The 23rd Prague Fringe Festival launches today with a programme of 35 acts from 15 countries, spanning a kaleidoscope of genre, style, and theme. We’ve headed over to the cobbled streets of the Czech capital to once again become part of the longest-running festival of English-language theatre and performance in Continental Europe.
With performances beginning this evening on Monday 27th May and lasting up until Saturday 2nd June, the festival attracts a mixed audience of both Czech and international crowds. There is a continued focus on accessibility in language and performance style, with the programme purposefully platforming performers from different corners of the Globe.
7 venues will range widely in the type of performances they allow – from a stand-up comedy club located inside a hostel next to the World-famous Charles Bridge, to large-scale theatre on an epic stage at the Mala Strana’s Beseda. In the shadow of Prague Castle, the Museum of Alchemists will play host to storytellers and solo performers, while studio spaces Rubin and Divadlo Inspirace offer black box style stages with virtually endless possibilities.
Themes covered in the festival’s shows this year range from exploring what it means to be Queer and over 25, to climate crisis explored through a relationship between a taxi driver and a potted plant. From Freudian stand-up surrounding ‘Daddy Issues’ to nostalgia about dressing up at your Grandparents’ house when you were a child.
Prague Fringe has long aimed to put together a programme that offers accessibility at the fore – with much of the programme in ‘Easy English’, translated with on-stage captions, or presenting largely non-verbal performances. With such an international programme this year, we’re excited to view, and then review, some of the talented performers heading across Vltava river with the aim of showing us their best.
Suffice to say we’re big fans of the ethos of Prague Fringe here at Binge Fringe – last year we couldn’t help but remark on how warm, inviting, and accessible the festival comes across.
The volunteers who run the on-the-ground operations are always keen to offer recommendations, performers and audiences meet like-for-like at the end of every night to catch up on the day’s events over a Czech Pilsner, and the festival staff always seem to have a spritely spring in their step as they help the artists dazzle and entertain.
Below we’ve put together a primer on the three Binge Fringe journalists heading to document the festival this year. We can’t wait to see some of you there, and tell the rest of you all about it!
Eilidh is a writer, reader and avid watcher of film, television and theatre. She loves writing that blends comedy with darkness, and makes public the quirks of life and character that we’ve been taught to hide. She also aspires to be fluent in Spanish, but so far this has proved far harder than expected.
Festivals: Adelaide Fringe (2024) , Prague Fringe (2024), EdFringe (2024)
Pronouns: She/Her
Contact: eilidh@bingefringe.com
Our Lead Editor & Edinburgh Editor. Jake loves putting together reviews that try to heat-seek the essence of everything they watch. They are interested in New Writing, Literary Adaptations, Musicals, Cabaret, and Stand-Up. Jake aims to cover themes like Class, Nationality, Identity, Queerness, and AI/Automation.
Festivals: EdFringe (2018-2024), Brighton Fringe (2019), Paris Fringe (2020), VAULT Festival (2023), Prague Fringe (2023-24), Dundee Fringe (2023)
Pronouns: They/Them
Contact: jake@bingefringe.com
Moss is a bit of a globetrotter and struggles to stay in one country for long. They first fell in love with fringe theatre in Prague in 2014 and first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018 as an improv comedian. They’re interested in a broad range of genres but are particularly excited by themes of neurodiversity and immigration. Their favourite drink is a foamy pint of Pilsner Urquell – it was their first beer and tastes of teenage freedom.
Festivals: EdFringe (2023-24), Prague Fringe (2024)
Pronouns: They/Them
Contact: moss@bingefringe.com
