Edfringe Cabaret: We All Need to Escape Sometimes

In bygone times rebel children would threaten to run away and join the circus. A contemporary take might be to grab a set of heels and a wig and head down to the local drag bar. A place for the outspoken, the colourful, and those smashing up pre-made boxes to be put into, the circus, drag, and cabaret artistes of today are subversive, magical, and twilight shimmery in their reality. Absolute Fringe citizens in so many ways. So here are a few from this particular Fringe that are catching our eye.

Brand new original music, complete with enjoyably snappy lyrics that make noggins laugh and think remarkably quickly, comes in the form of debut musical ‘WENCH’ from Drag Idol UK winner Felix Le Freak. I caught a preview of this in the Brighton Fringe in May and was pleasantly surprised at this feminist shoutback show, rolling through a quartet of time periods pushing back as loud women, rocking faux Chaucer text and an electric Weimar Republic amongst its backdrops.

Wench, 22.45, Underbelly George Square, August 5 – 30

https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/wench

Political subversion can also be found in the familiar face of the Iron Lady herself in ‘Margaret Thatcher Queen Of Hollywood’, a drag musical extravaganza following her trip to Tinseltown to play herself in a blockbuster. It’s an odyssey of Streep-rivalry and sex-pest producers in a bid to win an Oscar, from the pens of those behind the successful ‘Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho’, as well as new award-winning collaborators.

Margaret Thatcher Queen of Hollywood, Assembly George Square, August 5 – 30

https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/margaret-thatcher-queen-of-hollywood

Superstar magician Ben Hart returns to bring more than a dollop of wonder to the world with his new show ‘The Labyrinth’, debuting this year. Reading minds and conjuring a new reality, Hart has an international reputation for dark and the funny shows that have grabbed the attention of his peers for all the best reasons.

Ben Hart The Labyrinth, 18.20, Assembly George Square Gardens, August 5 – 30

https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/ben-hart-the-labyrinth

Bringing vaudevillian, end-of-the-world, kazoo-humming, singing and dancing to the masses in the Free Fringe, cabaret duo The Creative Martyrs rollick in with satire and chutzpah in ‘CABAPOCALYPSARET’. Smart, absurd, and perfectly politically timed, this striking pair hit hard with an eloquent and smashing (of the establishment) time.

Cabapocalysaret 17.30, Voodoo Rooms, August 8 30

https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/cabapocalypsaret

Alternatively (in lots of ways) check out ‘FLOP! The Best Songs From The Worst Musicals’, epitomising and picking up awards for the instinct to turn a silk purse out of a pig’s ear. Musical theatre performer Arthur Hull rescues Theatreland’s casualties and adds his own razzmatazz to them, making the tunes the critics hated and shows that robbed the backers shine. Perfect place to rediscover a new favourite earworm show tune previously relegated to the bargain bin.

Flop,The Best Songs From the Worst Musicals 18.45 Gilded Balloon, August 6 – 30

https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/flop-the-best-songs-from-the-worst-musicals

Feasting on the spirit of cabaret, mixing circus with gender-bending artistry, humour with revels, ‘Bernie Deiter’s Club Kabarett’ occupies that provocative between-spaces late night who-knows-what-might-happen time marvellously. Fiery and fierce, Dieter and her haus (sic) band play host to this joyful extravaganza, including aerial and fire-breathing moments to her gin-soaked soundtrack.

If the Cabaret and Variety section of the brochure looks thinner than usual to you this year, don’t panic. Just turn a sharper eye to the Comedy section and you’ll find a chunk of names have migrated from the pink to the purple pages there.

Blurring the lines between cabaret and comedy, Reuben Kaye was nominated for the Best Show gong in the Edinburgh Comedy Awards in 2024 and won the Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s Icon Award in the same year, demonstrating how well quality can straddle the two. ‘Hard To Swallow’ is this year’s sharper, sexier and more political than ever offering from the glitter-maestro.

Reuben Kaye: Hard to Swallow, 20.00, Assembly George Square Gardens, August 6 – 29

https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/reuben-kaye-hard-to-swallow

The writer and star of award-winning ‘Drag Queens Vs Zombies’ and ‘Drag Queens Vs Vampires’ is standing alone for the first time, as Crudi Dench arrives in town with her solo debut ‘Someone Help Her!’. As ever she’s the delusional diva, but this time she’s got a fictional television special complete with celebrity guests aka a select few audience members. Expect a mix of stand up and audience interaction, with plenty of entertaining stories of career highs and lows along the way.

Crudi Dench, Someone Help Her!, 20.10, Underbelly Cowgate, August 5 – 30

https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/crudi-dench-someone-help-her

For one week only multi-award winning ventriloquist and comedian Nina Conti is in town, with her outspoken other half Monkey in tow too of course. This time she’s inviting some of her favourite acts from the Fringe to join them in ‘Nina’s C*nti Cabaret’. Sounds like mayhem on legs, as her masks are also on the bill putting her words into everybody else’s mouth, plus the title implies that no punches – or punchlines – will be pulled.