The Pleasance didn’t shout this year. It didn’t need to

By Grace Hatchell, 2nd Act Couriers

I wasn’t expecting this one so early. Usually the Pleasance waits until my shoes are already worn thin and my satchel’s full of rumours, flyers and half-remembered directions. But this year, their |Edinburgh Fringe programme slipped into my hands ahead of schedule, and that always tells me something.

The Pleasance Theatre Trust doesn’t rush announcements unless it’s feeling confident. After a record-breaking year of award wins, this is less a fanfare and more a careful laying-out of cards. Forty-two years in, they know exactly what kind of Fringe they’re shaping.

Across the Courtyard, the Dome and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, now entering its tenth season as part of the Pleasance’s Fringe footprint, the message is already clear. This year isn’t about safe bets or filler hours. It’s about shows that want something from their audience.

Right at the top of the stack is Bliss, the biggest new musical the Pleasance is putting forward this year. From the Olivier Award-winning producers behind Cabaret and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, it takes a fairy tale, twists it sharply, and asks what happy endings really cost. Four sisters escape their tower, fairy godfathers rule, and perfection turns out to be dangerous. Seventeen West End performers, electric vocals and a pop-rock edge suggest the Pleasance is backing this not just as spectacle, but as a statement.

Questions of reality and belief run right through the programme. Colin Cloud’s Hoax arrives straight from the Las Vegas Strip, blending psychological insight with jaw-dropping mentalism to dismantle assumptions and make the impossible feel uncomfortably real. It’s the kind of show that thrives in Edinburgh Fringe where audiences want to be challenged, not just impressed.

Comedy, as ever, remains the Pleasance’s beating heart. Joseph Morpurgo returns with Highlander 70, bringing his multilayered, carefully engineered chaos back to Edinburgh. Sophie Duker follows with Hot Beef Injection, an unapologetic hour about sex, privilege and power, while Rosie Jones arrives ready to tackle being single, public expectation, gravy and boobs with her trademark mix of warmth and bite.

The comedy hours keep stacking up. Elf Lyons brings The Woman on the Edge, described as completely normal and not at all complex, while Olga Koch digs into recent history with the genre-defying Fat Tom Cruise. Jordan Brookes continues his residency at the gates of hell with The Part of You That’s Always Screaming, inspired by a truly shocking train incident, and NewsRevue once again sharpens its satirical knives, offering 100 per cent new material in a world that feels increasingly unhinged.

The Pleasance’s reputation for spotting new voices early is firmly intact. Maia Tassalini, a BBC New Comedy Award finalist and Pleasance Comedy Reserve alum, brings I Was 22 and Stunning, channelling Monica Lewinsky and asking whether youth and beauty are blessings or curses. Dane Buckley, also from the Comedy Reserve and possibly the world’s only Irish, Indian, gay comedian, makes his debut with a show about Irish mammies, Indian grannies and a parish priest he’d rather forget. Dom McGovern follows with Prize Hog, a sharp look at bodies, blokes and everything in between.

Returning favourites remind you how quickly Fringe traditions form. Garry Starr is back with Classic Penguins, attempting once again to save literature by performing every Penguin Classic ever written, mostly naked and wearing flippers. The sell-out improv machines return too: Kool Story Bro with Kiell Smith-Bynoe, David Elms Describes a Room, Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, and Paul Merton and Suki Webster’s Improv Show, each offering something different but united by the thrill of not knowing what comes next.

Over at the EICC, Trainspotting Live marks its tenth Fringe season, pulling audiences straight into Irvine Welsh’s world and refusing to let them stay comfortably on the sidelines. In the Cabaret Bar, the Best of Edinburgh Showcase reaches its twenty-first year, offering a rotating daily line-up of Fringe favourites and rising stars, while the Tartan Ribbon Comedy Benefit returns to raise vital funds for Waverley Care.

And this, the Pleasance is keen to remind us, is only the beginning. With more comedy, theatre, circus, magic, dance, kids’ shows and Pleasance Futures work still to be announced, this early delivery feels less like a full reveal and more like a signal.

I’ve seen enough Augusts to know when a venue is quietly confident. This one didn’t need a drumroll. It just slipped the programme into my satchel and carried on walking.

Tickets for all shows are available at http://www.pleasance.co.uk and
020 7609 1800