Edinburgh Fringe: Pleasance announce more shows for 2018

Once again Pleasance has a bursting programme of comic talent heading to Edinburgh this August. Kiwi stand-up Rose Matafeo, one of the standouts of last year’s Fringe, is back with her show Horndog. She’s joined by other returning favourites like Pierre Novellie, Ivo Graham, Ed Gamble and Lucy Porter, who’re all back at Pleasance with new material after much-praised shows last year.

2017 Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Jordan Brookes is back at Pleasance with new show Bleed, hot on the heels of the "intense, insane and exceptional" Body of Work. Rob Carter also returns to Edinburgh with his thespian character Christopher Bliss and show I Spy With My Little Eye Something Beginning With Why Have You Been Sleeping With My Wife: A Play By Christopher Bliss. And we're looking forward to the new hour from sketch trio Sheeps (Daran Johnson, Al Roberts and Liam Williams) with the brilliantly named show Live & Loud Selfie Sex Harry Potter.

Other Skinny favourites heading to Pleasance include Suzi Ruffell, Kieran Hodgson and award-winning Swedish standup Evelyn Mok, who brings a show exploring responsibility, blame and cake. There’s also improv murder mystery night Murder She Didn't Write, a visit from The Cambridge Footlights with their 2018 tour, and The Lampoons are back with their absurd and furiously bizarre late-night reimaginings of Hollywood classics.

Pleasance’s theatre programme is similarly expansive. Catching the eye is Trump Meets Lear; fresh from a hit run in New York, this biting political satire combines today’s political landscape with King Lear, Shakespeare’s tale of madness and power. There’s more of The Bard in the form of the Rubbish Shakespeare Company's sure to be hilarious staging of Romeo and Juliet.

Another classic getting revived is Dracula in a fast-paced retelling which is described as the story of “the first Romanian immigrant as he strikes fear into the male establishment with some surprising consequences”. The Young Pleasance, meanwhile, will be evoking the glitz, glamour, and seedy underworld of 1920s Berlin in their exciting version of The Red Shoes.

A number of shows pay tribute to stars of the past. There’s When You Fall Down – The Buster Keaton Story, which uses slapstick and songs to follow the personal and professional triumphs and trials of the silent movie star. Another slapstick titan, Stan Laurel, is remembered in ...And This Is My Friend Mr Laurel, described as “a touching look at one of cinema’s great historical partnerships”. Dietrich: Natural Duty, meanwhile, is listed as “an intoxicating one-(wo)man cabaret show as Marlene Dietrich takes the stage to fight the war her way, with an irresistible mix of songs, sequins, sex and sympathy.”

Theatre Temoin return to Edinburgh with Feed, bringing their vibrant visual style to the world of click-bait culture, fake news and cyber gluttony. The Bear uses dazzling puppetry, delicious music and dozens of laughs to create an unforgettable experience for the whole family. And Ovid's Metamorphoses sets breathtaking mythological tales of love and transformation against a WWII Britain backdrop with spectacular storytelling, puppetry, music and film.

Pleasance also presents work from a mentoring scheme between the Pleasance Theatre Trust and innovative Edinburgh theatre company HighTide. Shows that have come out of this mentoring scheme include Sparks, described as “a hilarious and heartbreaking two-hander with music about the brain’s response to grief”, and Busking It, which draws on a singer's decade on the tube giving voice to passers-by and blending chance encounters with live music. Plus DugOut Theatre come together with HighTide to present Songlines by Tallulah Brown, a play with an original soundtrack from award-winning band Trills.

This is just a fraction of the 126 shows Pleasence announced this week. For the full lineup, head to www.pleasance.co.uk