Best shows to see at the Fringe and Edinburgh International Festival 2021 – from comedy to opera
The world’s largest arts festival has, understandably, returned on a much smaller scale after a year of lockdown. But there’s still plenty to see in Edinburgh this August.
Here are our top recommendations, from a Tony-winning Cabaret star to a horror-themed Elvis singalong, via a new play where Domhnall Gleeson faces up against a giant lobster.
Comedy
Josie Long
Long’s last show, Tender, featured one of the funniest accounts of childbirth I’ve ever heard. The much-loved Fringe veteran is now pregnant again – which should provide plenty of material for this work-in-progress show, which promises her usual mix of personal warmth, political nous and irrepressible optimism.
Monkey Barrel (monkeybarrelcomedy.com), Aug 23-29
Julia Masli
Winner of the coveted Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality, Masli is best known as part of the sketch troupe Legs. But this year the Estonia-born clown is going solo with a work-in-progress show of her own. Judging from her delightfully weird recent appearances at comedy clubs, it might turn out to be something quite special.
Monkey Barrel (monkeybarrelcomedy.com), Aug 18-22
Daniel Sloss
A West End hit in the brief window between last year’s lockdowns, Sloss’s stand-up show Hubris mines shockingly bad-taste topics – Hiroshima, school shootings – for unlikely comic gold. The Scottish Netflix star is reviving it for this year’s Fringe.
Corn Exchange / Festival Theatre (edfringe.com), Aug 21
The Elvis Dead
The underground hit of the 2017 Fringe returns. Black Country comic Rob Kemp re-enacts the plot of horror classic Evil Dead II – complete with chainsaw! – via the music of the King, changing the odd lyric here and there. (Elvis Presley’s “hunk of burning love” becomes a “hunk of burning skull”.) It’s a bonkers idea, but one carried out with utter conviction.
Monkey Barrel (monkeybarrelcomedy.com), Aug 23-29
Theatre and Spoken Word
Medicine
Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina, Harry Potter) plays a man in hospital whose surprising visitors include a giant lobster and a jazz percussionist, in this new absurdist drama about mental health from Irish playwright Enda Walsh. Tickets disappeared quickly, but keep an eye out for returns.
Traverse Theatre (eif.co.uk), until Aug 29
Alan Cumming is Not Acting his Age
An evening of song and storytelling from the Tony-winning Cabaret star, whose 2016 Edinburgh show Alan Cumming Sings Happy Songs was praised by the Telegraph as “life-affirming”. His show will delve into the subject of aging, as he looks back over a varied career.
Old College Quad (eif.co.uk), Aug 28-29
A Toast to the People
Five nights of spoken word performances from a rotating line-up of acclaimed poets including Jay Bernard, Inua Ellams, Safiya Sinclair and Hollie McNish. Each show features a new brand-poem inspired by Gil Scott-Heron’s line “a toast to the people”.
Old College Quad (eif.co.uk), Aug 23-27
Music and Opera
Lonely House
Maverick opera director Barrie Kosky joins German actress and singer-songwriter Katharine Mehrling for a cabaret evening exploring the life and bitingly satirical work of Kurt Weill. Expect tales of how the composer fled the Nazis and, with Bertolt Brecht, helped to reinvent theatre, as well as timeless tunes such as Mack the Knife.
Old College Quad (eif.co.uk), Aug 20-21
Damon Albarn
The Gorillaz mastermind performs music from his latest project, The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows – inspired by the landscapes of Iceland – as well as a few hits from his extensive back catalogue. (Britpop fans will be keeping their fingers crossed for a bit of Blur.)
Edinburgh Park (eif.co.uk), Aug 24
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle conducts the LSO for a concert which intriguingly promises “musical jokes”. Highlights of the programme include Jaques Ibert’s Divertissement, and Strauss’s score for Molière’s comedy Le bourgeois gentilhomme.
Edinburgh Academy Junior School (eif.co.uk), Aug 19
