ALL EVENTS Order by: Date / title
Locked In: The Distillery Escape
Locked In Edinburgh
Work together as you undertake an interactive experience solving the mystery behind who is plotting the downfall of Pickering's Gin.
Us/Them
BRONKS, Big in Belgium, Richard Jordan, Theatre Royal Plymouth
In September 2004, during a school hostage drama in Beslan, the greatest of evils (terrorists) chose the greatest good (a group of children) as their victim. Us/Them is not a straightforward account of this terrible drama, but is about the entirely individual way children cope with extreme situations.
Waves
Alice Mary Cooper
The story of young Australian Elizabeth Moncello, the unofficial inventor of the famous butterfly stroke. An intimate theatrical event combines highly expressive storytelling, delicate movement and splashes of humour to tell Elizabeth’s amazing tale of a life fully lived. A true delight for audiences from eight to 80.
Mikey and Addie
Andy Manley, Rob Evans and Red Bridge
Mikey is a sunny boy. He lives alone with his mum. Mikey's mum has a secret. It’s not well kept. Everyone knows it. Everyone except Mikey. Addie is a good girl. She doesn't tell lies. Her father makes sure of that. Addie tells the truth. It's what you have to do. Isn't it? It's hard to tell when your life will change. The day you wake up normal but end up falling far from everything you've ever known. Spinning into nothingness. Today is that day.
Beyond Price
Jack Klaff
Jack Klaff presents presenting highlights from those shows which couldn’t make it to this Festival.
World Without Us
Ontroerend Goed, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Vooruit, Richard Jordan Productions, Summerhall
Multiple Fringe First winners Ontroerend Goed return to Edinburgh with their new solo piece about the end of humanity and what comes after.
If There's Not Dancing at the Revolution, I'm Not Coming
Julia Croft
A rich contemporary performance collage of film scripts, pop songs, advertisements, elaborate costumes and dance reassembled to challenge the treatment of women’s bodies as spectacle in popular culture.
The Castle Builder
Vic Llewellyn and Kid Carpet
An emotional and hard rocking journey into the hearts and souls that exist on the outer limits of creativity and building regulations, The Castle Builder tells the true story of an inmate in a Norwegian psychiatric institute who over 5 years built a castle on a remote headland.
Party Trap
Show and Tell With Ross Sutherland
Party Trap is a darkly comic story set in the near future, told entirely in palindromic form. It’s the debut play by Standby For Tape Back-Up and BBC Radio Four star Ross Sutherland.
We Are Brontë
Publick Transport
A ludicrous and inventive interpretation of the Brontë myth, taking the real and imaginary worlds of the Yorkshire siblings as inspiration. With only a handful of props, two performers deconstruct not only gothic themes of love, madness and revenge, but also themselves.
Letters to Windsor House
Sh!t Theatre with Show and Tell
A loophole in the Postal Services Act says you can open other people’s mail under certain circumstances. This is that certain circumstance.
It Folds
Brokentalkers & Junk Ensemble
It Folds is a poignant, humorous portrait of death, grief, beauty and the extremes of the human condition from two of Ireland’s leading performance companies.
A Pickering’s Gin Jolly
Summerhall Distillery
Join us for a tour of Summerhall Distillery as we raise the curtain on how award-winning Pickering’s Gin is made.
One Hundred Homes
Yinka Kuitenbrouwer, Big in Belgium, Richard Jordan, Theatre Royal Plymouth
Join Yinka in her new Edinburgh home, a small wooden cabin specially built in Summerhall’s Courtyard, to experience an intimate performance. One Hundred Homes is an ongoing performance; each time that Yinka performs the play, she also visits people from the area, adding their stories to her archives.
Mairi Campbell: Pulse
Greengold Projects and Authentic Artist Collective
A homecoming in viola, voice, movement, animation and storytelling, Pulse is the story of Mairi Campbell's quest to heal cultural wounds.
Ubu on the Table
Théâtre de la Pire Espèce
In this award-winning adaptation of King Ubu by Alfred Jarry, anything goes as Poland's fate is sealed on a table top!
Don’t Panic! It’s Challenge Anneka
on the button
Inspired by real-life stories, Don't Panic... presents a frank, funny and open exploration of a topic that too often remains taboo: the challenge of overcoming anxiety.
Bubble Schmeisis
Written & Performed by Nick Cassenbaum. Directed by Danny Braverman (Wot? No Fish!!)
Bubbemeises is Yiddish for a grandmother’s story, a tall story, an old wives’ tale. Amongst the steam and ritual Nick will take you on a journey to find the place he belongs. Bubble Schmeisis is full of intimate and personal true stories about identity, home and getting schmeised (washed) by old men.
