Supporting an extraordinary six shows with £50,000 direct investment at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the 2023 Charlie Hartill winners have been announced by the Pleasance Theatre Trust. As Pleasance’s flagship fund offering unique and unparalleled support to theatre makers and comedians across the UK, these long-standing accolades provide a unique package of direct investment and mentoring support available across the Fringe. The fund seeks to remove financial risk for companies and allow creativity to take centre stage. Usually offering four opportunities for artists, one for emerging comedians, one for emerging theatre companies and two for UK-based Black, Asian and Global Majority-led theatre shows, this year the fund is supporting an unprecedented six shows due to the overwhelming quality of talent presented.

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Previously inhabited by the Taino and Arawak people before its colonisation by the Spanish in the late 15th to early 17th century and then by the French from the early 17th century to the late 18th century, the nation of Haiti would officially receive its independence in 1804 – the nation part of the Transatlantic Slave Trade which witnessed many from West African countries shipped away from their native lands and endure generations of pain and torture. Exploring the little known historical figures that have shaped the Caribbean island’s revolutionary history, writer Emily Aboud and Lagahoo Productions present Bogeyman.

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Living in the present, the now, is a powerful thing and something you learn to do if you take on any meditative practices. The appreciation of nature and what lies around us, whether visible or not to the eye realms you really learn to appreciate. A spiritual performance focused on the awakening of a wild woman, Zinnia Oberski presents Dreams of the Small Gods, a break away from your traditional production and channelling the energy of Shamanic practice.

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We’re beginning to live in a time whereby the rights and experiences of women are truly being put into the foreground, and this is significant. We’ve witnessed recently, how laws passed can negatively impact on communities; the Alabama case recently in which they passed a bill banning abortion serving as a stark reminder as to how far we societally have to go in order for  women’s voices to be heard and rights prioritise. Drawing from her own personal experiences, writer and performer Claire Rammelkamp talks about her first full length show, A Womb of One’s Own. Showing at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe from late July at the Pleasance Dome, we hear more about Claire’s creative process and being supported by the Charlie Harthill Theatre Reserve Fund.

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50 years since Ken Loach’s groundbreaking film, Cathy Come Home, Cardboard Citizens bring us a contemporary retelling, which opens doors for discussion and legislative action. Writer Ali Taylor brings a strong narrative, which places its protagonist at the root of homelessness, whilst surging political debate.

Courtesy of Cardboard Citizens.

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Before I came to Edinburgh an article was written which discussed the increase of medical shows coming to the festival this year, perhaps a reflection on the current political and economic turmoil. Gutted was the cover photo for the article, as it shares a personal experience of living with ulcerative colitis (an inflammatory bowel disease). An informal education with a refreshing personal insight in the NHS system, Liz Richardson invites us to witness her bodily functions in all their glory.

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The Inevitable Heartbreak of Gavin Plimsole is a contemporary piece of theatre in which the story revolves around a young man who is given a life changing diagnosis, making him contemplate everything and re-evaluate the choices and decisions he has made.

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DugOut returns to the Fringe with this new devised show, about a group of small town nobodies, who take on the local property-mogul casino owner Mickey, to save their favourite local boozer “The Sunset”. Punctuated by slick music and lightning fast movement sequences, The Sunset Five is exactly the sort of show you want to fill your days with at the Fringe.

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Heart warming and laugh out loud funny, Deborah Frances-White’s Half a Can of Worms showing at the Pleasance Dome is a charming tale of discovering who your family is whether biological or otherwise.

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