Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Stonewall

9 Aug 2007

Doubtless huge progress has been made regarding gay rights in recent decades but there are still reports of gay people being persecuted across the world.

Into The Hoods

1 Aug 2007

One of the undisputed hits of last year’s Fringe is making a welcome return to Edinburgh.

Debbie Does Dallas - The Musical

23 Aug 2007

There’s a very fine line between a send-up of a ropey cultural item and something that’s just plain ropey. Almost from its shrill opening bars it becomes crystal clear that Debbie Does Dallas – The Musical has crossed the line. The fundamental…

Michael McIntyre

23 Aug 2007

Michael McIntyre has the look of someone your mother would like. Unashamedly middle class in his dress, mannerisms and speech, it’s easy to see why he is being heralded as the latest thing in ‘posh comedy’. In terms of demeanour and delivery, McIntyre…

Sarah Kendall

16 Aug 2007

Back in the heady days of 2004, Sarah Kendall became the first woman to receive a Perrier nomination in nine years, and deservedly so. Having taken time out to trot the globe, she returned last year with a show that was worryingly patchy and left some…

Meow Meow in Beyond Glamour: The Absinthe Tour

1 Aug 2007

‘It’s sequins and razors, my darling. That’s what my show’s about,’ explains Meow Meow, who deems her real name and place of origin ‘simply not necessary’ to the conversation. It is, she coos in a faint Aussie drawl, ‘all about the art.’. . .

State of Matter

9 Aug 2007

The stark lighting and simple uniform of black tailcoats characterise the restraint that permeates this performance by Hereford’s 2FaCeD DaNcE Company. There is no narrative to this show, rather it is a collection of unrelated set pieces, the…

Ecstasy

MDMA-fuelled love story

7 Aug 2008

Based on ‘The Undefeated’, one of three stories from Irvine Welsh’s 1996 novel Ecstasy, this piece centres around Lloyd (Jack McGowan), an ageing clubber who wants more out of life than living for the weekend. In the meantime, though, he’s content to…

Stephen K Amos

31 Jul 2008

Who’s he then? Stephen K Amos is a 30-something actor, comedian and documentary-maker whose Batty Boy involved him going on a journey from his south London backyard to Jamaica in an attempt to discover why homophobia is so prevalent among black…

Obong

Celebration of Nigerian music and dance

31 Jul 2008

It’s easy to lump African dance together into one big melting pot of bright costumes and tribal drums. In reality, not only does each country have a distinct style, so too does each region within it. Hailing from Cross River State in Nigeria, the Obong…

Macbeth: Who is That Bloodied Man?

Nicola Husband

16 Aug 2007

Macbeth, like most of Will’s plays, has suffered from many strange interpretations, including a film that transposes the action to a 90s rave and an American theatre version that quite literally strips the characters bare. These wacky interpretations…

School of Comedy

16 Aug 2007

In this age of Asbos, hoodies and teenage gang warfare it’s probably illegal to encourage youngsters to swear and be rude in front of adults, but this is exactly what the grown-ups behind School of Comedy plan to do. The show is billed as ‘an adult…

A Conversation with Edith Head

9 Aug 2007

Hollywood costume designer Edith Head worked on almost 500 films in her 54-year career. She dressed Mae West, Dorothy Lamour and Barbara Stanwyck in their most iconic outfits. She played with the big boys at Paramount (and later Universal) and her onyx…

Debbie Does Dallas

1 Aug 2007

Turning films into musicals is nothing new, but not too many classic 70s porn flicks have undergone the same transition.

