Edinburgh Festival Fringe: David Beckham, Jimmy Connors, June Carter Cash and TikTok inspire shows

Summerhall’s line-up will also feature “undead” drag queen incarnations of rival monarchs Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I, a celebration of the punk scene in 1970s Washington, and a stage illusion show promising “seances, spirit-possession and live levitation.”

Work from Belarus, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Palestine, Russia, Singapore, South Africa and Ukraine will be showcased at the venue.

Comics from around the world have shows in the theatre programme at Summerhall, which will be one of the main venues used for this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Louis Orwin’s show Famehungry, developed with social media star Jaxon Valentine, is billed as “a one woman nose-dive into the helter-skelter world of TikTok, the attention economy and what it’s like to live your life online.”

Comic and actress Anna Morris’s show Son of a Bitch focuses on an Instagrammer who goes viral after being filmed swearing at her child on a plane.

Bryony Byrne’s 1990s-set show Fan/Girl will recall a long-forgotten obsession with football, including stars like Beckham and Cantona, and explore why so many girls stopped play the game in their teens.

Leading Scottish playwrights Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair will launch a new comedy focusing on two boys trying to young boys “trying to navigate peer pressures, sexual anxieties, and social status in the chaotic hormonal pressure cooker of a small-town school.”

Edinburgh will provide the setting for The Bookies, a betting shop-set black comedy bringing together a narcissist bookmaker, a young cashier, an area manager and a degenerate gambler hooked on gaming machines.

Glasgow actress and singer Charlene Boyd will play tribute to the country music legend June Carter Cash in a show which will explore her own experiences as a performer and working mother.

Glasgow-based poet and performer Sean Wai Keung will explore the history of fortune cookies and his own mixed-race identity in his one-man show, while actor, comedian and writer Saul Boyer’s show In Defiance of Gravity will explore seance, levitation and telekinesis.

The exhibition Hart Art will showcase the work of photographer Lucian Perkins to capture the birth of the punk scene in Washington in the 1970s.

Former Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Adam Riches will step into the shoes of American tennis legend Jimmy Connors to recall his remarkable comeback in the US Open at the age of 39.

Comedian and artist Sam Kissajukian’s show will explore the hundreds of paintings he created during a five-month long bipolar episode in 2021, while fellow Australian performer Darby James’ cabaret show Little Squirt will be based on his experiences of sperm donation.

A group of Slavic actors will stage a physical theatre adaptation of George Orwell’s novel 1984 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of its setting.

Queens will depict rival 16th century monarchs Mary Stuart and Elizabeth as “undead, washed-up drag queens” who arrive in the present day in what is billed as a “bold and provocative exploration of gender, power and identity.”

Summerhall chief executive Sam Gough said: “Our programme continues to go from strength to strength. We see new collaborations with incredible companies, new artists trying the Fringe for the first time as well as many returning friends bringing exceptional work.”