EdFringe Theatre – Professional companies
Edinburgh’s Professional theatre companies on the Fringe
There are more shows made by Edinburgh-based companies at this year’s Fringe than all the shows at the 1972 Edinburgh Fringe put together.
This year, 75 of the Made in Edinburgh productions are in the Fringe programme’s Theatre section – out of a total of 125 different Edinburgh-made shows – and many of them staged by the city’s professional companies.
Matthew McVarish and Pierce Reid in Love Song to Lavender Menace. Pic: Aly Wight
In order to make things clearer, we have divided the listing up into four parts. On this page you can find an alphabetical listing of all the productions being staged by the city’s excellent professional theatre companies.
The rest of the theatre productions are listed here:
Theatre by Edinburgh’s Grassroots companies
Theatre by Edinburgh’s Youth and Student companies
Theatre by Edinburgh’s Amateur companies
These distinctions are sometimes slightly arbitrary, so do look through the different sections. Also, don’t forget to look at what is on in the Musical Theatre and Children’s sections.
EdFringe 2018 Professional Theatre Listings
Click on the name of the show to go to its EdFringe ticketing page.
Clicking on the name of the company will take you to reviews of its previous shows on Æ.
Ailsa Benson Is Missing
Samara MacLaren
Assembly Rooms (Venue 20)
2 – 25 Aug 2018 (not 13): 14:20 (1 hour)
Nina is 14. All she wants to do is to fall in love with a cardigan-wearing tree frog expert, decide on her perfect theme song and avoid her dad’s trigonometry lessons. But when her friend Ailsa goes missing and the police turn up at school, everything is turned upside down and inside out…
Blackout
New Room Theatre
Summerhall (Venue 26)
1 – 26 Aug 2018 (not 2, 8, 13, 20): 16:20 (1 hour)
‘Blackouts were the worst. Blackouts made me forget… Thank God for blackouts.’ An honest, brutal, uplifting and darkly comic verbatim account of alcoholics and ultimately of their hope in recovery. Æ review of previous versions of the production: ★★★★☆ Devastating accuracy
Breakfast Plays: Youthquake
Traverse Theatre Company
Traverse Theatre (Venue 15)
14 – 26 Aug 2018 (not 20): 09:00 (50 minutes)
Three young Scottish playwrights from the Traverse Young Writers’ group join forces with three leading British writers (Ella Hickson, Kieran Hurley and Sabrina Mahfouz) to explore a pressing question of our time: how can the younger generation be a catalyst for social and political change?
Dancing With Mrs Murphy
Citadel Arts Group
Leith Dockers Club (Venue 425)
13 – 16 Aug 2018: 14:00, 19:30 (1 hour 15 minutes)
Rose Murphy, an unmarried mother, escaped Ireland before WWII. In 1956 the Suez Crisis signals the end of the British Empire and Rose is about to be all shook up by Elvis on a Leith juke box.
Deadly Dungeon Murder Mystery
The Edinburgh Dungeon
The Edinburgh Dungeon (Venue 52)
9-11 & 16-18 Aug 2018: 19:00 (1 hour)
Join the Secret Society of Scottish Scoundrels and investigate the shocking murder of Judge Mental.
Don Quixote Unbound
Michael Daviot
Sweet Grassmarket (Venue 18)
3 – 26 Aug 2018: 15:40 (1 hour)
Woken from his eternal slumber by celebrations of the anniversary of his death a discombobulated Miguel de Cervantes alternates between himself and his creation, Don Quixote de la Mancha. Michael Daviot returns with a new one-man show.
Erewhon
Arthur Meek, co-produced with Magnetic North
Summerhall (Venue 26)
2 – 26 Aug (not 6, 13, 20) 2018. 13:25 (1 hour)
An antique magic lantern projector, an iPhone 6 and a live musical score shine a new light on Samuel Butler’s classic sci-fi novel when a Victorian explorer discovers a colony of refugees; time travellers from the 21st century escaping their dependence on its technology.
Gie’s Peace
Morna Burdon
Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30)
17-19, 24 & 25 Aug 2018: 13:00 (50 minutes)
Morna Burdon returns with more inspiring stories about women of courage. The focus this time is women worldwide who have walked for peace, rebelled against war and sometimes risked everything.
A Good Enough Girl?
Greenwich Theatre, Scene Change Productions and Nutshell Theatre
Assembly George Square Theatre (Venue 8)
2 – 27 Aug 2018 (not 14, 21): 11:50 (1 hour)
It’s 2025 – a world of mystery, spies and secret missions. The history of women has been erased but in every regime there’s a resistance… are you courageous enough to write their stories all over again..?!