Denton and Me
Sam Rowe and Macrobert Arts Centre in association with Showroom
This multi-layered, stunningly designed show weaves together writer and performer Sam Rowe’s autobiography with the writing of Denton Welch (1915-1948), a fascinating figure in queer literary history, and favourite of Alan Bennett, William S Burroughs and John Waters.
The Lounge
Inspector Sands
97 years go by in a flash. An afternoon lasts an eternity. In a care home lounge somewhere off the A1, Marsha Hewitt begins the last day of her life. But she cannot go quietly. As the radiators burn and Jeremy Kyle blares, rivalries, relatives and murderous impulses jostle for space on the Axminster carpet. By teatime, a riot is brewing. The award-winning Inspector Sands shine a light on how we cope, or fail to cope, with ageing.
The Dwelling Place
Jamie and Lewis Wardrop Present
Be transported into an abandoned cottage on the Outer Hebrides. Striking live visuals, electronic sound and the words of the great highland poets in an immersive, limited capacity performance installation.
How (Not) to Live in Suburbia
Annie Siddons
5 years ago in the middle of a shitstorm of life events, artist, single mother and committed urbanite Annie Siddons found herself living in suburbia by accident.
Adler & Gibb
Tim Crouch / Royal Court Theatre
A re-staging of Tim Crouch’s notorious Royal Court play, this is the story of a raid – on a house, a life and a legacy. From the real to the unreal, fake to true and theatre to film, the play marries Tim Crouch’s fascination with form to a compelling story of misappropriation and death.
A Man Standing
Théâtre de L’Ancre
Jean-Marc Mahy entered prison at the age of seventeen. He spent nearly 20 years detained, three of them in solitary confinement. On stage with performer Stephane Pirard, Jean-Marc describes the prison, humiliation, isolation and madness that was to come...
Tell Me Anything
On The Run with Show And Tell
On The Run return, following the five-star sell-out success of their debut, So It Goes, with a show about love, hopeless devotion and growing up. Directed by Christopher Harrisson (Rhum and Clay).
4D Cinema
Mamoru Iriguchi
Sporting a screen and a projector around his face, Mamoru Iriguchi turns himself into a mobile cinema. He explores what is live and what is pre-recorded, fixed eternally on film, and looks at what liveness means when technology blurs actual and virtual realities.
Snakes and Giants
The Flanagan Collective and Joanne Hartstone
A brand new fantastical fusion of spoken word, dance and a heavy, soulful soundtrack from the critically acclaimed, international award-winning company behind Beulah, Babylon and Fable.
Heads Up
Kieran Hurley with Show And Tell
In just one moment, worlds will end. Multi award-winner Kieran Hurley (Beats, Chalk Farm, Hitch), with an original sonic score by Michael John McCarthy, weaves a picture of a familiar city at its moment of destruction, asking what would we do if we found ourselves at the end of our world as we know it.
Faslane
Jenna Watt in association with Showroom & Contact
Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde, or Faslane, situated 40 miles outside Glasgow, is home to the UK's nuclear missile programme: Trident. With family having worked in Faslane all her life, and with friends protesting at the gates, Fringe First-winner Jenna Watt explores what happens when the personal and political collide.
Doubting Thomas
Grassmarket Projects
Thomas McCrudden, a man with a tortured and violent past but with hope for a different future, tells his own story.
Counting Sheep: A Guerrilla Folk Opera
Lemon Bucket Orkestra in association with Aurora Nova
A rousing call to arms, led by guerrilla-folk party-punks Lemon Bucket Orkestra. Based on the creators' first hand experiences during the 2014 Kiev uprising, Counting Sheep invites you to lose yourself in the events that changed the course of Ukraine's history forever.
(I Could Go on Singing) Over the Rainbow
FK Alexander with Okishima Island Tourist Association
With live accompaniment from Glasgow-based noise band Okishima Island Tourist Association, FK Alexander sings along to the recording of the last time Judy Garland ever sang Over The Rainbow, four months before her death.
Pianomorphosis
Will Pickvance
Part recital, part metamorphosis, this is the new solo performance by renowned Fringe virtuoso and wit Will Pickvance (Anatomy of the Piano, Alchemy of the Piano).
Only Bones
Kallo Collective in association with Aurora Nova
Only Bones is an award-winning new production by New Zealanders Thomas Monckton and Gemma Tweedie and Finland-based physical theatre company Kallo Collective. It uses body manipulation and bendy physicality to create an original piece of physical theatre.
