Fringe 2017: Summerhall unveil programme
Summerhall have unveiled their programme for the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe, with 140 new and returning shows for the Fringe's 70th anniversary year
Following a bumper year in 2016 in which the venue hosted 10 Fringe First-winning shows, Summerhall's 2017 programme features a multinational Middle Eastern programme in association with the DCAF Festival in Cairo, as well as strands of work from Canada, Taiwan, Finland and Sri Lanka. The Made In Adelaide showcase also returns, and Summerhall presents an Army @ the Fringe programme of plays throughout August at a working Army Reserve Centre in Edinburgh’s New Town, which will be staffed by serving soldiers.
Sasquatch, the Opera is an experimental opera written and composed by Roddy Bottum of rock titans Faith No More, a show described as a "dark and tragic love tale based on the fable of the elusive man-beast who stalks the forest".
Belgian avant-garde theatremakers Ontroerend Goed bring their new show £¥€$ (LIES) to Summerhall, promising a piece that will see audience members "get under the skin of the well-to-do, the 1%, the super rich, the ones who pull the strings", and Fringe veteran Mark Thomas returns with A Show That Gambles on the Future, in which Thomas will analyse (and place bets on) predictions for the apparently unpredictable world we live in.
Richard Gadd's Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning show Monkey See Monkey Do returns for a run of dates in Summerhall's Main Hall (18-27 Aug), and proto-type theater's "theatrical documentary of sorts" A Machine they’re Secretly Building returns after its Scottish premiere run at the Tron in Glasgow last month – read our review here. Ridiculusmus return with "jet-black" PTSD comedy Give Me Your Love, Kieran Hurley’s Heads Up returns after a sell-out run in 2016, and Scottish Dance Theatre bring Velvet Petal, inspired by the heady nostalgia of Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids.
Read the full Summerhall Fringe theatre programme here.
Music at Summerhall
Summerhall's gig programme continues through the Fringe, with a host of big-name shows from a typically eclectic mix of artists. Josh T. Pearson's reformed post-rock outfit Lift to Experience play on Thu 17 Aug, and Charlotte Church brings her Late Night Pop Dungeon show to Summerhall for a pair of shows on the festival's final weekend (25-26 Aug).
Elsewhere there's an international flavour to the music programme, with shows from Franco-British pop collective Frànçois & the Atlas Mountains (15 Aug), Madrid outfit Hinds (16 Aug), Edinburgh-based electronic maestro Blanck Mass (22 Aug), Danish punks Iceage (5 Aug) and experimental Norwegian songwriter Jenny Hval (20 Aug). There's also an eclectic Scottish showcase featuring Withered Hand, IKLAN and Savage Mansion (19 Aug) and a bumper night of musical fun with Pictish Trail & Friends (24 Aug), plus club shows from Awesome Tapes From Africa (10 Aug) and Optimo (18 Aug).
Art at Summerhall
The venue's Fringe art programme features a retrospective from Alastair MacLennan, Jane Frere will premiere her 'Pink Pussy Project’, and there will be a retrospective of Richard Lees’ Rock Against Racism posters in This is Hull! There's also the chance to see a unique documentary project on the Calais Jungle in Protestimony, while the EWVA (European Women’s Video Art in the 1970s and 1980s) project from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee will champion unheralded early pioneers of the medium.
Summerhall's 2017 Edinburgh Fringe programme runs 2-27 August; full details on the Summerhall website.
Disclosure: The Skinny's Edinburgh office is based within Summerhall