ED2018 ED2018 Review Edition

Past ThreeWeeks Editors’ Award winners back at the Fringe

By | Published on Wednesday 15 August 2018

Every August we present the ThreeWeeks Editors’ Awards on the final weekend of the Festival.

These go to the ten things that the ThreeWeeks editors believe made any one year’s Festival extra special. There are no specific categories and winners can be people, shows, companies, venues or even whole festivals. And there are no specific criteria other than the winners bringing something extra special to Edinburgh.

We’ve been handing out our Editors’ Awards at every Festival since 2005. Here is a guide to some of our past winners who are back at the Festival this year, alongside the Fringe institutions that have also won an Editors’ Award, like Mervyn Stutter’s ‘Pick Of The Fringe’, Bob Slayer’s Heroes programme and PBH’s Free Fringe.

What The Moon Saw | Zoo Southside | until 26 Aug
A winner in 2013 for a “specific brand of contemporary break and hip-hop fusion choreography” that had repeatedly impressed our team over the years, 2Faced Dance Company’s varied shows continue to impress. This year they present a show in the Fringe’s Children’s programme.

Daniel Cainer: Old Dog, New Shtick! | Underbelly George Square | until 27 Aug
Also a winner in 2013, though we’d been enjoying his shows since 2009, back when we presented Daniel with his award we noted how “every year he arrives at the Fringe with offerings praised for their artistic brilliance and charm”.

Edinburgh Renaissance Band: Castle And Kirk | artSpace @ St Marks | until 18 Aug
A winner from last year now, though we’d been enjoying these guys’ shows for many years before that, and they’ve been performing at the Fringe longer than we’ve been covering it. “Have you ever heard music from shawms, cornetts, sackbuts, nakers, crumhorns, rackets and serpents?” we asked last August, “if not, make a date to see this excellent ensemble in 2018”

Elsa Jean McTaggart | theSpace @ Surgeon’s Hall | until 25 Aug
A winner from 2012. Elsa “ignites the room with her awe-inspiring mastery and passion for music of all genres” we said back then. And she continues to enthral her Fringe audiences with two shows this year.

Eric’s Tales of the Sea – A Submariner’s Yarn | Just The Tonic at The Caves | until 26 Aug
A winner all the way back in 2009, then we noted how Eric truly utilised the potential of the full-hour comedy show to offer “an epic experience, where intrigue, suspense and sadness really can sit alongside laughter”.

The Garden Of Delight | Duddingston Kirk Manse Gardens | until 19 Aug
A constant favourite of the ThreeWeeks team – though they got their Editors’ Award in 2011 – are Theatre Alba who present theatre in the Duddingston Kirk Manse Gardens. This team “always maximise the potential of their beautiful performance space” we observed then, earning plenty of highly positive reviews along the way.

Goose: Golden Eggs | Assembly George Square Studios | until 19 Aug
Winners at Edinburgh Festival 2016, after noting the various positive write ups they’d got from the ThreeWeeks team we concluded “we love what they do and the way they do it”. And it’s true, we do.

Hot Brown Honey | Gilded Balloon Teviot | until 27 Aug
A winner last year and a show we love so much we put it on the cover of our Preview Edition. Listed in cabaret, but energetically defying genre categorisation, this extraordinary troupe offer an important and uncompromising exploration of race, gender, identity and culture that our reviewer last year called an “adrenaline-fuelled middle finger to repression and the patriarchy”.

I Hate Children Children’s Show | theSpace @ Surgeon’s Hall | until 25 Aug
Another winner from 2011 who is back at the Fringe again this year. Said we: “Paul Nathan is a superb performer who has a sarcastic ease rarely found outside late night comedy. Sinister yet avuncular, he even manages to involve every child in a magic trick”. He’s back with two versions of this show this year.

Ian Smith: Craft | Underbelly Bristo Square | until 26 Aug
A winner just last year, Ian is an excellent comedian whose shows over the years have prompted our reviewers to use words and phrases like “beautiful”, “funny”, “funniest”, “skilful”, “stylish”, “satisfying”, “hugely entertaining”, “perfectly executed”, “endearing” and “some of the finest granite material on the circuit”. Check out our new interview with him here.

Japan Marvelous Drummers | Assembly George Square Theatre | until 27 Aug
A winner in 2015, back then we pointed out how our reviewer had hailed their “astounding skill and stamina”, and the show’s “explosion of raw power and noise”, calling their performance “big, loud and utterly wonderful”

John Robertson: Sweaty, Sexy, Party Party | Just the Tonic at The Tron | until 26 Aug
A Fringe veteran and constant favourite of the TW review team. Indeed he’s been making fans, achieving high acclaim and gathering good numbers of starry critiques from our reviewers for many, many years now, which is why we handed him one of our Editors’ Awards in 2016. Basically, always recommended.

