The Crumb’s Ed Fringe Picks
Well we’re back and better than ever. Ed Fringe is our favourite time of year and we’re so excited to be back for another one. This year it’s coinciding with the launch of our snazzy new website, which we will populate with snazzy new reviews, interviews and features. Starting…now, with our top picks for this year's Fringe. It was tough whittling it down to five each, but we got there in the end and came up with The Crumb’s Ten ‘Do Not Miss These At All Costs’ Shows.
See ya up there!
Love,
Theo & Nath
These first five are from Nathan:
HIGH STEAKS by Eloina
I was lucky enough to catch HIGH STEAKS during its sell-out and award winning run at VAULT Festival earlier in the year and oh boy, am I happy it is back. Deeply personal yet undoubtedly universal, Eloina (with stunningly intricate direction from Louise Orwin) has crafted an hour of theatre that not only is joyful and informative but a perfect blend of live-art and clowning.
HIGH STEAKS is a show about labia, labia-shaming, cosmetic surgery and fundamentally, body lovin'. ELOINA hangs two beef steaks from her labia, butchers them up and sizzles them on a grill. And... her mum is in the show. Seamlessly melding performance art and comedy clowning, High Steaks discusses rising demands in young people for labiaplasty – plastic surgery to make the labia smaller/more symmetrical. Through live conversations with her mum and recorded interviews with labia-owners, HIGH STEAKS is a call for increased visibility of varied vulvas and a celebration of our vulvas in all their shapes and sizes.
Where? Summerhall - Anatomy Lecture Theatre
When? Aug 2-6, 9-13
Piece of Work by James Rowland
I’ve long been a fan of James Rowland’s work. His ever-so affable way of storytelling, littered with wry humour and intelligence is always a huge hit with fringe-goers and this year is set to be no different.
James has been touring his storytelling theatre shows for half his adult life. This year was different. Returning home after his first stint away he received a letter that exploded his life and the tour became a search: for the person who sent it, for a sense of home, and to maybe save a life.
This remarkable road trip follows James' critically acclaimed, sell-out shows Learning to Fly and The Songs of Friendship Trilogy, and features his captivating mix of story, comedy and music.
Where? Summerhall - Anatomy Lecture Theatre
When? Aug 2-13, 15-20, 22-25, 27
I Showered Before I Came by Alice Cockayne
I saw a WIP of I Showered Before I Came at The Glory in London a few weeks back, and I honestly don’t know how to really explain what I saw. It is bonkers, but oh so brilliant. I know I laughed (a lot). I know I got dragged on stage, (a little bit). I know I had one of the best hours at the theatre I’ve had in a long while.
I’m new to Alice's work, and I feel like I’m going to be a fan for a long, long time. It is bold, exciting and sizzling with verve.
I showered before I came. I hope you did too... I have high expectations and I'm sure you do too... of this show? Of your life? Of everything ever. Well it's everything you'll ever dream of and more too. It's kind of clown. Kind of not. Stupid. Important. Unhinged. Chaotic. Outrageous. Messy. Gritty. Real-life drama. Never been done before. 'If Angelina Jolie was bag-lady on the bus' (Chortle.co.uk).
Where? Underbelly, George Square - The Wee Room
When? Aug 2-13, 15-28
Objectified by Kathy Maniura
This debut hour from Kathy Maniura - packed with characters and objects galore - is a force to be reckoned with. Utterly silly, but oh so cleverly crafted together. Unique and unforgettable.
Kathy Maniura is ready to be objectified – by which she means pretend to be a bunch of objects live on stage!! In her debut solo show, this award-winning character comedian brings to life a few of her favourite things – and a lot of her least favourite. Meet an exhausting paper straw, a desperate electric scooter and a teeny tiny sexy little airpod among others in an hour of silliness that might make you look at the world a little differently.
Where? Gilded Baloon Teviot, The Wet Room
When? Aug 2-13, 15-28
Trash Salad by Rosa Garland
I’m gonna level with you here pals, I’ve struggled to put my words down about this show. When I saw it at Ed Fringe in 2022 I knew absolutely nothing about the production before going in, and I want you to have the same experience. Just know, you’ll never look at Salad Cream the same way again.
Sex. Love. Lettuce. Join gorgeous clown Trash Salad after a sell-out 2022 run, on her quest for connection: a genre-bending burlesque adventure, using lip sync, strip tease and song on a mission to understand intimacy. Some call it a clown opera, a sexual odyssey, a compost-heap romance. Trash calls it a joyful queer-femme love story in the shape of a salad. Come and see the piece that's made audiences 'laugh, cry, and nearly piss'. Birthed by VAULT Festival Innovation Award nominee Rosa Garland. 'A queer masterpiece' **** (EdFringeReview.com). 'Best shows of Fringe 2022' **** (Telegraph).
Where? Pleasance Courtyard - The Attic
When? Aug 2-6, 8-15
And these next five are from Theo:
An Oak Tree by Tim Crouch
Tim Crouch is my favourite 21st century playwright, maybe my favourite of all time. His plays break convention in ingenious ways, encouraging audiences to bring their own interpretations to the work and create it alongside him. An Oak Tree, named after the Michael Craig-Martin sculpture of the same name, was first performed in 2005 and since then it has garnered a legendary reputation, with a different actor performing it alongside Crouch every night - an actor who has never seen the script. It’s probably much harder to find actors who are unaware of An Oak Tree now than it was back in 2005, but whoever it is treading the boards with Crouch, this won’t be one to miss.
