This year’s Edinburgh Festival is nearly upon us and promises to be another
inspiring celebration of some of the best performance and entertainment from
across the globe.
HOME have been working with a number of theatre makers who are
presenting a range of exciting productions as part of this year’s festival. If you are
heading to Edinburgh this year be sure not to miss these HOME-supported shows:
Liz Richardson’s Gutted, a shameless show about love, laughter, and loos,
has already enjoyed two successful runs at HOME as well as playing at
hospitals. Co-produced by HOME and the Conker Group, Gutted plays at
the JackDome at the Pleasance Theatre, 2-13 August.
Jack Rooke, whose Good Grief show, co-commissioned by HOME,
debuted at least year’s Edinburgh Festival before being adapted for BBC
Three and BBC Radio 4, takes his new show, Happy Hour, to The Underbelly
3-27 August. Another HOME co-commission, with the Soho Theatre, Happy
Hour is set in the filthiest student, gay, wankyexposed-brick-with-dangly-
lightbulb bars imaginable, and Happy Hour explores what happiness now means in a society where the pressure to ladder-climb is damaging
underprivileged young people.
YESYESNONO’s 5 Encounters On A Site Called Craigslist is a one-man show
performed by Sam Ward, who was the assistant director on HOME’s
acclaimed production of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts last year as part of his MA
in Theatre Directing at Birkbeck, University of London. A play about what it
means to encounter each other in this technological age, 5 Encounters
On A Site Called Craigslist, at the Zoo Monkey House, 4-28 August, follows
one man as he manages to self-sabotages his valiant attempts to
communicate and reach out to those around him.
Javaad Alipoor’s The Believers Are Not Brothers, co-commissioned by
HOME, Transform Festival, and Ovalhouse, is a bold one-man show which
examines what it is to be a young Muslim male today. We live in a time
where old orders are collapsing: from the post-colonial nation states of the Middle East, to the EU and the American election. Through it all, tech-savvy and extremist groups rip through 20th century political certainties as Javaad explores the complexities of being a young male Muslim today.
The Believers Are Not Brothers is at the Venue Number 26, Northern Stage
at Summerhall, 5-26 August. The show also plays as part of HOME’s Orbit
Festival, 9-12 October.
Spanish theatre company Little Soldier present Derailed, un unpredictable,
urgent theatrical counter-protest about changing the world, as seen at
HOME’s ¡VIVA! Festival in 2016 and co-commissioned by HOME. Derailed
comes complete with a live rock band. Welcome to the revolution. It’s
gonna get messy! Derailed is at JackDome at the Pleasance Theatre, 14-
28 August.
“We are really delighted to have supported this diverse and exciting group of
artists to make some vital, urgent and provocative productions,” says Kevin
Jamieson, HOME’s Senior Producer: Theatre. “All of them shine a spotlight on the
world around us as they strive to make sense of what it means to to be human in
these unstable times.”
Other shows at this year’s Edinburgh Festival which can be seen at HOME later
this year include Hot Brown Honey, presented by Briefs Factory (Malthouse
Theatre, 2-27 August), and A Cold Night in Soho presented by The Tiger Lillies
(Underbelly, Bristo Square, 6-17 August). Meow Meow, who performs Feline
Intimate at HOME on 6 December, presents Little Mermaid (Malthouse Theatre,3-27 August).
