Edinburgh Fringe 2022
We were back at the Fringe in 2022! Once again we worked with the amazing Pleasance Theatre Trust on their fantastic programme. Plus we looked after a range of excellent shows with timely and powerful theatre, mind-blowing circus and comedy to make you laugh out loud. This Fringe was back with a bang and 2022 was not to be missed!
Scroll down to plan your Fringe schedule…
(le) Pain
As the smell of baking bread wafts around the audience, Jean-Daniel (JD) Broussé’s first solo show offers a similar tantalising temptation. JD was born to inherit the French bakery passed down through generations of his family. A play on the French word for bread and the English word for suffering, in (le) pain we follow JD forced to choose between continuing the family legacy or pursuing his dreams as a performer. This innovative and refreshing show involves circus, dance, storytelling, Béarnaise folklore, video, karaoke and laughter. Assembly Roxy (Upstairs), Saturday 6th – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 8th, 15th, 22nd) at 16:00.
Age is a Feeling
WINNER: Fringe First 2022
WINNER: Lustrum Award
NOMINATED: Off Fest Edinburgh Fringe Award
From Haley McGee, the defiantly distinctive (The Scotsman) creator of sell-out The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale (now also a memoir published by Penguin Random House) comes a brand-new show, that is different every day, inspired by interviews with hospice workers, interactions with mystics and trips to the cemetery. Age is a Feeling is a gripping story about the glorious and melancholy unknowability of human life that charts the seminal moments, rites of passage and turning points in an adult life – your life – from the day you turn 25 through to your death. Summerhall (Anatomy Lecture Theatre), Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 8th, 15th, 22nd) at 12:10.
Block’d Off
Recipient of the Pleasance Theatre’s Generate Fund for UK-based Black, Asian and Global Majority Artists, Block’d Off is a hard-hitting one-woman play that follows five characters living in the cycle of deprivation and exposes what it’s like to be working class in London today. Based on real stories and real lives, Block’d Off considers what working class means – everyone knows the stereotypes, now it’s time to hear the voices behind the ‘titles’. Pleasance Courtyard (Upstairs), Wednesday 3rd – Monday 29th August 2022 (not 10th, 23rd) at 15:10.
BOGEYMAN
In 1791, a Vodou Ceremony begins the Haitian Revolution, to end enslavement on the island. In the present, a man is haunted by ghosts in his city. BOGEYMAN is a thrilling, genre-defying tale of hope, rebellion and connection within a broken system from writer and director Emily Aboud and Lagahoo Productions. This ghost story playfully combines music, movement and history in an underdog story of resistance against the oppressor; BOGEYMAN aims to empower and uplift and bring to life forgotten histories. Pleasance Dome (Queen Dome), Wednesday 3rd – Monday 29th August 2022 (not 15th, 22nd) at 15:55.
Brown Boys Swim
WINNER: Fringe First 2022
WINNER: Popcorn Award 2022
SHORTLISTED: Holden Street Theatres’ Edinburgh Award
NOMINATED: Off Fest Edinburgh Fringe Award
Brown Boys Swim considers two young men on the cusp of change. Karim Khan (recipient of Riz Ahmed’s Left Handed Films and Pillars Fund inaugural fellowship) examines the pressures that surround young Muslim men today in this lyrical coming-of-age tale, directed by John Hoggarth and produced by Fringe First award-winning The North Wall. Considering systemic racism and societal pressures, Brown Boys Swim examines how we can be prevented from being and understanding our most authentic selves. Pleasance Dome (Jack Dome), Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 15th) at 14:30.
Dreams of the Small Gods
Dreams of the Small Gods is an intoxicating one-woman performance telling the story of the awakening of Wild Woman, blending aerial circus, masked ritual and performance art. Naked, unaware and unselfconscious, she explores her surroundings – more animal than human. Winner of the Autopsy Award for Summerhall 2022 and, part of the Made in Scotland Showcase, this transfixing production from Zinnia Oberski, presented by Scissor Kick, is directed by Herald Angel Award winner Ellie Dubois (No Show). Summerhall (Demonstration Room), Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 15th, 22nd ) at 19:50.
