Assembly Festival, announces its final 50+ shows for 2022, including Frank Skinner, Al Murray, Jinkx Monsoon (RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 contestant, season 5 winner); Queen of Fake Alison Jackson; and Fringe favourite Reuben Kaye.
Plus, comedy fundraisers Stand Up For Your Planet (22 Aug), Comic Relief Live! (15 Aug), and Max and Ivan’s The Wrestling where fringe comedians grapple with ripped pro wrestlers (23 Aug) go on sale.
Along with the inaugural David Johnson Emerging Talent Award show (28 Aug) celebrating the life of this maverick producer whose ‘fringe finds’ included Graham Norton and Puppetry of the Penis; and Best of the Fest: The New Class a brand-new, late-night showcase of new talent appearing at this year’s Fringe.
Assembly’s stellar comedy line-up for 2022 just keeps on growing. Onsale today are Australian stand-up Dan Rath; Japan’s comedy sketch group JalJal with their hilarious new show of improvised skits ARIGATO; 5-star comedy from the Aboriginal Comedy Allstars; brilliant improv from Baby Wants Candy supergroup’s hip-hop homage Shamilton; sketch comedy from Rosie Nicholls (NewsRevue) and Sullivan Brown (No Rolls Barred) in Grubby Little Mitts; and a fantastic line-up of newcomers including Pinder award-winner Danielle Walker.
Cabaret debuts this year include Mark Borkowski, the Doyen of the Publicity Stunt who will be speaking about his extraordinary career; and Queen of Fake Alison Jackson with her show about diva doppelgangers and celebrity fake takes.
Also joining the glamorous cabaret line-up (that includes Jinkx Monsoon and Reuben Kaye) is chanteuse Tina del Twist – winner of this year’s Comics’ Choice Award in Melbourne.
And joining Diane Chorley at Assembly’s late-night 80s Underground venue The Flick is Bristol’s best trans/non-binary/female comedy night Party: All-Stars; Wacky Racists hosted by Taskmaster star Sophie Duker; Dan Wye creator of Séayoncé with a brand-new show Dan Wye Am I Sam Smith; and Mark Watson (Taskmaster) and Michael Chakraverty (Bake Off) bring their hugely popular podcast menkind to Edinburgh for the first time.
In dance, circus and physical theatre we welcome hip-hop breakin’ dance group EBNFLOH from Montreal with their new show In-Ward; the return of Cluster Arts & A Good Catch Circus with their award-winning intergenerational circus show Casting Off and their new show Zoe; supercharged urban circus from the BMX, basketball, breakdancing, beatboxing, acrobatics 360 ALLSTARS; one of Australia’s most prolific dance theatre artists angel-monster – a show about equality, ownership and respect set in a field of laundry with a full female cast of contemporary dancers; Rouge a decadent blend of sensational acrobatics, operatic cabaret and twisted burlesque from Melbourne; and Collision – contemporary circus and street dance from Casus Creations & Mad Dance House.
In theatre, audiences can look forward to Love Loss and Chianti with Robert Bathurst (Cold Feet, Downton Abbey) featuring glorious animations from cartoonist Charles Peattie; Bloke and His American Bantu about the transatlantic camaraderie of Bloke Modisane a South African writer/journalist exiled in the UK and his letter correspondence with Langston Hughes an African American Writer/Poet; 9 Circles directed by Olivier Winner Guy Masterson; How I Learned What I Learned – the UK/European premiere of autobiographical solo show by August Wilson chronicling his life as a Black artist in Pittsburgh, performed by Wali Jamal; She/Her presented by Brian Cox and Actors Rising Productions – a multimedia performance by eight women who share their stories of hope, fear, loss trauma, passion, ancestry, motherhood and more.
This year’s theatre programme also includes Temping which is a fully immersive show for one audience member at a time, set in a basement office where the audience has been hired to fill in and temp for Sarah Jane, who is on vacation; One Man Lord of the Rings and One Man Star Wars Trilogy starring Charles Ross who recreates Middle Earth and battles his way across the Universe in no less than 100,000 characters; We Should Definitely have More Dancing a one-woman show based on a the real-life story of having brain damage when you are in the prime of your life; the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s new musicals Godspell, and Little Women; absurdist comedy in CJ Hopkins’ hilarious Horse Country starring clowns Sam and Bob drinking bourbon and shooting the breeze; Tom about the devastating impact that suicide has on family; Second Body with new work Concept for a Film about interconnectedness, human extinction and fungi; and Helter Skelter – new theatre about a teenage runaway who joins the Charles Manson cult in the Californian desert.
In music, we welcome Tom Seals fresh from a sold out worldwide tour and a series on Sky TV with a brand-new celebrity live music and chat show; the fantastic local InChorus Choir; and Edinburgh’s favourite acoustic folk night Folksville hosted by the Edinburgh band the Paper Sparrows every Monday night.
For younger audiences Sean Choolburra with his Didj and Dance show; and Fringe favourite, and comedy-circus show Chores is back with an action-packed hour of cool stunts inspired by the antics of the best in slapstick – Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
William Burdett-Coutts, Artistic Director of Assembly Festival said: “After two years of not running a full programme, this year’s line-up is back with a bang packed with incredible shows. I’m delighted that we have artists coming from Canada, USA, Japan, South Africa and all over the world, as well as some fantastic new work from artists based right here in Edinburgh. 2022 is a crucial year to get the festival back up and running as the greatest arts and entertainment festival in the world and it’s also when we will be celebrating our delayed 40th anniversary on the Fringe. We hope, to see thousands and thousands of people coming out. The best support the Festival can get is people buying tickets and enjoying the wealth of shows available.”
Edinburgh’s longest running multi-venue operator, Assembly Festival’s summer season begins on 15 July when it welcomes the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival to Assembly George Sqaure Gardens and Assembly Roxy; before the Edinburgh Food Festival returns once again 22 – 31 July. Its festival programme will kick off on Wednesday 3 August with the Assembly Gala showcase. After a reduced programme in 2021, this year sees Assembly return to its usual venues, with performances at George Square Gardens and Studios, Assembly Hall, Assembly Checkpoint, and the Assembly Rooms on George Street where Assembly started over 40 years ago.
Bookings can be made at www.assemblyfestival.com or by calling 0131 623 3030.
