Five more shows to see at the Edinburgh Fringe

A hard-hitting verbatim show, a political satire about our outgoing premier, a silent comedy caper, and 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…

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Photos: Andrew Pugsley, Jake Wadley, The Other Richard.

20 Minutes Of Action - Pleasance Courtyard, 12.15pm

There have been several terrific verbatim theatre shows at recent Edinburgh Fringes, including Trojan Horse and Who Cares from LUNG Theatre and last year’s Screen 9 from Piccolo Theatre. It looks like Lionheart Theatre will be continuing the tradition at this year’s festival with 20 Minutes of Action.

Originally a student play performed at Bedlam Theatre in 2019, then an professional production at Assembly Roxy last year, Pollyanna Esse’s piece takes the real words of people involved in one of the most well-documented sexual assault cases in America in recent years, and spins them into a powerful discussion of prejudice, privilege and the justice system.

The names of those involved have been disguised for legal reasons – the case itself is easy to look up, though, as it received global media attention – but the words Esse and her creative team use are lifted straight from material in the public domain. When it ran at Assembly Roxy in December, reviewers hailed it as a powerful exploration of a pressing issue. Content warnings attached.

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Boris III - Pleasance Courtyard, 4.10pm

There is a long tradition of political satire at the Edinburgh Fringe, ever since Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore lampooned Harold Macmillan – and others – in their legendary 1960 sketch show Beyond The Fringe. Most of it is, well, a bit crap these days, but here is one show that should buck that trend, given the credits of its creative team.

When he was 18 and still a student at Eton, our outgoing prime minister apparently took on the title role in Shakespeare’s Richard III in a school play. He did not learn his lines, stuck pages from the script on columns surrounding the stage, and somehow bumbled through the entire show. The political parallels almost write themselves.

Written and directed by Adam Meggido and starring Harry Kershaw, Boris III is a comedy reimagining of what that Richard III might have looked like, which asks what happens when the clown becomes the king. Both Meggido and Kershaw have long been associated with the Showstopper! and Mischief juggernauts, so if there is any satire worth its salt at this year’s festival, this is it.

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The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much - Pleasance Dome, 1.10pm

There are not many theatre companies as international as Voloz Collective. The ensemble – one American, one French and two English artists – met while studying at Jacques Lecoq in Paris, discovered a shared love of classic cinema, and decided to start devising genre-based physical theatre together. The company’s award-winning debut show, The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much, arrives in Edinburgh after an acclaimed UK tour earlier this year.

The show uses fast-paced physical theatre, inventive acrobatics, and original music to tell the story of Roger, a Frenchman living in 1960s New York, who is saved from certain death by complete coincidence, then proceeds to chase his would-be assassins around the world in search of answers. Expect pastiches of everything from Wes Anderson to Alfred Hitchcock, from The Matrix to James Bond, from the Coen Brothers to Quentin Tarantino. It is a show for families and film lovers alike.

“As an international, multi-lingual company, we are excited to share this show with international, multi-lingual audiences,” says Olivia Zerphy, one of Voloz Collective’s four founders, alongside Emily Wheatman, Paul Lofferon and Sam Rayner. “It is also, in a way, a creative manifesto about breaking away from conventional methods of text-based storytelling, and we can’t wait to connect with other artists and companies inspired by the same ideas.”

This is promotional content.

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Something In The Water - Summerhall, 8pm

Critically-acclaimed Canadian theatremaker Grumms’ solo show Something In The Water won the Best Theatre Award at the last year’s Adelaide Fringe, the southern hemisphere’s answer to the Edinburgh Fringe. A digital version was part of last year’s fringe – but the real, in-person production now arrives at Summerhall, marking Grumms’ debut at the festival.

Conceived, created and performed by Grumms with dramaturgy and direction from Deanna Fleysher – an Edinburgh Fringe regular with her hilarious interactive adventure Butt Kapinski – Something In The Water is an entertaining hour of puppetry, projection and physical comedy, inspired by Grumms’ own experience of coming out as trans, which explores the absurdity of gender roles. Alongside performing it, Grumms is fundraising to buy tickets to it for local LGBTQ+ organisations, and will be running workshops for queer and trans young people during the festival.

The show itself sees Grumms transform into “a giant squid monster”, then have to disguise themself with different gender identities to survive in society. “Often, shows about the trans experience are rooted in trauma, and not created by trans people,” Grumms says. “I wanted to make an empowering show about the trans experience that was full of joy. I think it is so important right now for us to see empowering queer stories that make us laugh and help us feel seen.”

This is promotional content.

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Psychodrama - Traverse Theatre, Various Times

The Traverse Theatre is the home of the most exciting new writing at the Edinburgh Fringe, and this year is no different. The venue is playing host to several bold new shows, including Matt Wilkinson’s hilariously dark one-woman play Psychodrama starring Emily Bruni, which arrives in Scotland after a critically acclaimed run in London at pop-up theatre Never For Ever.

The show, which is written and directed by Wilkinson with a soundscape from award-winning sound designer Gareth Fry and lighting from Fleabag’s Elliot Griggs, follows a 40-something actress who is under investigation over the death of an auteur theatre director. Bruni – familiar from the TV comedies Peep Show and Toast, as well as countless stage credits – provides a thrillingly versatile solo performance as the actress accused of murder.

The follow-up to My Eyes Went Dark, Wilkinson’s sell-out play at the 2016 festival, Psychodrama is an explosive exploration of what it means to be a middle-aged woman in an industry obsessed with youth and beauty. “We want to engage and provoke audiences in a witty way,” says producer Padraig Cusack. “We want people to leave having conversations about the 60-minute emotional rollercoaster they have just seen. It’s a real shout-out for women and the impediments they encounter throughout life, and that is always a lively debate. We would love to take this production on tour to other audiences as well, as the story is utterly global.”

This is promotional content.

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Fergus Morgan