Fanboy
NOMINEE: Special Award DarkChat Award
NOMINEE: Best Performance in a Play Dark Chat Award
NOMINEE: Best Play DarkChat Award
NOMINEE: Best Director Dark Chat Award
NOMINEE: Best Moment DarkChat Award
NOMINEE: Best One Person Show DarkChat Award
NOMINEE: Best Show DarkChat Award
SHORTLISTED: Holden Street Theatres’ Edinburgh Award
Fringe-first award winner Joe Sellman-Leava (Labels, Monster) explores our relationship with our past and future selves, in this love-hate letter to pop culture and nostalgia. Expect epic storytelling, razor-sharp impressions and a dose of theatrical magic in this innovative, multi-disciplinary world premiere! Sellman Leava asks us to consider the very nature of fandom and what happens to our childhood obsessions over time, how we can sometimes feel safer in our childhood memories, hiding from the world. Pleasance Dome (10 Dome), Wednesday 3rd – Monday 29th August 2022 (not 8th, 15th, 22nd) at 12:15.
Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World
NOMINATED: Best Show Sinners Review
NOMINATED: Off Fest Edinburgh Fringe Award
The kickass-pirational pop musical, Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World, is an empowering stage show based on the popular children’s book by Suffragette descendant Kate Pankhurst. Adapted by Chris Bush (Faustus: That Damned Woman, Headlong; Pericles, National Theatre; The Band Plays On, Sheffield Theatres), and from one of the producers of international hit musical SIX, it features catchy original songs by hit songwriter Miranda Cooper (Girls Aloud; Sugababes; Kylie Minogue) and Jennifer Decilveo (Miley Cyrus; Ben Platt). This uplifting, feel-good musical is full of remarkable stories, surprising lessons and fierce female anthems played by a live band that packs a popstar punch. Pleasance Courtyard (Grand), Thursday 4th – Monday 29th August 2022, 13:30
Hotel Paradiso
Irresistibly colourful, loud and fun, Hotel Paradiso returns as an unmissable show for the whole family. Spectacular circus skills meet physical comedy, clowning and slapstick as we meet the charming staff of the quirkily ineffective Hotel Paradiso. This character-driven theatrical show is told with Guinness World Record Holders Lost in Translation’s trademark humour and a wowing mix of daring circus skills. Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows (The Beauty), Saturday 6th August – Saturday 27th August 2022 (not 15th) at 15:20.
I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical
From voice-straining high notes to limb-spraining high kicks, via on-stage smooches and off-stage feuds, award-winning musical revue I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical reveals everything that you could want to know about being a musical theatre performer… if only there were any who would dare to admit it. Returning to the Fringe with its unique blend of wit, whimsy and warmth, it presents the innermost secrets of the industry. Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (The Other Yin), Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August 2022 at 20:45.
Jeremy Sassoon’s MOJO
In this foot-stomping celebration of some of the most iconic and best-loved ‘Musicians Of Jewish Origin’, internationally renowned singer-pianist Jeremy Sassoon and his superb band take you on a journey through the golden era of Gershwin and the Great American Songbook right up to the present day. Honouring artists such as Carole King, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Randy Newman and Amy Winehouse, MOJO is filled with surprising and hilarious anecdotes and is uplifting entertainment for anyone who enjoys a great song. Assembly Checkpoint, Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 15th, 16th) at 18:15.
KIN
Not seen in Edinburgh since 2017 and fresh from a run in London’s West End, BMT (Bromance) return with their biggest show yet KIN, an innovative and exhilarating five-star show about camaraderie now brought to life by a new cast. Fooling about with group dynamics KIN follows the shifts, alignments and realignments of groups through high-octane circus skills, incredible feats of strength, hand-to-hand balancing, banquine, teeter board, acrobatics and Cyr wheel routines. Assembly Rooms (Music Hall), Thursday 4th – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 10th, 15th, 22nd) at 15:05.
Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About A Terrible Monster
Critically acclaimed multimedia artists Manual Cinema (Ada/Ava, Lula del Ray, Frankenstein) return to Edinburgh from Chicago with Leonardo!, adapted from the beloved children’s books Leonardo, The Terrible Monster & Sam, The Most Scaredy-Cat Kid in the Whole World by celebrated author Mo Willems. Using live actors, 3D and paper puppets, DIY cinema, immersive sound and live music, Leonardo! tells the story of a monster who longs to be scary and the big decisions about identity and empathy that we all must make. Underbelly Bristo Square (Cowbarn), Wednesday 3rd – Monday 29th August 2022 (not 15th) at 13:45.
Let’s Talk About Philip
Many of us can relate to the concept of families not talking about things – but Helen Wood (The Usherettes,) shows us the extreme in Let’s Talk About Philip, a fast-paced, candid, darkly comic and gripping new play. After her mother’s funeral, Helen’s father suddenly said: ‘let’s talk about Philip’. It was the first time anyone in her family had spoken about her brother since his suicide, 32 years previously. Here, we are taken on a quest into the Wood family’s history to discover some hidden truths behind her brother’s death and the conspiracy of silence that surrounded them. Pleasance Beneath, Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August, (not 15th) at 16:00.
Love Them To Death
WINNER: Best Play The Stagey Place Podcast
WINNER: Best Script The Stage Place Podcast
NOMINATED: Off Fest Edinburgh Fringe Award
Written by Max Dickins (The Man on the Moor, Kin, The Trunk) and directed by five times Fringe First award-winner Hannah Eidinow, Love Them To Death explores Fabricated and Induced illness (previously known as ‘Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy’), a rare form of behaviour where care givers exaggerate, feign or induce illness in their children. Exploring who is telling the truth, how we come to that decision, and whether the truth even exists, most of the time, Love Them To Death is a dark and twisty tale set in the borderlands between love and violence – inspired by real events. Underbelly Cowgate (Big Belly), Thursday 4th – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 15th) at 15:30.
Love, Loss & Chianti
Much-loved TV star Robert Bathurst (Cold Feet, ITV; Downton Abbey, ITV; Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes, BBC; Toast of London, Channel 4) returns to the Edinburgh Fringe with Love, Loss & Chianti, an exciting double-bill intertwined with glorious animations from celebrated cartoonist Charles Peattie. The show previously opened to critical acclaim at London’s Riverside Studios in 2020 and sees Bathurst star alongside Rebecca Johnson. Assembly Rooms (Music Hall), Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 10th or 23rd) at 12:55
Made in India Britain
WINNER: Neurodiverse Review Deaf Action Award
Supported by the Pleasance’s Generate Fund for UK-based Black, Asian and Global Majority Artists, Rinkoo Barpaga sets out to tell the story of South Asian Deaf people living in Britain. Performed in British Sign Language with a live voiceover, Made in India Britain is an insight into one man’s life as he tries to work out exactly who he is. Join him as he delves deep into past experiences to discover his true self and a place he can finally call home. Pleasance Courtyard (Two), Friday 5th – Monday 29th August 2022 (not 9th, 16th, 23rd) at 13:40.
NewsRevue 2022
This Guinness World Record-breaking, standard-bearing, song and sketch show, returns to Edinburgh to parody politics in our post-pandemic world. From Covid to climate change, disgraced royals to the Queen’s jubilee, Putin to Partygate, NewsRevue will bang to rights those in the public eye and allow you to laugh at the awful reality of current events. With 100% new content, this multi award-winning institution is flawlessly delivered by four outstanding performers at lightning speed and expertly accompanied by Kieran Stallard as on-stage musical director. Pleasance at EICC (Pentland), Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 22nd) at 20:15
No Place Like Home
WINNER: Les Enfants Terribles Award 2022
NOMINATED: Musical Theatre Review Edinburgh Fringe Festival Award 2022
Fusing spoken word, original music, dance and video art, No Place Like Home by Alex Roberts & Co. (winner of Les Enfants Terribles Award 2022) is a tragic odyssey into gay club culture and the places we can call home. This highly relevant production takes a nuanced look at the politics within gay communities exploring how victims of violence can also be perpetrators of violence. Despite heavy themes, No Place Like Home offers an empowering call to look inward for the affirmation we all so desperately crave. Pleasance Dome (10Dome), Wednesday 3rd – Monday 29th August 2022 (not 17th) at 14:55.