Mungo Park – Travels in the Interior of Africa
Dogstar Theatre Company (Scotland) and Mungo Park Arts Centre (Denmark)
This tragi-comic, theatrically daring Scottish-Danish co-production examines anew Europe’s colonial legacy through his adventures and misadventures.
Macbain
Dood Paard, Big in Belgium, Richard Jordan, Theatre Royal Plymouth
Macbeth and Kurt Cobain and Lady Macbeth and Courtney Love inspire a pitch-black comedy about unbridled ambition, hunger for power and an addiction to intoxication and ecstasy.
Camille
Kamila Klamut
Kamila Klamut’s performance, based on fragments of Camille Claudel’s letters, explores her life and work using text, sculptural costume and live music by Ewa Pasikowska. Kamila Klamut is a co-founder of award-winning Theatr ZAR and a regular collaborator with Song of the Goat Theatre and the Grotowski Institute.
Cuncrete
Rachael Clerke and the Great White Males
Hosted by washed up architect/proto-god figure Archibald Tactful (2014 IdeasTap Underbelly winner Rachael Clerke) and accompanied by anti-virtuoso punk band The Great White Males, Cuncrete is a gratuitously sleazy and joyfully noisy critique of alpha-masculinity and the built environment.
Of, or at, a Fairly Low Temperature
Lewys Holt
OOAAFLT mixes contemporary dance with storytelling and comedy to question what is cool these days. In this semi-autobiographical show Lewys considers which is more important to him: to be cool or to be himself.
Last Call
Het nieuwstedelijk, Big in Belgium, Richard Jordan, Theatre Royal Plymouth
A teenage girl runs away from home to the city. Nobody notices but is there actually someone looking out for her?
Squirrel Stole My Underpants
The Gottabees
An ingenious, wordless story featuring physical theatre, puppetry, and a giant pile of clothes.
Taiwan Season: The Adventure of Puppets
Puppet Beings Theatre
A family show guaranteed to tickle the child in all of us. Two engaging and skilfully silly actors bring to life an array of ordinary objects, conjuring a DIY universe full of raucous fun and inventive play.
Outside the Box – A Live Show About Death
Full Circle
Liz Rothschild is a performer, Death Café facilitator and funeral celebrant whose green burial ground was awarded Cemetery of the Year 2015. This taboo busting show draws on a deep well of experience to challenge us to consider how we approach death in our society.
Happy Hour
Mauro Paccagnella and Alessandro Bernardeschi
With their friendship and complicity spanning almost two decades, Mauro Paccagnella and Alessandro Bernardeschi meet again to dance together.
Three
Wrongsemble
Three wishes, three witches, three sisters, three pigs, three bears, three beers, three musketeers... Three actors weave together three famous tales, all featuring the elusive number three.
I Got Superpowers For My Birthday
Paines Plough and Half Moon
Ethan, William and Fiona are about as different as three almost-teens can be. The only thing they have in common is that tomorrow is their birthday. And they’ve just discovered they have superpowers.
Auditions and Interviews for Rose Bruford College MAs and BAs
Rose Bruford
At our open auditions, interviews and information sessions you will find out about the wide range of MA and BA Performance and Design, Management and Technical Arts degree courses available at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, London’s International Drama School.
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons
Walrus
This two-person show imagines a world where we’re forced to say less. It’s about what we say and how we say it; about the things we can only hear in the silence; about dead cats, activism, eye contact and lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons.
On the Conditions and Possibilities of Hillary Clinton Taking Me as Her Young Lover
Arthur Meek
Richard Meros BA has done the research and is here to tell us that, to save democracy from itself, Mrs Clinton needs to take a young lover – and that he’s the manifestly destined millennial for the job.
Love, Lies and Taxidermy
Paines Plough, Sherman Cymru and Theatr Clwyd
An offbeat love story about Mr Tutti Frutti, a stuffed owl and the struggle to fit in from writer Alan Harris (BBC Radio 4, National Theatre Wales, Sherman Cymru).
Lines
Pangean Productions
The London Underground handles over four million passengers every day. Half the population of a multicultural capital scurry beneath the city to travel together. Each carriage is inhabited by cross sections of society; countless combinations of class, race, and opinion meet in a space in which you can barely whisper.
Meet Fred
Hijinx in association with Blind Summit
A cloth puppet fights prejudice every day. Fred just wants to be part of the real world; get a job, meet a girl. However, when threatened with losing his PLA (Puppetry Living Allowance), Fred’s life begins to spiral out of his control.
I’m Doing This for You
Never Mind the Noise / Haley McGee
Blending storytelling, live art and improvisation, this show is a big romantic gesture.
