Edinburgh Festival Fringe – preview
Performers from Dinner is Swerved, an interactive dining experience that forms part of the Fringe
Right about now, thousands of artists from around the earth are swarming Edinburgh’s Royal Mile with endless fliers and posters, performing their hearts out for three straight weeks, and steadily going broke. Welcome to the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival, having mushroomed from eight rogue acts in 1947 to nearly 2,700 last year.
Among the motley groups set to wow, provoke and baffle the legions of punters – prompting droves of Edinburghians to flee and rent out their flats at inflated rates – are heralded new plays by David Greig, Mark Ravenhill and Yael Farber, who shifts from last year’s acclaimed Mies Julie to the recent gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh Pandey in India.
Comedy highlights include favourites The Pajama Men, Pippa Evans, Tim Key and The Boy With Tape on His Face. (Also recommended: the Australian male-burlesque troupe Briefs, whose glittery, feathery acrobatic extravaganzas are Cirque du Soleil meets G-A-Y.)
Several Hackney acts have also trekked up to Auld Reekie. Dinner is Swerved (23.30, C nova, £10.50-£16.50) is the latest interactive dining journey from the collective Food for Thought, who merge surreal and experimental live music, theatre, comedy and cuisine in secret venues across London, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Mata Hari (19.35, Mood Nightclub, by donation / PBH Free Fringe) by the cabaret artist Aletia Upstairs explores the life and reinvention of Europe’s legendary exotic dancer and spy, drawing from her letters and interviews.
Last year’s Chortle Best Newcomer and Hackney Empire New Act of the Year, Pat Cahill of Stokey, debuts an hour of ‘mixed stupidity’ with Start (17.45, Pleasance Courtyard, £8-£9). And the Quint Fontana 2013 Comeback Special (21.50, The Voodoo Rooms, by donation / PBH Free Fringe), starring the 2012 Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year, promises songs, tales and massive delusions of grandeur.
The 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe runs from 2 to 26 August (edfringe.com).
Tamara Micner’s long-form improv group, Velvet Elvis, perform from 18 to 25 August (16.55, Chiquito, by donation / PBH Free Fringe).