Lynn Faces by Laura Horton – Summerhall, Edinburgh
An all-female punk band led by Lynn, Alan Partridge’s abysmally treated assistant, is a eye-catching concept. Laura Horton’s play is about a woman, played by herself, taking back the initiative in her life. It is an uneasy mix of farce and darker underlying themes of coercive control. Horton’s supportive group of friends are willing to humour her punk gig ambitions, but really their support is helping her confront the toxic relationship she is struggling to escape. This is rather undermined by the idea that the group is hopeless at music, and don’t have the perspective to see this. While songs like ‘My Snazzy Cardigan’ are funny, the play can’t decide whether it wants to take its characters seriously or not, meaning the audience doesn’t know either.

Divine Invention by Sergio Blanco – Summerhall, Edinburgh
A man sits at a table, surrounded by objects – books, a microscope, a bone – and a pile of paper. He tells us he is going to read a 30 page text he’s written, and then does so, remaining seated throughout. It sounds like the opposite of drama, but Sergio Blanco’s play as performed by Daniel Goldman is strangely engrossing. The text is above the nature of love, a reflection on Romeo and Juliet apparently commissioned by the Globe Theatre. It unfolds as a shattering personal experience, but the identity of the writer and story-teller remain opaque. Blanco is a Franco-Uruguayan writer, Goldman his translator and collaborator. What happens in the piece is based on reality, but the boundaries keep shifting. The show is a strangely mesmerising hour, conjuring an emotional landscape in our heads.

So Young by Douglas Maxwell – Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

So Young addresses one of society’s greatest taboos – an older man and a younger woman. Can a relationship with a generation gap be healthy, genuine and based on choice? A couple, played by Lucianne McEvoy and Andy Clark, have a comfortable, convincing relationship but it becomes apparent that their visit to an old friend (Nicholas Karimi) is overshadowed by the recent death of his wife, breaking up a close-knit group. And he has a new partner, Yana Harris, who is at least twenty years his junior. Feelings of unresolved grief at the loss of a friend combine with confusion over what to feel about his new life. Douglas Maxwell’s drama is classy, uncomfortable writing that leaves us wondering how we would react in similar circumstances, and whether we’d be right.

Batshit by Leah Shelton – Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

Leah Shelton’s one woman show takes the experience of her grandmother, who spent time in an institution during the 1960s. Shelton exposes the mysogyny of Australian society which, in those days, pathologised women who were not happy in the traditional role of a wife. The theme is important, but the show fails to deliver the insight required to take it beyond what we might expect. Alternative performance techniques are deployed, from archive footage to singing and audience reaction, but they distract rather than enlightening. With limited information on how her grandmother really felt, plus extensive discussion of her medical records, the show feels a little exploitative and prioritises effect over focus.

A Brief History of Difference by DAS Clarks – Summerhall, Edinburgh

DAR Rogers has created a highly personal show, an intimate story-telling experience delivered in a naturalistic style. With a room full of props, Rogers tells her own life story in a style that is disarming and deceptively casual. She talks about identity and gender difference, but what makes the show special is her use of movement. She is not a dancer, so when she dances it is truthful and moving. Co-creators Becky Davies and Jo Fong (herself known for the excellent The Rest of Our Lives) have shaped this into something that makes complete sense on its own terms – funny, moving, and clever.

Shotgunned by Matt Anderson – Space at Surgeon’s Hall, Edinburgh

Matt Anderson’s two-hander tracks a relationship, from its end back to its beginning. Couple  Roz (Liv Bradley) and Dylan (Brad Follen) have a conventional experience of meeting, falling for one another and moving in together, but when they have a miscarriage things become complicated and difficult. The drama is straightforward, but performances are very likeable and the theme of loss is explored in a way that feels convincing and real.

These Are the Contents of My Head (The Annie Lennox Show) by Salty Brine – Assembly Checkpoint, Edinburgh

Salty Brine is a force of nature, a drag queen with a roof-raising voice. He creates a cabaret evening, complete with band and musical director, which ingeniously combines autobiography with songs from Annie Lennox’s 1992 album ‘Diva’ and ‘The Awakening’ by Kate Chopin. His love of literature is infectious and his stage presence magnetic. He turns Lennox songs into something far more intense and emotive than the original, and brings the audience with him from start to finish.

Show Pony by still hungry & Bryony Kimmings – Summerhall, Edinburgh

Shows about the reality of circus performance have been a feature of the last few Fringes. Show Pony continues the theme with a very personal account from three German artists – Lena Ries, Anke van Engelshoven and Romy Seibt – who explain that they are past their circus prime and worried about the future. Expressing themselves through their respective disciplines, they perform remarkable physical and acrobatic feats while illustrating how brutal their profession can be, especially for women. A fine combination of entertainment and an examination of social expectations.

Cyrano by Virginia Gay – Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

Virgina Gay’s reimagining of Edmond de Rostand’s classic, Cyrano de Bergerac, is bold and brilliant. Gay takes a chainsaw to the old play, pulling apart its questionable sexual politics and looking for a new way to stage it that does not involve the sexually deception of Roxanne. A string of super-charismatic performances engage the audience throughout, not least from Gay who is a force of nature. Jessica Whitehurst’s Roxanne is a better person than everyone else in the play, while Brandon Grace as Yan (Christian) is hilariously pretty but dumb. They are supported by a chorus of three characters in search of a play, who bicker entertainingly throughout. The show is highly original, and a modern re-imagining that makes it hard to see how this play can every be the same again.

