Jake Mace
Today, with just under a month to go until Fringe season lands in Edinburgh, we are celebrating five Black British artists and their shows offering up new perspectives on the Black British experience. Covering deeply present themes such as the Windrush Crisis, the relationship between race and class, ancestral inheritance and grief, these shows promise a great deal of insight. Equally, we are taking the chance to highlight an exciting slate of fresh comedy, music, drama, and gig theatre, which we can’t wait to see take to the stage next month.
Coming-of-Age Windrush Drama – One Way Out
No Table Productions, Theatre Peckham’s first resident company, are set to arrive at EdFringe bursting with powerful drama in One Way Out. 75 years since HMS Windrush’s arrival into the UK, Writer-Director Montel Douglas debuts with a coming-of-age story following four friends just about to leave college. It isn’t long, however, before ambition becomes crushed when Devonte receives a letter that will change the course of his future. In the face of adulthood, can lifelong friends stick together and fight for what is just?
Binge Fringe is looking forward to… burgeoning and exciting new dramatic talent exploring a deeply present moment in British identity.
One Way Out – Underbelly Cowgate (Belly Button), Aug 3-13, 15-20 & 22-27 (14:15). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Stand-Up Comedy exploring Class and Race – Mamoun Elagab: Why I Love White People
Telling the story of his remarkable life so far, Mamoun Elagab takes to the stand-up stage to jump head first into the UK’s class divide and the Black British experience. Mamoun says this show will offer him the chance to ask important questions – “Can we unmerge stereotypical traits and race?” and “How can you survive a g-check with local Tottenham gangsters?”
Binge Fringe is looking forward to… the opportunity to understand the intersection between class and race in British society… and hopefully some laughs along the way!
Mamoun Elagab: Why I Love White People – Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker One, Aug 2-14 & 16-27 (18:10). Tickets available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Hip-Hop Opera Identity Crisis – Tones: A Hip-Hop Opera
Jerome, A.K.A The Professor, arrives at EdFringe to ask the question “What if you’re not Black enough for the ends, but too Black for the rest of the world?”. A glorious gig theatre mash-up combining the the gritty underground sounds of hip-hop, grime and drill with the melodrama of opera – sounds jam-packed and instantly stirring. The Professor is here to lead us down the “treacherous” path of self-discovery.
Binge Fringe is looking forward to… a sure to be unique blend of musical style and form, with new insight blended in for good measure.
Blossoming (You Undo Me) – Gilded Balloon (Patter Hoose), Aug 2-13 (12:00, 19:30). Tickets available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Beginnings, Knowledge, Inheritance – Blueprints
Blueprints takes on the intriguing theme of ancestral inheritance, putting forward the question – if you could know the entire history of your bloodline, everything you might be passing onto future generations, would you want to know? Ashlee Elizabeth-Lolo has crafted a script interrogating our relationship with our ancestors and the place of beginnings in deciding our futures. Following Adam and Faith, we get to see the concept unravel into an exploration of the power of knowledge.
Binge Fringe is looking forward to... deep and dramatic exploration of the relationship with our ancestral pasts and our familial futures.
Blueprints – Pleasance Courtyard (Beneath), Aug 17-20 & 22-28 (11:50). Tickets available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Grief, Loss, and Change – Tomorrow Is Not Promised
A Black British Woman finds herself homeless and alone after an Earthquake, embarking on a courageous journey through grief, loss and change towards a sense of healing. Awakening to find everything but her front door lost, Tian Glasgow’s script explores our relationship with shelter, place, loss and whether we should rebuild or start again. It isn’t long before our central character encounters another who has gone through great loss, and the piece explores what it means to heal.
Binge Fringe is looking forward to… powerful and exploratory drama that pushes the boundaries of our notions of grief and healing.
Tomorrow Is Not Promised – Underbelly Cowgate (Big Belly), Aug 3-13 (17:00). Tickets available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Phoebe Bakker