5 Questions - Kittie Klaw

7 Aug 2008

5 words to describe the High Tease experience?: ‘Uproarious revue of subversive wit’ or ‘witty, subversive, glamorous, high comedy’. 4 things you love about the acts on the bill: The originality and diversity of the individual performers coupled with…

Michael McIntyre

The accent is on over-familiarity

21 Aug 2008

Last year, Michael McIntyre apparently harangued two judges on the if.comedy panel for doing this nation the great disservice of not handing him the award on a plate. Still, he could at least reassure himself of his genius with all those flattering star…

Tim Minchin - Looney tunes

31 Jul 2008

Not one for being stuck in a pigeonhole, Tim Minchin is a musician, actor, comic and father. Anna Millar meets the man who looks like a scarecrow and is terrifying the world of traditional stand-up comedy

Show girl

1 Aug 2007

Ex-art student Candie Payne became the most promising young pop singer in the country ‘by happy accident’. The happiness, it transpires, is all ours. Her debut album, I Wish I Could Have Loved You More, is an immaculate, cohesive 21st century spin on…

How to bribe your way to Fringe success

The List payola blog

6 Aug 2008

Every year, thousands of performer flock to the Edinburgh Fringe in order to showcase their talent and kickstart a career in the performing arts. Unfortunately, there's so may other blighters doing the same that it's hard to make yourself heard above…

Office Party

Party On

31 Jul 2008

The medieval feast of fools was an event where established hierarchies were overturned, sexual and social proprieties were transgressed and the everyday laws of the culture were suspended. It’s the subject of academic study all over Europe, where…

The Body Politic - The British Ambassador’s Belly Dancer

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

A story of prostitution, oppression and torture might not sound like fun, but throw in a bit of belly dancing and you have a Fringe hit. Steve Cramer talks to Craig Murray, formerly our man in Uzbekistan, about baring souls on stage.

Frankie Boyle

9 Aug 2007

In some ways it would be difficult to imagine an encounter between Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr, what with them being, arguably, the two finest gag tellers in contemporary British stand-up comedy. How, you wonder, can they have a chat when they must be…

Maximum Crew

9 Aug 2007

Korean breakdance has evolved away from the po-faced machismo that can pervade Western scenes, so while the dancers may still occasionally come across as cocky show-offs, they’re not afraid of self-parody or knowing camp. Over there the b-boy crews…

Fringe hangover: Where have you been?

Adam Fraser's festival blog

26 Aug 2008

That’s it. The Fringe is over. At this point, the hard-working critic, performer, theatre-goer or box office drone might wish to find a darkened room, take a moment to collect their thoughts and let the adrenalin settle, and unpick the events of the…

Lucy Porter

A set down to its bare bones

14 Aug 2008

While it may have been slightly dispiriting for Lucy Porter to hop out on stage to a less than packed auditorium, there's little in her jovial demeanour to suggest crushed hopes. To spend an hour in Porter's company is akin to having a litre of Jelly…

Jonny Woo: International Woman of Mr ‘E’

Moving and darkly comic one-(wo)man show

7 Aug 2008

Moving and darkly comic one-(wo)man show. Jonny Woo, drag queen darling of the London alt.queer scene appears onstage beneath sequined butterfly make-up and various costumes. He knows that the act of wearing a mask is designed to reveal rather than…

Hamlet Solo

16 Aug 2007

To do justice to Hamlet is no easy task, but to render the Danish play as a one man performance is almost laughable in its ambition. There is, of course, the obvious novelty value to witnessing Hamlet being performed by one man. But Hamlet Solo is far…

Janey Godley

Family tale from straight-talking Glaswegian

21 Aug 2008

The title of this show, Domestic Godley, doesn’t refer to the cooking, cleaning, dinner parties ‘domestic goddess’ stereotype. Janey Godley’s candid stand-up is specific to her east end of Glasgow upbringing and subsequently eventful life. With a…

Family

Martial arts and B-boy battles

21 Aug 2008

Head spins. Body spins. Spinning hand stands. Spinning kicks. Spinning on one hand. This energetic show from Korea makes outrageous martial arts and breakdance moves look so effortless that you begin to believe you could do it all yourself.

