Edinburgh Fringe 2024: ten returning shows recommended by Scotsman critics

theSpace @ Niddry Street, 6.25pm, 2-10 August

Xloe and Natasha made a memorable Fringe debut in 2022 with And the Rodeo Burned Down, a Scotsman Fringe First winner described on these pages as “by turns a vaudevillian thriller and a queer cowboy Waiting for Godot”. They won a second Fringe First in 2023 for this follow-up show, which they’re bringing back for a limited run this year while premiering a new show, A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First, also at theSpace.

What we said: “Ever since the second wave of feminism broke over American culture in the early 1970s, the figure of the stay-at-home postwar suburban housewife has been an object of both passionate rejection and some cultural fascination. Rarely, though, can their way of life have been subjected to such a radical queer confrontation as it experiences in What If They Ate The Baby?, the latest show from Fringe-First-winning New York theatre-makers and performers Xhloe and Natasha, otherwise known as Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland. It’s a scenario that offers full and astonishing scope to Xhloe and Natasha’s gifts for both sharp writing and astonishing physical theatre, bouts of brilliant erotic choreography backed by a fierce grunge-rock score.” Read Joyce McMillan’s full review here and book tickets here

Through the Mud

Summerhall, 5.55pm, 1-25 August

Back in 2017, Apphia Campbell premiered a powerful solo show called Woke, contrasting the stories and experiences of two generations of black female activists, Black Panther Assata Shakur and a college student who gets involved in the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014. It won a Scotsman Fringe First award, among many other accolades, and has only become more potent since then, particularly in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of US police. Now renamed Through the Mud, it’s now part of this year’s prestigious Made in Scotland showcase and being staged in one of Summerhall’s biggest spaces. If you’ve never seen it, you should.

What we said: “The story of Shakur’s arrest and imprisonment 40 years ago provides a powerful historical backdrop to the 21st century story of a young middle-class black girl who believes in America and its values, but is forced on to a sharp learning curve by the systematic police and judicial abuse of black people she witnesses and experiences in Ferguson. By the end of the show, her anger is palpable, her grief at America’s failure to deliver on the promise of the 1960s deepening into a furious political resolve.” Read Joyce McMillan’s full review here and book tickets here

Ben Target: Lorenzo

Pleasance Dome, 1.20pm, 16-25 August

The issue of care for the elderly, who does it and at what cost, is one of the most pressing of our age, and erstwhile stand-up comic Ben Target tackles it in microcosm in this bittersweet one-man show, which describes how Target, an architect and émigré from Hong Kong, moves in with octogenarian Lorenzo after he suffers a stroke and charts his journey as a full-time carer with frankness and humour. The show won a Scotsman Fringe First last year in is back for a limited run this year.

What we said: “This is a moving and courageous piece of theatre. Poignantly, it was directed by Adam Brace, who died suddenly in April (2023) while the show was being made. Target has a long-term interest in care, particularly palliative and elderly care, but he doesn’t have an axe to grind here. In this personal story he has found a way to confront the messiness of ageing and dying, lightening the load with humour and by creating a portrait of the extraordinary man that was Lorenzo Wong.” Read Susan Mansfield’s full review here and book tickets here

Dear Billy

Assembly Rooms, 4.50pm, 13-25 August

Described as “a love letter to the Big Yin from the People of Scotland”, this joyful and affectionate show is a reflection of Billy Connolly’s continued status as a Scottish national treasure. It was created by Gary McNair, a triple Fringe First winner, and is back at the Fringe this year for a limited run.

What we said: “Gary McNair – an Erskine lad whose physical likeness to the Big Yin has often been noted – performs for us a selection of the Connolly stories of a huge range of ordinary Scots, interviewed up and down the country. There are men who recall his 1960s days as a shipyard worker in Clydebank, and women who claimed to have pushed him in his pram. And there are many, above all, who try to put into words how Connolly has helped them find a new way of being Scottish, and particularly of being male and Scottish; how to be raised amid violence and punitive forms of religion, and yet to be neither violent nor punitive themselves, but instead to become funny, self-aware, creative, and generous. The story of the Connolly phenomenon, in other words – and of how it much it mattered, in its time – is exactly the kind of tale that our National Theatre must and should be telling, and Gary McNair tells it brilliantly, with huge understanding and love, and that super-sharp sense of mischief without which none of it makes any sense at all.” Read Joyce McMillan’s full review here and book tickets here

Every Brilliant Thing

Roundabout @ Summerhall, 11.45am / 11pm, 1-24 August

Ten years after it helped usher in a wave of Fringe shows candidly exploring mental health, Every Brilliant Thing returns in new production directed by Duncan Macmillan and performed by Jonny Donahoe. Described as ‘a play about depression and the lengths we go to for those we love” it’s the story of a young boy whose mum is in hospital for what his dad describes as doing “something stupid”. The son’s solution: to make his mum a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world.

