FESTIVAL THEATRE | Top Tips
DOUBLE FEATURE THE SHAPE OF THE PAIN
Gilded Balloon at Rose Theatre, 5–28 Aug (not 14), 7.15pm, £14– £16 (£13–£15). Previews 2–4 Aug, £8. Clearing out their former local cinema seems like the dream job for two old pals (Andy Gray and Grant Stott), but in the process of stirring memories and re-creating scenes from their favourite movies, their shared fanaticism for film soon has to make way for bigger issues that have long remained unresolved.
HOW TO WIN AGAINST HISTORY Assembly George Square Gardens, 5–27 Aug (not 14), 7.25pm, £13–£14 (£12–£13). Previews 3 & 4 Aug, £10. Henry Cyril Paget, the fifth Marquis of Anglesey, whose star burned brightly, briefly and transvestitely at the height of the British Empire, stalks the stage again in Seiriol Davies’s fierce, fabulous, tragi-gorgeous, hilarious, riches-to-rags extravaganza about being too weird for the world, but desperately not wanting it to forget you.
ANYA ANASTASIA: ROGUE ROMANTIC
Assembly Checkpoint, 4–27 Aug (not 14), 7.30pm, £11–£13. Previews 2 & 3 Aug, £8. Feisty, feminist, fierce. Multi award-winning, international cabaret femme fatale Anya Anastasia has gone rogue! Channeling Yma Sumac and Shirley Bassey, Anastasia’s vocals range from husky cabaret to operatic soprano.
Summerhall, 5–26 Aug (not 3, 14, 21), 7.30pm, £15 (£13). Previews 2, 4 Aug, £10 (£8). A new show from Rachel Bagshaw and Chris Thorpe exploring life in extremity and the joy that can be found there.
THE SKY IS SAFE Summerhall, 4–27 Aug (14, 21), 7.45pm, £15 (£10). Preview 2 Aug, £8. See feature, page 109.
8PM
BETTY GRUMBLE: LOVE AND ANGER (OR SEX CLOWN SAVES
THE WORLD AGAIN!)
Heroes @ Monkey Barrel, 3–27 Aug (not 9, 14, 21), 8pm, £5. Sex clown, wild woman and surreal showgirl, the award-winning, head-spinning Betty Grumble returns to Edinburgh with her flesh riot of laughing love and ecosex. Winner Green Room 2017 and Underbelly Award 2016.
9PM
HOT BROWN HONEY Assembly Roxy, 2–27 Aug (not 9, 14, 21), 9pm, £15–£16 (£14–£15). Previews 2–4 Aug, £10. Winners of the 2016 Total Theatre Award for Innovation, The Honeys are back to spin tradition on its head, challenge boundaries and ignite the change we want to be.
REUBEN KAYE Assembly Checkpoint, 4–27 Aug (not 14), 9pm, £12–£13. Previews
EVOCATION Pierrot Lunaire was the David Bowie of the early 20th century. Rescued from his relative obscurity, he’s back, hanging out in fin-de-siecle Brighton and reinvented as a down and dirty antihero. With his European heritage and the accompaniment of industrial drone, Pierrot wants to remind the Fringe who started to defy the norm. theSpace on the Mile, 5–26 Aug, 8.25pm, £7–£8 (£4–£5). Preview 4 Aug, £5 (£3). 120 THE LIST FESTIVAL 3–10 Aug 2017
BREAK UP (WE NEED TO TALK) A five-hour epic as two performers — dressed in banana suits — rake a relationship over the coals. By turns funny, incoherent and incisive, Binge Culture bring their New Zealand hit to Summerhall to push the boundaries of how theatre works — and how far communication can ever happen between people. Audience members can come and go, and tweeting is encouraged. Summerhall, 7, 14, 21 Aug, 6pm, £10 (£8).
2 & 3 Aug, £8. Clever, filthy comedy from Australia’s Cabaret superstar Reuben Kaye. Best Cabaret Winner Adelaide Fringe 2017.
DOLLYWOULD Summerhall, 4–27 Aug (not 21), 9.15pm, £8. Preview 2 Aug, £6. Following the award-winning sell-out Letters to Windsor House, Fringe First winner Sh!t Theatre return in a bold new show about Dolly Parton.
SASQUATCH: THE OPERA Summerhall, 4–27 Aug (not 14), 9.15pm, £14–£15 (£11–£12). Preview 2 Aug, £12. World premiere of an experimental opera written and composed by Faith No More’s Roddy Bottum, based on the fable of Sasquatch.
10PM
MORALE IS HIGH (SINCE WE GAVE UP HOPE)
Northern Stage at Summerhall, 7–20 Aug (not 9, 16), 10.15pm, £12 (£10). Preivew 5 Aug, £10. A double act debut performance from Powder Keg predicting what could happen at the next general election.
MEOW MEOW’S LITTLE MERMAID The Hub, 3–27 Aug (not 8, 15, 22), 10.30pm (& 7.30pm on 12, 19, 26 Aug), £15. Part of the Edinburgh International Festival. See feature, page 36.
THE UNMARRIED Underbelly Med Quad, 5–28 Aug
(not 14, 21), 10.35pm, £9–£10 (£8–£9). Previews 2–4 Aug, £6.50. Written and performed by the award- winning Lauren Gauge, The Unmarried hits Edinburgh with its much raved- about live underscore of old-school UK Garage anthems, following sell-out runs at Lyric Hammersmith and Camden People’s Theatre.
PETER & BAMBI HEAVEN: WHEN
LOVE BECOMES MAGIC Assembly George Square Gardens, 5–27 Aug (not 14), 10.35pm, £12–£13. Previews 3 & 4 Aug, £8. Australia’s high energy dancing magicians, Peter & Bambi Heaven are back, spraying love and magic on everything and everyone they touch.
11PM LOSERS
Underbelly Cowgate, 5–27 Aug (not 14), 11.20pm, £9–£10 (£8–£9). Previews 3 & 4 Aug, £6.50. Blurring lines between interactive theatre, live art and cabaret, Losers turns the spotlight on the dubious ethics of reality TV.
ILLICIT THRILL: TITS, TEASE AND TEN POUND NOTES
The Voodoo Rooms, 4–6, 10–13, 17–20, 24–27 Aug, 11.55pm, £10. The Illicit Thrill combines adult erotic entertainment and an intelligent sensibility: simultaneously filthy and thoughtful, Gypsy Charms unfolds the secrets of the gentleman’s club without inhibitions but with plenty of wit.