What do you/your show do to make an audience’s heart beat faster?

Amazing music, fun characters and a great story – entertainment for you and your little ones.

What brings a nice show like yours to a place like the Edinburgh Fringe?

The venue I run in Oxford, The North Wall Arts Centre, has produced work at the Edinburgh Fringe before, so we have a lovely history with the festival. This year we’ve made a family musical with music from the amazing Nick Cope. (CBeebies) We do a lot of work in Oxford with our local young people and families, and Nick is based in Oxford too, so this felt like an exciting collaboration.

How will the audience remember you the morning after?

You will have Nick’s brilliant, catchy music running around your head forever.

About the show

Rosie and Hugh’s Great Big Adventure

Date(s): Jul 31 Aug 1, 3-5, 7-12, 14-18

Time(s): 12:00 (1 hour)

Location: Pleasance Courtyard – Beyond

How will the audience remember you the morning after?

Oh honey I’ll give them an hour they’ll never forget… previews have shown me they’ll laugh, they’ll cry and they’ll definitely want to come again.

What do you/your show do to make an audience’s heart beat faster?

It’s never going to be the same show twice! The audience are going to help me select monologues and shape the show each time, whether I like it or not. They select I perform and then improvise a lil epilogue around their choices because honestly I didn’t give myself enough to do.

What brings a nice show like yours to a place like the Edinburgh Fringe?

Edinburgh is the city where I discovered I wanted to be an actor and London is where I ended up to be an actor so I’m excited to bring these two places together in my storytelling show about all the postcodes I’ve Iived in London and lessons I’ve learned because of that decision.

About the show

16 Postcodes

Date(s): Jul 31 Aug 1-11, 13-26

Time(s): 15:30 (1 hour)

Location: Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker One

What do you/your show do to make an audience’s heart beat faster?

Duck is about a school cricket star, and features “live” action scenes with commentary that immerse us in the pressure and competitiveness of the environment. Without giving much away, the stakes keep ratcheting up for Ismail, our young batsman, over the course of the play.

If you/your show were a school subject what would you/it be and why?

Fun question! Duck actually has a scene in a maths lesson at school! I think I have to say P.E., because the primary setting of the play is this elite public school cricket team, and the dynamics of a young fifteen-year-old Asian Muslim star player trying to find his place.

What brings a nice show like yours to a place like the Edinburgh Fringe?

We’re a winner of the Pleasance Theatre’s Charlie Hartill Fund, which is a lovely thing as it’s giving this first-timer the opportunity to bring our show (that’s had a couple of London runs the past two summers) to the festival. I happen to think it’s a great fit for Fringe, and hopefully audiences agree!

About the show

Duck

Date(s): Jul 31 Aug 1-11, 13-18, 20-26

Time(s): 15:40 (1 hour)

Location: Pleasance Courtyard – Beneath

What coffee would you/your show be, and why?

Hmm, maybe a very strong Irish coffee? – intense, dark and stimulating with a healthy sailors helping of whiskey.

How will the audience remember you the morning after?

I’m hoping they’ll be blown away by the creativity and by how much we get out of what initially looks like quite a simple set. And maybe they’ll be wondering how we managed to fit quite so much adventure into 65 minutes!

What misconceptions do you think people have about you/your show – would you like to clear them up?

People hear ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ and they think it’s a children’s story – it really, REALLY isn’t! Flick through the original book and that becomes clear pretty quickly. It’s full of satire, sharp humour and some pretty dark moments too. Our show aims to cover as much of the book as possible, we’ve got a huge array of specially designed puppetry and some great original sea shanties too, and the wit, satire and talking horses are all in there!

About the show

Gulliver’s Travels

Date(s): Jul 31 Aug 1-13, 15-25

Time(s): 13:00 (1 hour 5 minutes)

Location: Pleasance Courtyard – Above

What do you/your show do to make an audience’s heart beat faster?

Plenty of genre shifts, and a big dose of suspension of disbelief.

What brings a nice show like yours to a place like the Edinburgh Fringe?

We came here for the first time last year. Underbelly thought we looked pretty cute so they asked us back. Same show. Same venue. Same Bill! Now’s YOUR chance!

How will the audience remember you the morning after?

There is a strong possibility that they wake up next to a smiling balloon or carrot!

About the show

Bill’s 44th

Date(s): Aug 1-11, 13-25

Time(s): 18:55 (1 hour)

Location: Underbelly, Cowgate – Belly Button

What do you/your show do to make an audience’s heart beat faster?

I would describe the show as an emotional rollercoaster that takes you from laughter to tears, with a text that balances sharp wit, emotional depth and amazing contortion. This blend captivates the audience and makes their hearts race. But don’t worry—even if you have a heart condition, you’re in safe hands!