All the Things I Lied About
Katie Bonna and Paul Jellis in association with Soho Theatre
Would the world be a better place if we were all honest? Fringe First winner Katie Bonna (Dirty Great Love Story) is giving a TED talk on the science of lying.
Remember to Breathe
Figure 8 Productions / Scary Biscuits Promotions
Mixing serious themes with warm humour, Remember to Breathe is a deeply moving play about moving home and moving on.
Sylum
Blue Dog Project
A congregation of strangers, brought together by the need to give body, voice and space to their other selves – to explore the lives unlived and words left unspoken.
Scorch
Prime Cut Productions
A story of first love through the eyes of a gender-curious teen, Scorch examines how the human story often gets lost amidst the headlines. Inspired by recent court cases, Scorch won Best New Play at the 2015 Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards.
Blank
Aurora Nova
Known for plays without directors, sets and rehearsals, the acclaimed Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour takes it to extremes in his new play Blank. Each night the gap-riddled script is to be completed by a new performer and a live audience.
Robert Newman: The Brain Show
Phil McIntyre Entertainments
After volunteering for a brain-imaging experiment meant to locate the part of the brain that lights up when you’re in love, Robert emerges with more questions than answers.
Jonny & the Baptists: Eat the Poor
Jonny & the Baptists
A riotous new musical comedy epic about friendship, inequality and betrayal.
The Trial
People Zoo Productions
Josef K. wakes up one morning, hungry and disconcerted, only to find himself arrested. He is not told why, nor by whom. He does not get to eat his breakfast. And so begins The Trial.
The Road to Huntsville
Stephanie Ridings
‘I’m trying to understand why British women fall in love with men on death row. I’m corresponding with Jonny, incarcerated in Texas. I’m trying to understand how the death penalty fits into our world. I’m trying not to be judgmental.’ The Road to Huntsville explores unconventional love, state homicide and challenging preconceptions.
Ghost Quartet
Ghost Quartet
Ghost Quartet is a haunted song cycle about love, death, and whisky.
I Used to Hear Footsteps
Jack A. G. Britton
A haunted solo documentary theatre performance with the gripping and suspenseful nature of a classic ghost story.
The Vagina Dialogues
The Völvas
The Völvas is an international feminist performance ensemble.
NEHH: Cosmic Disco Nights
Nothing Ever Happens Here
Step into an interstellar kosmische zone the likes the Capital has never seen to launch Summerhall’s amazing musical programme this August.
Equations for a Moving Body
Hannah Nicklin
A story about the physiology of endurance – when our brains tell our bodies to stop – and the psychology of continuing. A story about preparing mind and body for a 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles cycling, then running a marathon.
People of the Eye
The Deaf and Hearing Ensemble and Erin Siobhan Hutching
'Of course, you shouldn’t use "sign language".' Inspired by real events, this personal story follows a family finding their way through the Deaf world. A story about parents, about sisters, and about the complex love that binds families together.
Growth
Paines Plough
Growth is a comedy about growing up and manning up from rising star Luke Norris (So Here We Are, Royal Exchange; Goodbye to All That, Royal Court)
Sacré Blue
Zöe Murtagh and Tory Copeland
Devised by Zöe Murtagh and Victoria Copeland, Sacré Blue is a performance piece confronting anxiety through poetry and storytelling. An uplifting performance about panic attacks based on personal experience and shared stories.
Every Brilliant Thing
Paines Plough
The worldwide smash-hit is back. You’re six years old. Mum’s in hospital. Dad says she’s done something stupid. She finds it hard to be happy. You make a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world. Everything worth living for. 1. Ice Cream 2. Kung Fu Movies 3. Burning Things 4. Laughing so hard you shoot milk out your nose 5. Construction cranes 6. Me A play about depression and the lengths we go to for those we love.
Putting the Band Back Together
Unfolding Theatre
Why do we stop playing? What might make us start again? All those guitars propped up in bedrooms. Voices only heard in the shower. Drum kits taking too much space in garages. It’s time to blow off the dust.
E15
LUNG
'We want social housing, not social cleansing.' Facing skyrocketing rent and forced relocation out of London, 29 single mothers united to confront Newham Council’s gentrification of their hometown.
NEHH: Kathryn Joseph + Siobhan Wilson
Nothing Ever Happens Here... Presents
The haunting and utterly compelling Scottish Album of the Year ‘bones you have thrown me and blood I’ve spilled’ comes to Summerhall’s Dissection Room. Regarded as one of Scotland’s best-kept secrets; Kathryn Joseph’s voice possesses the other-worldly quality of Joanna Newsom and Björk.
