Theatre

Scamp Theatre bring Tiddler and Other Terrific Tales to life at Fringe 2012

Stage version of hugely successful Julia Donaldson children's book

With so many shows to choose from at the Fringe, it’s always handy when a tried and tested company returns carrying a guarantee of quality. All those who saw Scamp Theatre’s production of Stick Man in 2010 will be pleased to know that the talented…

Tall Stories to perform Julia Donaldson's The Snail and the Whale at Fringe 2012

Stage version of hugely successful children's book

Julia Donaldson’s picture books take pride of place on bedroom shelves around the world. But it’s not until somebody picks them up and reads them, that those clever rhymes come alive. Published in 2004, The Snail and the Whale has been one of…

Interview: Miriam Margolyes, star of Dickens' Women

The veteran actor of stage and screen discusses Dame Eileen Atkins, salmon and Graham Norton

First record you ever bought. Last extravagant purchase you made. First film you saw that really moved you. Last lie you told. First movie you ever went on a date to. Last time you cried. First thing you do when you’ve got time off work.

Breathing Corpses

Promising exploration of death from Exeter University Theatre Company

In La Ronde, Arthur Schnitzler sets up a Newton’s cradle of sexual relationships: one person sleeps with another, who sleeps with another and so on. Laura Wade’s 2005 play, first seen at the Royal Court, charts a similar chain reaction, only of death…

Comedians Mark Thomas and Ross Sutherland debuting theatre shows at Fringe 2012

Mark Thomas' Edinburgh show based on his father's degenerative illness

We know Mark Thomas. The radical, left-wing comedian and activist famously drove a tank disguised as an ice cream van up Whitehall in a televised attempt to have it exported to Iraq. More recently, he has been doing stage shows recounting his…

One Rogue Reporter among the shows exploring journalistic ethics at Fringe 2012

Ex-Daily Star hack Richard Peppiatt lifts the lid on journalism

It’s not at all surprising that this year’s Fringe programme should feature a cluster of shows about the purveyors of low-quality ‘reportage’ commonly and derogatively referred to as ‘hacks’. The high-profile and ongoing Leveson Inquiry into the…

Mess - a comedy about anorexia, by Caroline Horton

'A play with songs’ combining comedy and poignancy

Caroline Horton (acclaimed performer of 2010 Fringe solo show You’re Not Like the Other Girls Chrissy) returns to Edinburgh with Mess, a piece she describes as ‘a play with songs’ inspired by her own experience of suffering with anorexia. ‘I didn’t want…

Monstrous Acts

Bluebeard inspires 15th century prison romance

The first ten minutes of this production from Australia’s Out Cast Theatre are wordless. When the dialogue finally kicks in, it rather punctures the wonderfully charged atmosphere of the opening scenes, which establish the power dynamic between a pair…

Wrong Place, Right Time

Generation X drama that’s heavy on the clichés

Ah, the quarterlife crisis; a life-slump suffered by 20-something Generation Y-ers with big dreams, little direction and zero financial security. With the big three-oh looming, Sophie Willan, Léonie Higgins and Lowri Evans explore its grip in three…

Miss Havisham’s Expectations

Linda Marlowe deconstructs Dickens’ jilted bride

Without doubt one of Charles Dickens’ most infamous creations, Miss Havisham casts an eerie shadow over Great Expectations, the black heart of the story, a woman ruled by spite but also suffering deeply from her own heartache at being jilted. Linda…

Nothing is Really Difficult

None-more-Fringe physical theatre performance

Inside a purpose-built plywood cube on George Square, three grown men run around, striking poses and indulging in slapstick behaviour, with the odd flash of profundity and occasionally sinister undertones. None of them utters a word, and at one point…

Glasgow-based Ankur Productions celebrate The Olympics of the Everyday

The new show celebrates those boring, mundane achievements of everyday life

As the eyes of the world are fixed upon the London Olympics and the superhuman exploits of Usain Bolt and his colleagues, Scotland’s leading black, Asian and minority ethnic arts company, Ankur Productions, will be celebrating The Olympics of the…

National Theatre of Scotland & Bank of Scotland join forces to support emerging theatre-makers

The National Theatre of Scotland and Bank of Scotland announce today that four emerging artists and three emerging directors have been successful in their bid to join Scotland’s National Theatre company on a programme aimed at developing the talents of…

