Are You There, Mother?

CELEBRATING its 20th anniversary, Camden Fringe returns with a programme of over 400 theatre, comedy, dance, and music shows held at 30 venues across Camden and north London throughout August. The festival offers an affordable alternative to the Edinburgh Fringe, and is committed to giving everyone a platform, from established artists and companies to newcomers.

• Genni reimagines the Turkish classic A Poet’s Marriage in contemporary London, making the bride the protagonist for the first time. A lively mother-daughter duo drives this playful comedy about modern gender roles, dating, arranged marriage and tradition. 7pm, Aug 1-2. Young Actors Theatre Islington

• In Yamas, Vic – psychiatrist, storyteller, comedian and actor – charts a personal journey from Cyprus to the UK. She arrives to train as a doctor before taking an unexpected turn, discovering her sexuality, encountering eccentric characters and weathering failed relationships along the way. 7pm, Aug 3-4. Inspired by a real murder case and a childhood song, Murmurs Devoured by the Sea is a haunting, movement-driven story about grief, madness, and the things we cannot release. 7pm, Aug 5-6. Theatro Technis

Between Strands [Peter Williams]

• Between Strands is a solo performance exploring hair as a vessel for memory, cultural identity and Taiwanese ritual. Drawing on the Asian diaspora practice of growing one’s hair after losing a loved one, it follows a young woman in the UK grieving her grandmother’s death in Taiwan, tracing connections across distance through movement, shadow play, and bilingual text. 7pm, Aug 3; 2pm/4pm, Aug 9. Rosemary Branch Theatre

• Directed and performed by Turkish actor-director Mehmet Ali Nuroğlu, and inspired by Will Eno’s Title and Deed, Dünyada blends monologue, cinematography and real-time sound to explore displacement, memory and emotion through a controlled yet unconventional narrative. 9pm, Aug 3-4; 7pm,
Aug 9. The Cockpit

• Medieval Swiss hero William Tell has long symbolised of resistance against tyranny. Today’s AI algorithms, designed by billionaire autocrats to distract, disempower, and spread misinformation are the new oppressors. In Michael Brunström’s whimsical fable, William Tell versus the Algorithm, Tell emerges from folklore – crossbow, apple, and overture in hand – to risk his life for creativity and freedom. Expect songs, allegory, slapstick and yodelling. 8.30pm, Aug 4. Camden Comedy Club

• Elizabeth Clarke has been feared by her neighbours since her mother was executed as a witch. When misfortune strikes Manningtree, Elizabeth is herself arrested. Matthew Hopkins, a young man yet to escape his deceased minister father’s shadow, sees a chance to prove himself and volunteers to interrogate her. It leads to the execution of 100 innocent people. Set during the East Anglian witch trials, KS Norris’s Deliver Us From Evil explores the rise of fanaticism. 7.30pm, Aug 4-6. Bridewell Theatre

• In Justine Martin’s debut Some of It Might Be True, Evie is a social media influencer and a compulsive liar. Behind the filter, she’s drowning in debt, working a second job just to stay afloat, and in the grip of an eating disorder. Online, she presents herself as someone who has healed from trauma, while still living at its very centre. 9pm, Aug 5; 1pm, Aug 10; 1pm, Aug 14. Etcetera Theatre

• Ruth Gilligan’s We Love and Then We Drown follows climate scientist Catherine Hardy at three pivotal times in her life, and explores love, loss and hope. In the context of the climate crisis, it asks how much we are willing to sacrifice to save the world, and what happens if we fail. 6pm/8pm, Aug 7-8; 2pm/4pm, Aug 9.
Elinor Cook’s Pilgrims probes gender, storytelling and humanity’s relationship with the natural world through a modern love triangle between mountaineering prodigies Dan and Will, and aspiring academic Rachel. 6pm/8pm, Aug 12-13. John Lyon’s Theatre

• The Rat Pack Standup presents the best comedians and TV stars from the UK and international circuit. A new line up every show. 7.30pm, Aug 7-8, 14-15, 21-22 & 28-29. Jake Yapp hosts a gleefully shambolic game show set in a 1970s corner shop, Cornershop Showdown. 7pm Aug 10-13; 9.30pm Aug 14. Camden Comedy Club

• Take Care is a bittersweet comedy about friendship, loneliness, and ultimately, love. Jo and Izzy are best friends, flatmates, and each other’s emergency contacts. As they stumble through failed relationships, and the quiet panic of becoming adults, the pair attempt to build meaningful lives from shared beds, rash decisions, and aggressive optimism. Their morals may be questionable, but their devotion to one another is unwavering. 5pm Aug 5-7, Etcetera Theatre; 9pm Aug 9-10, Hen and Chickens

Beats + Strings

• Soul Renaissance by Beats + Strings’ reimagines classic and contemporary soul with acoustic strings, electronic textures and rhythmic grooves. Set in an intimate nightclub, the show becomes a concert, collaboration, and celebration of Kansas City. The trio – D Dot Prof (keys and beats) K’Tina (violin) and RMJ Music (cello) – create a distinctive sound. 4.30pm, Aug 9; 7.30pm Aug 10-11; 9pm Aug 12; 4.30pm, Aug 14. Hen & Chickens Theatre

• Kimberley Nixon’s one-woman show Baby Brain follows new mum Cas as she confronts postpartum psychosis with dark humour, honesty and a comic’s ambition. A frank look at an aspect of motherhood that’s often misunderstood, and rarely discussed. 2pm/7pm, Aug 10-12. Bridewell Theatre