Oedipus Electronica
WINNER: Best Ensemble The Stagey Place Podcast
WINNER: Best Show Sinners Review
WINNER: The Infallible Award 2022
An electrifying reimagining of the ultimate love triangle – mother, father, son – Oedipus Electronica is the eagerly awaited new show from Pecho Mama. This radical reinvention of Oedipus is a powerhouse production for our times; an intoxicating whirlwind of ecstasy and devastation. It is an unapologetic and unflinching journey into the carnal heart of a woman pushed to the edge. The live band onstage drive the action with a soundtrack that hurtles through jazz, techno and home to Pecho Mama’s trademark throbbing Electronica. Pleasance Courtyard (Forth), Wednesday 3rd – Friday 26th August 2022 at 15:30.
Peppa Pig: My First Concert
Join Peppa Pig at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer for her musical interactive show Peppa Pig: My First Concert. This fun, new production featuring the live Aurora Orchestra, will introduce little piggies to different instruments and their unique sounds while encouraging families to sing along to the favourite songs from the record-breaking TV series. Young audiences will discover exciting orchestral pieces that will be familiar to grown-ups in the audience, including music from Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Mozart! Assembly Hall, Thursday 4th – Sunday 21st August 2022 at 10:00 (Wed–Mon) and 11:50 (Sat–Sun).
Please, Feel Free To Share
WINNER: Best Solo Performance The Stagey Place Podcast
HONOURABLE MENTION: Sinners Review
NOMINATED: Off Fest Edinburgh Fringe Award
Please, Feel Free to Share is a dynamic, darkly comic, one-woman show about our personal addictions, the never-ending pursuit of likes, and our growing desire to share all. Finalist for The Popcorn Writing Award 2021, Rachel Causer’s play looks at the blurring between lies and likes. Questioning our desire to present edited versions of ourselves online, Please, Feel Free to Share explores what happens when the obsession with self-editing bleeds into real life. Pleasance Courtyard (The Attic), Wednesday 3rd – Monday 29th August 2022 (not 15th, 16th) at 12:50.
Psychodrama
NOMINATED: Off Fest Edinburgh Fringe Award
Emily Bruni (Peep Show) comes to the Traverse in Off West End Award-nominated Psychodrama, following a sell-out run in London last year. This gripping, at times hilarious, revenge tale by Matt Wilkinson follows an actress in her 40s under investigation for the murder of an auteur theatre director. With soundscape from the multi award-winning Gareth Fry (Harry Potter and The Cursed Child), lighting by Fleabag’s Elliot Griggs, and set against the backdrop of a stage adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Bruni plunges us into the dark heart of show business. Traverse Theatre, Thursday 4th – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 8th, 15th, 22nd) at various times.
PUSH
Award-winning Popelei celebrate their 10th anniversary by returning to Edinburgh with the world premiere of PUSH – a darkly comic and provocative show performed by one increasingly knocked up performer. This daring new play, interlaced with punchy choreography and featuring an electrifying original soundtrack, takes a playful and feminist look at motherhood through the lens of one woman, infused by her Anglo-Latinx heritage and her apparent lack of maternal instinct. Pleasance Courtyard (Baby Grand), Wednesday 3rd – Monday 29th August 2022 (not 15th) at 14:00.
