Guildhall at the Fringe and Edinburgh International Festival

The annual Edinburgh International Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe return from 2 – 26 August, and this year plays host to a number of shows written, designed, performed or worked on by Guildhall School students, staff, alumni and friends.

We round up all the #GuildhallEdinburgh activity – and if we've missed out your show, please get in touch with us at alumni@gsmd.ac.uk so we can add it to the list!

 

BBC Symphony Orchestra

 

13 August
Usher Hall

Christina Gansch joins our friends the BBC Symphony Orchestra for this magical work, with conductor Semyon Bychkov – much admired for his compelling energy and his exquisite poise – on the podium.

 

Big Band Does Broadway

 

12 – 17 August
theSpaceTriplex

Max Ellenberger (Jazz 2019)
Caitlin Heathcote (BMus Oboe)

BBD Productions make their debut at the Fringe with Big Band Does… Broadway. Join an 18-piece band and a cast of singers and dancers to journey through Broadway’s greatest hits from the 40s to current day. From Company to A Chorus Line, Hairspray to Hamilton, and West Side Story to Wicked we can guarantee there will be something for everyone in this high energy, fast paced celebration of musical theatre.

 

Breaking the Waves

 

21 – 24 August
King's Theatre

Elgan Llŷr Thomas (Opera 2016)
Duncan Rock (Opera 2010)

Breaking the Waves is a wrenching moral drama about a woman’s twisted bargain with God. Based on Lars von Trier’s controversial film, US composer Missy Mazzoli’s opera won the 2017 Best New Opera Award at the Music Critics Association of North America and was shortlisted the same year for an International Opera Award.

 

Dido and Aeneas

 

9 – 10 August
St Andrew's and St George's West

Rachael Liddell (BMus Vocal Studies)

Once again this exciting ensemble performs Henry Purcell's glorious masterpiece. In this semi-staged production, Coro 19 and the small instrumental ensemble are directed from the harpsichord by Neil Metcalfe. Guildhall mezzo-soprano Rachael Liddell takes the title role and tenor Guy Johnson sings Aeneas, while the part of Belinda is taken by Carey Irving.

 

Fat Blast and Crackers: 101 Sketches in 50 minutes!

 

2 – 11 August
Just the Tonic at The Caves

Tallulah Bond (Acting 2018)

How many comedy sketches does it take to screw in a light bulb? 30? 50?! 100?! Well we've gone one better, literally. Join The Scribbling Ape as we embark on a brain-boggling quest to deliver 101 hilarious sketches in just 50 minutes! Audiences can expect a maelstrom of gags that strike with the precision of a scorpion's tail, erupt with the vigour of a solar tsunami and sparkle with the flavours of aurora borealis... there will also be at least one sketch about a slug. Catch us at Just the Tonic!

 

Lawrence Brownlee & Iain Burnside

 

16 August
The Queen's Hall

Iain Burnside piano

US tenor Lawrence Brownlee performs alongside pianist and Guildhall professor Iain Burnside, pianist of choice for many of the globe’s most respected singers, in Schumann’s romantic masterpiece of sorrow, fury, hope and joy.

 

London Symphony Orchestra

 

21 August
Usher Hall

Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra return following two exceptional performances at the International Festival 2018 with a pair of deeply stirring, richly coloured works.

 

Mouthpiece

 

1 – 4, 6 – 11, 13 – 18, 20 – 25 August
Traverse Theatre

Orla O'Loughlin director

After a critically acclaimed London run, the powerful Traverse Theatre hit about class, culture and appropriation returns with a new cast. Salisbury Crags. Twilight. A woman takes a step forward into the air. A teenage boy pulls her back. Two lives are changed forever. Frank, unflinching and threaded with unexpected humour, Mouthpiece takes a look at two different sides of Edinburgh that exist in ignorance of one another, and asks whether it’s possible to tell someone else’s story without exploiting them along the way. Written by Kieran Hurley (Beats). Directed by Guildhall Vice-Principal and Director of Drama Orla O'Loughlin.

‘A gripping, truthful play for our times’ ***** (Stage)

 

Notflix: The Improvised Musical

 

31 July, 2 – 26 August
Gilded Balloon - Debating Hall

Flick Chilton (Saxophone 2017, Students' Union President)

The "Spice Girls of improv" return for a fourth triumphant year in their five-star, sell-out, totally improvised musical comedy Notflix. Inspired by audience suggestions, the all-female cast improvise the musical version of your favourite films, creating movies with 100% more singing, 99% more women and a full live band. Notflix. Because everything is better as a musical! As heard on BBC Radio 5 Live.

