Comedy: Stewart Lee
After splurging three hours of material on his recent television series, Lee
uses his month at the Fringe to run in some new material for his autumn
tour, If You Prefer a Milder Comedian Please Ask for One. Sure to
include some of the sharpest and most relentless routines in town,
work-in-progress or not. Aug 5-30, The Stand
Theatre: The Last Witch
Rona Munro’s latest play is set in northern Scotland in 1727 and involves one
Janet Horne, who was said to be able to heal animals, summon the wind and
charm fish out of the sea. To the inhabitants of little Dornoch all that
seemed a bit suspicious, especially as she refused to deny their accusations
of sorcery — and, as a result, she became what the title suggests, the last
woman to be burnt as a witch in Scotland. Aug 23-29, Royal Lyceum
Comedy: Julian Clary: Lord of the Mince
He’s back! And if you’d thought turning 50 might mean a shock change of
Clary’s stand-up strategy, think again. “Expect filth and smut in liberal
quantities,” we’re told. Still, who better, in a time of flagging spirits,
to stiffen our resolve (etc)? Aug 22-30, Pleasance Courtyard
Jazz: Mardi Gras
New Orleans comes to Edinburgh with marching bands, a carnival atmosphere and
three hours of non-stop music from several stages. Masks and costumes
encouraged. Aug 1, 1pm, Grassmarket
Theatre: Faith Healer/The Yalta Game/Afterlife
Three plays by Brian Friel come to Edinburgh from Dublin’s Gate Theatre :
respectively the story of a modern shaman; an adaptation of Chekhov’s Lady
with the Little Dog; and an imaginary encounter between characters who
have escaped from the great Russian’s Uncle Vanya and The
Three Sisters. Aug 15-Sept 5, King’s Theatre
Dance: The Return of Ulysses
Picking up on the official festival’s homecoming theme is the Royal Ballet of
Flanders with their production of The Return of Ulysses.
Choreographed by Christian Spuck and set to music by Purcell and Doris Day
(how’s that for a combination?), the production looks at the fate of
Penelope when her husband Ulysses went off to fight in the Trojan Wars. And
what will happen when he comes back? Aug 21-24, Playhouse
Comedy: Rhys Darby
If you only know the Kiwi comic for his fine support work as Murray the
manager in Flight of the Conchords, you’ve got a treat in store. A
fine stand-up in his own right, Darby is also a very physical performer with
a stunning sideline in sound effects. Aug 6-15, E4 Udderbelly’s Pasture
Theatre: Faust
Will the great auteur Silviu Purcarete be more indebted to Marlowe or to
Goethe when he brings the National Theatre Radu Stanca Sibiu from his native
Romania? With music, pantomime, torture, murder, exotic effects and more
than 100 performers onstage, this promenade production promises to be more
maverick. Aug 18-22, Lowland Hall, Ingliston
Comedy: Janeane Garofalo
She’s been one of America’s most interesting stand-ups for almost two decades
now, but over here we still know her mostly for her acting in shows such as 24,
The Larry Sanders Show and The West Wing. A bit of a coup for the
Gilded Balloon. Aug 6-15, Gilded Balloon
Visual art: The Enlightenments
The only visual art component of the EIF, a city-wide exhibition including
work by Tacita Dean and Nathan Coley, reflecting the two sides of Edinburgh
— as a centre of the Scottish Enlightenment and its darker, mysterious
underbelly. Aug 7-Sept 27, various venues
Opera: St Kilda
Intriguing compilation of archive footage, Gaelic folksong, electronic music,
actors, singers and acrobats recreate the story of this abandoned Hebridean
island, once home to a population that sustained itself on seabirds and
their eggs. Probably going to be the oddest opera of the year. Aug 15-17,
Festival Theatre
Theatre: The School for Scandal
Cal McCrystal directs Lionel Blair and other funny men and women in a revival,
part produced by the Comedians Theatre Company, of Sheridan’s great tale of
love and deceit in 18th-century London. Aug 5-31, Pleasance
Kids: Sketch Show 4 Kids: Because I Said So
From the company of Comedy 4 Kids, a new, full-length sketch show promising to
be hilarious for kids and adults. Suitable for ages 6 and over. Aug 6-30,
Underbelly
Comedy: Edward Aczel — Explains all the World’s Problems . . . and then Solves
Them
You will either emerge from an Edward Aczel show refreshed and reminded of the
infinite scope of comedy . . . or angry and convinced that a dull marketing
manager from Aylesbury has just been wasting your precious time. He’s the
kind of low-key, high-risk delight (is our bias showing through yet?) that
the Fringe is all about. Aug 7-30, Underbelly
Classical: Judas Maccabeus
Handel’s tub-thumpingly heroic oratorio is a hymn of Hanoverian triumphalism
(celebrating the crushing of the Jacobite uprising), loosely disguised as an
Old Testament tale. Here it is sung by an all-star cast, including Sarah
Connolly, and conducted by the American Baroque expert William Christie. Aug
14, Usher Hall
Theatre: Pythonesque
Roy Smiles, the author of a play about the Goons called Ying Tong,
turns his attention to the creation and evolution of the Monty Python team.