Kemble’s Riot

Political intrigue with superbly engaging performance from Richard Hansell

Kemble's Riot recreates 66 nights of rioting in 1809 when the Covent Garden Theatre increased its ticket prices. With the audience drafted in as the rioters, split pro- or anti- theatre manager John Kemble, sitting on the fence is not an…

Fringe by the Sea 2012: Five ingredients for the ultimate seaside experience

North Berwick will host Kate Rusby, Neil Innes and more on 6–12 August

Take a break from the buzz of the city and join in the thrill of the seaside. For the 5th year running, Fringe nge by the Sea returns ns with an eclectic mix of music, comedy, theatre, film, authors- in-conversation and, of course, the…

Didj Wentworth of cabaret outfit La Clique - interview

The slippery performer hares his love of Thai food, Little Dragon and Pretty Woman

First record you ever bought INXS the Kick album. Last extravagant purchase you made M-one-11 shirt bought last week, impulse buy. First film you saw that really moved you Pretty Woman. Last lie you told The last question. I don’t…

Theatre productions The Prize, Endure and Born to Run bring sport to the Fringe

Sport-themed shows at 2012 Edinburgh Fringe

Any Fringe show which takes a sporting theme in the same month as the Olympic Games arrive in London might be seen as belonging to the roster of gimmickry which inevitably assails Edinburgh in August. Yet speaking to the writers of three of the most…

Poet/playwright Darian Dauchan discusses Death Boogie

The show merges poetry, hip hop, satire, music and comic book visuals

At the beginning of last year, Darian Dauchan and his old college friend Jen Dempsey sat down to work on the script of Death Boogie. He has since come to think of it as a ‘hip hop Braveheart’, but that was before there was any thought of bringing it to…

Stellar Quines' The List, starring Maureen Beattie, examines the female condition

Fringe show charts story of bereaved woman struggling to come to terms with rural living

Actress Maureen Beattie is talking about cake. Not in the way that most women do, about trying to resist temptation, but more about how baking and decorating can be a creative experience. It is a symbol of domestic prowess, but also an outlet for…

Playwright Johnny O'Callaghan discusses Who's Your Daddy?

The play is based on O'Callaghan's own experiences as a single man adopting a Ugandan child

Was it difficult to make a piece of theatre out of your own life? There was almost a need to write the story. I had to get it out of me. It was funny discovering the adoption took nine months – how I felt pregnant, craving processed meat even though I…

Polish theatre company Teatr Biuro Podrozy to stage Planet Lem

The sci-fi spectacular is inspired by the writings of Stanislaw Lem

In 1995, Teatr Biuro Podrozy won critical acclaim for Carmen Funebre, a harrowing account of the war in Yugoslavia. In 2007, they won more plaudits for Macbeth: Who is that Bloodied Man?, which brought us the three witches on stilts and…

Alan Bissett tackles arachnophobia in new play The Red Hourglass

The author and playwright's latest work uses spiders to dissect the nature of fear

‘I’ve always been arachnophobic, it’s something that goes quite deep into my childhood,’ says Glenfiddich Scottish Writer of the Year Alan Bissett. ‘’I’ve always been fascinated by spiders as well.’ This fear and fascination has led the author and…

Writer, actor and director Katherine Gibbons on Playing Fate

An adapted version of the comedy-drama is heading back to the Fringe in 2012

In 2010, Katherine Gibbons, an actress and playwright from Newbury near Reading, took on the Fringe with her first ever scripted play, Playing Fate. She was inspired to write the piece after a few years in London and a series of classic out-of-work…

Kipper Tie Theatre return to the Fringe 2012 with kids' show Our Island

Singaporean theatre and slapstick in show tackling xenophobia and religious intolerance

Best known for winning over Fringe audiences with their poo-centred hit show, The Mole Who Knew It Was None Of His Business, Kipper Tie Theatre are back in Edinburgh with a far more serious subject matter. Set in a mystery location, Our Island…

Australian company Casus bring physical performance Knee Deep to Fringe 2012

Festival show takes gymnastics and feats of strength to new level

How do you assemble a circus show when those involved are all busy with projects abroad? Skype’s fine for generating ideas, says Jesse Scott of Casus, but this newly-formed Australian company’s inaugural show, Knee Deep didn’t begin to find its legs…