Our This is Wales Edinburgh Showcase 2019 brings eleven of the very best of Welsh shows across theatre, dance and circus to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. But what are they, and when can you catch a performance?
Company: National Theatre Wales
Show Title: For All I Care
Dates: 31/07/19 - 25/08/19 (no Monday show)
Time: 13:30 | Running Time: 60 minutes | Age Suitability: 14+
Venue: 26 | Summerhall – Main Hall
@NTWtweets | #NTWCare
Clara and Nyri. Two very different women. Two complicated lives. Both having a very bad day. Mental health nurse Nyri’s woken up hungover with a younger man. Meanwhile, Clara has developed a compulsive wink and can’t remember if she’s taken her meds. Nyri needs to get to Ebbw Vale Hospital via Greggs, and Clara’s got to get cracking with her shoplifting list for The Devil.
Interweaving and unexpected connections collide in this fast-moving, touchingly funny one-woman show by Alan Harris.
Company: Mr & Mrs Clark featuring Jonny Cotsen
Show Title: Louder Is Not Always Clearer
Dates: 31/07/19 - 25/08/19 (except 7, 12, 19)
Time: 14.30 | Running Time: 65 minutes | Age Suitability: 14+
Venue: 26 | Summerhall - Tech Cube 0
#LouderVClearer | @MrandMrs_Clark | @JonnyCotsen
‘Louder Is Not Always Clearer’ focuses on the importance of connection with others and the struggle to do so affectively. This one-man show is an honest portrayal of the vulnerability of a man perceived to be full of confidence and outwardly social. In a hearing world Jonny is different and Louder Is Not Always Clearer is a bold expose that highlights those differences. For a hearing audience it is an illuminating and emotional experience. For deaf audience members the show is a familiar tale of misunderstanding and isolation. For all audiences it is a humorous and at times moving story of one man’s attempt to cope, to fit in and be accepted.
Company: Theatr Clwyd and Paines Plough
Show Title: Daughterhood
Dates: 05/08/19 -25/08/19 (except 6, 10, 13, 18, 20, 24 August)
Time: 14:15 Mondays, Thursdays & weekends;
11:20 Wednesdays & Fridays
Running Time: 70 minutes | Age Suitability: 14+
Venue: 26 | Roundabout @ Summerhall
@ClwydTweets | @painesplough | #Daughterhood
One sister stayed at home to care for Dad. The other set out to “make a difference”. Reunited under their childhood roof, they unearth more than the 10 years between them. It’s a huge gap. Almost insurmountable. And each is determined to let the other know exactly who has done things right. A beautiful, ferocious play about the bonds that tie us and how we sometimes need to break them. Written by Charley Miles, whose heartbreakingly tender debut Blackthorn explored ‘lost love and the fragility and power of nature in... fifty minutes that passed like a dream’ (i Newspaper).
Company: Bardd
Show Title: Bardd
Dates: 13/08/19 - 18/08/19 inclusive
Time: 15:00 | Running Time: 55 minutes | Age Suitability: Suitable for all
Venue: 18 | Sweet 2, Grassmarket
@BigBarddByd | @martindaws | @MrPhormula
Bardd’s Unique Dualingual Global Music Fusion takes the audience on a journey from the Bardic Roots of Wales to a Freedom Funk Disco.
Featuring Martin Daws (Young People’s Laureate Wales 2013-16) and Mr Phormula (Double Wales Beatbox Champion), Bardd build their sound on the Harp like repeats of Martin’s Kalimba and the technical brilliance of Mr Phormula’s Beatbox, augmented by outstanding multi-instrumentalists Neil Yates (Trumpet/Bass) and Henry Horrell (Keys/Guitar).
Bardd aim to “bring all that we are together into one beautiful groove: instruments, languages, musical styles - Hip Hop, Jazz, Celtic – it’s all in there.”
Company: iCoDaCo (produced in Wales/UK by Gwyn Emberton Dance)
Show Title: it will come later
Dates: 11/08/19 -25/08/19 (not 14 & 20)
Time: 13:00 | Running Time: 60 minutes | Age Suitability: Suitable for all
Venue: 82 | ZOO Southside
@gwynembertondan | #icodaco | #itwillcomelater
A stripped back and edgy contemporary dance work. Performed and watched around a revolving set, six bodies push against each other in a constant flow of transformation.
A group of unique choreographers/performers from Wales, Sweden, Hong Kong, Hungary and Poland (including Eddie Ladd and Mui Cheuk-Yin) were brought together to find a new way to collaborate. The turbulent politics of their homelands lit a touch-paper of exchange between them, creating a physical
microcosm of collaboration and negotiation much needed for these divisive times.
iCoDaCo is a biennial intercultural project, initiated by ilDance and produced in Wales/UK by Gwyn Emberton Dance.
