Managed Approach At Edinburgh Fringe

Let me introduce you to Open Aire Theatre, a new company and yes, they’ve got Footlights alumni and enough writer-director-producer hyphenates to make your head spin. Their debut show MANAGED APPROACH is making its first appearance at Edinburgh Fringe this summer, and it’s already earned itself a sparkling five-star review from Varsity, no less. That’s right, five stars — we’re talking big-league buzz.

But don’t be fooled by the pretty posters and fresh-faced cast — MANAGED APPROACH is no frothy comedy. It’s a bold, semi-verbatim piece about the UK’s first legalised red-light district in Holbeck, Leeds. Now I know what you’re thinking — “Grace, are we really talking about sex work before lunch?” Yes. Yes we are. Because this isn’t just drama, it’s truth-telling theatre. And the kind that makes you sit up straight and actually listen.

Penned and performed by Jules Coyle (the company’s founder and, fun fact, a former Coronation Street writing intern — I mean, come on!), the play dives into a complicated mother-daughter relationship torn apart by the real-life politics of Leeds’ controversial policing initiative. Interwoven with verbatim interviews from the very women impacted by the scheme, the play gives a microphone to voices too often pushed to the side. And it’s about time, too.

Coyle, a Leeds native herself, treats her subject with care and Northern grit. Think kitchen sink realism meets razor-sharp storytelling. It’s moving, it’s funny, it’s unflinching — and yes, it might just be one of the most important new plays to hit the Fringe this year. The Pleasance folks clearly thought so, too — MANAGED APPROACH was a finalist for the 2025 Charlie Hartill Award. Not bad for a debut, eh?

So if you fancy theatre that’s fierce, feminist, and unapologetically full of feeling, pop this in your festival planner:
🕰 August 8–24 (not the 15th!) at 13:40
📍 The Coorie at Gilded Balloon’s Patter House

Don’t dilly-dally, love — tickets are shifting faster than a Footlight at a Freshers’ Fair.

Grace x

Managed Approach | Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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Who Is Andrew “The Guvnor” of Theatre Village? (As delivered by Grace Hatchell, 2nd Act Couriers, First Class & Slightly Nosy Service) Now then… if you’ve spent any time wandering through Theatre Village, you’ll have felt it. That hum. That buzz. That sense that somewhere, behind the curtain, someone’s pulling the strings, brewing the tea, and making sure the spotlight actually turns on. That, my lovely lot, would be Andrew. Or as I’ve taken to calling him… The Guvnor. I

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