Queens of Sheba, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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by Laura Kressly

In 2015, four black women were turned away from the nightclub DSTRKT for being ‘too black’. It temporarily drew attention to systemic racism, but black women still encounter racism everywhere. In schools, work places, social situations and in public spaces, black women must conform to standards of behaviour and appearance that are dictated by white people. 

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Flushed, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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By Laura Kressly

Marnie and Jen are sisters and the best of friends. They share a flat, dating stories and countless nights out. There isn’t anything they don’t know about each other – until Marnie casually mentions a doctor’s appointment she has coming up. 

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Mengele and Gulliver Returns, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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by Laura Kressly

Misogyny is everywhere, even in stories that aren’t about misogyny. A mysterious woman saves a drowning man who treats her like scum, and a beleaguered wife tolerates a torrent of abuse in the name of genius, but these scenarios lie within stories with more dominant narratives. 

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Status, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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By Laura Kressly

Chris Thorpe has a parasitic worm somewhere under his sternum that is as much a part of him as he is of it. It’s not something he used to really notice but since Brexit, he feels it deep within his chest. He’s now had enough of it and now would do anything to get it out of his body. 

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She-Wolves, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

by guest critic Rebecca JS Nice

I took a punt with She-Wolves on a rainy day in Edinburgh at Greenside. A historian and feminist myself, a title like She-Wolves is right up my alley. As well as that, the rising status of gender history and a search for female heroines across the arts makes it a piece of its time.

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Revelations, Summerhall

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by Laura Kressly

James Rowland’s trilogy about his best mates Tom and Sarah began with Team Viking two years ago on the free fringe. A Hundred Different Words for Love followed, and the story now comes to a close with the funny and tragic process of growing up that begins with donating sperm to Sarah and her partner Emma.

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The Ballad of the Apathetic Son and the Narcisisstic Mother, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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by Laura Kressly

Lucy and her son Raedie have grown apart in recent years. Lucy is worried that her son lacks empathy, and Raedie thinks his mum is full of herself. Both of them love Aussie pop star Sia though, so they use her music, dance and physical theatre to explore their relationship and reconnect with each other in this real-life mother and son show.

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Alma: A Human Voice, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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By Laura Kressly

Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler was the wife of three famous artists and the lover of a fourth. A composer herself, her achievements are overshadowed by the men she loved. It’s the typical tragic narrative of talented women from the past, and this show unfortunately perpetuates it. 

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On the Exhale, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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By Laura Kressly

There are guns everywhere in America. Real ones, and pictures of them, hidden and overtly displayed. This constant threat of violence gives the unnamed uni lecturer and mum in this monologue nightmares and anxiety attacks. She awaits the day when a male student takes issue with his grades, or the course content, or anything else that threatens his masculinity and barges into her office or classroom and guns her down.

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