Foreskins Lament

21 Aug 2008

This dodgy production of New Zealand playwright Greg McGee's landmark 1980 play is played out in the locker room of a local rugby club changing room. A couple of really appalling performances and some less than inspired direction derail things. Still at…

It Ain't All Bollywood

Confused, overwrought look at mental health issues

14 Aug 2008

Part of this year’s InvAsian programme of Asian performance, It Ain’t All Bollywood depicts the trials and tribulations of Kiran, who has descended into an escapist fixation with Bollywood films following the death of her father. As a result, she…

The Big Ugly Monster and the Little Stone Rabbit

1 Aug 2007

There are lots of monsters appearing at this year’s Fringe, but none so ugly as this one.

The Bastard Children of Australian Folk: CWQ

Oddball eclecticism from down under

14 Aug 2008

Melting together genres from Celtic to klezmer, the pioneering Australian folk band CWQ present the result of mixing musical traditions from across the world in The Bastard Children of Australian Folk. Exploring and moulding the entire gamut of…

The Cholmondeleys and the Featherstonehaughs

Dance of Death

31 Jul 2008

It’s hardly damning the cast of Dancing On Your Grave to call them a handful of dead-beats. Created by the veteran choreographer Lea Anderson for members of her two cult dance companies, The Cholmondeleys (pronounced ‘chum-leez’) and The…

Frank Skinner

23 Aug 2007

After a decade away from the stand-up circuit, you’d think that quite a fuss would have been made of Frank Skinner’s Edinburgh return, back in the exact same room where it all started for him with his Perrier-winning year of 1991. Yet when the lights go…

In control

Samantha Morton

16 Aug 2007

Samantha Morton is in control. The critically lauded, hard working and in-demand British actress plays the long suffering wife of troubled singer of legendary Manchester band Joy Division in the Ian Curtis movie, Control. Fresh from winning the Best…

5 Questions - Lucy Porter

1 Aug 2007

Fast becoming a Fringe staple, Lucy Porter will this year invite us into her Love-In. Here, she gets all intimate with our limp Q&A.

Different strokes

1 Aug 2007

Having written one of the UK’s finest ever sitcoms, Sean Lock is back pounding the beat on the stand-up stage. Brian Donaldson talks to the man who has finally left bitterness behind

Richard Mackney's edfest.tv show

edfest.tv - video

27 Aug 2008

Arnold Brown, Scott Capurro, Will & Greg, Tom Wrigglesworth, Paul Tonkinson, Dara O'Briain and the Wau Wau Sisters all risk the chair this week. It's just as arse-licking as Parkie but for a fraction of the cost.

Hitlist: Dance

21 Aug 2008

Deca Dance 2008 A stunning retrospective of works by choreographer, Ohad Naharin and his incredible Batsheva Dance Company. Take your non-dance loving friends and convert them. Edinburgh Playhouse, 473 2000, 28–30 Aug, 8pm, £8–£28. Matthew…

The Factory

Vivid Holocaust journey

21 Aug 2008

'They came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.' Attributed to Martin Niemöller, this sentiment comes to mind during Badac Theatre's disturbing and compelling reconstruction of the death journey of so many of Hitler's final…

The Magic Tree

No magic here

21 Aug 2008

From the programme notes, Ursula Rani Sarma's play sounds a dark, yet passionate love story - which just goes to show how misleading a synopsis can be. The Magic Tree explores themes of murder and gang rape and how these experiences destroy lives…

Britt Ekland: Britt on Britt

A Swedish sexagenarian’s exploits

14 Aug 2008

‘Who is Britt Ekland?’ So the former Bond girl and one-time wife of Peter Sellers begins her frank and surprisingly funny whistle stop tour of her enchantingly colourful life. Offering glimpses of the young starlet who entranced the likes of Rod Stewart…

