Assembly Festival, one of Edinburgh’s leading Festival Fringe venues, has today (Monday 27 March) announced over 100 shows for its 2023 programme.
The festival, which is housed year-round at Assembly Roxy, is returning to its familiar venues at Assembly Rooms, Assembly Hall, Assembly George Square and Gardens, and Assembly Checkpoint. The festival will also have a presence in Edinburgh’s historic Grassmarket for the first time, as Assembly joins forces with Dance Base, with a collaborative programme of dance and physical theatre to be announced in April.
Once again Assembly’s programme brings some of the best entertainers from around the world to perform in Edinburgh. The festival’s flagship venue, Assembly Hall will vibrate with energy as Afrique en Cirque brings the colourful agility and artistry of African culture to the Fringe, all with a contemporary Afro-Jazz soundtrack.
All female Australian circus troupe YUCK Circus bring their trademark high-flying acrobatics, absurd confessions and groovy dancing to the Palais du Variété spiegeltent; Quebec circus duo Agathe et Adrien invert the gender roles in N.Ormes; and macabre circus darlings are at once jaw-dropping and hauntingly hilarious in Party Ghost. The Korean and Taiwan seasons return, from South Korea is HELLO, THE HELL: OTHELLO, The Maids, The Messenger, and part of the Taiwan Season #Since1994. Plus, festival favourites 360 ALLSTARS and The Black Blues Brothers.
For families looking for circus fun, international children’s circus duo Brotipo are back, ARC Circus bring their family friendly climate tale Bee Story from Australia to Edinburgh, and FailFailFailFailWin teaches the importance of perseverance in this comic circus show.
There will be plenty to laugh about with a bumper comedy programme from the absurd to the political. Assembly’s flagship comedy line up show, Best of the Fest returns to Assembly Hall for 2023, with its family-friendly sister show Best of the Fest: Daytime bringing the best variety acts to the Palais du Variété.
Best of the Fest: New Class also returns to George Square featuring the best rising comedy stars from across the festival. Plus, the late-night trans/non-binary/female mixed bill comedy show, Party showcases a star-studded line-up every Friday night.
Fringe favourites Police Cops: The Musical are back and bigger than ever; 2022’s most in-demand debut Julia Masli: CHOOSH! returns for a limited run; Ted Hill: Tries And Fails To Fix Climate Change; and genuine original Rob Auton brings The Rob Auton Show.
The magic of the Fringe is clear, as Britain’s Got Talent Semi-Finalist and Penn & Teller trained inventor and illusionist Kevin Quantum amazes audiences at Assembly’s Music Hall with his death-defying stunts in his spectacular show Momentum. Plus, more mysticism and trickery from Ben Hart: Jadoo; Chris Dugdale: Ethermind; Dom Chambers: A Boy and His Deck; and the Adults Only Magic Show.
The songs of The Proclaimers take the spotlight in Edinburgh’s Captivate Theatre’s five-star production of Sunshine on Leith; and there’s sequins, reality television, and the complete works of Oscar Wilde in Oscar at the Crown, an immersive nightclub musical detailing one of history’s most flamboyant figures.
In theatre, the Handspring Puppet Company (of War Horse and Little Amal-fame) come to Assembly Festival with the UK Premiere of JM Coetzee’s Life & Times of Michael K, adapted for the stage by Lara Foot, in collaboration with the Tony Award-winning Handspring Puppet Company and two-time Fringe First winners The Baxter Theatre. And from the makers of 2022’s Space Hippo, comes an epic fantasy adventure, Shadow Kingdom, using over four hundred shadow puppets.
TV’s Tim Marriott brings back his two contemporary plays Appraisal and Watson: The Final Problem; with new writing from Douglas Walker in My Father’s Nose; Alison Skilbeck’s Uncommon Ground; Brian Parks’ Shortlist; THE ROSENBERG/STRANGE FRUIT PROJECT, directed by Fringe First Award winner Margarett Perry; and This Is Not A Play (It’s A Pathetic Cry For Help) the first play from Jonas Müller.
Familiar stories get retold with an adaptation of 1984; the story behind the greatest film ever made in Raising Kane; and Norse mythology explored the medium of full contact wrestling in Mythos: Ragnarok. Plus, new tales are formed around issues of the day in Blood of the Lamb; Blue; and stark bollock naked.
2022’s interactive smash hit Temping returns; and there’s more immersive comedy with An Afternoon with the Ladies of the Cliff Richard Fan Club, Sutton Coldfield, 1995. There’s experimental theatre in new solo show, Layers, which uses projections to capture all the characters; and theatrical and cinematic dance work in Lost Soles.
The UK theatre tradition of drag takes the spotlight when a bin man swaps steel-toed boots for stilettos in Wasteman; and a northern matriarch’s filthy, naughty and wickedly funny story in Wildcat’s Last Waltz. Berlin’s prince and princess of Europop serve in Otto & Astrid’s Joint Solo Project, the magical worlds of clown, bouffon, tragedy, improvisation, cabaret and physical comedy meet in Be My Guest; and inspired by the unsolved murder of a sex worker in Leith, 1983, 2022’s five-star show Salamander celebrates the underrepresented through original poetry and song.
William Burdett-Coutts OBE, Artistic Director of Assembly Festival said: “We look forward to welcoming the world to Edinburgh this August for the largest celebration of human creativity and artistic endeavour. The Assembly programme is an intoxicating collection of shows for audiences to enjoy, with over 100 shows from 15 different countries so far, with more to be announced in the coming months.”
Assembly’s summer season begins on Friday 14 July when its festival hub Assembly George Square Gardens opens to welcome the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival. The Edinburgh Food Festival, the city’s largest free-to-enter food festival, follows close behind running 21-30 July; with Assembly Festival’s Fringe programme kicking off on Wednesday 02 August.
Assembly Festival is one of Edinburgh’s largest and the Fringe’s longest running multi-venue operators. Assembly’s Fringe programme will be performed across the city at Assembly Rooms, Assembly Hall, Assembly George Square Studios and Gardens, Assembly Roxy, Assembly Checkpoint, and new for 2023 Assembly @ Dance Base.
Tickets for Assembly Festival shows are available now from the Assembly Festival Box Office www.assemblyfestival.com.
