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The New York Times just described The Tank as “a haven for hard-to-describe theater that’s steps from Penn Station” and EdFest, a new theater festival debuting this year, certainly looks like it’ll uphold that title. The brainchild of producer Jess Ducey, EdFest will provide New York audiences the chance to take in a series of one-night-only preview performances before they head across the pond to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
For the uninitiated, the best way to describe the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world’s largest performing arts event taking place each August, is: all performance, all the time, always, everywhere.
Taking place from Monday, July 14 through Sunday, July 20, EdFest will mount a dazzlingly different twelve shows (out of 25 applicants), ranging from Fulbright-awarded drag to searing explorations of family history.
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We can’t undersell Fringe’s cultural importance enough: the stage shows Six and Stomp, the series Fleabag and Baby Reindeer, the coming-to-NYC stage show Weather Girl, and Tom Stoppard’s entire career all launched during its 78-year history. Chances are your favorite comedian or stage performer has cut their teeth on one of its many, many boards.
If that list reads as wildly diverse but equally excellent, so do these twelve shows: Tell Me Where Home Is (I’m Starting to Forget) takes queer pubescent umbrage with Glinda the Good and Jessica Rabbit; A Drag Is Born sees an unlikely hairy man transform into the Queen of Carnival; and Shell features a hockey bro grappling with his unleashing hunger.
Boyfriends are mere armchairs, lampshades and futons in Furniture Boys, Microsoft Word’s Cloppy fights an AI-driven dystopia in Paperclip and a fish struggles with the crushing weight of existence in the one-woman clown show FISH. Weightier shows like 2025 Salem Witch Trial, kaddish (how to be a sanctuary) and The Other Mozart explore histories of womanhood, fascism, Yiddish folklore and the genius composer’s overlooked sister.
For the scene-stealers among us, audience participation reigns in these three: Want to help a performer faced with pulling off a double-act alone? Hit up Lizzy Sunshine. Feeling like lending an amnesiac time traveler a helping hand? It Was Really Good to Know You is for you. And if you’re confident in your supernatural abilities, try to revive a dead mime via seance in HELP ME!!!!
It’s Ducey’s hope that in a world where it’s more expensive than ever to create (and see!) art, EdFest can help build relationships across audiences and performers. With some typical U.K. cheek, EdFest is giving Time Out readers a $5 discount with the code HAGGIS. Tickets and more information are available on The Tank’s website.