Three shows about older women at the Edinburgh Festival 2024…

Julie Flower: Grandma’s Shop | Gilded Balloon Patter House | 31 Aug-26 Aug
I’ve always felt (and it’s honestly not just because I’m getting old) that media representation of older women can be lacking, and also kinda negative when it’s there, dealing in mean stereotypes. So I’d like to talk now about a couple of shows where older women are the focus. Julie Flower is the creator of this multi character solo comedy drama about her grandmother, who ran a second hand clothes shop and was “an unlikely punk icon”. Info and tickets here.  

In The Lady Garden | Pleasance Courtyard | 31 Jul-26 Aug (pictured)
“At 69, Alice wonders: if she hadn’t been expelled from convent school and had sex with Keith from the sausage rolls section, what might her life have been? Will Alice shake off the shackles of the patriarchy and live out the rest of her days with outrageous abandon?” Another solo show, created by three older women, in which Julia Falkner plays Alice, and 21 other roles, in a funny and honest play that looks at the respect (or lack of it) given to older women. Info and tickets here.

The 100-Year Old Letter | Greenside @ George Street | 2-10 Aug
Okay, so this one isn’t actually about older women, it’s about women who would be incredibly old if they were still alive now. “In 1916, Christabel Mennell writes a letter of apology to Katie Marsh. It is finally delivered in 2021 and becomes a global news sensation. What was the apology for? Who were the women writing to one another? What became of them?” Intriguing, right? Info and tickets here.