Category ★★★★½

Reading Time: 2 minutesPecking Order is a one-of-a-kind show, something found only at the Fringe. It describes itself as absurdist, which still fails to prepare an audience for the sheer bizarre nature of the show — in the best way imaginable. Five men — or are they one man? — wearing a bowler hat circulate the setting of a waiting room, which also serves as an interrogation chamber, a surgical suite, a care home, and a dozen other places. Each of them are out of place and out of the scene presented. As the play progresses, they begin to remember fragments of their previous encounters, but to no avail.

Reading Time: 2 minutesAt the side of a motorway is an empty diner-style cafe. It is quiet, until the aliens arrive. In this Lynchian, absurdist play you really do not know what is coming next. It constantly keeps you on your toes until its maddening, thrilling ending.

Reading Time: 2 minutesIt feels almost unjust to give Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight a conventional review, because it operates far beyond the parameters of a conventional show. What starts as a self-help comedy twists and elongates into something really indescribable, more of an experience than a simple theatrical production. Written by Olivier-nominated playwright John Kolvenbach, Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight draws every audience member into the moment, the here, the now. It asks the audience to be present and active, in the creation of art.

Reading Time: 2 minutesClever, imaginative and fantastically performed