Hamish Henderson: On the Radical Road
Theatre Objektiv
Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30)
12 – 27 Aug 2018: 20:00 (1 hour)
Evocative, innovative, shape-shifting drama, sculpted from the poetry, music and songs of Hamish Henderson (1919-2002).
Handfast
Nutshell Theatre
Summerhall (Venue 26)
1 – 26 Aug 2018 (not 2, 16-18): 19:40 (1 hour 15 minutes)
The boiler’s broken, the owl with the rings is missing, the celebrant’s late and the band haven’t turned up. Can Mona and Geoff still tie the knot and live happily ever after?
Heaven Burns
Jen McGregor
Assembly Roxy (Venue 139)
2 – 27 Aug 2018 (not 14): 14:35 (1 hour)
Morayshire, 1662. Runaway Isobel works for charismatic witch-pricker John Dixon. She worships him, but when he’s accused of falsifying his identity, will she accept that he’s not the man he claims to be… or indeed a man at all? See preview: Heaven Burns the Roxy.
Heroine
Scene Change Productions
Assembly Hall (Venue 35)
2 – 27 Aug 2018 (not 8, 21): 12:00 (1 hour 5 minutes)
Based on the true story of Danna Davis and her 10 years in the US Army. A survivor of military sexual trauma, hers is a human story exploring healing, forgiveness and what speaking your truth really means. See Æ’s 2017 review: ★★★★☆ Raw
I Ran With the Gang
Presented by Tommie Travers
Le Monde (Venue 47)
3 – 24 Aug 2018 (not 4, 11, 18, 20, 21): 19:00 (1 hour 15 minutes)
The Story of Alan Longmuir, the original Bay City Roller, returns. Written and directed by Liam Rudden and featuring some of the Rollers’s hit songs.
Is This a Dagger? The Story of Macbeth
Andy Cannon with Red Bridge Arts
Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30)
22 – 26 Aug 2018: 12:30 (1 hour 10 minutes)
Andy Cannon tells Shakespeare’s classic, taking audiences on a thousand-year journey from fact to fiction and back again. Æ’s review: ★★★★☆ Scary and funny.
@JohnLewis: Never Knowingly Undertweeted
Simon Jay presented by James Seabright / Free Festival
Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom (Venue 93)
2 – 26 Aug 2018 (not 8, 15, 22): 12:00 (1 hour)
John Lewis is a computer scientist, father of four, social liberal, atheist, and not a retail store. John Lewis is also a chain of high-end UK department stores. Unfortunately for both, the Twitter handle @JohnLewis belongs to the former…
The Junkies
Gilded Balloon presents…
Gilded Balloon Rose Theatre (Venue 76)
1 – 18 Aug 2018 (not 13): 19:45 (1 hour)
One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. Edinburgh’s hardest working second-hand dealers, Archie and Donny, discover a huge stash of cash in a New Town house clearance. Grant Stott and Andy Gray star with Ruaraidh Murray.
The Laird’s Big Breaxit
Netherbow Actors Co
Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30)
2 – 27 Aug 2018 (not 13, 20): 17:00 (1 hour)
Scotland’s landowners were in retreat. Between EU Directives and the Holyrood Parliament, life was barely worth living. But now the worm has turned… blue. You too may change colour – possibly puce.
Love Song to Lavender Menace
James Ley
Summerhall (Venue 26)
1 – 26 Aug 2018 (not 6, 13, 20): 12:55 (1 hour 15 minutes)
Nostalgic bookseller Lewis and party-boy Glen star in this funny, celebratory play about Scotland’s radical, lesbian, gay and feminist bookshop that began in the cloakroom of Scotland’s first gay nightclub and became the beating heart of Edinburgh’s LGBT+ community.
Mairi Campbell: Auld Lang Syne
Greengold Projects and Authentic Artist Collective
Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30)
2 – 27 Aug 2018 (not 13, 20): 16:30 (1 hour)
The story of Mairi’s adventures with Scotland’s most famous song. Tales of time, love and friendship combine in an exhilarating and original sequel to the five-star Pulse.
