ROUND-UP: Dundee Fringe Launches its 6th Edition Today – Here’s a Look at What to Expect…

In the North East of Scotland and no less than two weeks after the close of the titanic Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Dundee Fringe has long shone as proof that a thriving festival arts scene can exist in Scotland outside of August. Charismatic directors JD Henshaw And Heather-Rose Andrews have curated a belter of a programme this year – offering 108 shows across the coming 10 days from many corners of the Globe. Expect the unexpected, and if you’re familiar with the festival, an entirely new feel.

Formerly taking place within the often fascinating confines of the now-closed Keiller Shopping Centre, the festival has migrated across the city centre, taking place in a multi-venue format for the first time in its history. The two new homes for a head-spinning amount of performing arts over the coming week and a half are Sweet@The Steps Theatre, housed in Dundee Central Library, and the Little Theatre, just across the road.

Representing the home team and bringing a wealth of Scottish new writing, award-winning EdFringe sell-out Parasocial Activity (★★★★★) from Scottish performer Briony Martha arrives to Dundee. Martha also performers in PALS (★★★★★), Mirren Wilson’s love letter to female friendship and the Great Scottish Outdoors. On similar ground, Cath Barrett plays Skye in My Friend, The Mountain, an exploration of the Scottish hills and how ‘putting one foot in front of the other is always enough’.

Arriving internationally, Italy-based Pequod Compagnia bring Boxeur (★★★★★), seeing the story of two boxers turn into a collective revolution: Eugenio becomes the boxer-worker who fights for all the exploited workers like him. Victor, the symbol of one who does not lower his head even before Nazi-fascism. Prague-based international collective Limbo Pins offer the international debut of Raynar Rogers’ new piece Self Partnered, taking audiences inside the mind of Candice, a woman whose singular purpose is to find romantic love, much to her mother’s chagrin.

One-person shows are a noticeable trend at this Fringe. From Ireland, Ari Bhatti brings SWEAT, a a naked dance-theatre show which explores Ireland’s relationship to nudity in the wake of the climate crisis. Will Oliver brings his inventive and gizmo-laden one-man horror For An Eye, while Chris Brannick from TwoFoolish Productions offers up a look into the legacy of the late Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett in Crazy Diamond.

Cabaret and off-beat offerings are similarly a-plenty, with Transhausen’s Dollhouse offering up fanDOM, a drag and burlesque cabaret show bringing a fun twist on their favourite characters from different fandoms, and the festival seeing the return of the satirical vaudevillian cabaret duo The Creative Martyrs in CABAPOCALYPSARET. Meanwhile, Pamela Banchetti’s Forget Me. is described as a tale wrapped in a crocheted blanket, told by a dancer who weaves it through her body, into a poetry of invented words, mime, explosive movement expression and games of shadow and light. Oh, and comedian Scott Redmond is doing an hour where he claims he will only sing ABBA songs, with definitely no twist attached.

Topical comedy also takes centre-stage in this year’s programme, with Harun Musho’d bringing the aptly titled A History of the Last Conservative Government, In Their Own Stupid Words. Excel expert and stand-up comedian David Benaim returns with the insightful and fascinating Excel and Mathem-antics. From the world of Spoken Word, Aditya Narayan offers up a look into migration, language, and multicultural memory through poems in My Name is a Two-Person Sport, while Eve Mumford explores what happens when you spend 30 years taking life’s wrong turns, and how you rewrite the plot in Love Did A Number On Me.

This is only a brief look at an expansive programme taking place in Scotland’s sunniest city in the coming days. Be sure to check out the full programme and book tickets on the Dundee Fringe website.