Two Man Show
RashDash
Men have all the power. John and John keep hearing people say that men have all the power, but it doesn’t feel like that to them.
Where Do All the Dead Pigeons Go?
Scott Turnbull (presents)
Where do all the dead pigeons go? I could give you the answer right now... but it would ruin the show. Between you and me... I’m still not sure. With felt-tip pens, and his ex-girlfriend's overhead projector, Scott Turnbull takes us on a journey through space and time.
WRITE IT : MIC IT
Poleroid Theatre
After four years at Vault, Live Theatre, Hackney Attic, Manchester Castle Hotel, Wilderness Festival & Standon Calling, Poleroid Theatre’s acclaimed open ‘write’ platform returns for it’s second year at the Roundabout!
Soulsville & NEHH present.... Soulsville "Especial"
Nothing Ever Happens Here
Est. 2010, Soulsville is Edinburgh's home of deep funk, latin rhythms and rugged blues, a one-stop-shop for those who have an ear for a groove and a desire to dance into the wee hours
Split/Mixed
Maliza Productions, in association with Tamasha Theatre Company
Split/Mixed is a captivating coming-of-age tale that tells the story of Eddy, a boy growing up in Rwanda during the 1990s.
Paines Plough: How to Tour Q&A
Paines Plough
Join Paines Plough’s Senior Producer Hanna Streeter and Producer Francesca Moody for a Q&A that will help you look beyond the Fringe and begin your journey into touring.
Peace, Love & Solidarity!
British Intervention
Democracy's weak, the Establishment reigns.
The people they break, the 1% gains.
How can we live alongside such immorality?
Whatever happened to 'Peace, Love & Solidarity!?
The Lost Game
Decoupage Collective
Every single day, he writes to her from his cell. She never answers. She never will. As four performers embody the mind of an abandoned prisoner, the unspeakable is realised in a fierce physical tension between loss and desire.
Under Ice
Arturo Areimos teatras, Oskaro Koršunovo teatras and Aurora Nova
Offering a poignant and intimate insight into the maladies of corporate life, this contemporary adaptation of Falk Richter’s famous play, by the prominent Lithuanian director Arturas Areima, represents a new generation of theatre.
Happy Norway Day
Setesdal Collective
Happy Norway Day is a show structured around two people at a birthday party, interspersed with extracts of poetry from Pablo Neruda that instigates and charts the rise of affection between the two.
Emballage
Leeds Beckett University, Richard Demarco Archive and Aletia Upstairs
Emballage refers to Tadeusz Kantor’s concept of wrapping, a utilitarian action taken from the most mundane reality of everyday life. This outcome of an imaginative reworking of the Richard Demarco Archive is supported by Leeds Beckett University’s PhD research programme.
Beach Party
38 Buried Roses
Beach Party, is a performances devised by 38 Buried Roses influenced by the methodologies and practices of European Theatre in the past century.
Dive and Summerhall Present…C U Next Tuesday Cabaret
Dive
Edinburgh’s finest purveyors of weirdo cabaret and decadent performance take up a Tuesday night festival residency.
General Management Workshop
Paines Plough
Paines Plough is delighted to be hosting our next series of General Management workshops in Roundabout.
NEHH: Rachel Sermanni + Matt Norris & the Moon
Nothing Ever Happens Here... Presents
Stripped down and acoustic, the better to hear the richness and maturity of her voice, her live show has been honed by hundreds of nights onstage.
Get Yourself Together
Josh Coates
One Christmas, Josh was diagnosed with depression and then hit by a car. The following year he was on Job Seekers whilst attempting to balance his sanity and gift buying.
Acting and Directing in the Round Workshop
Paines Plough
Paines Plough is delighted to be hosting our first series of workshops at this year’s Edinburgh Festival.
Join Paines Plough Joint Artistic Director James Grieve in a workshop on working in-the-round.
NEHH: Willis Earl Beal + Support
Nothing Ever Happens Here... Presents
As evidenced by last year’s most recent album ‘Nocturnes’, his rich, open-hearted blues and soul is sometimes born of hard times, but never less than unfailingly honest.
Nadine Rennie Casting Workshop
Soho Theatre
Casting Director Nadine Rennie, of Soho Theatre, joins us in Roundabout for a morning Q&A . Having worked with Writers from Dennis Kelly to Shelagh Stevenson, and Directors from Max Stafford Clark to Roxanna Silbert, Nadine has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share.
NEHH: Orkestra Del Sol + Guests
Nothing Ever Happens Here... Presents
Orkestra del Sol, a joyous reinvention of global brassy street music, has left a trail of pummeled dance floors across continents - including India, Australia, China and a host of European countries.
