It is festival season and that means that in the next month there is so many great comedy festivals to look forward to! This month we are looking at some of the great shows that you can see at the Edinburgh Fringe. So take note because we are going to give you all the information you need for just a handful of some of the great shows happening this year!
The Bloody Ballad of Bette Davis
Location: Assembly Roxy – Upstairs (Venue 139)
Dates: Aug 6th-12th, 14th-19th, 21st-26th, 28th-30th
Time: 15:00
Price: £16
Ticket Link: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/the-bloody-ballad-of-bette-davis
Hello! Tell us all about your show!
The Bloody Ballad of Bette Davis is a fast, strange little musical about fame, aging, mothers, monsters, and the particular violence of Hollywood toward women once it decides they’ve expired. It begins during the filming of Burnt Offerings in 1975 and gets weirder from there. Bette Davis may be a witch. Oliver Reed is exactly as much trouble as you hope. Karen Black is trying to survive the room. Amelia Earhart appears because, frankly, why shouldn’t she? There are original songs, backstage gossip, bad behavior, supernatural interference, and five actors moving as if their lives depended on it. If you like theatre that’s a little haunted, a little ridiculous, and unexpectedly human, come see us.
What other acts are you looking forward to seeing at the fringe?
I’m thrilled to see CADEL back. Connor Delves was in the first 2024 incarnation of The Bloody Ballad of Bette Davis, then went off and made his own extraordinary solo show about cyclist Cadel Evans, obsession, endurance, masculinity, pain, ambition, the body as machine and battlefield. It’s already toured Australia, returns to Edinburgh at Gilded Balloon this August, and heads into its UK premiere this fall. Connor is the real thing. Watching an artist you love break out on their own is one of the great Fringe pleasures.
I’ll see absolutely anything BoonDog Theatre touches. Lucy Roslyn and Jamie Firth make theatre with danger, poetry, and pulse. Lovett. Pisky. The State vs John Hayes. Showmanship. Their work doesn’t politely entertain; it grabs you by the lapels. So Brick is high on my list. A man trapped in a police holding cell after throwing a brick during a queer rights protest, replaying the events that got him there? That sounds like exactly the kind of urgent, intimate theatre Edinburgh does so well.
And I’m deeply excited for Kill Your Darlings, a student production from Horace Mann playing Greenside. A group of wildly talented young artists bringing their work across the ocean to the Fringe? That alone gets my vote. The show is a theatrical backstage revolt where the machinery of performance itself seems to rebel. That’s funny, smart, very Fringe, and exactly the kind of youthful theatrical madness I want to cheer for.
Honestly, my favorite Edinburgh days usually involve being emotionally wrecked by something beautiful at 2:00 PM and then seeing a completely unhinged theatrical fever dream by midnight.
Have you done the fringe before? What are the key pieces of advice you have been given or would give to new groups or people performing at the fringe.
Yes. Piper first came to the Fringe in 2012 with our adaptation of The Island of Doctor Moreau, which somehow won a Bobby Award and left a bunch of Brooklyn theatre-makers wandering around in happy disbelief. We returned in 2016 with Splitfoot, in 2024 with the first incarnation of The Bloody Ballad of Bette Davis, and in 2025 as co-producers of Connor Delves’ terrific CADEL. My advice? See everything. Or at least as much as your body, wallet, and nervous system can handle.
The Fringe is not just about your own show. It’s about falling in love with work in tiny rooms, meeting artists from all over the world, and having strange, wonderful conversations at midnight with people you met an hour earlier. Make friends. Be generous. Go see other artists. Tell people when their work moved you. Share audiences. Edinburgh becomes this utterly bizarre, beautiful little theatrical planet every August. Enjoy it while it exists.
Talk us through your daily routine for a day at the Fringe
Wake up and immediately check reviews, notices, ticket sales, and social media like a proper anxious theatre person. Yogurt. Coffee. Strong coffee. Check in with the company. Glance at the box office and try not to assign emotional meaning to every fluctuation. Be in place by 2:00 for our 3:00 PM performance of The Bloody Ballad of Bette Davis. Welcome audiences, flyer a bit, do the pre-show ritual. Then go see something. Eat something not entirely fried, because we’re not children anymore. Maybe a late-night comedian. Definitely conversations with other artists about what’s working, what’s moving people, what’s keeping everyone awake. A little strategizing. A little worrying about tomorrow. Sleep. Repeat.
Ok, where is your favourite place to eat at the Fringe?
The Scotsman Hotel’s The Grand Café. Beautiful and Grand. And affordable.
Best thing about performing at the fringe?
It’s dreamlike world where everyone is an artist. Where art matters most. Where everyone is trying to tell a story. Everyone is looking for an experience.
Do you bring anything special from home to make it feel more special whilst you are away?
I like to think I’m bringing my Brooklyn, friends, people who care about each, and have each other’s back.
What are your best hacks to save money whilst at the Fringe?
Make your own coffee in the dorms.
If people want to find out more about you where can they follow you on social media?
pipertheatre.org
And Finally in three words – Why should people come and see the show?
Wicked. Funny. Unhinged.
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