Company: Volcano Theatre
Show Title: The Populars
Dates: 31/07, 02/08 (preview) 03/08 - 25/08 (except 12, 19)
Time: 21:20 | Running Time: 60 minutes | Age Suitability: 14+
Venue: 26 | Summerhall (The Library Gallery)
@VolcanoUK | #ThePopulars
Join The Populars – four performers throwing a dance party for a divided nation. They are looking to the future and wondering how it will feel when we get there. They have questions for you, things on their minds, and a playlist of great songs that tug at the memory and the muscle fibres. Tell them what you think of the atmosphere, where you last danced your heart out, and who you reckon is the coolest. Expect sweat, sequins, and a thoughtfully upbeat take on what unites or divides us in these uncertain times.
Company: Co-produced by Carys Eleri and Wales Millennium Centre
Show Title: Lovecraft (Not the Sex Shop in Cardiff)
Dates: 13/08/19 - 25/08/19 (inclusive - no Monday show)
Time: 22.40 | Running Time: 60 minutes | Age Suitability: 16+
Venue: 61 | Belly Button, Cowgate, Underbelly
@the centre | @caryseleri | #Lovecraft
Straight from Adelaide Fringe, award-winning ‘Lovecraft (Not the Sex Shop in Cardiff)’ is a one-woman science comedy musical about the neuroscience of love and loneliness. An outrageously fun and joyous show with some seriously entertaining science chucked in. Carys will take you on a romp through her formative years; lust, life and loneliness complete with an 80s power-ballad to a Tinder profile.
Come and discover how love works within all of us, why it makes us do crazy things and why hugging is the answer.
Screw you, loneliness epidemic – Carys has you by the balls.
Company: Jo Fong & Sonia Hughes
Show Title: Neither Here Nor There
Dates: 15/08/19 -25/08/19
Time: 19:15 | Running Time: 85 minutes
Age Suitability: Suitable for ages 16+ (babies under 1 year are welcome)
Venue: 26 | Summerhall – Courtyard
@NHNThere | @jofong | @chaptertweets | #NeitherHereNorThere
When was the last time you made time to talk? Life is hectic, and real human connection feels increasingly rare.
Artists Sonia Hughes and Jo Fong champion the power of slowing down and having real conversations in their live art performance, Neither Here Nor There. In what audiences have described as ‘inspiring and heartfelt’, this experience engages different voices, perspectives and lives to pose the question, ‘how can we live together?’ Join Sonia and Jo for a short walk, followed by conversations designed to make ‘a leap of faith’ (CCQ Magazine), and surrender to this intimate and refreshing look into the power of communication.
Company: Flossy and Boo in co-production with RCT Theatres
Show Title: Ned and the Whale
Dates: 03/08/19 - 18/08/19 (except 8, 12 & 13 August)
Time: 11:00 and 14:00 (times vary, check the Fringe website for details)Running Time: 45 minutes
Age Suitability: Suitable for ages 3+ but all are welcome
Venue: 43 | theSpace@Symposium Hall - ‘theSpace Tent’
@flossyandboo | @flossyandbootheatre | /flossyandboo | #nedandthewhale
The magical tail of Ned and the Whale begins a little like this...
With buckles and swash, this story’s awash
with a mysterious odour of fish.
Though sharp as a pin, Ned’s courage was thin,
for his sister was terribly mean.
She spouted great lies: “A Kingdom of Spies
will steal you and harvest your spleen!“
A fishy tale of magic and adventure. Sail away on a quest to help Ned find his courage and discover the truth behind the mysterious ‘Kingdom of Spies’. Flossy and Boo bring you their curiously spellbinding brand of storytelling.
Company: Theatr Clwyd and Paines Plough
Show Title: On the Other Hand, We’re Happy
Dates: 04/08/19 -24/08/19 (except 6, 11, 13, 17, 20 August)
Time: 11:20 Mondays & Thursdays; 14:15 Wednesdays, Fridays & weekends
Running Time: 70 minutes | Age Suitability: 14+
Venue: 26 | Roundabout @ Summerhall
@ClwydTweets | @painesplough | #OnTheOtherHandWereHappy
A single Dad meets his adopted daughter for the first time. Then he agrees to meet her birth mother. When their two worlds collide, will what they have in common outweigh their differences? A one-off meeting. But three lives will be changed forever. On the Other Hand, We’re Happy is a tender, funny, hopeful play about being a mum when your name is Dad. Written by Daf James, award-winning writer, composer and performer. His first play Llwyth (Tribe) was a water-sHed play that changed the landscape of Welsh language theatre forever.
Company: Theatr Clwyd and Paines Plough
Show Title: Dexter and Winter’s Detective Agency
Dates: 04/08/19 -25/08/19 (weekends only)
Time: 11:20
Running Time: 50 minutes
Age Suitability: 14+
Venue: 26 | Roundabout @ Summerhall
@ClwydTweets | @painesplough | #DexterandWintersDetectiveAgency
When Dexter’s mum is sent to jail for getting mixed up in a jewellery robbery, it’s up to Dexter and his best friend Winter to get her out. On their journey to uncover the truth and free mum, their detective work leads them to some surprising discoveries. Dexter and Winter’s Detective Agency is a madcap adventure story for all the family from one of the writers behind CBeebies hits Rastamouse, Apple Tree House and Swashbuckle.