I Can't Sleep by David O'Doherty

No cure for insomnia

14 Aug 2008

Next time you find yourself wide awake in the middle of the night, desperately trying to think of ways to make yourself tired, try taking a few leaves out of David O'Doherty's self-help manual for insomniacs. Rule number one: counting sheep is just…

Death By Chocolate

At least there's chocolate

7 Aug 2008

This interactive murder mystery looks great on paper. The audience, cast in the role of student police officers, are charged to sift through trays of evidence at a murder scene, interview the suspects, and solve the case. Not only is this a chance for…

State of Matter

Breakdance/contemporary fusion hits the spot

7 Aug 2008

Following last year’s pattern of hip hop informed acrobatics, ragged yet stunning male ensemble dancing and spectacular solos, 2FaCeD DaNcE Company has tightened up its structure and enhanced the showmanship. It remains a forceful display of masculine…

Luke Toulson

31 Jul 2008

‘I don’t want to be a testosterone-charged alpha male on stage,’ says stand-up Luke Toulson. ‘I’m very aware I’m an idiot, and generally assume the audience is more intelligent than me.’ It’s self-deprecating talk, but then Toulson has written his…

Jim Jeffries

16 Aug 2007

You may consider yourself not easily offended. You may feel that nothing shocks you, and that there is nothing left to say that is truly controversial or distasteful. If this is the case consider yourself well and truly wrong. Since his appearance at…

Kerieva

edfest.tv - video

1 Sep 2008

Scottish-based Romani musician and singer Kerieva provides a deliciously mesmerizing blend of Gypsy jazz, ska, rhumba, cabaret and traditional sounds

Eye to the future at the end of the line for Edinburgh Festival 2008

Alan Bissett's festival blog

27 Aug 2008

Ah, the end of the Fringe. Goodbye rain. Goodbye bright-eyed young hopefuls thrusting flyers. Goodbye posh accents. How was it for you? Depending on who you talk to, plays this year have been too bleak/political/teenage. Given the gloomy political…

Scottish Dance Theatre

Two very different displays of talent

21 Aug 2008

It’s not bombastic patriotism to suggest that some of the most accomplished and satisfying contemporary dance on the Fringe is homegrown. These two works performed by Scottish Dance Theatre are an excellent showcase for the jaw-dropping versatility of…

Hils Barker

Fanciful but flaccid exhibitionism

21 Aug 2008

Sinister social network sites are under precision attack in Hils Barker’s character exposé Exhibitionist! which links four lonely souls to ‘Profile Me’, an invention more Orwellian than Facebook. Barker attempts to draw parallels between billionaire…

Nude

Non-gratuitous meanderings for art’s sake

21 Aug 2008

Don’t worry, there is no gratuitous nudity in Nude, just two actors flexing and posing their naked bodies in close proximity to the front row. But it’s all done in the name of art, and the context of a life drawing class, in which the reluctant audience…

Women in Harmony: Annie Grace, Corrina Hewat and Karine Polwart

Good things come in threes

21 Aug 2008

Three haunting voices, harp, guitar, whistle and pipes, beautifully blended. Annie Grace (pipes/vocals), Corrina Hewat (vocals/harp) and Karine Polwart (guitar/vocals), are three seriously talented musicians in their own right – each with their own solo…

John Pinette

Say yeah yeah to big bad John

14 Aug 2008

Since getting Jerry and co locked up in the grand finale of Seinfeld, John Pinette has spent the last decade making a name for himself on Broadway and in Hollywood. Having worked with the likes of Sinatra, Arnie and Travolta, he may not need the Fringe…

Ginger & Black

Dodgy songs and deadly put-downs

14 Aug 2008

Ginger & Black aren't just deadpan. They're the pan that's been buried, left to rot, dug up and smacked about a bit just to make sure. They would grimace at this metaphor, and thereby prove my point. In fact, they would grimace if you composed the most…