Karmana, Songs of the Roma
Simon Thacker and Justyna Jablonska
Scottish virtuoso guitarist and composer Simon Thacker returns to create a new Romani musical journey in this dazzling world première featuring reimagined Gypsy songs and original works inspired by Indian, Balkan and Spanish traditions.
Brent Arnold
--
BRENT ARNOLD is a founding member of Ghost Quartet. In his solo show takes the cello into new realms, incorporating electronics and virtuosic instrumental technique to create vivid sonic worlds.
NEHH: GrownUps
Nothing Ever Happens Here
Back, Back, BACK and bouncier than ever, the exclusive vinyl club night for the more fully-fledged music fan returns for a one-off, late night festival special.
Stories to Tell in the Middle of the Night
Francesca Millican-Slater
Start your day with a live late night radio show for those that can't sleep, aren’t asleep.
Remembering Shakespeare (Film)
Rose Bruford
Sneak peek at a new documentary film that asks two simple questions: ‘What lines of Shakespeare do you remember and why?’
NEHH: White + Bossy Love
Nothing Ever Happens Here... Presents
WHITE are a hurtling juggernaut of synth stabs, razor-sharp guitars and even sharper attire.
The Lady Vanishes
Dudendance Theatre
Offsite and outdoor performance installation inspired by Victorian spirit photography and belief in the afterlife. Set in a unique location in the Scottish Borders, Dudendance’s new production is a ghostlike vision with white dressed figures emerging through the landscape around Haining House and grounds.
PLAY
PLAY Theatre Company
Hold on to your hats, it’s PLAYtime! Award-winning theatre company PLAY champion a new approach to new writing, with an emphasis firmly on collaboration.
Rhythm Machine
Nothing Ever Happens Here
Presented by Nothing Ever Happens Here in association with our friends from the Bongo Club’s night Soulsville, Rhythm Machine is a regular favourite here throughout the year.
Declaration
Paines Plough
Instinctive, curious, bold and bouncy; Sarah is a mighty proud square peg, which wouldn’t be such a problem if the hole wasn’t so damn round.
Critics
Summerhall
Summerhall invites leading critics and renowned practitioners to discuss the state of critical response to theatre and other art forms today.
NEHH: Billy Bragg & Joe Henry
Nothing Ever Happens Here
In March 2016 Billy Bragg and Joe Henry, guitars in hand, boarded a Los Angeles-bound train at Chicago’s Union Station looking to reconnect with the culture of railroad travel and the music it inspired.
Obviously We Only Want the Best for Our Daughter
-
The first showing of a new play by Joe Harbot (The Boy On The Swing, Arcola). Directed by Kay Michaels (Pelican’s Daughters, Shakespeare in Shoreditch, RIFT)
Eurohouse
Nasi Voutsas / Bertrand Lesca / Fellswoop
Two performers - one Greek, one French - dance and shout, cry and sing, agree and disagree, about life in the Eurohouse.
Nancy's Philosopher
1947
The story of the doomed relationship of David Hume and Nancy, daughter of Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Robert Ord, has been largely lost to Scottish history – until now. Kelly Burke, whose previous one woman show Zelda was a 2006 Fringe hit, unlocks the secret.
Lost in Blue
Debs Newbold and Nimble Fish
Moving and funny, Lost In Blue is a dynamic fusion of spoken word and performance storytelling created and performed by Debs Newbold, Storyteller for Shakespeare's Globe, and directed by John Wright, co-founder of Told by an Idiot.
Borderlines - Asylum Monologues
Beyond Borders
As part of Borderlines, a multi-arts programme engaging with issues at the heart of today’s society, Beyond Borders proudly presents ice&fire Theatre with a rehearsed reading of its new verbatim script exploring the experience of asylum seekers in Scotland.
All Star Comedy in Aid of STV Children's Appeal
Fly By Night Productions
Join award-winning comedian Des Clarke at the recording of a brand new stand-up TV show featuring the comedy stars of today and tomorrow.
All In
Atresbandes
All In is a wild ride through vastly different worlds where everyday situations take unexpected turns into the absurd and intimate.
Bildraum
Atelier Bildraum, Big in Belgium, Richard Jordan, Theatre Royal Plymouth
Architect Steve Salembier and photographer Charlotte Bouckaert use architectural models, live photography, sounds and music to take the audience on a trip between 2D and 3D.
