Articles by Joanna Alpern

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A Third

A Third

Being seated at director Josh Roche’s production of A Third means being drawn into the intimacy of a couple’s studio flat. 

Chicken Shop

Chicken Shop

Anna Jordan’s plays are sex fables for the modern day that everyone must see. 

Blind

Blind

Grace Savage, the UK’s official female champion beatboxer, suits her oxymoronic name to a tee. 

Natasia Demetriou: You'll Never Have All of Me

Natasia Demetriou: You'll Never Have All of Me

Natasia Demetriou is new to solo shows. 

Silence in Court

Silence in Court

The plot runs as follows. 

The Interview

The Interview

A quick glance into the Fringe brochure may lead an innocent punter to think The Interview is an intriguing show. 

Thief

Thief

A naked pair of male buttocks tense under a spotlight as the play begins. 

Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho

Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho

Outside, the queue is teeming. 

Foil, Arms and Hog: Loch'd

Foil, Arms and Hog: Loch'd

Foil, Arms and Hog are a group of stylish Irish lads with an old-school, vintage look. 

AAA Stand-Up

AAA Stand-Up

Our host for the evening is Sunna Jarman, and she is certainly engaging. 

AAA Stand-Up Late

AAA Stand-Up Late

Banterous and dangerous, this night of eclectic stand-up comedy is in the hands of three very capable performers. 

Ablutions

Ablutions

Live jazz bands and theatrical pieces are rarely blended together so successfully. 

The Pin

The Pin

Alex Owen and Ben Ashenden are the veritable princes of the meta-theatrical sketch and descendants of a very British kind of comedy. 

The Bunker Trilogy: Macbeth

The Bunker Trilogy: Macbeth

The Bunker Trilogy has transported the world of Shakespeare to the trenches of the first World War. 

Echolalia

Echolalia

Echolalia is a type of autism where sufferers automatically repeat the words and phrases of others. 

The Curing Room

The Curing Room

The intriguing central premise of The Curing Room is based upon a terrifying true story. 

Magic Number Six

Magic Number Six

Magic Number Six documents the friendship between actor Patrick McGoohan and TV producer Lew Grade throughout the making of TV series The Prisoner. 

Bitch Boxer

Bitch Boxer

This returning Fringe hit begins with an anecdote about a young woman called Chloe locking herself out of her house. 

Dark Matter

Dark Matter

Dark Matter is a piece of theatre that breaks many of its rules and moulds new ones. 

Breakfast Plays: A Respectable Widow Takes To Vulgarity

Breakfast Plays: A Respectable Widow Takes To Vulgarity

A Respectable Widow documents the beginning of the unlikely friendship between Annabelle Love, a respectable English widow, and Jim Dick, a working class Scottish employee of Annab… 

Gym Party

Gym Party

This black comedy about competition appropriately takes the form of a game show. 

Strangeways

Strangeways

Dot is going senile in her new Mancunian flat. 

Best Kept Secrets

Best Kept Secrets

An ordinary woman sits on a park bench reading a newspaper. 

Rules of the Game

Rules of the Game

Sinead, a prostitute, Debbie, an alcoholic thief, and Mags, a schizophrenic who has murdered her husband, all inhabit the same prison. 

Shadow On Their Wall

Shadow On Their Wall

In this one-man show, a man called Michael shoots himself, speaks to his therapist about his depraved impulses and his infatuation for the wife who has left him and stalks said wif… 

The Violinist

The Violinist

In a new play by Matthew Kirton, the ageing Jack Goodman is trying to attend his daughter’s violin recital at the Royal Opera House, before being detained by two detectives unusu… 

Revill's Selection - Free

Revill's Selection - Free

Revill’s Selection is an hour of very friendly comedy, with Paul Revill hosting and three unannounced acts every day. 

Fade

Fade

Dugout theatre company returns to the Fringe with Fade, a play about the pursuit of meaning and its detrimental consequences. 

Bluebeard

Bluebeard

The scene is set in dementia sufferer Claire Conomor’s care home. 

It's Not What You Know...

It's Not What You Know...