Rapsody
SHORTLISTED: Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence
NOMINATED: Musical Theatre Review Edinburgh Fringe Festival Award 2022
2022 recipient of the Pleasance’s Charlie Hartill Theatre Reserve, Vision Production Company take a raw look at inner-city life in Britain today in their debut show Rapsody. Join Elz, Jams, Toni and latest arrival Jaime, as they confront the realities of our modern-day class system through live rap, trap and drill. As the dynamics of the hostel begin to shift, all four struggle to get by, using the music of rap to speak their truth when words just aren’t enough. Pleasance Courtyard (Above), Wednesday 3rd – Monday 29th August 2022 (not 16th) at 17:20.
SAP by Rafaella Marcus
WINNER: The Stage Edinburgh Award – Jessica Clark’s performance
WINNER: Lustrum Award
SHORTLISTED: Holden Street Theatres’ Edinburgh Award
HONOURABLE MENTION: Sinners Review
NOMINATED: Off Fest Edinburgh Fringe Award
Award-winning Atticist and Ellie Keel Productions return with a new play based on an old myth, about passion, power, and photosynthesis. A contemporary fast-paced thriller with ancient roots, SAP is directed by Offie-nominated Jessica Lazar (Anna Bella Eema, Arcola Theatre; Outlying Islands, King’s Head Theatre; Dangerous Giant Animals, Edinburgh Fringe/United Solo Fest New York/Park Theatre). This debut play by Rafaella Marcus is a queer urban fable about bisexuality and what we allow people to believe. Paines Plough’s Roundabout @ Summerhall, Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 9th, 16th, 23rd) at 12:50.
Something in the Water
NOMINATED: Off Fest Edinburgh Fringe Award
Stunning video projections, puppetry and physical comedy combine in this absurd exploration of identity, gender and growing up ‘normal’. Inspired by performer/creator S.E. Grummett’s experience coming out as transgender, Something in the Water parodies the masculine and feminine and shows how absurd our rigid gender binaries can be. As a giant squid, Grumms can playfully demonstrate what it’s like trying to pass as either male or female or find the freedom to exist as something else entirely. Summerhall (Cairns Lecture Theatre), Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 15th, 22nd) at 20:00.
Speed Dial
NOMINEE: Best Play DarkChat Award
NOMINEE: Best Director DarkChat Award
Renowned, multi-award-winning physical theatre company Spies Like Us (Our Man in Havana, Woyzeck, Murder on the Dancefloor) return with Speed Dial, an explosively physical comedy-thriller about connection, forgiveness and cryptic crosswords. Set to the sounds of 70s vinyl, this new production explores isolation and the institution of British universities with Spies Like Us’ trademark playful physicality and inventiveness. Focusing on themes of isolation, Spies Like Us use the trust and partnerships in their ensemble to interrogate the importance of human connection. Pleasance Dome (Queen Dome), Wednesday 3rd – Monday 29th August 2022 (not 16th) at 14:20.
Sticky Door
From the multi-award-winning team behind the highly-acclaimed Sexy Lamp and Bicycles and Fish comes Sticky Door, a personal, honest and funny look at sex, stigma and cystitis, directed by Ellen Havard (Ad Libido by Fran Bushe, Edinburgh Fringe 2018 and VAULT 2018; Sexy Lamp, Edinburgh Fringe 2019). Katie Arnstein’s trademark ukulele-spun storytelling show examines sex, shame, struggles, isolation and the sisterhood and asks why are women facing a series of sticky doors in work, sex and life and how do we overcome the challenges we are continually met with. Pleasance Dome (Ace Dome), Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 15th) at 16:00.
The Black Blues Brothers
Having thrilled audiences at the Fringe in 2019 with a sell-out, five-star run, The Black Blues Brothers returns to Assembly this summer. No one can resist the rhythm and blues of this acrobatic tribute to the legendary cult movie. This incredible troupe of African acrobats have dazzled audiences around the world and performed at the Vatican and at the Royal Variety Show with jaw-dropping balancing acts, towers of chairs, high-octane drumming, a fire-laced limbo routine and extraordinary human pyramids! Assembly Rooms (Music Hall), Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August 2022 at 16:45.
