list.co.uk/festival Top Tips | F E S T I VA L T H E AT R E
T O P T I P S | W E E K 1
2PM
BLOOD AND GOLD Scottish Storytelling Centre, 2–26 Aug (not 12, 19), 2pm, £12 (£10). Preview 1 Aug, £8. From Kenya to Edinburgh, Mara Menzies uses storytelling to transport the audience to a world where mythological imagination and mundane urban life come together to reflect on the post- colonial world.
THE GRAY CAT AND THE FLOUNDER
Assembly George Square Studios, 2–22 Aug (not 12, 19), 2.05pm, £12–£14 (£11–£13). Previews 31 Jul & 1 Aug, £10. Commissioned by the Flounder himself, this celebration of a real-life love story encases the audience in binaural sound: through headphones, the musical numbers become intimate and immediate, and a decade spanning ‘series of conversations’ are captured in cartoons, song and puppetry.
A WOMB OF ONE’S OWN Pleasance Dome, 3–26 Aug (not 13, 22), 2.50pm, £10–£12 (£9–£11).
RICH KIDS: A HISTORY OF SHOPPING MALLS IN TEHRAN With the gap between rich and poor increasing, and social media helping it along, Javaad Alipoor ponders the ways that gap is presented as societies gradually exhaust their ambitions and politicians seem to be self-interested. Traverse, 1–25 Aug (not 5, 12, 19), times vary, £21.
Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £6. Based on real-life experiences of abortion and a Catholic upbringing, Claire Rammelkamp’s show unflinchingly tackles relationships and the lack of information around having a termination.
3PM THE TRIAL
Greenside @ Infirmary Street, 2–17 Aug (not 4, 11), 3pm, £10 (£5). Franko Figueiredo directs a loose adaptation of the novel Tieta do Agreste. When Tieta comes home for justice, the audience are cast as the jury, and contemporary attitudes and struggles are examined in the light of what appears to be an international regression in the matter of rights and respect for trans people.
FATTY FAT FAT Pleasance Courtyard, 3–26 Aug (not 13), 3.15pm, £8–£10 (£7–£9). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £6. Roundhouse resident artist Katie Greenall brings poetry to a discussion of how body positivity has been usurped by ‘everyone but the people it was originally intended to represent’. Inspired by fat activism, Greenall explores the experience of living in a body that ‘the world tells you to hate’.
THE BURNING Pleasance Courtyard, 3–26 Aug (not 13), 3.15pm, £11–£13 (£11–£12). Previews 31 Jul–1 Aug, £7. Going back as far as the origins of the word ‘witch’, Incognito chase through time and space to consider the relationship between horror and capitalism, witches and their persecutors, and promises to expose the moments in history that fractured female identity into the dualism of Madonna or whore.
BIBLE JOHN Pleasance Courtyard, 3–26 Aug (not 13), 3.50pm, £10–£12 (£9–£11). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £7. The unsolved late-1960s Barrowland Ballroom murders by the mysterious Bible John are examined in a new piece from Poor Michelle theatre company. It follows four women in 2019 who try to solve the mystery fuelled by an obsession with true crime.
4PM
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FRAGILE MALE EGO
Pleasance Dome, 3–26 Aug (not 14, 21), 4pm, £10–£12 (£9–£10). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £7. Jordan
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B E R N A D E T T E B A K S A
FIX US The debut from BareFace is a semi-autobiographical challenge to preconceived notions about disability. Zara, Lee and Kirsty present on- stage personae that attack stereotypes and labels, and use the fantasy of the stage to deliver deeper truths. Underbelly Cowgate, 3–25 Aug (not 12), 12.20pm, £10–£11 (£9–£10). Previews Thu 1 & Fri 2 Aug, £7.
and Skinner come from the rising Scottish clown scene, and this history is a lecture from a member of the Society of Men’s Truth. The lecture tour hasn’t been going so well, even though Andrea is sure that her message will help humanity get out from under a pressing weight.
FIRST TIME Summerhall, 2–25 Aug, (not 12, 19), 4.15pm, £14.50 (£12.50). Preview 31 Jul, £5. Written and performed by queer activist and performer Nathaniel Hall, this autobiographical story sees Hall explore his experience of HIV and breaking through the stigma of being positive. See feature, page 113.
5PM DRUNK LION
Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 1–25 (not 5, 6, 20), 5pm, free. The return of this 2014 Fringe success has an alcoholic lion meeting Chris, who seems to be at least something of a reflection on the writer-performer, who spent three years living in Mexico before committing his life to becoming a celebrity on the Fringe underground. Both Spanish and English are placed in the service of Davis’ reflection on ‘his second home country’, alcoholism and the connection between man and (anthropomorphic) beast.
CONFETTI AND CHAOS Imagination Workshop, 1–26 Aug (not 6, 13, 20), 5pm, £45–£47.50. From the team that brought the legendary immersive show Faulty Towers The Dining Experience to the Edinburgh Fringe, this will be a wedding like no other, with a three- course meal, questionable dancing and some bizarre, hilarious incidents along the way.
MY MUM’S A TWAT Summerhall, 3–25 Aug (not 12, 19), 5.30pm, £12 (£10). Previews 31 Jul, £5 & 2 Aug, £8. This common complaint from teenagers is more justified in Anoushka Warden’s debut play. Mum joins a New Religious Community that has less fashion sense and more fake piety than a daughter can tolerate. Warden will be performing this roughly autobiographical tale of growing up with a family that has been drawn into a twilight world of cults and hypocrites.
PIZZA SHOP HEROES Summerhall, 3–11 Aug, 5.40pm, £12 (£10). Three years after introducing their ‘theatre of sanctuary’, Phosphorus return to the Fringe with autobiographical tales of migration, identity and ambition. By placing refugees on the stage, Phosphorus go beyond the predictable content of serious concern and consider theatre as a community that gives voice to the marginalised, rather than speaking on their behalf.
31 Jul–7 Aug 2019 THE LIST FESTIVAL 119