James Campbell's Shut Up Stupid

Scatalogical comedy with scenes of mild peril

14 Aug 2008

James Campbell's latest offering calls itself a 'black experimental comedy', and you'd be right for wondering if this is suitable for children. Much effort has gone into scripting the warped chronology and fourth-wall antics of the plot, but they're…

Spirit of the Samurai

Swordplay blunted by repetition

14 Aug 2008

This display of Samurai skill comes with a weighty pedigree: company director Tetsuro Shimaguchi not only appeared in Kill Bill 1, but choreographed the sword fighting scenes. He's working with hugely skilled performers here, and they know their target…

Mark Watson

Lightning fast, likeable wit from not quite Welsh wizard

7 Aug 2008

Most 55-minute comedy shows, explains Mark Watson, use 50 minutes of material then allow five for laughter. But being a pessimist, the self-slagging, nervy wonderboy has prepared an hour. Based on audience reactions, the wiry, fake Welshman should have…

A Night at the Movies

Classic scenes from the silver screen

7 Aug 2008

Golden moments from classic Hollywood films are the inspiration for this patchy production from US choreographers Gallimaufrey & Greene. While the intention is to provide an accessible entry point for theatregoers who are less familiar with contemporary…

Circus Oz: 30th Birthday Bash

Acrobatics with an Aussie accent

7 Aug 2008

Characters in colourful costumes exchange banter with the audience, the live band plays a constant stream of Gogol Bordello-like polka and one act involves a dramatic take on Frankenstein's monster. This isn't your average circus. Far more theatrical…

The Judgment of Paris

Can Can, corsets and high camp

7 Aug 2008

With sculpted, Harlow-platinum wigs, gorgeously gilded corsetry and tongues in cheeks firmly set to ‘high camp’, this riotous piece of dance theatre by Company XIV merges Baroque dance forms, Can Can and contemporary ballet to music by Offenbach and…

Lucy Porter - Festival veteran

31 Jul 2008

Lucy Porter wanted to be like Kate Adie but ended up being more like Lee Evans. That’s what repeatedly coming to the Fringe does to you. She doesn’t mind though… The Edinburgh Fringe Festival ruined my life. That sounds melodramatic, but it’s absolutely…

Swede Dreams - Britt Ekland

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

A true icon of the 60s and 70s, Britt Ekland has lived a life of glamour and glory. She tells Liz Joseph why she’s telling the Fringe her story and how she keeps from feeling her age.

Hitlist - the best Festival dance

23 Aug 2007

Ballerina Who Loves A B-Boy The finest Korean breakdancers in town – treat yourself to headspins, streetdance and a wee bit of ballet in this five star show. clubWEST@Hilton, 0772 028 5550, 7.45pm, until 24 Aug, £12 (£9). Trisha Brown Dance Company…

Basic Training

16 Aug 2007

The humour we associate with issues of belonging can be very powerful, mainly because it instils a kind of panic in people as who we are, where we are from, and where we are going are thrown into question. And panic is always funny. Kahlil Ashanti’s one…

Dickens Unplugged

16 Aug 2007

Unless you were brought up in a workhouse, you’ll be familiar with at least one of Dickens’ many tales. Beginning with Oliver Twist, this musical, is not quite as Dickens intended. We embark upon a full speed tour of his books, ending with A Christmas…

John Gordillo

16 Aug 2007

Acclaimed comedy writer/producer John Gordillo is not happy. Not happy with his ‘fraught relationship’, with his permanently ill girlfriend, or the London tube system, or bagpipers let loose in Edinburgh. But most of all, he’s not happy doing a free…

Romeo and Juliet

16 Aug 2007

Having finally got over Baz Luhrmann’s version, it feels like we can move on to a new approach to this popular, if flawed, old Shakespearean standby. If Peter Meineck’s version for Aquila doesn’t quite make for a new ‘standard’, it certainly…

Charlotte Hudson & Leila Hackett

Fresh sketches and bouncy tales

9 Aug 2007

Charlotte Hudson and Leila Hackett’s lively performance and British beach setting perfectly reflect a Blackpool-style summer: slightly tacky and full of tongue-in cheek exhibitionism. Fake seagulls call in the distance as a parade of characters accost…

Modern Cautionary Tales for Children

9 Aug 2007

From the moment Murray Lachlan Young bounds onto the stage, hair wrapped in a towel, dressing gown flapping, you know you’re in for a good time. Young is clearly one of the most likeable performers not just at the Fringe, but in the world. His poetry…

Is This About Sex?

