Emma’s world is orderly. A New York based journalist, she sees herself as a bastion of society. Her role is to observe and report, to forewarn, perhaps even to obviate. As a now staffed journalist, her latest commission is to report on an underground rave culture gaining traction across Queens and Brooklyn. This is most definitely a step beyond her comfort zone, not knowing this genre at all. However, she sweeps back the translucent curtain to enter one of these underground c

The River Po stretches the width of Northern Italy, from the Alps across to the Adriatic south of Venice. The River Adige flows from the Dolomites, hitting the Adriatic a little further north. There is a flatland between the two known as Polesine, around Rovigo. In 1951, it flooded. It had been a bone-dry summer, but in the autumn when the rains came, they did not let up. Italy was just emerging from fascism and the Second World War, with resources still thin. When the region

“You’re not really an actor without an audience.” It is a brutally dismissive, stark assessment relayed to Eva Seymour in The Understudy — and one that neatly captures the precarious position at the heart of her show. An understudy is an actor who must be prepared to go on stage at short notice if something happens to a member of the main cast. While it is, of course, paid acting work, the role can prove deeply frustrating: you are constantly preparing to perform, yet rarely

Puttana is an uncomfortable theatrical experience. It’s supposed to be. The audience don headsets and are immersed into the production, with the performer – Beatrice Elena Festi – assuming five different roles. She flits from microphone to microphone with no cohesive storyline, splintered and provocative rather than collaborative. Puttana is an Italian word for prostitute, but it carries a heavier, more derogatory weight - perhaps ‘whore’ being the closest translation. Teatro

High Heels Fron the Big Boot is a playful, but intelligently constructed, production, giving us a glimpse into the lives of notable Italian women. The framing of this, however, is most unusual. Federica Casolari and Eva D’Amico are clearing out their grandmother’s house after her death. It proves to be no small task: the house is packed with a lifetime of possessions—photographs, cassettes, books and, intriguingly, an electronic tablet. Their surprise at the discovery soon gi

As the Second World War in Europe reached its endgame, the race to conquer Berlin was on. Stalin had decreed that the Soviet army should liberate the city, rather than the western allies. By now, while the outcome of the war was no longer in doubt, the superpowers were jostling for post-war position and influence. Hitler ordered that the city would not be evacuated, believing that this would incentivise his troops to fight harder. This meant that the battle for Berlin itself

In the nineteenth century, the Central American country Poyais was the talk of London. The land was fertile, its climate temperate, with architecture and infrastructure to rival European cities. Its flag was a simple green cross against a white backdrop, suggestive of the English flag. Dazzled by a fearless adventurer and his glamorous, exotic wife, investors queued up, eager not miss out on the riches on offer. There was just one problem: Poyais didn’t exist. Gregor MacGrego

Commedia dell’Arte originated in Italy, probably in the sixteenth century. Its defining characteristics included masks, musical duets, physical comedy and improvisation. Unusually for its time, it also featured female actors. It was one of the earliest forms of professional touring theatre and became popular across Europe. Including England. The premise of The Italians in England imagines Queen Elizabeth I growing bored with court entertainments and hearing glowing reports of

Where can I begin? It's not every day that part of the show involves the experience of having Sam Kruger's penis literally centimetres from your face, but that's what you get when it's a show about nothing nothing nothing. Creepy Boys SLUGS, returning after a great run last year, is a hypnotic, queer, adrenalin-inducing, techno-pulsing, outrageously brainrotted and really smart piece of theatre. It deserves all superlatives, and you wouldn't think you'd be saying that when i

"A Kinky Eco-Hijacking of Shakespeare's Hamlet". It's a seven-word sentence and five of those words sound like the best thing ever. Indeed, Hotter Project's funny, outrageous piece is one of tragic proportions and a maybe a highlight of Summerhall's programme this Fringe. The premise finds Hotter Project's Mary Higgins and Ell Potter adapting Shakespeare's Hamlet in a meta-theatrical and formally playful production. Potter apparently doesn't like Hamlet as much as Higgins, w