Loveletter by Camille O’Sullivan – Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh

Back for her 20th Fringe, Camille O’Sullivan’s exceptional voice and choice of repertoire has a loyal following. Combining her classics (Ship Song, Look Mummy No Hands) with new material (a remarkable version of Paranoid Android), Camille also pays tribute to her friends Sinéad O’Connor and Shane MacGowan with powerful accounts of their music. A special evening.

300 Paintings by Sam Kissajukian – Summerhall, Edinburgh

Australian comedian Sam Kissajukian was diagnosed with bi-polar after giving up comedy and embarking on an unhinged 5-month manic episode in which he painted 300 pictures. What could have been a tough story of mental breakdown is one of the funniest one-man shows on the Fringe, cheerfully blending theatre and comedy. Kissajukian, who now manages his disease, has complete perspective on what happened to him. His account of the extent to which he wound people up, especially a senior, unnamed, US tech entrepreneur, are wild, bizarre and expertly delivered. It is impossible not to love a show that tells heavy stories lightly.

The Flock by Roser López Espinosa / Moving Cloud by Sofia Nappi – Zoo Southside, Edinburgh

These two pieces, performed by the Scottish Dance Theatre company, are dazzling exhibitions of movement. The Flock, premiered in Catalonia, recreates the movement and murmuration of birds. Mark Drillich and Ilia Mayer’s propulsive electronic soundtrack combines with a virtuoso ensemble performance. Moving Cloud is performed to a Celtic folk soundtrack which, fascinatingly, combines reels and jigs with entirely different movement on stage. Dancing again as a group, the performers weave a constantly shifting tapestry which has the audience spellbound.

Triptych by Lewis Major – Dancebase, Edinburgh

There is a style of contemporary dance that looks perfect and feels cold. Lewis Major’s Triptych features three dancers striking poses amid cones and blades of light cutting across the dark stage. Visually, it is a dramatic experience, but the surface seems to be everything. The inclusion of female nudity also feels titillating and cheap, included for effect. The result is a trio that fails to move.

Burnout Paradise by Pony Cam Collective – Summerhall, Edinburgh

You’ve never seen a performance like this. Australian company Pony Cam’s show is about burnout, and there’s no mistaking the theme. Four performers run for 10 minutes on treadmills. Then they switch and do it again, and again, and again. While they run they carry out a set of tasks – cooking a three course meal for two audience members, completing a long list of supposed leisure activities, performing an individual story, and (my favourite) completing a live grant application to Creative Scotland. They also aim to beat their collective distance record for the show and, if they miss any of their targets, promise the audience their money back. The result is frantic, chaotic, hilarious and genuinely quite dangerous. The performers physical commitment is astonishing and, by the time they wrap it up with a recreation of OK Go’s ‘Here It Goes Again’ video, they look shattered. It’s a superbly entertaining show.

The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return by Sam Edmunds – Summerhall, Edinburgh

Chalk Line Theatre perform a coming of age story about young people in Luton. It’s a fairly conventional story of growing up and the dangers of bullies and knives, until it turns in an unexpected direction. Edmunds does a impressive job of representing the experience of being young and trying to find your way in an unforgiving urban environment. His young cast bring it alive, and the play delivers a message of hope that confounds the usual dramatic trajectory of inevitable tragedy.

QUEENS by Anne Welenc – Summerhall, Edinburgh

QUEENS has a great scenario – Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart in purgatory as drag queens – and impressive costumes. The three German stars (there’s also Penthisilea, Queen of the Amazons – played by a woman) look awesome and have a lot of fun together. Other than that, it’s hard to pin down actual events. The show is more of a happening that anything that claims to have structure or narrative, definitely a candidate for fringiest show of 2024.

Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse for England by Alex Hill – Underbelly, Edinburgh

The defining image of the 2020 European Championships final, played at Wembley in 2021, was a fan, trousers down, flare blazing between his buttocks. Alex Hill’s one-man play tracks how someone might end up doing that. The central character, engagingly played by Hill, is an AFC Wimbledon fan (Dons supporters may well take issue with the club being used as a cypher for bad supporters). He gets in with a crowd of hardcore fans, drawn into drink, drugs and violence. As he gets more deeply involved, his best friend is cut adrift. Hill adeptly turns a story of toxic masculinity into a cautionary tale about what happens when men don’t talk to each other.

plewds by Kathrine Payne – Summerhall, Edinburgh

Kathrine Payne play, which they perform, combines multiple techniques to tell a story that the performer seems unwilling to explain or address. Disguised as a hardboiled detective conducting an investigation into what happened on a certain night, appearing as a French impresario, channelling vintage X-Factor, and Payne throw everything at us. It’s a thoroughly unpredictable show, in which everything is a distraction from the fact that the people closest to us can be the ones who hurt us the most. It’s funny, involving, and wildly inventive.