Each summer, artists and audience members from across the globe decamp to Scotland for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest performing arts event. This year, from Aug. 2 through 26, the city will be repurposed into a labyrinth of makeshift theaters, in dingy rooms above pubs, hotel conference rooms and university lecture theaters.
Throughout the Fringe’s 77-year history, its eclectic approach to performance has been integral to its appeal. Unlike the more highbrow Edinburgh International Festival, which runs concurrently. the Fringe is open to all comers — and a buzzy Fringe show can give an artist a very big break.
“Fleabag” and “Six,” the musical, were originally Fringe success stories. So too was Richard Gadd’s 2019 one-man show “Baby Reindeer,” which this year became a Netflix series and an unexpected global hit.
Very few artists make money at the Fringe, but at this year’s festival, many will be trying to emulate Gadd’s trajectory. And festival goers will equally be looking for the next big thing.
With more than 3,300 shows on offer, finding the next “Fleabag” requires some careful studying of the weighty Fringe program. Here is a guide to some of the key themes and the buzziest shows from this year’s lineup.
Award-winning comics return
At the end of each year’s Fringe, a panel of judges hands out the Edinburgh Comedy Awards for best show and best newcomer, two prestigious prizes that have launched many international careers. This year’s Fringe lineup includes two of the most successful recent winners.
First up, the Australian comic Hannah Gadsby — whose confessional 2017 show “Nanette” stirred debates about what counts as comedy and was adapted into an Emmy-winning Netflix special — returns with a mysterious new special, “Woof!” (Underbelly, Bristo Square; Aug. 18 through 25.)
Rose Matafeo, the creator of the charming sitcom “Starstruck,” won a best show award for “Horndog” in 2018. With her new special, “On and On and On” (Pleasance Courtyard; Aug. 9 through 25), she returns to the confessional brand of live comedy that won her an army of fans, and dives deep into the contents of her Notes app. Judging by the work-in-progress show I saw last month, Fringe audiences are in for a treat.
A less starry name, but one absolutely worth your time, is Lara Ricote, who snagged the best newcomer award in 2022. Ricote, who is Mexican American and describes herself as hard of hearing, returns with her sophomore hour “Little Tiny Wet Show (Baptism)” (Monkey Barrel Comedy; July 30 through Aug. 25). It’s a surreal, sweet and interactive reflection on love, death and growing up.
Shows about disability
Edinburgh’s busy cobbled streets can be hard to navigate for those with special requirements. But a number of shows this year are putting disability-led stories onstage.
One of those is “Blue Badge Bunch” (Pleasance Courtyard; July 31 through Aug. 25), a family show fronted by the comedian Benny Shakes that aims to teach children and adults about the everyday experience of conditions including autism and cerebral palsy. Two teams of competitors, including a rotating cast of guest comedians, compete in a series of physical challenges mimicking different disabled experiences.
I generally have a “no Shakespeare” rule during the festival (you can see his plays anywhere!), but would make an exception for the Peruvian company Teatro La Plaza’s take on “Hamlet,” which is playing in Edinburgh as part of the International Festival, rather than the Fringe (The Lyceum; Aug. 15 through 17). This staging of the Bard’s most popular tragedy features rap and improvisation, and is performed in Spanish with English supertitles by an eight-person cast, all of whom have Down syndrome.
Finding light in trauma
There are shades of “Baby Reindeer” in “It Gets Darker” (Pleasance Courtyard; July 31 through Aug. 24), the debut hour from the American comic and former YouTuber Anna Akana. In it, she delves into her own experience with a stalker, as well as her teenage sister’s suicide. It’s undeniably heavy stuff, but Akana uses deft storytelling to bring plenty of laughter and pathos to even the most traumatic of tales.
For darker programming more on the theatrical side, look to shows programmed by the new-writing theater company Paines Plough. Gadd performed his show in 2019 at the Roundabout, a Plaines Plough-managed venue, and of this year’s offerings at the same location, I’m most excited by Somebody Jones’s debut play “How I Learned To Swim” (Roundabout @ Summerhall; Aug. 1 through 26), which explores Black people’s relationship with the water, and the grief and fear that may underscore it.
Sure to be equally captivating is Kelly Jones’s “My Mother’s Funeral: The Show” (Roundabout @ Summerhall; Aug. 1 through 26), a meta meditation on the financial cost of death and the emotional cost of putting your deepest traumas onstage.
The best of Scottish comedy
To leave the Fringe without experiencing any of the Scottish talent on display would be a woeful misstep, particularly when it comes to comedy.
With her sharp punchlines and ease onstage, the Glasgow comic Susie McCabe is one to watch. Following her popular podcast “Here Comes The Guillotine,” her latest hour “Merchant of Menace” (Assembly George Square Studios; July 31 through Aug. 25) was nearly scuppered after she had emergency heart surgery last week. But she is carrying on, and knowing McCabe, audiences will be able to feel her fighting spirit onstage. (Her podcast co-host Christopher Macarthur-Boyd is also returning for a few performances of “Scary Times,” a highlight of last year’s Fringe).
Liam Farrelly, another emerging star of Scottish comedy, started doing stand-up at 17. In a 2022 show, he discussed the religious divide in his family (his sister is a nun) and becoming a dad at age 21. This year, at 24, he’s bringing “Flipbook” to the Fringe (The Stand Comedy Club 2; Aug. 1 through 25), which promises to be more personal and emotional than ever.
Gwyneth Paltrow goes skiing
If you’ve ever had a hankering to see a show about Gwyneth Paltrow’s 2016 skiing accident and subsequent 2023 televised court case, this year’s Fringe has you covered with not one, but two musicals.
First up, we have “Gwyneth Goes Skiing,” (Pleasance Courtyard; July 31 through Aug. 26), from the team behind the 2023 drag hit “Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story.” Of the two offerings, this is the more star-studded: the Troye Sivan collaborator Leland wrote the music, and Darren Criss and Catherine Cohen (who is also returning to the Fringe this year with her show “Come For Me”) provide the recorded vocals that the cast lip-syncs to.
And then we have “I Wish You Well: The Gwyneth Paltrow Ski-Trial Musical” (Underbelly George Square; July 31 through Aug. 26), another comedy musical, this time starring Diana Vickers, who appeared on British “X Factor.” Why not make a day of it? Watch “Gwyneth Goes Skiing,” then use the 55-minute break between shows to amble across to Underbelly George Square, for “I Wish You Well.” Sounds like a hoot.
Read More: What to See at the Edinburgh Fringe