'When I say sleep, you’re free again'. A rare chance to see the play that shaped a theatre landscape. When it opened in 2005 Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree changed the rules of the game, bringing into the centre of its action an actor who has neither seen nor read the play. In a performance of controlled virtuosity, the playwright guides that actor through a story of loss, suggestion and the power of the mind. No two shows the same. ‘Vividly celebrates the live, raw, communal experience of theatre’ (Financial Times). An audience experience like no other.
Where? Royal Lyceum Theatre
When? Aug 4-6, 8-13, 15-20, 22-27
Shtoom by Paul Currie
Since I first saw Hot Donkey in 2018, Paul Currie’s has been the first show I’ve booked every year since. Currie is not just a stand-up comedian, he’s a sit-down, get-up, run-around, climb-a-ladder, read-a-poem, do-a-dance, lip-sync-a-song comedian and this year I’m especially excited to be in Currie’s presence as it’s his first ‘non-verbal’ performance - I can’t wait to see what he’s cooked up.
Brand-new, non-verbal immersive comedy show, created by award-winning Belfast comedian and clownarchist, Paul Currie. This show fuses physical clowning, music, contemporary dance, non-verbal comedy vignettes and crowd participation on a grand scale, utilising and subverting everyday objects and everyday life without having to utter a single word. Paul will show how he uses comedy to elevate his mental health and deep depression through laughter in this true sympathy of silly. Shtoom is a unique, surrealist, Dadaesque performance punk musical.
Where? Just the Tonic At The Caves: The Big Room
When? Aug 4-8, 10-13, 15, 17-22, 24-27
The Last Show Before We Die by Hotter Project and Ellie Keel Productions
Ell and Mary are actually just really fucking cool. I’ve seen their last two shows, Hotter and Fitter, both of which are full of joy, fun, some sadness, poignant reflection, and overflowing buckets of love. The duo are fantastic together, effortlessly funny and endowed with the brilliant ability to win their audiences over in seconds. I cannot wait to see their newest performance: The Last Show Before We Die.
Ell and Mary have been dead for three years, but now they’ve come back to life (and the stage) with one question on their minds: how do you know when it’s the end? Inspired by zombies, heartbreak, and the humble cockroach, The Last Show Before We Die is an existential cabaret about the big things in life. And death. From the creators of smash-hit shows HOTTER and FITTER. ‘Riotously funny’ **** (Evening Standard).
Where? Summerhall - Roundabout
When? Aug 2, 4-7, 9-14, 16-21, 23-27
The Talent by Action Hero
Action Hero is the collaboration between artists Gemma Paintin and James Stenhouse and The Talent is the only show on my recommendations that I’ve actually seen, catching it at Battersea Arts Centre earlier this year. It’s only on for the last week of fringe, as part of the always-provoking Horizon Showcase, and if you’re sticking around til the end I’d urge you to catch it. With a brilliant central performance from Gemma Paintin The Talent defies classification, let it wash over you and enjoy the sounds, words, colours and ideas it covers you with.
On stage is a small sound booth; inside sits a woman, alone. She is a voice-over artist. Off stage, in a space never seen but only heard, two disembodied voices ask her to conjure different voices for commercials, self-help audiobooks, meditation tapes, computer games, robo-calls...anything and everything. Is she the powerful protagonist in her own narrative? A puppet for capitalism? Or something else entirely... A post-pandemic, post-human vocal soup that wonders aloud about how the human voice lives on outside the body and what kind of ghosts will haunt us when we’re gone.
Where? Summerhall - Main Hall
When? Aug 22-27
Lucy and Friends by Lucy McCormick
I saw Lucy McCormick’s Post Popular in 2019 and became completely hooked. She is a powerhouse, it’s impressive enough to be a world-class actor, comedian, singer, dancer or performance artist - the fact that McCormick’s all five, at the same time, in each of her shows (at least the two I’ve seen) is something of a miracle - go and see her.
Lucy McCormick is back with her most ambitious medium-concept catastrophic show yet. Join Lucy as she unveils her ensemble cabaret tent spectacular… Unfortunately, she has no friends, no money, and no tent. Still, there’ll be pole dancing, variety acts, strip routines and some quick reworking of social policy. In a despairing world, lonely Lucy creates community, connection, and conversation the only way she knows how.
Where? Pleasance Courtyard - Forth
When? Aug 2-6, 8-13, 15-20, 22-23
So those are our ‘Ten Do Not Miss These At All Costs Shows’, but there were hundreds more that could have easily squeezed their way in. We’d like to use a couple of inches here to mention two shows that we have a vested interest in…
First up is Holly Spillar: HOLE - this is Holly’s first Edinburgh Fringe and Nathan and myself are very lucky to call ourselves producers of this brilliant show. It’s on all month at Underbelly Bristo Square and is a hilarious hour of character comedy centred around Holly’s diagnosis of Vaginismus. More info and tickets can be found here.
Second is Kissing a Fool - ‘a queer clown-cabaret musical tribute to George Michael’ that Nathan is producing. I saw it on Sunday in London and it’s a wonderful physicalisation of grief, performed with jaw-dropping flexibility and strength. More info and tickets can be found here.
And that’s that for our previews, all that’s left to say now is have a safe trip up there (or down, or across), bring your raincoats, and don’t forget to get a curry from Mosque kitchen or a kebab from Palmyra.
See you soon,
T & N xxx
