Our team has spent a lot of time at the Edinburgh Fringe this month, making the most of the world's largest arts festival.
We have each selected one of our favourite shows of the month to offer a varied mix of top selections for the final weekend of the Fringe.
We hope you enjoy our picks.
Three Chickens Confront Existence
I was apprehensive going into this show. Afterall, how entertaining could watching three actors stuck in cages, in full chicken regalia and for a whole hour be? Quite, it turns out.
Three Chickens Confront Existence flaps between absurd comedy and philosophical musings as the three chickens – Helen, Bronsman and Reginald – come to terms with the fact they are set for the broiler.
Complete with noise effects – more of which would have been welcome, I hasten to add – but it was really the performances that stood out, transforming feathers and squawks into thought-provoking theatre.
One Man Poe
Performer and director Stephen Smith gives a demonic demonstration of Edgar Allan Poe's works, and the audience could not look away from his haunting eyes all show. At several points, the audience collectively took in breath and after an on-stage change of clothes and make-up refresh, Smith's physical efforts were proven by the sweat pooling on the stage and dripping from his hair.
I could not have been more wow-ed by this marathon of the macabre, and with Smith doing two-show days with his sold-out performance titled Montage of Monet, he is one to watch. A captivating talent, telling legendary stories.
Patti Harrison presents ... Don't Ask: A Variety Show With Friends
“WHAT is your race?”
A question put to an audience member at Patti Harrison presents... Don't Ask: A Variety Show With Friends, by one of the friends in question – US comedian Ziwe.
In the wrong hands, this is a fiercely inappropriate question that may result in walk-outs.
Patti Harrison shows are perfect for the inappropriate, though. She takes aim at gay people, women and trans people in such a way that they’ll all be laughing alongside her and, somehow, it’d be bigots walking out.
The show would only benefit from more Patti.
PS. Don’t leave early unless you want to be chased.
Fuselage
This astonishing story of a group of American students who lost their lives in the Lockerbie bombing is one of the most emotional pieces of theatre you’ll ever see. Annie Lareau, who lost her best friend and several others in the attack on Pan Am 103, recounts how the heady excitement of a university semester in London ended in tragedy and her struggle to come to terms with the disaster, before looking back on her visit to Lockerbie three decades later. The clever writing and authentic storytelling has left audiences in tears as it reminds us of the human stories behind the passengers who, all too fast, became names on a roll call.
Cutting the Tightrope
A provocative, punchy and challenging series of vignettes and monologues produced in response to threats of censorship by Arts Council England, this production questions how we can continue to live while a genocide is livestreamed into our lives at all hours of the day. If all that sounds a bit much like hard work of an evening, don't worry because Cutting the Tightrope is also at points laugh-out-loud funny and will leave you with plenty to chew over in the hours, days and weeks afterwards. You will still be thinking about it when you're making your choices for next year's festival.
Michelle Wolf
American comedian Michelle Wolf was characteristically acerbic during her show at the Pleasance Courtyard. Her biting satire scandalised both right-wing “free speech absolutists” and ostensibly “liberal” centrist pundits alike during her infamous White House Correspondents' Dinner appearance, and that same razor-sharp wit was on display here.
Woolf first apologises for her country’s descent toward fascism before cheerily quipping, “You’re next!”
However Wolf offers more than political commentary, entertaining the audience across a riotously funny hour with her gripes about pregnancy, men, her rage at women’s clothing lacking pockets, and why she’s envious of men being able to shit while naked.
Float
Writer and performer Indra Wilson’s autobiographical solo play takes a beautifully original approach to portraying the heartbreak of experiencing pregnancy loss as a queer young person. Pregnancy becomes a space mission, with Wilson adopting the guise of an astronaut who is delighted to discover that they have been chosen to embark on a journey to the stars.
Wilson charts a course through euphoric highs and devastating lows, and it’s impossible not to be deeply affected by the cathartic supernova of emotions they express in this powerful hour of theatre. So much so that a mere five-star rating feels galactically inadequate.
Cat Cohen: Broad Strokes
Cat Cohen is an absolute whirlwind of a woman. She comes on stage in silhouette, before the lights reveal a fantastically glamorous sequinned get-up and she bursts into song. The diva energy is palpable from the outset.
Cohen's hour-long show focuses on her experience of having a stroke in her early 30s – combining themes of self-doubt, millennial self-interest and showbiz ambitions with her health journey. Her ability to coin a phrase is incredible (I can't stop thinking about describing hospital lighting as "giving cellulite"), and almost as impressive as her extremely catchy cabaret songs (which I hummed on the train all the way home). This is an incredibly tight hour of comedy and music from a young woman absolutely bursting with talent.
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