One of the more delicious themes cropping up across this year’s Festival Fringe is to be found in the delectations of theatre, the tasty morsels of dance, and the full-bodied-richness of some unique cabaret. Prepare for a glorious Have a Gander at Food at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe!
Below is a set menu of ten recommendations for productions which offer a look at our relationships with, and through, food. And in some cases, you might even manage a quick snack at the same time…
From now until August kicks off, we’ll be releasing our weekly recommendations of the top theatre, comedy, spoken word, film, music, children’s theatre, dance, and visual arts available to audiences across all the city’s festivals. But this time, rather than focus solely on genre or performance method, we’ll be looking at some of the terrific emerging topics from Climate Crisis to Sporting, Grassroots Producers to Women Who Made Headlines and Contemporary Myths. Come along with us and Have a Gander.
If you have a show coming and would like to chat with us about a Q&A or a review, please do get in touch through the ‘contact’ page where one of the team will get back to you!
A recipient of this year’s Autopsy Award, Sean Wai Keung’s A History of Fortune Cookies is already proving to be a hot-ticket item at this year’s Festival.
Exploring the famous post-dinner snack, and his mixed-race identity, intimate audiences can write their own fortunes as Wai Keung bakes the cookies live as they explore the history of this enigmatic treat.
With a space for only ten people per performance, you will have the opportunity to write fortunes for yourself, or someone else (suitable for vegans).
Venue 26 – Summerhall: Former Women’s Locker Room
Running time – Thirty minutes
August 1st-11th, 13th-18th, 20th-26th (12:15, 12:50)
What would it take if you were forced from your home with no hope of returning? And how would you make a fresh start somewhere completely new?
This is one woman’s true story, a woman who lost everything.
Remembering the aromas, tastes, and memories of her mother’s kitchen with live cooking on stage, she recreates the dishes which built her childhood and homeland, building a new life and community – centred around food.
My English Persian Kitchen, written by award-winning Hannah Khalol, and starring Isabella Nefar, this life-affirming new play chronicles one woman’s quest to start again.
Venue 15 – Traverse Theatre
Running time – Eighty minutes
August 1st-4th, 6th-11th, 13th-18th, 20th-25th
A brilliantly unique show, Australia’s singing cook Michelle Pearson is back in Edinburgh with their multi-award-winning musical food celebration.
Audiences can enjoy a tasting of three dishes, cooked before their eyes, as the songstress (along with cooks and band), serves up live music, cooking, cabaret, and comedy.
Venue 471 – Edinburgh New Town Cookery School
Running time – Seventy minutes
August 3rd, 5th, 7th-8th, 10th (18:00)
Look. Enough is enough. It’s time we sorted this out once and for all.
The humble Jaffa Cake, is it a biscuit or a cake?
Taking inspiration from the 1991 tribunal which determined the outcome of this question, award-winning Gigglemug Theatre is back at the Festival Fringe with a brand-new family-friendly musical comedy that really takes the biscuit.
Venue 33 – Pleasance Courtyard
Running time – Sixty minutes
August 1st-11th, 13th-18th, 20th-26th (15:10)
A Cup of Tea with George Eliot
Join Victorian author George Eliot for a cup of tea and a piece of cake in this one-woman show celebrating her life, her world and her work.
Complimentary tea and cake will be provided for the audience.
Venue 211 – No 11 Boutique and Brasserie
Running time – Forty-five minutes
August 2nd – 14th (15:00)
A one-woman show dedicated to two things: canned meat and colonialism.
A mix of the comedic and multi-sensory, discover how this (delicious) canned meat came to symbolise modern-day colonialism and the threats it poses to the very livelihood of a whole civilisation in these East vs West political games.
Now, can this former Catholic, angry, and God-fearing woman help educate (and feed) the masses, all while “liberating” their island?
Performed by Chamoru/Filipina theatremaker Sierra Sevilla, originally from the island of Guam, For the Love of Spam has been a recipient of the Pleasance’s Charlie Hartill Fund 2024.
Venue 33 – Pleasance Courtyard – Beside
Running time – Sixty minutes
July 31st, August 1st-6th, 8th-13th, 15th-20th, 22nd-26th (14:10)
Tried and tasted, uncorked and delicious, Anna Lou is back in her wine car to talk vino and let you in on her darkest secrets.
A wine-tasting comedy from a legendary cabaret performer and qualified wine geek, Larkin brings back a show for anyone who has ever looked at the bottom of their glass and wondered what wine pairs best with revenge.
Venue 24 – The Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose
Running time – Sixty minutes
August 12th -26th (13:40)
A mouth-watering interplay between the enigmas of feminine triune across the ages and the symbolic apple which satiates our collective hunger, this poetry and movement work features three international dance artists and one child performer.
Harkening to the classic art pieces and mythology, blended with spoken word and verse, audiences travel to a world where generations connect across time and space, growing hunger and poetry which comes to life.
Filled with daring physicality and poignance, Fruit on Her Lips delivers wisdom, destruction, sweetness, and gravity.
Venue 236: Greenside @ George Street
Running time – Sixty minutes
August 12th – 17th (18:35)
Fruit galore in this apocalyptic rom-com from Fringe First winner David Finnigan.
It seems like a bog-standard story; Girl meets boy. Girl hates boy. Girl f*cks boy 44 times; the world collapses.
With some rather naughty actors going down on their microphones, mangos and melons in this slippery and subversive take on a classic radio play, 44 Sex Acts in One Week is a clever and uproarious response to our decision to go even harder, faster, and FASTER towards the end of the world.
Venue 23: Pleasance Dome
Running time – Seventy minutes
July 31st, August 1st-11th, 13th-18th, 20th-26th (16:40)
Just how much of your personality is revealed in your coffee order?
In this light-hearted historical piece, a group of women who helped shape the future of Erie, Pennsylvania, USA discuss the answers to the important questions over coffee and chocolates at Romolo’s Café.
A young reporter finds herself amidst the magic and mischief that brings the unsung heroines together across the boundaries of space and time, seizing the opportunity to record their stories.
Venue 45 – The Space @ 45
Running time- Sixty minutes
August 2nd – 3rd, 5th, 7th (Various times)
Interested in being featured? With many previews and Q&As lined up, we’re always happy to chat about including your show in future articles. Please do get in touch through the contact page to feature in an upcoming ‘Have A Gander’
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