The Edinburgh fringe programme is published today, an event that I look forward to slightly more than Christmas. Although this year the expectation has been slightly tempered by the fact that the Pleasance, Assembly and Underbelly announced their own programmes in advance together, and other information has been steadily dribbling out. I got my first press release in March.
But this is the first chance to take an overall view, and while it's not a British Council Showcase year (which either makes everyone up their game or causes a slump in the intervening years, depending on your point of view) there is plenty to look forward to seeing. It feels that many are being far braver about Edinburgh, and seeing its value and understanding that for all the things that are desperately wrong about the setup, it can provide opportunities particularly if you are not just in it for yourself but co-producing, collaborating and supporting other artists. What's clearly on the rise is the curated festival within a festival as opposed to the big venues with space to hire.
The Traverse has always felt like that, even as it supplies a backbone for the rest of the fringe (at least for any punter interested in new writing, in all its forms). That's because it's properly programmed. Of course the brilliant Forest Fringe (not actually part of the fringe so you won't find it in the programme) has been a game changer and are back this year with a terrific programme of work at Out of the Blue Drill Hall including Action Hero's Slap Talk, Brian Lobel's durational watching of Sex and the City, Sleepwalk Collective, Kings of England, and work in progress from Bryony Kimmings. If that doesn't get you excited, nothing will.
Like the Traverse, the Northern Stage festival is fully programmed and is a good example of a subsidised venue helping smaller companies to get to Edinburgh by reducing the risk. Summerhall is now big enough to constitute an entire festival in its own right, in fact so big that it has a festival within a festival this year as Paines Plough pitch up with their temporary Roundabout space which will include new (Every Brilliant Thing, a co-production with Pentabus dealing with depression) and old (Lungs) plays by Duncan Macmillan, a new one from Alexandra Wood, The Initiate, about a Somali pirate abduction, and a co-production with the Half Moon of Dennis Kelly's Our Teacher's a Troll. They will also be partnering with Northern Stage who will be using the Roundabout to host the Lyric's Secret Theatre 6 (written by Mark Ravenhill) and also the Royal Exchange's Britannia Waves the Rules, Gary Kitching and Greyscale's Dead to Me, and Luke Barnes and Ishy Din's Beats North.
Northern Stage has a new home this year at the Kings Hall Church in South Clerk Street. Lorne Campbell directs David Ireland's I Promise You Sex and Violence, Chris Thorpe hooks up with the TEAM's Rachel Chavkin for Confirmation, about extremist thinking within the political landscape, and Unlimited's Play Dough invites seven to 11-year-olds to bet with £10,000 in real pound coins. Alastair McDowell's Captain Amazing is back too, and you can see the Lyric's Secret Show 5: A series of Increasingly Impossible Acts.
You could probably stick a pin in the Traverse programme and come up with a winner. Unfaithful is the new one from Owen McCafferty, whose Quietly was a big hit last year. The show I'm really excited about is Valentijn's SmallWar, an examination of the machine of war from the man who gave us Big Mouth (which gets three performances). Ben Kidd is a really exciting director as anyone who saw his Headlong Spring Awakening will know, so check out Lippy, about four women in a starvation pact. Chris Goode is in storytelling mode in Men in the Cities, David Leddy explores sex, power and politics in Horizontal Collaboration, and Stellar Quines follow Jennifer Tremblay's brilliant The List with another one woman play by the Quebec dramatist, The Carousel. Once again the incomparable Maureen Beattie stars. There's plenty more of interest so do browse the website.
Summerhall highlights include Song of the Goat's Return to Voice in St Giles Cathedral, Helen Paris and Caroline Wright's Out of Water which takes place at dawn and dusk at Portobello beach, Ridiculusmus with The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland and The World Mouse Plague, Two Destination Language's Near Gone, Catherine Ireton's Leaving Home Party, Future Ruins' Theatre on a Long Wire, Geoff Sobelle's The Object Lesson, Amy and Rosana Cade's Sister, the Scottish Enlightenment Project (a co-production between National Theatre Scotland and the TEAM, which is mouth-watering), Peter McMaster's all-male Wuthering Heights, and Ontroerend Goed's Sirens.
At Zoo you should definitely make plans for Curious Directive's sci-fi thriller, Pioneer. Also in my sights are Gavin Roberston's take on 007, Bond!, Square Peg's Icarus and Six Billion Suns, a dance theatre piece about dementia.
Checking out the theatre programme at the big three venues isn't quite so alluring, although there are some sure-fire hits, including the tried and tested Circa with Beyond at Underbelly. Also worth a look at Underbelly are the IdeasTap award shows – which this year are Mush and Me, How to Achieve Redemption as a Scot through the Medium of Braveheart, Hiraeth and We Have Fallen. Who knows what they will like, but it will certainly be a glimpse of the new. Luke Barnes' Bottleneck is back and well worth a look as is the one-man Private Peaceful. How to Disappear Completely looks like an intriguing look at mortality. Bromance could be a home grown UK circus hit which would be jolly.
Moving on to Assembly, Diana Rigg is in residence with No Turn Unstoned and Simon Callow tackles Juvenalia. The zombies are coming too in The Generation of Z. If you are looking for something more serious then check out Dirty Protest's Last Christmas written by Matthew Bulgo, or anything in the South Africa season which has pretty much become a fixture of the Assembly programme. Nice to see the return of the Iranian show, White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, and Nassim Soleimanpour is represented elsewhere with Blind Hamlet which reimagines the battle for Elsinore and is presented by Actors Touring Ccompany, a sure sign of quality. Anne Archer stars in the Trial of Jane Fonda at the Assembly Rooms.
Over at Pleasance, I'd definitely recommend the new one from Theatre Ad Infinitum, Light, and I'm excited about both Mental and Figs in Wigs' Show Off. Richard Marsh's father-son comedy, Wingman, is likely to be fun and Jane Upton's Swimming shouldn't disappoint. Action to the Word follow up the hit A Clockwork Orange with Dracula. Forgotten Voices gives voice to those who fought in the trenches in the first world war.
This is merely a first glance at what's going on in Edinburgh this summer and when I've had time to really devour the programme, other shows will start rising to the surface. At some point I'll also take a look around some of the venues that don't get a mention here. In the meantime do let me, and everyone else, know about the shows that have caught you're eye and why you reckon they may be worth a punt.
For more information and listings of this year's Edinburgh fringe shows, go to edfringe.com
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