Flesh is a series of physical theatre vignettes, presented by Still Life. In the opening scene, a man is carefully and systematically dressed in protective clothing. He is required to sterilise his hands repeatedly, even after putting on gloves, while his mobile phone is sealed inside a plastic bag. Only when the attendant is satisfied is the curtain withdrawn, revealing a patient lying in a hospital bed. The man gently spends time with his loved one, before the modern world

We all want to be seen. It’s especially true for Amna (Farah Ashraf). She lives at her South London home with her mother; her father left when she was an infant. She is about to sit her A-Levels, while her mother prays that she will attain the grades required to study medicine at UCL. Umni has already mapped out this future for her daughter, calculating that Amna will be able to stay at home rather than move into student halls. Barely 18, Amna has yet to experience the thrill

Fake is a fusion of theatre and magic, telling the little-known story of an art forger, interspersed with an entertaining series of magic tricks. Han van Meegeren was an obscure Dutch artist, whose early attempts at making a living from his work were dismissed, even ridiculed, by critics. One noted that “he has every virtue except originality”. Stung by this, van Meegeren set out to exact his revenge. Over the course of five years, he painstakingly created a ‘Vermeer’ paintin

Britain first colonised the Indian sub-continent in the 18th century, with partition and independence only coming after World War II. India is home to hundreds of languages, 22 of which are constitutionally recognised as official languages. One of the enduring legacies of British rule is the continued prominence of English. Politically, there have been repeated attempts to establish Hindi as the sole official language, but these met strong resistance from non-Hindi-speaking s

It’s 1980, and the Edinburgh International Festival is in full swing. Larry is a star. He has flown in from the United States to perform five sold-out shows at the 2,000-seat Usher Hall, with royalty and celebrities in attendance. Meanwhile, across town, the Fringe tries to hang onto the Festival’s coattails – times have certainly changed. Sid is playing in a barely functional basement to a small audience. Yet it wasn’t always this way. Five years earlier, Sid and Larry had b

Pulsing beats in a nightclub. A man named Simon hooks up with Kevin, a cis man in a gay bar. Kevin finds out Simon's trans, he's not happy about it. Kevin grabs him, he's much more imposing. In this moment of violence, a flash, and their bodies have swapped. Simon is now in Kevin's cis body, and Kevin in Simon's trans body. So begins boobytrapped - Freddie Haberfellner's sophomore play with No Tits Theatre. His script is witty, warm and a gift for him to perform. It is unash

Real live siblings Maddie and Marcus Rice team up to present Goodbye Dandelion. The stage is set with a piano, microphones and a slightly odd-shaped chandelier. The chandelier has its own significance: Darcy was nicknamed ‘Dandelion’ by her late best friend, Vera, on account of her distinctive white hairstyle. This is a piece of musical theatre about Maddie’s newly made, friend, Darcy. It’s an unusual friendship though – there’s a half century age gap. Far from being the hack

A young woman is surrounded by scatterings of papers and photographs. It’s clear that some research project is underway. In Letters To Joan, Samantha Streit is on a quest. Armed with an array of documents and photographs, she is seeking a connection with her forebears. She has conversations with her grandpa, seeking to clarify family history, but moreover to delve deeper into the motivations and circumstances that shaped it. Samantha adopts the persona of Joan, her grandmothe

A stage with a solitary chair awaits us. Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is playing, signposting a highbrow event about to open. But no - we have been deceived, it’s nothing more than telephone hold music. Jude Green is a jobbing actor, struggling to survive the harsh realities of today’s cost of living crisis. They are mostly unemployed - or occasionally working - that shade of grey always likely to put them at odds with administration systems that prefer certainties. Their telep

“Welcome to the most controversial show at the Edinburgh Fringe..!” And so, Amanda Knox takes to the stage, a scattering of children’s toys for company. Her opening line acknowledges the elephant in the room. Her name is now infamous; the simple fact is that no conversation about her can take place without reference to her experiences in Italy. The controversy surrounding this production has been amplified in recent weeks by criticism of the venue (Gilded Balloon), as well as