Expect to see John Cleese’s first audition, as well as a series of
Python-inspired sketches. Aug 8-31, E4 Udderbelly’s Pasture
Dance: Gelabert Azzopardi
From Barcelona comes the Spanish dance-theatre troupe with two works
choreographed by Cesc Gelabert. Sense Fi “identifies the circles of
destiny that lie within us all”, while Conquassabit (set to
Handel) takes the dancers on a trip into the middle of a hurricane. So a
full blast of energy all round. Aug 21-23, Festival Theatre
Comedy: Kim Noble
Will Die Hilarious, inspiring, indefensible — you can call Noble’s show
performance art, you can call it comedy, but you certainly can’t call it
bland. Jaws were dropping when this first played at the Soho Theatre in
April, but don’t let the shock value take away from Noble’s achievement. A
multimedia suicide note that’s like nothing else you’ve ever seen. Aug
25-30, Assembly@George Street
Visual art: Peter Blake: Venice
The first appearance in Scotland of the Pop artist Peter Blake’s Venice Suite,
prints inspired by Blake’s visit to the 2007 Venice Biennale, created in his
trademark collage style using images culled from postcards, photographs, old
books and Old Masters. July 18-Aug 29, except Mons, Edinburgh
Printmakers, Union Street
Classical: Fair is Foul, Foul is Fair
The witty Italian avant-garde composer Giorgio Battistelli has been
commissioned to write this new, Macbeth-inspired piece for the
Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus in a concert in which Sir Charles
Mackerras also conducts masterpieces by Haydn. Aug 26, Usher Hall
Theatre: Orphans
Paines Plough comes to Auld Reekie with the latest play by Dennis Kelly, a
psychological thriller about the disruption of a couple's quiet life by the
arrival of a blood-stained relative. Aug 1 & 8-29, Traverse
Comedy: Ricky Gervais: Science
A low-key gig — well, OK, it’s a 3,000 seater, but at least he’s not playing
at a castle this time — for Gervais as he begins his fourth stand-up tour. Aug
25, Playhouse Dance Michael Clark Talk about a homecoming. It’s been 20
years since the Scottish choreographer Michael Clark last appeared at the
Edinburgh International Festival. And to mark the special occasion he
presents the UK premiere of his newest work, inspired by the 1970s and the
music of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. As always with Clark, you can
expect lots of gorgeous dancing and plenty of provocative comment. Aug
28-31, Playhouse
Kids: Room on the Broom
Tall Stories, the company behind the hugely successful stage adaptation of The
Gruffalo, return with an adaptation of another Julia Donaldson picture
book, the story of a witch with a broken broom. Suitable for ages 3 and
over. Aug 5-31, Pleasance Courtyard
Theatre: Palace of the End
The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, is the source of this fiercely topical
and critically well-received play by the Canadian dramatist Judith Thompson.