What we said: “What makes Every Brilliant Thing a uniquely memorable theatre experience is the extent to which it involves its audience in this quest for the simple joys of life. This beautiful show is a powerful affirmation of humanity and human kindness, at a time when it often seems in short supply; and also a reminder of the support we all need to sustain a sense of wellbeing in a troubled and troubling world.” Read Joyce McMillan’s full review here and book tickets here

Circa: Humans 2.0

Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows, 6.20pm, 2-24 August

One of the best circus shows you’ll see on the Fringe returns for a full run.

What we said: “There’s something almost comforting about walking into a Circa show. Knowing, without a shadow of a doubt, that you’ll be met with high quality circus that sets your pulse racing and your soul stirring. Circa’s artistic director, Yaron Lifschitz created Humans 2.0 to capture ‘the challenge of being human’. So a show where people connect, support, occasionally miss the mark but ultimately have each other’s backs, sounds about right. In the multitude of circus shows at this year’s Fringe, many other companies are executing similar manoeuvres, so what makes Circa so special? In a word, class. All the action takes place on a bright, white circular stage and, aside from two aerial ropes, there is no set or props. The performers are dressed in burnt orange, gold and black costumes, giving them a stylish uniformity. And at no point do they illicit applause, or even stop for it, the show just keeps on going and flowing, until the whole tent erupts in a chorus of well-deserved approval at the end.” Read Kelly Apter’s full review here and book tickets here

Club Life

theSpaceTriplex, 9pm, 2-10 August

“Clubs are places we go to grow into ourselves,” says Fred Deakin (of Lemon Jelly fame) early in this very personal journey into a particular period in clubbing – most of which took place, conveniently enough, in Edinburgh. The years fall away as Deakin gives us his personal tour of clubland as he experienced it, in a show that won a Fringe First last year and is now back for a limited run. It’s an unusually long show – two and a half hours – but an immersive and worthwhile experience.

What we said: “It’s part autobiographical monologue, part dance show, part performance art, and at its core even a very odd jukebox musical. It’s also a damn good night out, best enjoyed with friends and (if you indulge) a drink at the in-room bar. Yet it goes even deeper than that. Deakin describes his encounter with leukaemia a quarter of a century ago and his realisation of mortality in the present, and time folds around the youthful dancers and this well-travelled nostalgic, revealing the golden thread of generational bonding and solidarity inspired by the dancefloor. Few Fringe shows this year will be more inspiring or perfectly executed.” Read David Pollock’s review here and book tickets here

La Clique

Underbelly’ Circus Hub on the Meadows, 7.20pm, 2-24 August

The trailblazing Spiegeltent cabaret show that made stars of Camille O’Sullivan, the Caesar Twins and many more celebrates two decades at the Fringe. Every year has a different line-up, but the quality is always high and hopefully something special lined up for the show’s 20th birthday.

What we said: “These acts are superb and often spectacular in their own right but it is the collective impact wielded by the entire La Clique family, coming together in this most ideal of venues which creates a magical experience.” Read Fiona Shepherd’s full review here and book tickets here

An Evening Without Kate Bush

Assembly Checkpoint, 7.20pm, 31 July to 26 August

Cabaret performer Sarah-Louise Young’s tribute to the iconic singer-songwriter continues to thrive, perhaps helped along a bit by Netflix’s Stranger Things introducing a whole new generation to Kate Bush. It’s back for another Fringe run this year.

What we said: “An Evening Without Kate Bush is many things. It’s a bravura showcase for Young’s terrific delivery of the star’s iconic hits, each reworked distinctively with depth and humour. Bush is famously easier to parody than emulate but Young’s vocals are excellent, lovingly nailing Bush’s swooping, eerie register without mockery. The costumes range from black satin wings and red leotard to leopardskin tabard, and there’s lovely use of leftfield props. The show is also a moving tribute to the role the singer has played in Young’s life, and many others’ lives: it takes seriously the power of fandom to nurture comfort, meaning and belonging, both in the room during this performance and in the world at large.” Read Ben Walters’ full review here and book tickets here

The Flock and Moving Cloud

Zoo Southside, 6.20pm, 13-18 and 20-25 August

It's rare to see contemporary dance performed live to traditional music, but Scottish Dance Theatre’s Moving Cloud shows it can be a winning combination. At this year’s Fringe, SDT are revisiting the piece alongside The Flock, inspired by the migration of birds.

What we said: “As the show’s name suggests, at times the dancers were reminiscent of puffy white clouds, thanks in part to Alison Brown’s pitch-perfect costuming. Mostly though, they were a living embodiment of the score, arms, legs and heads twitching with each note, like sheet music bursting into life. Choreographer Sofia Nappi had clearly absorbed the traditional Scottish score (credited to former Celtic Connections’ director Donald Shaw and Trip) into her very bones before conceiving these steps, so fluidly did the two bind together. Read Kelly Apter’s full review here and book tickets here

*Compiled by Andrew Eaton-Lewis