Casual Fringe Recs: Week ONe

By way of introduction, one of my first excursions into reviewing and recommending was a weekly roundup on Facebook during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016. Over the course of the festival I saw 49 productions, and recommended about four each Saturday of the festival. Now, in 2018, I'm back at Fringe and so are the recommendations! Still primarily written for the audience of my uni friends on Facebook, here is the (slightly belated) first set of 2018 recommendations.

I'm going to recommend 4 of the 7 shows I've seen, which seems a but much, but 2 of the 4 are shows I'm op-ing and want to plug. So without further ado, Fringe Week One:


1. Love Song to Lavender Menace, Summerhall, 12:55 - After a successful run at the Lyceum last year, this love letter to Edinburgh's first gay bookshop has moved to Summerhall for the festival. It's beautiful, it's fabulous, it's touching, it's educational, and it provides some excellent food for thought on progress, loss, and how we are only ever able to exist in the present. Do NOT miss it.


2. TIMMY, Assembly Studios, 13:35 – A foray into more serious comic writing by the author of 2016’s In Tents and Purposes. TIMMY observes a mismatched relationship between a woman desperate for sex and commitment and a man who just likes things the way they are. It’s what a Fringe two-hander about a relationship should be, and it’s impressively nuanced. There’s no bad guy; there’s just fully drawn human beings trying to navigate their – and each other’s – lives.


3. Baby Daddy, Assembly Rooms, 18:20 (ENDS 13th) – A autobiographical one-woman musical romp through the joys and tribulation of single motherhood in your twenties. It’s funny, it’s rude, it’s shatteringly honest, and the musical support is fantastic. It’s absolutely worth the trek.


4. I’ll Have What She’s Having, Assembly Studios, 12:15 – Have you ever felt paralysed in a decision because the one that looks good and the one that actually is good are two different options? Victoria and Jess spend a multi-disciplinary hour filling you in on all the ways that dichotomy has fucked up their lives, and how they’re starting to pull it back together. There’s comedy, there’s dance, there’s bananas, and there’s a whole lot of fun.