The cast of short musical ‘It’s not what you know’ are talented. 

That Is All You Need to Know

That Is All You Need to Know

Idle Motion is a theatre group that specialises in physical theatre. 

Life Sentence

Life Sentence

Life Sentence follows the story of Theo, who has just been diagnosed with immortality. 

Milton Jones On The High Road

Milton Jones On The High Road

Milton Jones enters, characteristically via scooter, clad in a blue print shirt, orange trousers, orange shoes, and hair which defies gravity. 

Major Tom

Major Tom

‘I had changed as a person since entering the beauty pageant. 

Foil, Arms and Hog - Late Night Irish Sketch Comedy

Foil, Arms and Hog - Late Night Irish Sketch Comedy

Foil, Arms and Hog are an Irish sketch comedy trio who combine innovative ideas with silliness and boyish charm. 

Nirbhaya

Nirbhaya

There is a danger when dramatising an incident as horrifying as the 2012 Delhi gang rape case, in which a woman coined Nirbhaya (meaning fearless) was dragged from a bus and raped … 

The Love Project

The Love Project

As we took our seats, furnished with appropriately rose-patterned cushions, and gazed on at the living room set before us, it was as if we were in someone else’s house, listening… 

Finding Libby

Finding Libby

Finding Libby story follows sixty-something-year-old Pauline as she embarks on a nautical holiday along the canals of England. 

Peacock & Gamble: Heart-throbs

Peacock & Gamble: Heart-throbs

Heart throbs is a show that pulsates with silliness. 

Snap Out of It!

Snap Out of It!

Verbatim shows have hit this year’s Fringe like a storm. 

Happy Never After

Happy Never After

It is difficult to critique a show that is raising awareness and funds for ovarian cancer research, but I will try my best. 

Outside on the Street

Outside on the Street

The poster for Outside on The Street features a young Aryan man with blood running down his face. 

Jamie Demetriou: People Day

Jamie Demetriou: People Day

Jamie Demetriou has come up with and employed a great and original idea for his Pleasance comedy set. 

Shirley and Shirley: Carnage

Shirley and Shirley: Carnage

Last year, comedy duo Shirley and Shirley were Unleashed. 

David Trent: This Is All I Have

David Trent: This Is All I Have

David Trent has labelled each of his possessions: ‘This is a screen’, ‘This is a laptop’, ‘This is a projector’, etc. 

Vikki Stone - Definitely

Vikki Stone - Definitely

Even if you haven’t heard of Vikki Stone, you may still have heard the anecdote about a loving fan sending their knickers in the post to Phillip Schofield and writing and perform… 

Best of Edinburgh - The Showcase Show

Best of Edinburgh - The Showcase Show

The key ingredients to any successful comedy show have to be a friendly audience, a boisterous atmosphere and a packed venue, all of which the Showcase Show had. 

Love and Understanding

Love and Understanding

The title of the play sets up an immediate opposition between love and understanding, and once seated, we are soon presented us with characters full of love and totally lacking in … 

Hal Cruttenden Tough Luvvie

Hal Cruttenden Tough Luvvie

Hal Cruttendon is a very good traditional comic. 

George's Marvellous Medics

George's Marvellous Medics

George’s Marvellous Medics is a sketch show about medics by medics, with a few Olympics pieces thrown in too, as well as a scattering of quite random ones. 

Anything But (A One-Woman Play)

Anything But (A One-Woman Play)

Agnes, played by Abi Tedder, is hosting a wake for the father who abandoned her as a child. 

The One Hour Plays

The One Hour Plays

The idea behind The One Hour Plays is that through audience involvement a script can be written, cast and performed with the appropriate costumes, props and music in under an hour. 

The Late Night Shack Show

The Late Night Shack Show

The Shack Comedy Club is a new venue just beginning to find its feet. 

Russell Kane: Posturing Delivery

Russell Kane: Posturing Delivery

Through Kane’s discussion of procreation, something great is indeed born, and that is great comedy. 