'Roaringly funny and incredibly talented' ***** (BroadwayBaby.com)
'A little piece of theatrical genius' ***** (NorthWestEnd.co.uk)
'Flawless' ***** (TheLiveReview.co.uk)

 

Now That’s What I Call Brexit

 

31 July, 1 – 11, 13 – 18, 20 – 26 August
Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose

Samuel Wilson (Composition 2017)

May. Corbyn. Boris. Mogg. The perpetrators of Boris the Musical are back. And this time, they've left no one out. From referendum woes to constitutional calamity, relive the Brexit shitstorm. In song!

'Pacy, irreverent, rude and very funny' **** (TheReviewsHub.com, on Boris the Musical)

 

Peter Gynt

 

1 – 10 August
Festival Theatre

Martin Quinn (Acting 2016)

Peter Gynt is a provocative, raucous reboot of Ibsen’s epic verse play, created by David Hare and directed by Jonathan Kent, in a major co-production with National Theatre of Great Britain. In this radical new version, David Hare kidnaps Ibsen’s most famous hero and runs away with him into the 21st century, transposing him from Norway to Scotland.

'James McArdle is dazzling in this laugh-out-loud production' ***** (The Independent)

 

Random Bag Check

 

3 – 25 August
Voodoo Rooms

Vittorio Angelone (Percussion 2018)

Sadia is a British Asian comedian from London tackling sex, relationships and identity in her no holds barred style. She also hosts the BBC podcast No Country For Young Women. Vittorio is an Irish Italian comedian from Belfast who is trying very hard to get used to English people and life in London.

‘Wonderfully subversive comedy’ (Chortle)

 

Red Dust Road

 

14 – 18 August
The Lyceum

Stefan Adegbola (Acting 2013)

Red Dust Road is adapted from the soul-searching memoir by Jackie Kay, poet, playwright, novelist and Scottish Makar. It’s a journey full of heart, humour and profound emotion, exploring race, identity and family secrets, with a deeply human curiosity and compassion.

 

Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran

 

2 – 4, 6 – 11, 13 – 18, 20 – 25 August
Traverse Theatre

Jess Bernberg (Technical Theatre 2017)

The global gap between rich and poor grows. As the world is decaying, the spawn of the powerful dance like everyone is watching. From the company behind the award-winning The Believers Are But Brothers, this is a darkly comedic, urgent new play about entitlement, consumption and digital technology, exploring cycles of historic decline and rebirth and the ways societies try to reproduce themselves. Created by artist, writer and activist Javaad Alipoor. Co-commissioned by Theatre in the Mill, Diverse Actions, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Battersea Arts Centre and Bush Theatre.

 

Roots

 

13 – 17 August
theSpace at Surgeons Hall - Theatre 3

Elisabeth Flett (Recorder 2017)

A new solo folk performance about loss, language and cultural identity. Roots is an exploration of what it's like to lose home, and a questioning of whether it’s possible to re-find what is lost. Using a mixture of spoken word, Scottish traditional folk tunes and songs, archive material and her own original compositions, Elisabeth explores the theme of displacement through her personal experience as a Scottish teenager moving away from a close-knit village community and into an alien, sprawling city across the border. This is a story about leaving, arriving, self-identity, and above all, hope.

 

ROSL Recitals

 

5 – 16 August
The Royal Scots Club

Dominic Degavino (Guildhall Artist Masters, Piano)
Jonathan Ferrucci (Piano 2018)
Ashley Fripp (Doctoral Researcher & Pianist)
Marmen Quartet (String Quartet Fellows)
Leo Popplewell (Guildhall Artist Masters, Cello)
Jennifer Witton (Opera 2018)

Guildhall musicians and alumni perform as part of the Royal Overseas League (ROSL) Recitals series, more than 30 concerts across two weeks at the Royal Scots Club. Enjoy Bach or Beethoven for Breakfast, then Chopin, Rachmaninov or Gershwin After Lunch, before taking in some Brahms, Mozart or Debussy at Teatime. With three concerts every weekday, there is something for everyone. All expertly performed by ROSL's Annual Music Competition prizewinners and scholars from around the Commonwealth.

See the full ROSL Recitals programme.

 

Rust

 

13 – 25 August
Assembly Roxy, Downstairs

Jess Bernberg (Technical Theatre Arts 2017)

'Rule number eleven: we don't talk about them. They don't exist here'. Nadia and Daniel have a secret. In fact they have quite a few. They've just signed on the line for a studio flat. Under a pseudonym, naturally – Mr and Mrs White. After years of school pick-ups, TV takeaways, and the drudgery of married life, this is their chance to wipe the slate clean. But as much as they try and redefine the rules, and themselves, the outside world is closing in. Sexy and funny, Rust pushes the boundaries of trust, love and lust to the limit.