The ingredients include a female soldier accused of prisoner abuse, a
disgraced British UN inspector and a persecuted Iraqi woman. Aug 5 &
8-29, Traverse
Opera: Il ritorno d’Ulisse
Monetverdi’s great Homeric opera retold using the astonishing puppets of the
South African company Handspring, the people behind the amazing puppet
fights in the National Theatre’s War Horse production in
London. The story of Ulysses’ return is reconfigured as the vision of a man
dying in a Johannesburg hospital. Aug 23-26, except Mon, King’s Theatre
Jazz: Jack Bruce/Robin Trower/Gary Husband
The songwriter of Cream, a Hendrix-influenced guitar maestro, a hotshot
drummer and Marshall amps straining at the leash. Jazz-rock pyrotechnics are
possible; Sunshine of Your Love probable. Aug 5, Queens Hall
Theatre: Morecambe
A salute to one of Britain’s best-loved comedians, who died 25 years ago. Tim
Whitnall writes and Bob Golding plays a man whose career began, believe it
or not, on Morecambe Pier. Aug 6-31, Rainy Hall, Assembly Hall
Comedy: Laura Solon
The character comedian’s first live show since her Edinburgh debut, which won
her the last Perrier Award in 2005. Solon is a dynamite writer and an
unerringly interesting performer, as heard in her own Radio 4 series and
seen on Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse’s sketch series. Aug
6-30, Assembly@George Street
Theatre: The Girls of Slender Means
Judith Adams adapts Muriel Spark’s 1963 tragi-comic novel: the tale of young
women living and loving in a shabby-genteel hostel in the bomb-damaged
London of 1945. Aug 6-31, Assembly Rooms
Comedy: Simon Amstell
His previous two Fringe shows have been excitingly bright, tantalisingly close
to the full stand-up deal. Now that he’s left Never Mind the
Buzzcocks and been working on this show all summer, it’s time for
Amstell to fulfil his massive potential as a live comedian. Aug 14-30,
The Bongo Club
Kids: Private Peaceful
Michael Morpurgo’s story of a young soldier awaiting a firing squad at dawn,
adapted by Scamp Theatre, has been a hit in previous years, and with War
Horse doing a roaring trade in the West End, it’s likely to sell
quickly. Suitable for ages 8 and over. Aug 6-31, E4 Udderbelly’s Pasture
Theatre: A British Subject
The journalist Don Mackay’s play is based on personal interviews with Mirza
Tahir Hussain, who went to Pakistan from Leeds at the age of 18, was
sentenced to hang for allegedly murdering a taxi driver, spent seven years
on death row and, though released on appeal, was sent back to prison by a
sharia court. Aug 5-13, Pleasance Courtyard
Comedy: Sarah Millican
The Geordie comedian won a deserved if.comedy Best Newcomer Award last year.
Now, having plied her own post-divorce singleton stories in that show, she
looks at the differences between men and women in her new hour, Typical
Woman. Aug 5-30, Pleasance Courtyard
Theatre: My Darling Clemmie
Hugh Whitemore, remembered for The Best of Friends and the Alan Turing
play Breaking the Code, is the author of a Churchill marital memoir
in which he declares that “my most brilliant achievement was to persuade my
wife to marry me”. Rohan McCullough re-creates the great man's wife
Clemmie.