The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much
WINNER: Carol Tambor Award 2022
Wes Anderson meets Hitchcock meets spaghetti western in this multi award-winning, intercontinental, inter-genre, cinematic caper of accusations, accidents and accents. Raucously funny and endlessly inventive, Lecoq-trained company Voloz Collective delight and stun with live original music and virtuosic acrobatics in this fast-paced, Offies-nominated whodunnit. Winner of the Les Enfants Terribles and Greenwich Partnership Award 2020, The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much is delightfully unbridled, immediate and visceral, igniting audiences’ imaginations with a whirlwind of images and sounds. Pleasance Dome (Jack Dome), Wednesday 3rd – Monday 29th August 2022 (not 17th) at 13:10.
The Silent Treatment
NOMINATED: Best Show Sinners Review
Based on a true story, The Silent Treatment is a moving, funny and uplifting new solo show combining story-telling, physical theatre and song to explore how the body remembers what the mind forgets. From award-winning writer and performer Sarah-Louise Young, creator of An Evening Without Kate Bush and Julie Madly Deeply, The Silent Treatment explores the singer’s own story of voice loss and the unexpected journey of self-revelation that followed. It considers the power and cost of speaking out! Summerhall (Anatomy Lecture Theatre), Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August 2022 (not 15th, 22nd) at 13:50.
The Trial
2022 will see Young Pleasance (finally) celebrate its 25th anniversary! The production will mark this milestone with the ensemble’s heady reinvention of Kafka’s absurdist masterpiece The Trial – a thrilling kaleidoscope of action, where nothing is quite as it seems. Exploring the desire to forge your own identity, it is a story where pursuit, fear and surveillance haunt our dreams. The Trial will be presented in Young Pleasance’s trademark large ensemble and physical visual style. Pleasance Courtyard (Beyond), Friday 5th – Sunday 14th August 2022 at 15:00.
Tiger Lady
NOMINATED: Best Show Sinners Review
Welcome to a tale of love, excitement, danger and very sharp claws. Mabel Stark, the queen of the circus, was one of the first ever female tiger tamers, and the only woman to step into the ring with seven tigers. She is now forgotten; Tiger Lady acts as a powerful vehicle to amplify under-represented voices. From award-winning theatre company Dead Rabbits (The Dragon, My Love Lies Frozen in the Ice) comes a show combining fast-paced, innovative physical theatre with a moving love tale. Pleasance Courtyard (Above), Wednesday 3rd – Monday 29th August 2022 (not 17th, 22nd) at 13:05.
Today I Killed My Very First Bird
SHORTLISTED: Holden Street Theatres’ Edinburgh Award
SHORTLISTED: Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence
Pacey, powerful, and heartbreakingly authentic, Today I Killed My Very First Bird explores hope and despair, combining immersive sound and bold storytelling to create a vivid and visceral theatrical experience. Theatre Royal Plymouth and Voodoo Monkeys co-produce an unflinching, relentless and stomach-churning new play based on writer and performer Jason Brownlee’s lived experience. Today I Killed My Very First Bird is a brutal and poetic story of crime, addiction and redemption using Brownlee’s unique authentic voice to create a potent, dramatic world. Pleasance Courtyard (Beside), Wednesday 3rd – Monday 29th August 2022 (not 10th, 17th) at 14:10.
Will Tell and the Big Bad Baron
Fringe favourites Theatre Fideri Fidera are back with a hilarious comic reimagining of the tale of Wilhelm Tell. Will Tell and the Big Bad Baron introduces a new legendary figure to British drama: the great Swiss freedom fighter Wilhelm Tell who fought against the rule of the Austrian Hungarian empire and famously shot an apple off his child’s head with his crossbow. Don’t miss this mad-cap comic adventure joined together with six amazing original songs. Gilded Balloon (Patter Hoose), Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 21st August 2022 (not 10th, 17th) at 12:00.
