29th July – 25th August 2024
If you go to the show search page on the Camden Fringe Website, you’ll find “340 Results” listed. This is a growing Fringe in London in the UK that still somehow manages to feel not too large scale. There are a family of venues in the city that host shows across all the genres, with theatre more than well represented.
According to the Camden Fringe team: “The Camden Fringe was set-up as an alternative to Edinburgh Festival, offering performers the chance to try out new material and different ideas in a supportive setting with less time and financial commitments than EdFringe did at the time. The Camden Fringe aims to give anyone the chance to perform and showcase their talents, from very experienced performers and companies, to ambitious newcomers. Since 2006 the Camden Fringe has gained a reputation for supporting acts, providing helpful information and guidance for the acts involved.”
And an alternative to Edfringe it certainly us. Here at FringeReview we notice a significant increase in Edfringe shows that do not play the entire festival in Edinburgh, opting for a week at Camden, sometimes in week 1 (and also week zero where Edfringe hosts its previews and venue launches), or in the last week of Camden Fringe. So Camden Fringe is a viable alternative to an entire Edinburgh Fringe month run. You might even have a better chance of garnering some national press reviews at Camden Fringe over Edfringe, given the increase in press coverage that has been happening at Camden for several years now and that reality of the media cutting budgets and sending less journalists to the over-expensive city of Edinburgh in August where a flat can now cost five grand for the month.
Camden Fringe is not just an alternative to Edinburgh but a fully fledged arts festival in its own right, often a destination for shows that have tkaen in exciting small fringe festivals such as Wandsworth Arts Fringe, Buxton (pretty big actually) and many other Fringes in the UK and overseas (Prague, for example). Yes, you can get decent audiences. Yes you can attract reviews from the press. And yes, you might just not lose your shirt.
The best place to start if you are looking to stage or see a show at Camden Fringe is, unsurprisingly, their web site, which is nicely simple, accessible and with easy listings and a decent search engine.
There is helpful information and a process for taking part in Camden Fringe here. The process for booking tickets a pretty straightforward. And there are directions to, and information about the just under thirty fringe venues here.
Camden Fringe is socially active online on Facebook, on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, with trailers and promos on YouTube and TikTok.
If you have professional theatre experience and would like to join FringeReview’s intrepid team of volunteer reviewers at Camden Fringe, you can apply here.
We’ll be doing a bit of previewing and reviewing at Camden Fringe in the run up to, and during the Fringe. Our inbox is already full of inspiring, interesting and tempting press releases. So here are a few previews to get you started on the Camden Fringe booking page…
PREVIEW
Whoa Mama! comes to the Hen & Chickens Theatre at Camden Fringe 2024
“To breed, or not to breed – THAT is the question!” asked by solo performer Stepahnie Ware. Award-winning company Ware It’s At Productions returns with a new one-woman comedy about the struggle to decide. Fun for parents and non-parents alike! More and more women are deciding not to have children. The UK’s population growth is at an all-time low. Whoa Mama! is billed as “an empowering comic exploration of the opinions, arguments and science behind the child-free movement.”
Here is the lowdown: “You’ve never wanted to procreate, but when you’re 40+ and staring down the barrel of infertility… should you or would you change your mind? Are children really the meaning of life? This is truly the Final Countdown. Strap in, this hilarious fast-paced physical comedy rollercoaster will have you screaming for more. It’s going to be a bumpy bump-free ride!!!”
Stephanie Ware has been performing as Weimar Vixen Cabaret Compère Extraordinaire: Eva Von Schnippisch for over 12 years. With two fringe-hit, action-packed musicals under her belt (How Eva Von Schnippisch Won WWII and How Eva Von Schnippisch Saved Hollywood), this is her first production as herself. Stephanie Ware’s magnetic persona melts away the fourth wall, encourages participation and rewards her audience with a unique experience.
Directed by performer/theatre-maker Peta Lily, a pioneer of physical theatre in the 1980s, renowned for her one-woman shows, physical theatre productions. She created the Dark Clown practice and is a master of Red Nose Clown and Commedia Dell’arte.
VENUE: The Hen & Chickens Theatre, 109 St Pauls Road, London. N1 2NA
DATES: 9th & 10th August 2024
TIME: 6pm (60 mins)
TICKET PRICE: £15/£12
TICKETS: camdenfringe.com/events/whoa-mama/
PREVIEW
You: I am a Child
Girl meets Guy. Guy disappears. No one believes Girl. This is the premise for Fool House Theatre’s “You, I Am A Child”, .
“You, I Am A Child”, is a play by brand new theatre company Fool House Theatre, and award-nominated writer Dominic Conneely Hughes (Edinburgh Fringe, Southwark Playhouse, White Bear). A tense and darkly funny examination of how dating, work, social media, and childhood can carry you this far, then pull the rug out from under your feet. Showing the reality of a whole generation’s experience with anxiety as the kids collide with adulthood.
The play centres on an imaginative young woman, Hannah, who has an amazing but complicated first date with Oliver. However, the next day she rushes to a police station after becoming convinced something has happened to him. As the uncaring police ignore her pleas for help, friends and family come forward to reveal the tortured man behind Oliver’s calm mask – news that leaves Hannah picking up the pieces of her own life.
Directed by Tara Choudhary (Pleasance Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, Lion & Unicorn), the play concocts a strange atmosphere across its hour-long runtime; one that investigates the mental health of twenty-somethings in a fractured modern city, and the unseen repercussions of our actions.
VENUE: The Courtyard Theatre
DATES: 13th, 16th, 17th August
TICKET PRICE: £13 / £10 concession
TICKETS: https://camdenfringe.com/events/you-i-am-a-child/
