And so we embark again on the road to Edinburgh Festival season, although it’s probably felt like we’ve been on that road for a while now. This year, many of the major venues rolled out their first batch of line-up announcements as early as February, ensuring they can maximise sell-out shows for their top talent long before August rears its head. 

In the name of keeping a clean house, then, this Road premiere will share some of the best announcements from the past few months as well as a few more recent titbits that have caught our eye ('newsbits', if you like, although we'd prefer you didn't). In this week’s edition, major venues whip out the big guns, Zara Gladman shares her bills, and a demonic entertainer is reanimating for his return to the Fringe. 

Major venues announce first batch of shows…

… starting with Monkey Barrel Comedy, which promise more than 60 shows across nine venues. A few top picks include Liam Withnail, Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, Krystal Evans, Tamsyn Kelly, Ahir Shah and Sam Lake. Read the full announcement here. 

Also laying out their wares is the Pleasance (which gave top billing to Tape Face, Miriam Margolyes, Trainspotting Live and Paul Merton) and Just The Tonic, which will feature shows from Daniel Sloss, Conor Burns and its unique Comedy In The Dark evenings. Read the full announcement here. 

Beyond the Fringe, the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) unveiled its full programme, with the theme ‘The Truth We Seek’ at its core. Consisting of seven world premieres, eight UK premieres and two European premieres, this is the third edition (Friday 1–Sunday 24 August) with celebrated Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti as festival director, and will welcome more than 1700 artists from 42 nations across 133 performances. Read the lowdown on EIF here. 

Expect plenty more reveals as the months wear on. We'll be reporting on them all. 

Pussy Riot comes to the Fringe…

… bringing their Riot Days show to Summerhall from Tuesday 12 – Saturday 23 August. Riot Days is a play based on the memoir of the collective's Maria Alyokhina, who spent many years inside Russia's criminal system for performance and protest against Vladimir Putin. It captures the spirit of Pussy Riot, merging punk, electronica, theatre, documentary footage and protest. Tickets for the shows, announced today, are on sale now. 

Fringe By The Sea adds Ezra Collective to its bill…

… in a line-up that includes Air, Hamish Hawk, Alan Davies, Ruby Wax and more. The multi-arts festival takes place in North Berwick every year and has programmed perhaps its most ambitious festival yet, cementing its reputation as both a welcome respite from Edinburgh’s bustling centre during August and a vital festival in its own right. Take a look at our most recent piece on the festival here.  

Zara Gladman highlights the cost of the Fringe…

… in a revealing video on Instagram, as she prepares for her first two-week run at the festival this August. The cost of the Fringe for performers is a regular talking point around this time of year, but it’s rare for a comedian to break down costs with as much granularity as Gladman, who has itemised her expenses in a way that'll be fascinating for performers and comedy fans alike. Watch the video below.

Gladman has promised to detail further expenses in the run-up to the Fringe. She’ll perform Zara Gladman is… Aileen: Cameron’s Gap Year Fundraiser at Monkey Barrel Comedy from Tuesday 29 July – Sunday 10 August. 

We chatted with Stuart Laws…

… who’s continuing his trend of spinning a ludicrous number of plates during August. At last year’s Fringe, he released a documentary about comedians visiting the Fringe for the first time (The Debuts), mined his recent autism diagnosis in Stuart Laws has To Be Joking?, held a beermat flipping championship (because why not?), and invited a host of special guests onstage to help bring his ‘nevahhhhhhh’ Michael Caine impersonation to life. This year, he’ll be performing two shows: Stuart Laws Is Stuck (Monkey Barrel Comedy, Monday 28 July – Sunday 24 August), which will discuss a recent break-up and his time as a ‘puffin island caretaker’ (his words); and Stuart Laws Does Stand-up Comedy For An Hour (Monkey Barrel Comedy, Friday 1 – Saturday 23 August), which promises a looser hour of new material and old classics. We wouldn’t be surprised if he had a few one-off shows planned along the way. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Fringe came up a lot during our recent interview with Laws. ‘In 2017 I did a show that was a parody of a Fringe show where it was about the love of my life and her dying but it was also about fridging which is that trope where male characters are given a greater emotional depth by having a woman die,’ he told us. ‘There was already a trend for people to do an hour where they have a little cry at the 40-minute mark sort of thing. It spread out what the artform can be, but it also led to a lot of people desperately going through their life for something to talk about while it pushed others to go the other way and say “there’s nothing serious about this, it’s just jokes” and to be almost patronising about people who do stories.’ Read the full interview here. 

Barrowland Ballet to perform two pieces at the Fringe…

… Wee Man by Natasha Gilmore from at Assembly@Dance Base, Tuesday 5 – Sunday 17 August, and Chunky Jewellery by Natasha Gilmore, Jude Williams and Ben Duke at Assembly Rooms from Friday 1 – Sunday 24 August. 

The award-winning contemporary dance company’s Wee Man is premiering this year and will explore the pertinent theme of ‘the toxic rulebook of accepted male behaviours’ across different generations, with sound design by Luke Sutherland and a text developed with the poet and performance artist Kevin P Gilday. Meanwhile, Chunky Jewellery is returning to the stage after a sold out run last year, gaining plaudits for its moving celebration of friendship. 

Both productions will also tour Scotland before they head to the Fringe. Wee Man will have its world premiere at The Studio, Edinburgh, on Friday 16 & Saturday 17 May, before heading to Lanterhouse Cumbernauld on Saturday 31 May and Johnstone Town Hall on Friday 13 June.  Chunky Jewellery will open at Lanternhouse, Cumbernauld on Friday 2 May, then Tramway on Tuesday 29 July. 

Four stars or more 

The demonic working men’s club entertainer Frankie Monroe is threatening a return in Joe Kent-Walters Is Frankie Monroe: DEAD!!! (Good Fun Time), which will showcase more of his darkly imaginative flair. Walters won the DLT Entertainment Best Newcomer at last year’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards for Frankie Monroe: Live!!!, which we awarded four stars. ‘Frankie Monroe emerges from the back of the room, red of eye and white of face,’ wrote our reviewer Murray Robertson.’ He’s a startlingly unsettling presence and further degenerates himself when he smears his pallid visage and ill-fitting suit with a mixture of beer and Sudocrem. And when he threatens to enter the audience there are visible twitches of fear, as he asserts that no row is safe.’ Read the full review here. 

Catch Joe Kent-Walters Is Frankie Monroe: DEAD!!! (Good Fun Time) at Monkey Barrel Comedy from Monday 28 July – Sunday 24 August. 

Main Picture: Mat Ricardo.