1 Aug 2007

Not just about sex, this play examines the societal confines of the modern world, exposing the inextricable issues of identity with sexuality and gender and of course sex itself.

Soweto Gospel Choir

edfest.tv - video

28 Aug 2008

The Soweto Gospel Choir was formed to celebrate the unique and inspirational power of African Gospel music.

Sir Barrington Ganch

edfest.tv - video

22 Aug 2008

Britain's quirkiest theatrical relic celebrates his farewell to the acting profession.

Limmy's Show

edfest.tv - video

22 Aug 2008

Internet phenomenon Limmy presents his unique mix of imaginary scenarios, daft videos and a rundown of his top five hates.

5 Questions: Dance

21 Aug 2008

David WW Johnstone, artistic director of Edinburgh-based experimental arts unit talks about his new show, Aurora Borealis, and why you should be heading to Dance Base to see it What 5 things/people inspire you most in your work? Japanese…

Behind The Mirror

Bizarre love triangle

21 Aug 2008

At first, Ad Infinitum’s infectious romp plays out like a physical theatre version of The Odd Couple, the buffoonish protagonist embarking on a slapstick turf war with his demonic reflection, who has escaped from his rightful side of the mirror. The…

Generation Divide

21 Aug 2008

The tensions of the generation gap - lingo, music, gadgets - get a going over in this sporadically funny double-act show. Richard Rycroft is 48 and looks like a Tory minister; Cal Saville is half his age but equally posh, as he's first to admit. They're…

Simon Callow - A Festival Dickens

A rich performance of moving, entertaining tales

21 Aug 2008

Having taken his celebrated one-man show The Mystery of Charles Dickens around the world, British thesp Simon Callow is no stranger to the Victorian writer and philanthropist. Here, Callow performs his second solo Dickens show under the sure-handed…

The British Ambassador's Belly Dancer

edfest.tv - video

18 Aug 2008

Extraordinary true story of Nadira Murray, the mistress of Craig Murray, former British Ambassador for Uzbekistan.

The Vanishing Point

Awe inspiring spectacle on stilts

14 Aug 2008

The Vanishing Point is sheer delight. The stilt walkers, communicating to each other through some sort of primeval whale song, trace a pattern of evolution from dinosaur-like creatures and sexually charged tribal people to, briefly, dead-eyed office…

1913 or Nude Descending Staircase

14 Aug 2008

Through the true story of Maria Tarnowska, Russian countess and convicted criminal, this play explores the status and position of women in society, politics and art, in and around the year 1913. Though well researched, the piece struggles to live up to…

Andrew Clover

14 Aug 2008

Jumping off from his Sunday Times column, Clover spins tales of his marriage and burgeoning fatherhood, but with little faith in the humour of his material, he tells his audience when he thinks they should clap, cheer and holler. Any good laughs in the…

No Place for Dreams

Don't wake the volcano

14 Aug 2008

Brief Candle Theatre makes its Fringe debut with No Place For Dreams, a show by Paul Whitfield that boasts a lot of energy, but is altogether too austere. On a volcanic island filled with Spray-Riders, Wind-Eaters and Fire and Soil people, we meet Loam…

The Six Wives of Timothy Leary

Surprising glimpses into a controversial life

14 Aug 2008

It’s a tragedy of our age that the 60s, a period of unparalleled liberation and social progress for ordinary people, is portrayed today as a kind of absurd self-indulgence from which we were all lucky to recover. This piece goes a little way to…

