For those still not ready, or able, to venture to the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe is being brought to you. There are over a dozen producers providing online Fringe shows, from drama from the French Institute, free comedy via Zoom from Laughing Horse, and classical concerts from the Royal Over-seas League.
Perhaps one of the most successful online offshoots of the pandemic has been the Shedinburgh Fringe Festival, which as the name suggests is a programme of shows performed in two sheds at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and the Soho Theatre in London, in August.
The online fest was conceived in 2020 by producers Francesca Moody and Harriet Bolwell and writer, performer Gary McNair after the pandemic hit.
"Shedinburgh is a unique response to a unique situation,” says Shedinburgh performer Mark Thomas. “In the absence of the full Edinburgh festival as artists we reach out to communicate with each other in any way we can. What better way than working with friends to broadcast to the world from a shed? This arts and crafts answer to Wayne’s World."
Last year, Shedinburgh’s global audience bought over 4,500 tickets to 25 events, raising over £20,000 towards the Shed Load of Future Fund, to help new artists bring their work to the Edinburgh Fringe.
This year includes a mix of theatre, comedy, music, and spoken word.
The Comedy segment includes returning Fringe veterans Harry Hill with Harry Hill’s Noise, and Mark Thomas in a new show Best of The Mark Thomas Comedy Product alongside a range of comedic talent such as Sikisa, Helen Bauer, and Joe Thomas.
Rachel Fairburn follows the success of Comedians Telling Erotic and Spooky Stories with Comedians Telling Shed Stories, the newest comedians' storytelling night about what on earth goes on down the bottom of the garden.
Popular podcast The Guilty Feminist will also broadcast an episode live from the shed in Soho Theatre as audience members get to put their questions directly to Deborah Frances-White.
Shedinburgh co-creator and the man behind the festival name, Gary McNair, presents the pun based musical mashup Pun For the Road: The Greatest Hits of the Pun Lovin' Criminals.
Theatre
From Edinburgh Fringe Festivals past comes Iphigenia in Splott by Gary Owen and performed by Sophie Melville, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons by Sam Steiner, Build a Rocket by Chris White, Love Letters to the Transport System by Molly Taylor, and Funeral Flowers by Emma Dennis-Edwards.
Jonny Donahoe (Every Brilliant Thing) brings his new one-person-show Forgiveness to the shed, a show about becoming a father and the cycles of abuse that form and affect who we are, and Scottish artist, Robert Softley performs If These Spasms Could Speak.
Shed Talks
SHEDx will feature talks from theatre makers Chris Thorpe, Tim Crouch and Apphia Campbell alongside key industry stakeholders including Katy Koren, Artistic Director of The Gilded Balloon with more to be announced.
Newcomers
The Shedinburgh Newcomers strand will feature work from up and coming artists, all handpicked in partnership with co-producers VAULT Creative Arts.
Shows include Rosa Hesmondhalgh’s honest and life-affirming Madame Ovary and Katy Arnstein’s Sexy Lamp, a light (sorry) comedy.
Other special events include Harry Potter star Jessie Cave in conversation with her sister Bebe about her debut novel Sunset and a Shedinburgh Poetry night featuring leading UK poets Sabrina Mahfouz, Zia Ahmed, Katie Greenall and Casey Bailey.
All shows and events will be performed live and live streamed via Ticketco globally for one night only from two sheds at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and Soho Theatre in London from Tuesday 3rd August to Monday 30th August.
Tickets will be available on a Pay What You Can system, starting at just £6.
A minimum of 25% of every ticket bought for Shedinburgh 2021 will go into the Shed Load of Future Fund, a fund to support the next generation of artists to get to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.