Ronan McCullough re-creates the great man. Aug 6-31, Assembly Rooms
Classical: Bryn Terfel
Enjoy the mighty bass-baritone while you can — he is constantly threatening to
retire to his North Wales home. Here he sings a collection of British songs,
both classical (John Ireland, Vaughan Williams, Roger Quilter) and folk,
with the pianist Malcolm Martineau. Aug 23, Usher Hall
Jazz: Jazz on a Summer’s Day
Last year the sun shone and 20,000 attended. Jazz of the more traditional
variety with the RAF big band, the Squadronaires, topping the bill. Aug
2, 1pm, Princes Street Gardens
Comedy: Pajama Men
A new show from the outlandishly skilful American duo, whose previous effort
was our favourite of last year, and also won the top prize at the Melbourne
Comedy Festival this year. Sketch-comedy theatre performed with a verve that
is uncanny. Aug 6-30, Assembly@George Street
Theatre: The Sound of my Voice
This adaptation of Ron Butlin’s novel, about the midlife crisis of a suburban
family man and chronic alcoholic, comes from the Citizens Theatre in
Glasgow. Aug 6-30, Assembly Rooms
Comedy: Alistair McGowan: The One and Many
A welcome return to live stand-up from McGowan, where his genius for
impressions is less likely to be undermined by his face’s stubborn refusal
to look like anybody else’s. Well, except maybe Richard Madeley’s. He’s also
performing a Noël Coward tribute, with Charlotte Page, at the
Assembly@George Street every afternoon. Aug 6-31, Assembly@Assembly Hall
Kids: Potted Pirates
After the success last year of the unauthorised Harry Potter experience, Potted
Potter (also showing this year), Blue Peter’s Dan and Jeff
return with a second comedy show, packing all the pirates you can think of
into one farcical hour. Suitable for ages 6 and over. Aug 5-31, Pleasance
Courtyard
Opera: Actus Tragicus
J. S. Bach as he’s never been seen before. The chorus of the Stuttgart State
Opera sing six sacred cantatas by Bach — but the singers all enact the
mundane domesticities of their lonely urban lives inside the tiny spaces of
a four-storey “apartment block” set on stage. Sept 4-5,
Festival Theatre
Comedy: Rhod Gilbert
After breaking into the big leagues with last year’s
should-have-been-award-winning Rhod Gilbert and the Award-Winning Mince
Pie, the furious Welsh comic will have to raise the stakes even farther
this year. Well, the title is a start: Rhod Gilbert and the Cat that
Looked like Nicholas Lyndhurst. Aug 5-31, Pleasance Courtyard
Theatre: Doctor Whom? My Search for Samuel Johnson
David Benson, best remembered for his portrayal of Kenneth Williams and his
mischievous account of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, offers his
take on the life and work of the great know-it-all who died 300 years ago. Aug
22-31, Assembly Rooms
Jazz: Dick Hyman European All Stars
The urbane pianist, whose career spans 50 years and includes a string of Woody
Allen soundtracks, leads a band playing classic prewar jazz . He is back the
following night performing on harpsichord. Aug 4, The Hub
Comedy: The Five-Pound Fringe
All right, not so much a show, more a way of charging, with some top acts on
board — most notably Robin Ince and the 2008 if.comedy Newcomer nominee Mike
Wozniak — plus two dedicated venues, the Tron and the GRV. Find out
more from www.fivepoundfringe.co.uk
Visual art: Jane and Louise Wilson
A survey of film, video and photography from the innovative and influential
sisters, including a new commission and rarely seen archive material from
the artists’ studio. Aug 6-Sept 26 (weekdays only), Talbot Rice
Gallery
Jazz: Jacques Loussier Trio
His jazzed-up Bach has swung in and out of fashion, but his recent album
celebrating 50 years of Play Bach suggests his time might have come again.
This is a rare UK appearance by the 74-year-old. Aug 3, Queens Hall
Theatre: Sea Wall
The Bush Theatre in London brings Edinburgh a tale about family, grief and
“things that can’t be undone”, meaning a new play by the prolific and
talented Simon Stephens. Aug 6-16,Traverse
Comedy: Shappi Khorsandi: The Distracted Activist
The daughter of an exiled Iranian satirist, Khorsandi is a hugely talented
stand-up whose last two Edinburgh shows fell slightly short of excellence.
She’s more confident now, to judge by her recent television appearances, so
could this be the year that Khorsandi finally breaks through? Aug 5-31,
Pleasance Courtyard
Fringe box office www.edfringe.com 0131-226 0000
International Festival box office (most classical, opera and dance):
www.eif.co.uk 0131-473 2000
Assembly 0131-623 3030
The Bongo Club 0131-557 2827
The Stand 0131-558 7272
Festival Theatre 0131-529 6000
Playhouse 0131-524 3333
Edinburgh Printmakers 0131-557 2479
Gilded Balloon 0131-622 6552
GRV 0131-220 2987
King’s Theatre 0131-473 2000
Pleasance/Pleasance Courtyard 0131-556 6550
Queen’s Hall 0131-668 2019
Royal Lyceum 0131-473 2000
Royal Scottish Academy Building 0131-624 6200
Talbot Rice Gallery 0131-650 2210
Traverse Theatre 0131-228 1404
Tron 0131-225 3784
Underbelly 0844 5458252
Usher Hall 0131-228 1155
