Points of view: theatre, comedy and news
Pepper&Salt has a chat with John Achkar about his Edinburgh Fringe debut, 'His country is collapsing. He's having a baby. So obviously, this is the right year for a Lebanese comedian you've never heard of to try English stand-up for the first time', as well as the nuances that can be found in language and comedy's role in shared community and experiences.
Comedian Kat Higgins chats to Pepper&Salt about making her Edinburgh Fringe debut this year with her show, In Memory of Me, writing about long-term grief in comedy and canonisation.
Pepper&Salt talks to Ruby Carr about her new show, Bite Me, taking us through her writing process, the universal adulting process and the worrier designation process.
Jake Baker talks to Pepper&Salt about his new Edinburgh Fringe hour, The Gentle Men's Club, his opinion on adhering to strict behaviours and his approach to navigating the process of writing a comedy show on a sensitive and potentially controversial topic.
Gracing the Edinburgh Fringe once more with his presence, comedian, actor and improviser-extraordinaire Chris Grace talks to Pepper&Salt about his new show 88%, being okay with almost perfect and asking the tough questions without the assumption of getting any of the answers.
Making her Edinburgh Fringe debut with her show Squeaky Bum Time, triple threat and Ted Lasso star Sapphire McIntosh chats to Pepper&Salt about her new hour, writing process, hope and realism as well as what artists might make the cut for her pre-show playlist.
The Gaulier-trained Zoe Wohlfeld sits down to answer Pepper&Salt's questions about her upcoming Edinburgh Fringe debut, Dog Funeral, Wohlefeld's approach to writing and clown as well as the rule for Pinot Grigio.
In Bog Witch, Bryony Kimmings attempts to create a theatrical spectacle, with all the flash that we associate and expect from a production of this nature. The issue arises when we peel it all back and ask the question, “So what?” And in answering that question, it becomes clear very quickly that the emperor really does not have any clothes and all the tech and clever storytelling is just a surface-level mirage.
The saying ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’ couldn’t be more applicable to Jack Grossman and Zoe Wohlfeld’s A Night Of Drama. What starts off as a perhaps Renaissance-esque, Athenian public square practice of bringing a meritocratic, Speakers’ Corner element to theatre quickly devolves into a Hobbesian thought experiment that perhaps best exemplifies why Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan is still very applicable.
Jain Edwards’ She Devil is an admittedly relevant piece of theatre that uses understated character comedy to convey a deeply personal and somewhat political hour of stand-up. It’s definitely an interesting concept, but overall She-Devil doesn’t quite deliver on what we would assume the promise and premise of this show to be.
Pepper & Salt 