 

Siblings: The Siblinginging

 

31 July, 1 – 13, 15 – 26 August
Underbelly, George Square

Marina Bye (Acting 2015)

Following last year's sell-out show, character comedians and IRL sisters Maddy and Marina are back and bigger than ever (at least physically). This August will see them squeeze their genes (and jeans) into the auld heffer. Expect Gaulier-trained clowning from Maddy, intensely serious acting from Marina and a whole closet full of family secrets. Don't forget to bring a box of tissues! (Material is suitable for anyone who has, or has seen a sister).

'Totally absurd' ***** (BroadwayBaby.com)
'Outrageous ridiculous character comedy' **** (ScotsGay.co.uk)
'Rising Stars of British Comedy' (Mail on Sunday)

 

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

 

12 – 17 August
Paradise in Augustines

Caitlin Heathcote (BMus Oboe)

Award-winning Room 29 Theatre return with this fast-paced Tony Award-winning musical, following an eclectic group of six mid-pubescents that vie for the spelling championship of a lifetime. The tweens spell their way through a series of words hoping to never hear the soul-crushing ding of the bell that signals a spelling mistake, all while candidly disclosing hilarious and touching stories from their home life. Six spellers enter; one speller leaves! At least the losers get a juice box. A riotous ride complete with audience participation, this bee is one unforgettable experience.

 

The Good Scout

 

2 – 12, 14 – 24 August
theSpace at Surgeon's Hall

Jack Wills (Technical Theatre 2017)

Inspired by true events. In the 1930s, Baden-Powell and Von Ribbentrop, Hitler's ambassador, decreed that British boy scouts and Hitler Youth should learn from one another. In Bassington, England, the local troop play host to a cycling party of Hitlerjugend – but are the German boys cyclists or "spyclists"? For Will and Jacob, two Rover Scouts on the cusp of manhood, it is a visit that will change their lives forever. As war looms, a heart-wrenching, darkly humorous drama about espionage, scout's honour and forbidden love unfolds. From writer/director of Kids Play ***** (Bobby Award winner, BroadwayBaby.com).

 

The Perfect Opera

 

3 – 10 August
Paradise in the Vault, The Annexe

Leo Doulton (MA Opera Making and Writing 2017)
Erika Gundeson (Piano – Repetiteur 2016)

Love! Death! And a pantomime camel! After extensive audience research, we listed the 47 things people demanded in operas and shoehorned them into this show. Macbeth enters, riding a camel. Macbeth and the camel are deeply in love – but when Lady Macbeth finds out, magic, murder and a mad scene ensue. With drag queens, ballet scenes and social relevance (but not forcing ideas down your throat), this hip-hop foxtrot operatic sketch comedy show is (technically) The Perfect Opera. Winner of the Francis Chagrin Award from the Sound and Music Foundation.

 

Trump the Musical

 

31 July, 1 – 11, 13 – 18, 20 – 26 August
Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose

Samuel Wilson (Composition 2017)

Edinburgh's 2018 smash hit returns! 2020. Time to Make Donald Great Again. But can King Nigel Farage of England get his trade deal? Will Kim Jong Un ever stop messing about with missiles? Why has Vladimir Putin gone suspiciously quiet? From the perpetrators of Boris the Musical – **** (TheReviewsHub.com) – comes something far worse. Join Blowfish Theatre for raucous satire, great original music and one truly awful wig!

***** (NorthWestEnd.co.uk).

 

What Girls Are Made Of

 

1 – 6, 8 – 11, 13 – 18, 20 – 25 August
Assembly Hall

Orla O'Loughlin director

Based on her own diaries, the true story of Cora Bissett's rollercoaster journey from 90s indie-kid hopeful to wised-up woman. Touring with Radiohead, partying with Blur; she was living the dream. Until she wasn't... Performing with a live band, Cora celebrates life's euphoric highs and epic lows, asking what wisdom we should pass to the next generation and which glorious mistakes we should let them make. 2018 Fringe smash, directed by Guildhall Vice-Principal and Director of Drama Orla O'Loughlin.

'A life-changing litany of pure joy' ***** (Herald)
'Punchy, exhilarating, candid and emotionally raw' ***** (Skinny)
'Well-deserved standing ovation' ***** (BroadwayWorld.com)

See the full Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh International Festival listings.