By Connie Cooper
Women are taking over Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024, displaying hilarious, heart-warming performances, that you won’t want to miss.
Catafalque– Tech Cube, Summerhall Place
Thursday 1st-Saturday 11th August 2024
Catafalque presents a one-woman eulogy through the lens of a civil celebrant asking, how do we grieve the ungrievable?
The show demonstrates is directly inspired by writer Amy Conway’s own experiences. The story follows Fern, a civil celebrant, who is confronted with the challenge of writing a eulogy for a grieving mother, despite her son’s horrific acts. This moving and absorbing play is a fascinating examination of love, grief and how we process loss and life.
Fan/Girl– Demonstration Room, Summerhall Place
Thursday 1st- Monday 26th August 2024
Bryony Byrne’s Fan/Girl is a tongue-in-cheek performance of British adolescence against a backdrop of nineties football.
The show uses audience interaction, 90s hits, comedy and clowning draw you in with laughter and leaving sobbing. The play takes the audience back to 1998, Bryony’s last day of primary school and invites the audience to rekindle the sense of joy she found playing football. Entering secondary school, experiences of microaggressions and misogyny begin to surface. Familiar tales of gender expectation, exclusion from sport and female rage surface throughout the production. Fan/Girl sheds light on the difficulties female footballers still face. Whilst reclaiming some of the easy untarnished love for the game Bryony remembers from her youth.
“This joyously ramshackle spirit-of-the-Fringe- stuff… it feels both nostalgic and timely; how many potential Lionesses were lost to the lie that football “isn’t for girls?”- The Daily Telegraph.
Karen– Underbelly Cowgate, 66 Cowgate
Thursday 1st- Sunday 25th August 2024
Bold one-woman production, Karen centers around internal turmoil, navigating the treacherous waters of heartbreak, office politics and hilarity.
This must-see production follows the story of the protagonist’s scramble following a unceremonious birthday break-up after seeing her ex dating her office nemesis: Karen. Full of pent-up rage, awkward encounters, and a healthy dose of sarcasm. This show is set to break the polite silence between performer and audience. Fleabag meets The Office, in this fast-paced emotional rollercoaster displaying female rage in an unashamed show of rebellion.
“A brilliant, funny, and heart-warming breakup comedy.”- A Youngish Perspective.
Wyld Woman: The Legend of Shy Girl- Assembly Rooms, 54 George Street
Friday 2nd- Sunday 25th August 2024
Wyld Woman is the hilarious tale of a shy girl who is determined to open up, expand her social life and find real human connection.
As Shy Girl eagerly prepares for the arrival of her first friends ever, all that is left to do is remedy the fact that she does not know how to talk to other people. She is intent in proving her coolness, but each personal detail reveals the awkwardness of her entire existence. Writer Isabel Renner discloses that she wanted to own the intense social anxiety she faces, turning her own struggles into a relatable comedy. Wyld Woman leaves the audience members giddy, while grappling with the womanly struggle of opening one’s mind, body and soul to find connection.
