Popcorn Group, the innovative film, television and theatre production company, will be partnering once again with BBC Writersroom for the Popcorn Writing Award which champions brave and imaginative writing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that are best adaptable to the screen. Set up in 2019, the award offers a prize fund of £6,000 directly to the winner and finalists. The only award of its kind, it celebrates fearless work which playfully and artistically questions and addresses current affairs, societal trends and contributes positively to public debate. Submissions are NOW OPEN to all pieces of new writing shown at either the Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance, The SpaceUK, Summerhall, Traverse or Underbelly.

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Today New Diorama Theatre and Underbelly are announcing a renewed three-year partnership, relaunching their hit-making Untapped Award, originally developed in 2018 and aimed at discovering and supporting emerging theatre makers at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. From 2023, Concord Theatricals also join the partnership, helping supercharge the support offered to diverse-led companies showcasing work at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Nouveau Riche – Queens of Sheba courtesy of Guy J Saunders

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The eight major producing venues behind EdFest.com– which comprise Assembly, Dance Base, Gilded Balloon, Just the Tonic, Pleasance, Summerhall, Underbellyand ZOO– collectively commented that soaring accommodation costs are the biggest risk to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s future. 1,965,961 tickets were collectively sold by the eight venues in 2019 while more than 1,486,746 are forecast to be sold this year.

A spokesperson for EdFest.com said: “It has been fantastic to be back at the first full Fringe since 2019 – to see the live performance industry come roaring back to life in this post-pandemic world. There has been a real appetite and energy for shared, live experiences in Edinburgh over the last few weeks and the quality of the programme has been incredible – yet, the forecast number of tickets we’ve collectively sold is down 25% compared to 2019 which is a major threat  for everyone involved in the festival.”

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It can be underestimated and taken for granted the level of patience and empathy needed when taking on a care role, the role of rapport a powerful indicator as to whether the day will go well or not. Exploring the notion of care in his latest stand up piece, comedian Bilal Zafar looks back at his own personal experience of taking on the role of a care worker at the age of 21 in his show Care, offering an honest insight into what the role entails and the impact this has had on him years on.

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In celebration of our 5th birthday this July, we’ll be collaborating with 5 theatres to give away a pair of tickets to 5 of London’s top theatre shows. You could win a pair of tickets to: The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives at the Arcola, Pity at the Royal Court, The One at Soho Theatre, Che Malambo at Sadler’s Wells or Circolombia at the Underbelly.

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We find ourselves living in a time whereby expectations of marriage and settling down have shifted. The age and pace in which these rites of passage are expected to occur have been pushed back at least a decade. Relationship-wise, it’s becoming socially acceptable to be a young female and single, and this is a right that Lauren Gauge explores in her unapologetically defiant one woman show, The Unmarried.

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Picture the scene, it’s the 1950s and a new wave of music is taking the world by storm, toe tapping melodies, poetic verses, catchy choruses,  upbeat singing tones… it’s the era of manufactured pop. Thousands upon thousands of screaming fans await the arrival of the latest pop phenomenon of the moment as they disembark from a plane or take to the stage. These iconic images will forever mark out the beginnings of pop culture for many years to come.

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Beyond was a breathtaking exploration of the beauty and strength of the human form, without failing to also portray the body’s strange grotesqueness. In a frantic hour of flying chairs, Rubik’s cubes, animal costumes and impersonations, unbelievable contortion and awesome gymnastics, Circa’s contribution to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, playing at Underbelly’s McEwan Hall, did as promised and went well beyond what I believed the body had the capacity to do.

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