The Dance Plague of 1518

• Inspired by one of history’s strangest true events, The Dance Plague of 1518 follows four struggling actors attempting to create a musical about the infamous dance plague, despite knowing almost nothing about it. Featuring 12 original songs, four performers playing 30+ characters, live musicians, and a healthy dose of theatrical chaos, it’s billed as a fast-paced comedy. 7.30pm, Aug 11-13. Upstairs at the Gatehouse

• In Are You There, Mother? a jobbing actor agrees to pose as a psychic to help a grieving woman. What begins as goodwill quickly turns into a darkly funny and troubled role-play that lasts far longer than expected. 3pm, Aug 13. Etcetera Theatre; 9pm, Aug 13 & 14. Hen and Chickens Theatre

• Tell Me Everything combines storytelling with psychological insight as dramatherapist Yuhe Tian examines grief, regret and reconciliation. After Lanzhou loses her grandparents during the pandemic, she finds herself caught between therapy sessions and memory, observed by a stranger who seems to know her story too well. 7.30pm, August 13-14. The Courtyard Theatre

• Freedom charts refugee journeys through immersive performance, visual arts, sound and audience participation. The event showcases work co-created by local artists, students, and community members, including refugees and migrants. 7.30pm, Aug 14-16. Chisenhale Dance Space

• May steps out from the shadow of her father William Morris in Isabella Javor’s Threads of May. Weaving together live music and storytelling, the play explores the life of the woman who designed some of the most iconic Arts and Crafts patterns, from her bohemian childhood to her later years falling in love with her gardener Mary Lobb. A vivid tapestry of legacy, politics, and hidden queer love. 7pm, Aug 18 & 26 Aug. Etcetera Theatre

• Tales From The Wasteland is an improvised post-apocalyptic adventure. A cast of wastelanders takes an audience suggestion and crafts an entire narrative with no pre-prepared characters, story or dialogue. If the world were ending, what’s the one thing you’d want to survive? Expect raiders, mutants and battles over scarce resources in this absurd dark comedy, as each show builds its own apocalypse, from nuclear-blasted cities and dystopian robots to brutal scavenger societies. 9pm, Aug 20-22. Hen & Chickens Theatre

Dying to Meet You

• Leta and Tess keep dying and they’re sick of it – they just want a normal life together. To find out who’s behind it, they retrace past lives. Agnieszka Wieclawska’s debut play Dying To Meet You explodes the fourth wall, pulling us into a whirlwind of noir, slapstick, meta theatre, comedy and improv. 9pm, Aug 20; 6pm Aug 21-23; 2pm Aug 22. The Courtyard Theatre

• DK Mack’s London Fields tackles immigration, identity, masculinity and the devastating consequences of radicalisation. After being verbally attacked on a London bus, Luka, a migrant living in the UK, becomes obsessed with fitting in. As he masters the language, adopts the culture, and befriends a working-class Brit, his desire to belong gradually pulls him towards extremist views. 9pm, Aug 18-20; 3pm, Aug 19. The Courtyard Theatre

• Created and performed by actor-comedian Mary Redmond, Maz Pantz is a character-led sketch show using mime, puppetry, storytelling, cinematic voiceover and physical comedy. Several of the sketches include characters with unusual personalities, such as Hermione, an awkward middle-aged Scottish woman who aspires to become a TV presenter. 7.30pm Aug 21-22 & 24; 7pm, Aug 23. Canal Café Theatre

• Inspired by the real experiences of Ollie Hart and Harry Warren, Wrap Party is set on the final day of a chaotic film shoot. Running the catering van, two best mates feed the stars, crew egos and broken boilers while trying not to lose their business, their ambitions or each other. The comedy is about friendship, graft, class and the invisible labour behind the entertainment industry. 7pm, Aug 23 & 24 August. Lion & Unicorn Theatre

• Kate Stokes and Thomas Manson’s Barleycorn, draws on folk customs across England – from apple-tree wassailing to hobby-horse trials. Set in the fictional village of Hopley Drew, audiences join locals in The Barleycorn Inn for their annual harvest celebration, where some blame the endless rain on a curse, while others insist the show must go on. The production features live music, plays-within-plays, Morris dancing, sing-alongs, games and a raffle. 9pm, Aug 24-26. The Courtyard Theatre

• The Old Red Lion’s annual festival-within-the-festival, SHAKEFEST, includes Titania a one-woman show, which reimagines what happens after A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Titania has fallen into our world. She sweeps the theatre. She lives off scraps, and watches. She has taken something she cannot easily return. Part confessional, part stand-up. 7.30pm, Aug 10-11. Pericles (kind of) is a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s stormy story. Pericles is meant to follow a wandering prince who flees an incestuous king, survives storms, shipwrecks, assassins, jousts, foils pirates and ends in a brothel, but in this version, he struggles to keep the plot on track as other characters test how far they can push a show. 3pm/7pm, Aug 24-27. Old Red Lion Theatre

• Cowpokes in a Bunkhouse unfolds inside an immersive, authentic(ish) Wild West bunkhouse full to the rails with rowdy cows. Three unlikely acquaintances – Judd, Buck and Kit – are struggling to settle the herd for fear of The Big Man. One begins an old folk tale about two brothers, but it soon becomes clear that each cowpoke has a different version of the same story. 9pm, Aug 29-30 Hen and Chickens

• All Camden Fringe shows can be booked at camdenfringe.com/