The Man Who Planted Trees
Puppet State Theatre Company
Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30)
20 – 27 Aug 2018: 14:30 (1 hour 5 minutes)
Adaptation of Jean Giono’s classic environmental tale about the transformative effect of small interventions. Æ’s review from 2013: ★★★★★ Beautiful, entertaining morality tale
The Myth of the Singular Moment
Jim Harbourne
Summerhall (Venue 26)
1 – 26 Aug 2018 (not 2, 13, 20): 19:45 (1 hour)
With every choice we create a new universe. I make it, I don’t make it, I make it, I don’t. Two musician-performers take us on a fantastical journey that links four characters in interconnecting stories across the multiverse.
The Pieman Cometh: A Cautionary Football Tale
Gilded Balloon and Insolvent Productions present…
Gilded Balloon Rose Theatre (Venue 76)
1 – 26 Aug 2018 (not 13): 14:30 (1 hour)
Alan Ledger didn’t want the limelight or praise. Unfortunately, he often got one but not the other. Join Alan on his journey through the murky, monetary mayhem lurking behind the scenes of Scottish football.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint
LRStageworks
Le Monde (Venue 47)
3 – 27 Aug 2018 (not 4, 11, 18, 25): 12:30 (1 hour)
The meal is over. It’s time to settle up. But who had what? In Robin Mitchell’s comedy, two couples agree to split the bill, leading to confusion, laughs and revelation of their true personalities.
South Bend
Grid Iron
Gilded Balloon at the Museum (Venue 64)
1 – 27 Aug 2018 (not 7, 14, 21): 15:00 (1 hour)
In 2006 Martin McCormick flies across the Atlantic to be reunited with a woman he has fallen passionately in love with. But she’s changed. Completely. A tale of hope, of love, of a small country and a vast one, of a good samaritan and a relationship gone bad.
Thief
Liam Rudden
Hill Street Theatre (Venue 41)
3 – 26 Aug 2018: 19:20 (1 hour)
Sailor thrives in the bars, dives and doss houses of the most squalid ports. Look, you will see him. Sailor lives for robbery, imprisonment and expulsion. Be his victim. Sailor’s virtues are simple: rent, theft and betrayal. Inspired by the life and works of playwright and poet Jean Genet. Æ review: ★★★★☆ Hello Sailor.
Twa
Annie George and Flore Gardner
Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30)
12 – 27 Aug 2018 (not 20): 18:30 (1 hour)
Contrasting stories about women who are silenced or censored and who discover other means of expression besides the voice to convey their truths. A journey between parallel worlds, guided by dark poetic text, startling imagery, music and sound design.
Ulster American
Traverse Theatre Company
Traverse Theatre (Venue 15)
2 – 26 Aug 2018 (not 6, 13, 20): 11:00, 13:30, 16:15, 18:15, 18:45, 21:00 (1 hour 20 minutes)
Exploring consent, abuses of power and the confusions of cultural identity, David Ireland’s tale of an Oscar-winning actor, an ambitious director and a playwright whose voice must be heard is confrontational, brutally funny and not for the faint of heart.
A War of Two Halves
This Is My Story Productions
Tynecastle Park (Venue 547)
2 – 17 Aug (not 11) 2018. 13:00, 15:00, 15:30, 18:00, 20:30 (1 hour 30 minutes)
Follow The Hearts from the football fields of Gorgie, to the battlefields of the Somme in this dramatisation of the story of McRae’s Battalion. See preview: Tynecastle Drama.
What Girls Are Made Of
Traverse Theatre Company, Raw Material in association with Regular Music
Traverse Theatre (Venue 15)
3 – 26 Aug 2018 (not 6, 13, 20): 10:00, 13:00, 16:00, 17:30, 19:00, 22:00 (1 hour 25 minutes)
In 1992 a schoolgirl from Fife was catapulted to a rock star life in an indie band. Touring with Radiohead, partying with Blur, she was living the dream. Until she wasn’t. Cora Bissett with live band, directed by Orla O’Loughlin.
Woke
Apphia Campbell presented by James Seabright and Play the Spotlight
Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14)
20 – 27 Aug 2018: 18:45 (1 hour)
Against stunning gospel and blues sung live, two women 42 years apart join the struggle for American civil rights: notorious Black Panther Assata Shakur and a present-day student enrolling as the Ferguson riots begin. Both have the same choice: fight or flee? Æ review: ★★★★☆ Powerful.
Click the following links for listings of:
EdFringe student theatre.
EdFringe amateur theatre.
EdFringe grassroots theatre.
EdFringe Musicals
EdFringe shows for Children.
If your show should be in this listing but isn’t, or you feel it has been put in the wrong heading, please do contact us.
ENDS
