“The Wolf Of Pryais” sits at the heart of Thom Tuck’s Edinburgh Fringe this year. Tuck inhabits the role of Gregor MacGregor, the 19th-century Scottish adventurer who convinced hundreds of people to invest in, and in some cases emigrate to, a country that did not exist… the fictional Central American territory of ‘Poyais.’
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Ten years ago, a single-hander show turned up at the Fringe… Rebecca Perry with ‘Confessions Of A Redheaded Coffeshop Girl’, which starts as “what if a coffeeshop with David Attenborough?” A hook that brought you in, before the performance and the piece delightfully dragged you further… a further that included an interview on this podcast.
Ten years later, Rebecca is back at the Fringe, and ten years later, Rebecca is back on the podcast.
What is the impact of a critically acclaimed show at the Fringe on a career? Why bring a show back? And how much of a personal show can remain the same after a decade of growth and performance?
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One of the delights of the Fringe is learning something new. Theatre is the great educator, hiding it within music, within moments, and sometimes even with mime.
For me, the life and work of Sutara Gayle is one of those moments. She was a pioneering female deejay on London’s infamous reggae scene in the 1980s, which earned her a first record contract; she lived through personal tragedy that sparked the Brixton Uprising, and her work with the LGBTQAI+ community, especially within the Afro-Caribbean community, is rightly celebrated.
She is bringing some of her life to the Fringe in The Legends of Them, a unique theatrical, shared spiritual experience. An ethralling force, I spoke to her ahead of the show arriving in Edinburgh.
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There are so many puns available to me from today’s show. “The World’s Greatest Lover” is a new musical debuting at the Fringe, but with international ambitions beyond Pleasance One.
Writers Julien Salvia and Ludovic-Alexandre Vidal bring the titular lovers from the annals of history. Romeo, Casanova, Cyrano de Bergerac, the Marquis de Sade and MC Saint Valentine to the Fringe stage. Not only is this a closer look at five different types of love, it’s also a chance for some great new pop standards.
Julien and Ludo, on a rather long-distance call from Australia, talk about how they cho
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Kinder is an excellent example of a show taking risks at the Fringe, both for the production and the audience.
There are hints on what to expect on paper – a story of a Drag Queen preparing a “comedy roast” but finding out with an hour to go, it’s actually a booking for a children’s story time show. In that short liminal space, there is some theatrical magic that lifts the story to something powerful, reflective, and vitally important.
It’s the Fringe at its best. I caught up with the team behind the show – producer and performer Ryan Stewart and director Tiah Bullock to find out more.
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Today, we listen to Annie Lareau talk about her life, which she is bringing to the Fringe in the show Fuselage.
Annie was meant to be flying home from the UK with 35 university classmates for Christmas in 1988. They changed to an earlier flight, and Anie, who couldn’t afford the fee, stayed behind, as her friend boarded Pan Am 103. A flight where a bomb exploded, crashing the aircraft into the Scottish town of Lockerbie.
This ensemble piece threads Annie’s life with that of the people of Lockerbie and the scrutiny of the terrorist incident, how Annie faced debilitating grief, panic attacks, and nightmares in the decades afterwards.
It’s also a look at treasuring moments and relationships in an unpredictable and sometimes cruel world.
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1984 is a story that has been told countless times and becomes more relevant every time it is told.
Box Tale Soup brings their version of the classic warning to the Edinburgh Fringe this year. I caught up with Noel Byrne to talk about the challenge involved in bringing a classic to the stage. Box Tale Soup has established itself as one of the leading puppetry companies coming to the Fringe over the last few years, and I explore how the company came to that part of the arts world and how they learned their skills.
With that, what can this stylised approach bring to 1984? What different techniques can be taken, and when was the decision on the puppet roles and the human roles made?
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One of the delights of the Edinburgh Fringe is finding something that’s just a single step to the side of your average show. It’s in those little side streets where you can find something spectacular.
Kit Loyd is on one of those side streets. He’s brought Frenzy to the Fringe, a delightful and engaging mix of comedy, physical theatre, and mime. It’s also his first full hour at the Fringe.
I sat down with Kit to talk about bringing a debut show to Edinburgh, his expectations, and how he discovered that his forte is mime and physicality.
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As we head through July, we’ll be bringing you preview interviews that help set the scene for Fringe 2025. That could be the history of the Fringe, how traditional and online media impact the arts, the future of the Festival in Edinburgh, and the impact it can have.
In our first preview, Ewan Spence meets Henry Naylor to talk about his new solo show ‘Monstering The Rocketman,’ a timely drama about press values through the lens of Elton John and his libel case against The Sun in the 1980s.
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As we come to the end of week three, we sit down with Anthony Alderson, director of The Pleaseance Theatre Trust.
We touch on several critical issues running one of the largest venues at the Edinburgh Fringe, including the continuing impact of COVID and the importance of government funding to the Fringe community and The Pleasance. Given the cost of the Fringe is on everyone’s minds, we talk about turnover, tickets, and artistic risk.
We also talk about the work of The Plesance to support and promote the arts at Edinburgh in August and throughout the rest of the year, including various Pleasance Futures projects and the ambition of creating sustainable touring for theatre in the UK.
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