Pot Noodle The Musical

Song and spoofs about the saucy snack

7 Aug 2008

With unexpected Hamlet undertones, Pot Noodle The Musical spins the story of the dastardly Alan Little, who kills his noodle-farmer brother Barry in order to get his mitts on prostitutes and cars. The plot is a happy blend of clichéd musical (Barry's…

Lucky You

Carl Hiaasen novel translated into slick madcap romp

7 Aug 2008

If redneck losers Chub and Bode are going to fund their confederate militia they need JoLayne's winning Lotto ticket. But nature-loving JoLayne (who happens to be black) needs it to save local woodland. The church needs her help to legitimise their…

Camille: the Dark Angel

31 Jul 2008

Some festival veterans would appear to be gluttons for punishment, others just seem to return again and again only to grow in stature. Dublin’s Camille O’Sullivan is very much of the latter category and is among the most celebrated and cherished of…

InvAsian Festival

Choreography from across the Continent

31 Jul 2008

There’s no shortage of diverse dance at the Fringe, but seldom do you find it all under one roof. The InvAsian Festival, however, is priding itself on bringing together a wide range of performers from throughout the eponymous continent, and basing them…

Rise

Extreme movement meets electronica

31 Jul 2008

Dry ice fills the air while hooded dancers move across a dimly lit stage. Despite the huge, wide space they occupy, there’s something oppressive and deeply atmospheric about Tom Dale’s new show, Rise. All of this is conveyed through a tiny clip on…

Shopping & trucking - The Great American Trailer Park Musical

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

When a show is dubbed as a cross between Desperate Housewives and South Park, it’s going to get noticed. Emma Lennox hears some trash talk from those behind The Great American Trailer Park Musical

Festival focus

17 Jul 2008

All festivals announce last minute additions to programmes

Ballerina Who Loves a B-Boy

16 Aug 2007

Although it’s been crammed into a hotel function room better suited to the cringey frugging of a wedding disco, this gleeful little production is the most assured and exuberant of the cluster of Korean breakdance shows infesting the Fringe this…

Henry Rollins

16 Aug 2007

It’s a wonder Henry Rollins has time to sleep. When the Black Flag legend is not writing books, hosting his own television and radio shows, acting in Hollywood and hopping from gig to gig, he is performing his quick-witted spoken word pieces around the…

Jason Manford

16 Aug 2007

Too much success early on in a career can be a double-edged sword. Jason Manford first came to attention two years ago with an inspired, Perrier-nominated debut in which he exploded various urban myths and apocryphal tales. As a fan of that auspicious…

Miles Jupp

16 Aug 2007

There are few things in life quite so satisfying than seeing a posh person throwing a bit of a wobbler. And so it’s with great pleasure that Miles Jupp brings us Everyday Rage and Dinner Party Chit Chat, a perusal of the moments in life when Jupp…

Six Women Standing in Front of a White Wall

Tom Tàbori

16 Aug 2007

Six Women Standing In Front of A White Wall bursts beautifully from the venue’s seams, with a wonderful idea powering the performance. Separating the six women’s pitiable writhing and the audience is a rope cordon – much like the boundary between the…

The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me

16 Aug 2007

With all of his books recently being re-published, the re-make of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and a touring production of The Twits doing the rounds, Roald Dahl is more popular than ever. So it’s quite timely that York-based theatre company…

Jimmy Carr

9 Aug 2007

With his short sharp shocks, Jimmy Carr has outraged and amused audiences around the world. He tells Brian Donaldson why no one has the right to be hurt by a bit of wordplay

Hitlist - the best Festival dance

9 Aug 2007

With four programmes and a kids show to pick from, you’ll be spoilt for choice at Scotland’s National Centre for Dance. Contemporary, Indian, hip hop, dance theatre – it’s all here and more.