Ewan Spence is joined by theatre producer Fin Ross Russell (The Collie’s Shed) to look back at this year’s Fringe, the preparation required, what happens next, and plans for 2024.
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What does it mean to bring a legend back into the light? That’s the challenge faced by Two Halves Productions in the delightful tongue-twisty Never Trouble Trouble, Until Trouble Troubles You.
Writer and performer Paul Beeson joins the podcast to talk about the life of Bobby Walker, and portraying the legend at the Edinburgh Fringe. Joining Heart of Midlothian Football Club in 1896, Walker became one of the first footballing superstars; before fading from the public eye. What responsibilities are there with a biography, how do you find the voice of someone born in the 19th century, and what is it like to perform in a museum full of the memories of the legend?
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Cat Shit Crazy, with either an exclamation mark replacing the eye or a censored graphic over the title, caught a lot of attention as the Fringe started, in part due to the aforementioned ‘we can’t have that sort of thing on display at the Fringe’. Sometimes the best publicity comes as a surprise. But the show is about much more than that.
Hollywood-based Cindy D’Andrea’s autobiographical show is much more than that. At one of the darkest moments in her life, her best friend suggested she should get a cat. Moving from I hate cats, to countless feline friends over the last fourteen years, this is a story about a woman, a cat, and unconditional love.
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What happens when you decide to make your own magic from whatever you can find around you? What happens when you add a dash of robotics to the magic? And then an old tomato soup can from the bin to be your next robot assistant.
That’s the world of Mario The Maker Magician. It’s a family show packed with slapstick humour, handmade robots, and a lot of skill. THere’s a mix of science, creativity, showmanship, and laughter that is incredibly hard to balance. Mario makes it look easy.
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The Fringe is not static. Neither are board games, and the classic Monopoly is a perfect example. It’s not a great game, it’s poorly designed, and it ruins friendships and families. Benjamin Alborough not only has the arguments on the dangers of Monopoly, but is also going to reinvent the game with the help of the audience.
Absolute Monopoly is an interactive yet rather chaotic gameshow; from going through the rules through becoming the board to play the game, to deciding the winner. If there’s going to be one.
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Rebecca McGlynn’s musical ‘Asexuality’ asks what it means to be a man in the 21st century and how toxic masculinity affects those of us assigned male at birth. It’s an autobiographical musical comedy about Rebecca’s life before transitioning.
Sitting down with Rebecca in a brief moment of sun, we talk about the power of Sondheim and choosing to do a musical for a show about queer identity; and why life never fits in a nice three-act structure.
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The Edinburgh Fringe is a mix of every genre and emotion; from stand-up and dance, through music, to cabaret and theatre, and beyond, the Fringe swings from light and fluffy to hard-hitting and heavy themes and emotions. It’s the latter that we’re going to talk about in this episode.
Emily Carding is one of the performers in Let The Bodies Pile, the other performer, Henry Naylor, is also the writer. This is an intensely political piece that looks at the reaction to Covid here in the United Kingdom, primarily in nursing homes and how society comes to terms with the decisions made by politicians.
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Bedlam Theatre is home to the Edinburgh University Theatre Company… and when August comes around Bedlam Fringe comes around with an eclectic and varied programme of shows. Except it’s not been at the Fringe since 2019.
That changes this year, as the gothic 90-seat theatre opens its doors once more. Ewan sat down with venue manager Marie Rimolsrønning to find out what it takes to return to the Fringe, what Bedlam represents, and some of the shows we can expect.
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In today’s Fringe 2023 preview, Ewan is joined by long-time friend of the parish Marc Burrows. He’s bringing three shows to Edinburgh this year… a classic stand-up, a second show that talks about what happened in his third show, and a third show that takes us through the life and work of Sir Terry Pratchett.
When did Marc decide to bring Sir Terry to the Fringe, why the footnotes that Pratchett loved are part of the experience, and what was he thinking when he added a third show to his already busy Fringe schedule?
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