Tab Guide to the Fringe: Act 2

While the wannabe Frys/Lauries/Toksvigs head to Edinburgh to flex their comic muscle, the Fringe also sees scores of shows put on by Cambridge’s finest (and lets be honest keenest) thespians. The Tab gives you the highlights not to be missed.

The Wives of Others 

Time: 19:55

Dates: 14–29 August

Venue: C Venues – C+3 Chronicling the violent and duplicitous events of one evening, ‘The Wives of Others’ promises foul-language, blood and alcohol a-plenty. With an all-female cast and original script by one of Cambridge University’s most prolific playwrights, this is a
brutally stylish, Tarantino-esque, pitch-black comedy unlike anything you’ve seen.

“Fuck you and your tiramisu!”

Stoppard’s Arcadia

Time: 16:25

Dates: 14-28 August

Venue: Spotlites Theatre

In the schoolroom of a country estate in the 1800s, thirteen-year old Thomasina is discovering the truth about sex. In the same room about 200 years later, a group of academics are still trying to work it out. Arcadia is a fast-paced, deliciously funny contemporary classic, brimming with Byronic wit and sizzling with barely repressed sexual tension. You might even learn something!

‘The universe is deterministic alright, just like Newton said, I mean it’s trying to be, but the only thing going wrong is people fancying people who aren’t supposed to be in that part of the plan.’

Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Time:11:35

Dates: 22 – 27 August

Venue: theSpace @Niddry Street (Lower)

Madness? Love. A forgotten heroine / tragedy / suicide: oppression mining all within, infects unseen. That’s for remembrance. Pray. Remember Hamlet… and Ophelia.  Shakespeare’s most popular tragedy in 80 minutes. No diversion, no distraction. Witness the events unfurl before your eyes.

Stripped to its roots, experience the truth of Shakespeare’s play

The Country Wife

Time: 10:30

Dates: 5-27 August

Venue: the Space on the Mile
The newly-divorced Harry Horner has spread a rumour of his own impotence around the country club. The reason? To seduce his wayacross the affluent, leafy town of Blandford, New England, come hell, high water or jealous husband.

Relocated to suburban America by the team that ‘masterfully adapted’ (The Tab) Tristram Shandy for the stage, William Wycherley’s Restoration classic has never been funnier.

‘Tristram Shandy: Live At Scotland!’ 

Time: 21:35

Dates: 10- 28th August

Venue: C Nova, Chambers StreetTristram Shandy’s sizzling autobiography, ‘The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman’, has just hit the shelves and the author has announced a nation-wide tour: a theatrical extravaganza which captures the scandal, wit and wisdom of this instant classic. This adaptation of Laurence Sterne’s hilarious and ground-breaking novel takes you on a compelling tour through the life and opinions of Britain’s finest Tristram.

Head to C Nova for an evening like no other, and revel in the sex, the song, the dance, the love, the lies and that bit where he gets his thingy trapped in a sash window.

So there we have it- the complete guide of the dramatic and comic highlights to justify to your parents that your trip to Edinburgh this August is an educational exercise broadening your cultural horizons. Oh yeah, they also have battered mars bars which is always a perk.