Peacock & Gamble Don't Even Want To Be On Telly Anyway

Peacock & Gamble Don't Even Want To Be On Telly Anyway

Young, blonde, tall and attractive Ed Gamble and Hagrid-lookalike Ray Peacock at first glance seem an unlikely pair. 

Word:Play

Word:Play

Only Humour, the first improv group to emerge from Bristol University, present us with Word:Play. 

Stinky Show

Stinky Show

Hitch and Mitch’s intentions were to be so bad that they were good. 

An Audience with the King

An Audience with the King

Andre King’s style is an endearing one. 

Plastic Beach

Plastic Beach

Six actors take turns playing a beachcomber while the rest watch, amused and concerned. 

Oyster Eyes Presents: Some Rice

Oyster Eyes Presents: Some Rice

Having watched Oyster Eyes Presents: Some Rice, you find yourself trying to work out what it is exactly you have just seen. 

Marcel Lucont: Cabaret Fantastique

Marcel Lucont: Cabaret Fantastique

The magical, dusky venue that is the Assembly Elegance Tent provided the perfect atmosphere for the night-time revels of Marcel Lucont’s Cabaret Fantastique. 

Githa

Githa

Githa is a one-woman show about Katherine Githa Sowerby, suffrage playwright and writer of Rutherford and Sons, and her struggle to be respected in the male-dominated literary worl… 

Sploshy: A Sketch Show

Sploshy: A Sketch Show

The humour of sketch troupe Sploshy can most realistically be described as lazy. 

Shirley and Shirley Unleashed

Shirley and Shirley Unleashed

Shirley and Shirley Unleashed is a show about two women who, as the title suggests, do indeed seem somewhat feral (especially in their binge-drinkers-turn-into-wild-monkeys act). 

The Death of Chatterton

The Death of Chatterton

In 2010, a young American student and an old British academic take an interest in the life of the Romantic poet Chatterton, and specifically the circumstances of his relationship w… 

Miss Julie

Miss Julie

Written and set in the nineteenth century, Strindberg’s best-known play is about an illicit affair between Miss Julie, the lady of the house, with her footman Jean. 

Breathing Corpses by Laura Wade

Breathing Corpses by Laura Wade

This dark play about confronting death introduces us to an array of fascinating characters: Amy, a hotel-cleaner, Jim and Elaine, and Ben and Kate, whose lives are linked by a seri… 

Norwegians of Comedy

Norwegians of Comedy

People who like their comedy surreal will enjoy this more than others. 

Best Served Cold

Best Served Cold

Rope is a play of the Victorian thriller genre written by Patrick Hamilton in 1929. 

Matthew Crosby is Matthew Crosby in Matthew Crosby (The Show)

Matthew Crosby is Matthew Crosby in Matthew Crosby (The Show)

Matthew Crosby is a five foot five bearded man with a side parting, who wears short-sleeved checkered shirts and black, thick-framed glasses. 

Dylan Moran: Yeah, Yeah

Dylan Moran: Yeah, Yeah

Dylan Moran has changed his persona somewhat. 

Square Eye Pair

Square Eye Pair

Richard and Max have been best friends since high school, where they bonded over their respective social flaws. 

Tania Edwards - Killer Instinct

Tania Edwards - Killer Instinct

Tania Edwards deserves a much bigger audience than what she was met with last night. 

Oliver Dean and His Fantastic Ego! Live

Oliver Dean and His Fantastic Ego! Live

In this supposedly fifty-minute show, the audience were met with twenty minutes of relatively weak material, often sitting through unjustifiably long stories for their mediocre pun… 

Firing Blanks

Firing Blanks

The play opens with a teenage girl feeding ducks from a park bench. 

Upstaging: A Modern Guide to Acting for Gentlemen and Gentleladies - Free

Upstaging: A Modern Guide to Acting for Gentlemen and Gentleladies - Free

Maurice Cock and Belvedere Bagg model their show as a lesson in how to act. 

A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire

When I saw that Tennessee Williams’ tragedy of lost youth and nostalgia was being performed by a cast of sixteen-to-eighteen-year-olds, I’ve got to admit that I had my doubts. 

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