Kate Smurthwaite: Clit Stirrer | Banshee Labyrinth | until 26 Aug
Another Editors’ Award winning stand-up. “Comedy that cuts through the crap” one of our reviewers once stated. “This is a performer who won’t just entertain you, she will make you really think” we said on handing her an award in 2013.

Mark Watson: How You Can Almost Win (Work in Progress) | The Stand Comedy Club | until 23 Aug
A winner right back in the first year we presented the Editors’ Awards in 2005 and still returning to the Fringe each year with top shows. Including this year this work in progress. Again, always recommended!

Patrick Monahan: #Goals | Gilded Balloon Teviot | until 26 Aug
Talking of always recommended, that also applies to this winner from 2012. “A gifted storyteller”, “natural entertainer” and “skilled comic” with an “effortless quick-wit” are just some of the plaudits he’s won from our team over the years. Also look out for his dating show this year at Just The Tonic at The Caves.

Prom Kween | Assembly George Square Gardens | until 26 Aug
Among our 2017 winners back this Fringe is this new musical with contemporary themes, snappy show tunes, pithy jokes, on-point pop culture references and superb surprises. Our reviewer loved this “life-affirming musical” so much last year, we just had to hand it one of our awards.

Rob Auton: The Talk Show | Just The Tonic at The Caves | until 26 Aug
Over a number of festivals, our reviewers have been impressed by Rob Auton’s uniquely affecting, hilarious shows which fall somewhere between stand-up and spoken word. And this year he’s scored another 5/5 from our reviewer.

Robin Ince: Chaos Of Delight | Gilded Balloon Museum | until 26 Aug
Another winner from 2011, there had been many Festivals before then when we could have dished out an award to Robin, but it was that year he presented four shows in one Festival, three in the Free Fringe. Always recommended, he is back at the Festival this year with ‘Chaos Of Delight.

DollyWould | Summerhall | until 26 Aug
We gave Sh!t Theatre an award in 2015 for “creating important, politicised yet entertaining work” and then handed this particular show a 5/5 rating two years later. Of this show we said: “It is a step away from their typically politicised productions, but it’s as clever, funny and oddly relatable as any of their previous work”.

Sofie Hagen Tries Something | Laughing Horse @ The Counting House | until 26 Aug
Sofie Hagen has won a multitude of acclaim for her Edinburgh shows over the years, not least from the TW team. It was in 2015 that we handed her one of our Editors’ Awards. Meanwhile in her 5/5 review at Fringe 2016 we noted “her masterful delivery often reflects her confident ownership of her own pain, and she’s brilliant at doing ‘creepy’ jokes without actually making people uncomfortable”. Go see!

Stuart Bowden: Our Molecules | Underbelly Bristo Square | until 26 Aug
A winner in 2015 for the “sizeable fistful of enthusiastic 4 and 5 star reviews” he’d garnered from ThreeWeeks in the preceding years. Those past reviews have included lines like “sparks of surreal brilliance”, “full of wit and charm” and “an absolute joy to watch”. So go watch!

Terry Alderton: The Musical | Assembly George Square Studios | until 27 Aug
An Editors’ Award winner in 2010, back then we noted how Terry’s shows had impressed TW reviewers in Edinburgh and elsewhere too. To quote one of those reviews of old: “he is an absolute pleasure to watch, even more so to listen to; he is unmissable”. Go check out his new show ‘The Musical’.

Wil Greenway: Either Side Of Everything | Underbelly Bristo Square | until 26 Aug
When we presented Wil with an Editors’ Award at Fringe 2016 we noted the kinds of words our reviewers have used to describe his various shows over the years: witty, beautifully crafted, wistful, impeccable, hilarious, heartbreaking, hugely entertaining, life-affirming, honest… and weird. We continue to love his eloquence, his humour, and his polished, well thought out performances.

Yianni Agisilaou: I, Human | Pleasance Dome | until 26 Aug
We handed Yianni one of our ThreeWeeks Editors’ Awards back in 2013 and he has only continued to impress the TW team with his Edinburgh shows since then. Among the phrases employed by ThreeWeeks reviewers for Yianni’s shows are: “accomplished and charming”, “vivacious, witty and intelligent”, “funny and informative” and a “bloody nice bloke”. And check out our new interview with him here.



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