August in Edinburgh, and the Fringe was back with a boom! As ever, after seeing so many brilliant productions, it’s been hard to select our favourites, but it’s (virtual) Bouquet time and so, in no particular order, here are the shows that have really stayed with us:
COMEDY
John Robins: Howl (Just the Tonic)
‘Raw and achingly honest….’
The Ice Hole: a Cardboard Comedy (Pleasance)
‘An inspired piece of surreal lunacy…’
Dominique Salerno: The Box Show (Pleasance)
‘One of the most original acts I’ve ever seen…’
The Umbilical Brothers: The Distraction (Assembly)
‘An amorphous mass of nonsense – but brilliantly so!’
THEATRE
Bacon (Summerhall)
‘A whip-smart, tightly-constructed duologue…’
The Grand Old Opera House Hotel (Traverse)
‘Part slapstick, part comic-opera, part mad-as-a-box-of-frogs spectacle, this is something you really don’t want to miss.’
Salty Irina (Roundabout at Summerhall)
‘Fresh and contemporary, all minimal props and non-literal interpretation…’
Dark Noon (Pleasance)
‘A unique piece of devised theatre, sprawling and multi-faceted…’
JM Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K (Assembly)
‘A gentle but powerful production…’
One Way Out (Underbelly)
‘The piece is brave enough not to offer a solution…’
SPECIAL MENTIONS
After the Act (Traverse)
‘We have to learn from what has gone before…’
Woodhill (Summerhall)
‘Though unnervingly bleak, this does offer a glimmer of hope…’
Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (Traverse)
‘The closest I’ve ever come to experiencing an acid trip in the theatre…’
Susan Singfield & Philip Caveney