proops is rambling (‘If there’s any critics in – fuck you. Why did you come on a Sunday night?’ Colour me chastised.) He finds tangents and embraces them, drawling on about the Scottish accent and his inability to understand that old chestnut: the…

Celia Pacquola: Delayed

A quirksome loveable geekfest

In this, her third solo show at the Fringe, Aussie Celia Pacquola examines whether she has achieved anything in her move to the UK. It’s particularly pertinent as she left behind a long-term boyfriend, and whether they will stay together maintains some…

Bound

Anarchic trip to California derails early on

A young lad, his innocent girlfriend and estranged father are trapped inside a freight train. What was meant to be an anarchic trip to California has turned into an indefinite prison sentence. It sounds like the ideal ingredients for an intensely…

Obsession - A Life with Magic

Winning performance Ian Kendall, whose obsession with magic stems from Asperger’s Syndrome

Ian Kendall sits front and centre as the audience files in, greeting everyone in turn and encouraging people to fill up the front rows. He throws in a few neat tricks while people are still entering; it’s this casual attitude to performing a set is what…

National Folk Theatre of Ireland to perform What the Folk! at Fringe 2012

The company merge dance with storytelling in intimate locations

Based in Tralee in County Kerry, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland is keeping traditions alive, by looking to the future. Training performers in music, dance, theatre and song from a young age, it ensures there’s always a new crop of talent rising…