Mark Fell, Okkyung Lee, Carl Michael von Hausswolff + Rian Treanor (DJ Set)
Summerhall
To mark sound artist and producer Mark Fell's exhibition in Summerhall's Machine Shop, Fell curates an evening of sound and music performance – dense, austere and laconic – perfectly suited to the ambience of the Dissection Room.
NOTHING
Barrel Organ
“Nothing ever happens to me. In fact I’d go further than that – I’d say Nothing has ever happened to me. I can’t think of a single significant thing that has ever happened to me”
Paines Plough: How to Tour Workshop
Paines Plough
Paines Plough is delighted to be hosting its first series of Producer workshops at this year’s Edinburgh Festival.
Here at Paines Plough we are always looking for ways to demystify how we go about commissioning, producing and touring new plays, in order to provide support for theatre makers at any stage of their careers.
The Living Room
Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
Home is a place in which we welcome one another. By starting from this fundamental action, that can take place in any living room, we enter an investigation into how the potentialities of performance can both enrich and be enriched by daily inter-personal relations and realities.
600 People
Third Angel
'We step out of our solar system, into the universe, seeking only peace and friendship…' So says the message from the human race on the Voyager spacecraft. But is there, y'know, anybody out there? Alex talked to an astrophysicist to find out.
NEHH: Richard Dawson + Special Guest
Nothing Ever Happens Here... Presents
Richard Dawson brings his wonderfully shambling exterior, tales of pineapples and underpants, ghosts of family members and cats to Summerhall’s Dissection Room.
Graeme Stephen’s Metropolis
Graeme Stephen with Zapp 4 and Tom Bancroft
Award-winning Scottish composer Graeme Stephen presents the world première of his score for the 1927 silent film Metropolis.
NEHH: Mount Kimbie (DJ set) + Hi + Saberhagen
Nothing Ever Happens Here... Presents
One of post-dubstep’s bright lights, Mount Kimbie come to Summerhall’s Dissection Room for a genre-evading late-night DJ set, drawing from a thick soup of influences that leaves them standing out as something genuinely special.
NEHH: The Soul Foundation
Nothing Ever Happens Here... Presents
The Soul Foundation crew return to the Dissection Room with an explosive live set of Motown classics along with new renditions of Northern Soul dance floor escapisms.
Josie Long and Jonny Donahoe: We Need to Talk (Work In Progress)
Show and Tell
Josie and Jonny are two lefty comedians who often get told they are preaching to the choir, living in a bubble and listening only to a social media echo chamber. They see themselves as optimists who want to make things better.
NEHH: Broken Records + Support
Nothing Ever Happens Here... Presents
Broken Records bring their expansive, soaring mix of elation and melancholy to Summerhall’s Dissection Room, with the raw energy of Springsteen and the drama of Arcade Fire.
Some Tiny Plays About How Fucked We All Are
Middle Child
Middle Child and Luke Barnes’ “Some Tiny Plays About How Fucked We All Are” uses verbatim text from the internet to explore the world we live in. From arguments about how many days in a week to Donald Trump poetry and 1D Fan Fiction we explore whether modern life really is rubbish after all.
Hansel & Gretel
Tap Tap Theatre
Rose and her brother Ollie are going on an adventure. A big adventure. As big as the ones in storybooks. Bigger. With a rucksack stuffed with Hula Hoops and no sense of direction, follow brother and sister as they journey deeper and deeper into the forest.
NEHH: Suuns + Support
Nothing Ever Happens Here... Presents
Montreal-based Sunns have just released Hold Still, their third studio album. It’s an eerily beautiful, meticulously played suite of music that embraces opposites, with songs which are simultaneously psychedelic, but austere; sensual, but cold; organic, but electronic; tense sometimes to the brink of mania, but always retaining perfect control.
Tongue Fu
Tongue Fu
The UK’s sharpest poets, storytellers, rappers and comedians perform with jaw-dropping improvised soundtracks from the Tongue Fu Band (Nostalgia 77, Jamie Cullum, Beardyman).
Theatre Uncut: Refugee
Theatre Uncut
'Theatre's rapid response unit' (Guardian) Fringe First winning Theatre Unuct return with 6 brand new short plays responding to the migration crisis.
French Authors: Going Through
Summerhall
Led by the Institut Français du Royaume-Uni, supported by the SACD, and in collaboration with IPR ltd, Cross-Channel Theatre is an initiative aiming at promoting new French writing in the UK.
French Authors: It’s Christmas so deal with it
Summerhall
Led by the Institut Français du Royaume-Uni, supported by the SACD, and in collaboration with IPR ltd, Cross-Channel Theatre is an initiative aiming at promoting new French writing in the UK.