How will the audience remember you the morning after?

The morning after, you’ll reflect and say, “Finally, I’ve heard a Palestinian woman speak about her life and her country.” You’ll start asking questions about your inner consciousness and the balance of the world around you.

What brings a nice show like yours to a place like the Edinburgh Fringe?

Cosmos is a show that performs everywhere in the world. Last year it was discovered in Egypt by a famous producer who invited it to Edinburgh. Having previously performed other shows at the Fringe, we are confident that the show’s themes and humour will be greatly appreciated by the audience.

About the show

Cosmos

Date(s): Aug 1-4, 6-11

Time(s): 21:15 (45 minutes)

Location: Summerhall – Main Hall

If you/your show were a school subject what would you/it be and why?

Rollercoaster would be Gym class on a day when the Art teacher took over and had everyone dip the dodgeballs in paint and throw them at a canvas.

How do you keep your performances fresh every night?

There’s a portion of the show that works as a choose-your-own-adventure book. Nailing or failing a trick leads to devastatingly whimsical consequences. This section is full of life and always bounces off the audience’s energy.

What do you/your show do to make an audience’s heart beat faster?

This show is designed to give you the thrill of a rollercoaster through virtuosic skills, high-speed sections and weightless moments full of suspense. It’ll have you questioning everything you know about corkscrews, pop-punk juggling and amusement park video games from the ’90s.

About the show

Rollercoaster

Date(s): Jul 31 Aug 1-6, 8-12, 14-19, 21-26

Time(s): 17:00 (1 hour)

Location: Assembly Roxy – Central

What coffee would you/your show be, and why?

An oat mocha. There’s real substance from the coffee beans. A nice hit of caffeine and energy with all my characters to ride you through. Then there’s a layer of smooth, tasty chocolate, which is the stand up linking it all together in a sweet and truthful way. And the oat milk, which is the perfect blend of all the elements and a frothy top with musical elements you weren’t expecting. And a secret ingredient of cheese from Liz Truss. Sorry!

What misconceptions do you think people have about you/your show – would you like to clear them up?

I think there may be an understandable assumption that my show is political and full of impressions and satire. The show is actually about how I started doing Liz Truss parodies by accident and gained a career as a political satirist, even though I’d never done it before! Now I’m compared to Liz Truss and need to find a way out! It’s autobiographical, while using my characters to exorcise Liz from inside me. That’s a weird sentence!

How will the audience remember you the morning after?

A whirlwind of what did I just see, that was really fun and snappy, I loved it! And also was what she said true? Which stories do you think were real? She does look like Liz Truss to be fair.

About the show

Nerine Skinner: The Exorcism of Liz Truss

Date(s): Aug 1-11, 13-25

Time(s): 14:40 (1 hour)

Location: Just the Tonic at The Caves – Just Out of the Box

How will the audience remember you the morning after?

I really wasn’t expecting those dance moves. Great hip thrusts.

What coffee would you/your show be, and why?

This Town would be a filter coffee, no frills, but gets the job done. And its affordable!

What brings a nice show like yours to a place like the Edinburgh Fringe?

I’ve never been to The Fringe before, not even as an audience member, so when The Pleasance, Curve Theatre, and Derby Theatre said they would commission the show as part of The Pleasance national partnership scheme, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity. I’ve heard so much about it from almost everyone I have worked with, so it feels almost like a kind of rights of passage.

About the show

This Town

Date(s): 31st Jul – 26th Aug

Time(s): 16:45 (60 mins)

Location: Pleasance Courtyard Bunker One

What do you/your show do to make an audience’s heart beat faster?

Everything we can. This is a ghost story, so if our audiences’ hearts are beating a bit faster, then we’re doing our job right! It’s not full of jump scares, it isn’t that kind of story, it’s about the steady, gradual build of creeping dread and tension – when the main character finally accepts that something supernatural is pursuing him, is it too late to do anything about it? When it all kicks off though, we’ve definitely heard the odd scream!

If you/your show were a school subject what would you/it be and why?

Oh definitely Occult Studies. We all remember that from high school, right?

How do you keep your performances fresh every night?

Part of the fun of performing a ghost story, or ‘horror’ theatre live is that the audience reaction is a big part of it. All being in the room together makes a huge difference – you can hear people’s gasps and exclamations, you can feel the increase in tension, the collective clenching of jaws, hands and buttocks! It’s different every day, so that helps keep the show alive; always gives me chills!

About the show

Casting the Runes

Date(s): 31st Jul – 25th Aug

Time(s): 11:35 (60 mins)

Location: Pleasance Courtyard Above