Five more shows to catch at the Edinburgh Fringe.
A clown show about grief, a movement piece about the climate crisis, and lots more.
Hello, and welcome to The Crush Bar, a weekly newsletter about theatre written by me, Fergus Morgan.
This issue is one of twelve specials I will be sending out during July and August, all focused on shows performing at the Edinburgh Fringe. Each issue will highlight five shows worth watching - three picked by me, plus a couple of promotional ones, too.
Some issues will be themed, some won’t be. Some shows I will have seen and loved myself, some I will just have heard good things about. All of them, though, will be made by exciting, mostly emerging/early-career artists.
You can read more about the thinking behind The Crush Bar here, and you can subscribe to get it sent straight into your inbox - go on! - using the button below…
Burnt Out - Dance Base, 1.30pm
Penny Chivas is an Australian dance artist, currently based in Glasgow. Burnt Out is her 45-minute show all about her home country’s Black Summer of 2019-20, when 18 million hectares of land, dozens of people and billions of animals were destroyed by bushfires on an unprecedented scale.
Through spoken-word and movement, Chivas explores Australia’s attitude to the environment, its addiction to coal, and the effect that has on both people and planet. David Bowes supplies some stark lighting and Paul Michael Henry supplies a disconcerting soundscape.
Burnt Out first ran at last year’s Covid-affected Edinburgh Fringe – you can read my four-star review of it here – and returns this year for a short run from August 23 to August 28 at Dance Base. It is one of several compelling pieces on the climate crisis at this year’s festival, and well worth catching.
Sap - Roundabout @ Summerhall, 12.50pm
Here is another reason you should spend all your time in the Paines Plough Roundabout at Summerhall this August. Acclaimed company Atticist and Ellie Keel Productions are collaborating – in association with MAST Mayflower Studios and 45North – to co-produce Rafaella Marcus’ debut play Sap, a two-handed thriller inspired by the ancient myth of Apollo and Daphne.
Directed by Offie-nominated Jessica Lazar, artistic director of Atticist, and designed by Linbury Prize finalist Ruta Irbite, it reworks the Apollo and Daphne myth – as told by Ovid – into a modern-day urban fable exploring bisexuality and biphobia.
It also marks the return of Atticist to the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time since 2016, when the company won the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award with its show Life According to Saki, and the Edinburgh return of Ellie Keel, the powerhouse producer behind Hotter, Fitter, Collapsible, and The Women’s Prize For Playwriting.
Good Grief - Underbelly Cowgate, 3.40pm
Liverpool-based clowning company Ugly Bucket have made a series of superbly silly shows about serious subjects. Bost-Uni Plues examined post-graduate depression and was a hit at the 2019 fringe, as was 2 Clowns 1 Cup, the company’s hilarious debut show about sex and sexuality.
Now, Ugly Bucket’s third show, Good Grief, arrives in Edinburgh, one of four shows supported by the New Diorama Theatre, Underbelly and Methuen Drama’s Untapped Award, along with ChewBoy Productions’ Caligari, Chalk Line Theatre’s Blanket Ban, and Max Percy + Friends’ This Is Not A Show About Hong Kong.
Created by Ugly Bucket artistic directors Rachael Smart and Grace Gallagher – the very first interviewee in this newsletter - Good Grief sees a five-strong cast explore the theme of grief through the company’s now trademark mixture of documentary interviews, verbatim miming, and sheer silliness. I reviewed an online version back in January last year, and loved it.
Dear Little Loz - TheSpace @ Surgeon’s Hall, 12pm
Solo show Dear Little Loz marks the Edinburgh Fringe debut of both Blackpool-born, working-class writer-performer Lauren-Nicole Mayes – an associate artist at Oldham Coliseum and a finalist for the Sky Studios and Box Of Tricks’ Screen/Play Award – and producer-director Izzy Parriss, an Edinburgh University graduate and the driving force behind Islington-based, female-led company Bomb Factory Theatre.
The time-hopping, semi-autobiographical show sees Mayes use a mixture of prose and freeform poetry to examine her attitude to men, to love, and to herself. In 2006, a young Loz deals with the complex relationship she has with her dad. In 2019, prompted by yet another disappointing first date, an older Loz starts to look back, and to explore the legacy that rocky relationship left her with.
“We want to have good audiences and get good reviews, of course,” says director and producer Parriss, who has previously worked on shows with Ambassador Theatre Group, Theatre503, and elsewhere. “Beyond that, though, we are planning on touring the show around the North and into London in early 2023. We already have some interest from venues, but would love to add to that list.”
This is promotional content.
Stop Trying To Be Fantastic - Summerhall, 5pm
2020 was the tenth anniversary of Molly Naylor’s Edinburgh Fringe debut Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You, and the Norwich-based poet and performer intended to mark the occasion by returning to the festival with a brand-new solo show. Covid-19 intervened, but two years later, Stop Trying To Be Fantastic finally arrives for a month-long run at Summerhall.
The almost-autobiographical show uses honest and amusing poetry and storytelling to explore the ways in which we try to deal with the lasting legacies of traumatic events. Naylor looks back on her own life, at one particular event from her own childhood, and examines the strategies she has used to avoid the pain and suffering it caused – from work-aholism, to substance abuse, to altruism, to love. It is, she says, “an anti-self-help show that might actually help.”
Naylor – whose other solo shows include the acclaimed My Robot Heart and Lights! Planets! People!, and whose other writing credits include the Sky One sitcom After Hours – is also directing Grace Petrie’s debut show Butch Ado About Nothing at this year’s festival. She will be having a busy month but is prepared for it. “In previous years, I was very insecure and worried about everything,” she says. “I’m older now. I’m a different person. I’m hoping I've got a bit more resilience, but let's find out!”
This is promotional content.
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Fergus Morgan