NEHH: Grandaddy + Support
Summerhall
Grandaddy formed in Modesto, CA in 1992, and consisted of Jason Lytle, Aaron Burtch, Tim Dryden, Jim Fairchild and Kevin Garcia.
French Authors: Country
Summerhall
Led by the Institut Français du Royaume-Uni, supported by the SACD, and in collaboration with IPR ltd, Cross-Channel Theatre is an initiative aiming at promoting new French writing in the UK.
TUCKSHOP
Not Too Tame
TuckShop is a pick of new work from some of NTT's favourite writers and a mix of our trademark electrifying energy, blended to create a new writing night with a twist.
Presentation of the Film Documentation of Jerzy Grotowski's Akropolis
Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
Carla Pollastrelli, Co-Director of Fondazione Pontedera Teatro from 1993 to 2012, will introduce and present video documentation of Akropolis. An outstanding realisation of Grotowski's Laboratory Theatre, Akropolis had its premiere in Opole (Poland) in 1962 and was also performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1964, having a profound impact worldwide.
Presentation of the Film Documentation of Jerzy Grotowski's The Constant Prince
Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
Carla Pollastrelli will introduce and present the video documentation of The Constant Prince (1965), the performance that gained Grotowski and the Laboratory Theatre its greatest international fame, thanks to the extraordinary performance of actor Ryszard Cieslak.
NEHH: Kevin Morby + Support
Summerhall
Putting that group on hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers, this year has seen Morby release ‘Singing Saw’, his third album of thoughtful and delicately anthemic indie-rock introspections.
Bang Said The Gun
Bang Said The Gun
Bang Said The Gun is poetry for people who don’t like poetry. Voted the best poetry night in the UK by the Times, Bang Said The Gun has made poetry cool again.
Take Back Togetherness
Take Back
Manchester-based political theatre collective, Take Back, founded by actor Julie Hesmondhalgh, writer Rebekah Harrison and visual artist Grant Archer, present Take Back Togetherness - script-in-hand rapid responses to the EU referendum result.
L'Heure Fugitive (in French, no subtitles)
Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
A woman comes face to face with her overwhelming need for revolution. Does she long for a rendezvous? Her fantasies become action as she is carried through a series of metamorphoses, incarnating the voices of French female poets anchored in history.
The Underground: A Response to Dostoevsky
Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
A hidden territory exists buried within each of us, an underground graveyard where unlived needs, actions and reactions reside, fermenting. Here, tonight, Dostoevsky’s analysis of the human psyche meets the performing arts research of the Workcenter.
NEHH: Awesome Tapes from Africa
Nothing Ever Happens Here
Since 2006, Brian Shimkovitz’s Awesome Tapes From Africa blog has been shedding light on obscure and wonderful sounds from across the continent.
NEHH: ESKA + Support
Nothing Ever Happens Here... Presents
ESKA’s own and unique sound has arisen and taken flight with her highly anticipated solo self-titled debut, nominated for the 2015 Mercury Prize.
Rob Auton: The Sleep Show
Paines Plough
This show is about sleep. It is suitable for those who have slept. Following on from 2012's The Yellow Show, 2013's The Sky Show, 2014's The Face Show, 2015's The Water Show, award-winning writer and performer Rob Auton returns with 2016's The Sleep Show.
NEHH: Mediterraneo Festival Edition: A Night of Live World Music
Badwills, Rise Kagona Jit-Jive Band, Pocion de Fe, NEHH
Mediterraneo, along with the good people at Nothing Ever Happens Here, are bringing Africa, Cuba and Southern Italy crashing into Summerhall for a huge festival edition of their world music concert series.
Thirty Years of the Workcenter: A Retrospective
Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
As Thomas Richards guides us through the phases of the Workcenter’s performing arts research, interweaving analysis, screenings of film fragments and discussion, we encounter the Workcenter’s deepening of an exploration of the human being in action.
NEHH: Withered Hand + Chris T-T
Nothing Ever Happens Here... Presents
Withered Hand is the musical output of Edinburgh based Dan Willson, a feature of the city's DIY music scene for many years.
NEHH: NJTOS - Bill Wells and Wolf
Nothing Ever Happens Here
Not jazz, not a trio and not entirely Scottish, The National Jazz Trio of Scotland are Bill Wells (piano laptop), Aby Vulliamy (vocals, viola), Kate Sugden (vocals, marimba), and Gerard Black (vocals).
Firecracker Records: Closing Party
Nothing Ever Happens Here... Presents
One-off night curated by Firecracker Recordings, the Edinburgh label with international reach and acclaim, specialising in oddball house, techno and electronics.
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