The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is back with an exceptional showcasing of inspirational women shining a light on those topics we’re always keen to see!
With over 3,000 shows to wade through, we’ve selected our top picks – from the tik tock of the biological clock to striking against Asian stereotypes – there’s so much to catch this August!
Looking for that self-love?
stark bollock naked
Ever find the motherhood question constantly on your mind?
Inspired by Larisa Faber’s own experiences, stark bollock naked takes a frank but funny look at abortion and the pressure of the biological clock. The show considers how our bodies are used as projection spaces by advertising, education, society, and social media every day, and how those constant projections influence how we shape our identities and how we feel about our bodies.
Larisa Faber comments that ‘bodies are amongst the most banal entities on Earth: there’s billions of us and we all have one. As natural as the passage of time. And yet we’ve somehow managed to link them to completely artificial standards, to add meaning to their shapes and sizes and in doing so, to attach stigma and shame to them – instead of celebrating their commonplace awesomeness.
In stark bollock naked I wanted to get back to basics: the naked female body, shame and stigma-free. To use nudity as a means of reappropriating and reclaiming my body. A 37-year-old body that’s experienced abortion and childbirth and incontinence.
And yet this very straight-forward ambition – empowering to so many women who’ve seen the show – cannot be dissociated from the gawking gaze of certain spectators, who are still trying to sexualise it. It’s a challenging and at times frustrating path to tread: between empowerment and safeguarding. And yet it is a worthwhile one: to unapologetically stand up for and defend your body as it is.
Game ovaries.
stark bollock naked will be at Assembly Roxy (Downstairs) from Wednesday 2nd – Sunday 28th August 2023 (not 8th, 15th, 22nd) at 15:10.
Lovefool
The charming and unapologetically funny one-woman show Lovefool is an honest depiction of the shameful, awkward, and painful events in our lives – who couldn’t relate?!
This deeply personal play by Gintare Parulyte champions life’s endless pursuit of healing, regardless of how heart-breaking or embarrassing it can be. Grace, a young woman hungry for affection and looking for love in all the wrong places, is forced to discover what healthy (self) love might look like.
The brutally vulnerable and hilarious show navigates the impossibly confusing dynamics of modern love.
Both Lovefool and stark bollock naked are nominated for Luxembourg Theatre Awards!
Lovefool will be at Summerhall (Red Lecture Theatre) from Wednesday 2nd – Sunday 27th August 2023 (not 3rd, 14th, 21st) at 19:15.
Looking to put those stereotypes to bed?
Hello Kitty Must Die
This kitten’s got claws!
Presenting a phenomenal new musical with a cast passionate about using their authentic voices and experiences to put a certain clawless feline to bed, prolific production company Alchemation (Broadway’s SIX and The Play That Goes Wrong, West End’s Mrs. Doubtfire) makes their world premiere embarking upon Edinburgh Fringe!
Based on the gripping cult novel by Kate Karmen, formerly Angela S. Choi, this thrilling story is by an Asian American woman, about an Asian American woman, set to be brought to life by Asian American women.
In a darkly comedic musical mashup, it’s time to kill the Hello Kitty stereotype, because women can be anything they aspire to be – even murderers.
Get your claws into Asian feminism and the expectations of family, dating and that damn cartoon cat, and tear them to shreds.
Hello Kitty Must Die is on at Pleasance Courtyard (Pleasance Two) from Wednesday 2nd – Monday 28th August 2023 (not 8th, 15th, 22nd) at 16:50.
Unforgettable Girl
So we all know that money can’t buy love, but £19.99/month gets you Unforgettable Girl, a mail-order bride direct from the wasteland of Asian stereotypes.
As she strives to become unforgettable, she is forced to transform, destroy and rebuild herself in order to survive. This irreverent bouffon-inspired myth is about the violence our culture inflicts on bodies of colour.
Unforgettable Girl was conceived by and stars Elisabeth Gunawan while at RADA in response to her experience as the only East Asian actress in the entire school. As a woman of colour, there was a paradoxical privilege to being given entry into white spaces: it saw her constantly pushed to the margins – forgotten, condescended to, ignored, less than.
Unforgettable Girl will be at Pleasance Courtyard (Pleasance Beneath) from Wednesday 2nd – Monday 28th August 2023 (not 16th) at 15:40.
Looking for some topical but light relief?
Almost Adult
A boisterous coming-of-age comedy and brave confrontation of workplace sexual harassment, Almost Adult is inspired by Charlotte Anne-Tilley’s own experience as a young woman taking on The Big City, following an appalling experience at a large immersive entertainment company in London.
This big-hearted and honest play gives voice to the thousands of women who have been silenced or challenged when they spoke out and is devised from interviews with multiple women.
Charlotte Anne-Tilley comments, Nearly every young woman I know has been sexually harassed or assaulted. Grabbed, stroked, squeezed.
These women are tired, angry horrified. They are also complicated women in their own rights. They are funny, unexpected and, at times, dysfunctional. Hope gives a voice to these women, each of us trying to gracefully navigate a world that is systematically built against us.
Almost Adult will be at Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Snug) from Wednesday 2nd – Saturday 27th August 2023 (not 14th) at 19:00.
Santi & Naz
This complex, lyrical show is a touching and honest story of female friendship.
Santi & Naz captures how ordinary life must continue even as world-shaking events shift everything. Award-winning company The Thelmas return to the Pleasance with a vibrant production that explores queer love, identity and loyalty, set against the backdrop of pre-partition India.
One Sikh, one Muslim, best friends Santi and Naz have little understanding of how religion will divide them. As the political situation in their country worsens and the threat of separation looms large on the horizon, they take drastic action.
Santi & Naz remains playful and light-hearted, even as it explores history that is rarely represented on our stages!
Santi & Naz will be at Pleasance Courtyard (Pleasance Two) from Wednesday 2nd – Monday 28th August 2023 (not 9th, 23rd) at 13:30.
You might also enjoy reading about Jude Kelly OBE, of Women Of the World Foundation as she shares her experiences with standing up for equality.
