In this podcast, FringeReview editor Paul Levy offers a guide to getting the most out of Camden Fringe…
If you go to the show search page on the Camden Fringe Website, you’ll find over”500 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 is. 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…
I want to see … at Camden Fringe
Our easy way to find shows to see.
I want to see…
Theatre
… an acclaimed theatre piece that is set on a morning tram commute, that asks: asks: what do women truly owe each other?. Then see Lost Property
… some speculative drama, an intermedial theatre piece, set in near future Dublin. Then see Heist
… solo Shakespeare. Then see Macbeth (solo)
… a raw, poetic exploration of trauma PTSD and recovery using spoken word movement and narrative to make visible the invisible wounds of the mind. Then see Inside A Mind
… a stripped back poetic journey of people navigating the disorienting grid of modern systems through physical storytelling. Then see GRID
… a world premiere physical theatre piece using surrealism clowning and poetic storytelling to probe identity under pressure. Then see SOLO
… an evening of classic musical theatre hits reimagined and revitalised with style by a legendary performer and special guests. Then see Adventures of Straker
… a swinging Great American Songbook set performed by a five piece jazz band fronted by a fabulous vocalist, full of effortless charm. Then see Out of the Blue Jazz presents the Great American Songbook
… an experimental rock poetry movement performance following an unreliable narrator’s mythic Camden journey through music and street lore. Then see She Sells Sanctuary on The Prince of Wales Road
… a blistering music and comedy blend with action physical performance and live songs in a playful absurd take on Bond style espionage. Then see Carlos Sandin: Pull My Goldfinger
… a curated series of fully improvised comedy nights showcasing London’s oddball alt comedy teams delivering magical and imaginative mixed bill performances. Then see The Book Club Improv Show
We’ll be adding more choices throughout the Fringe so check back regularly.
PREVIEW
Echoes of Empires: Camden Fringe 2025 Preview
In August 2025, The Courtyard Theatre presents the world premiere of Echoes of Empires, a new play by Vkinn Vats. Part of the Camden Fringe, this one act drama is set entirely within a London flat over a single evening. Yet its focus stretches far beyond those four walls. Through the lives of four characters, the play explores how the legacy of empire continues to shape love, identity and belonging in modern Britain.
The story brings together friends and lovers for what begins as a casual evening. But as wine is poured and conversation turns, old assumptions surface. Beneath the humour and shared memories is a deeper tension that reveals itself in language, in silence, and in the weight of unspoken history. This is not a play that lectures. It invites its audience to notice how the past is present in the smallest of gestures and the quietest of pauses.
Echoes of Empires does not attempt to retell history. Instead, it focuses on how history lives on in accents, glances, habits and power. It asks what happens when personal relationships carry the burden of inherited privilege and pain. How much does love owe to shared memory? Can affection exist free from politics? And how do intimacy and empire exist in the same room?
Vkinn Vats not only writes but also performs in the production. His work is supported by a team of creatives who bring experience from across theatre, film and television. Director Isabel Steuble Johnson has a background in emotionally focused storytelling that supports the play’s subtle shifts in energy and mood. Set designer Isabella Sarmiento Abadia works with spaces that suggest both realism and symbolism. The lighting by Melody Mengyun Liu and sound by Emeka Diamond support the slow reveal of tension in the dialogue.
The cast includes Neetika Knight, Sarah Sinizer Hopkins and Estelle Warner, each bringing their own histories to a piece that is as much about presence as it is about performance. Knight draws on her South Indian background and theatre experience. Hopkins brings physical presence and movement from her dual training in acting and skating. Warner adds screenwriting experience to her acting, helping shape the rhythm of the ensemble.
This is a fifty five minute production with no interval. It does not aim for spectacle or grand resolution. Instead, it offers an honest and searching look at how colonial pasts shape contemporary relationships. The questions it poses are not answered but held open, allowing each audience member to reflect on them in their own way.
Echoes of Empires is not simply about history or politics. It is about how those things live in personal spaces. It focuses on the tension between comfort and conflict, between shared meals and silent reckonings. It stays close to the language of the everyday while holding space for something much larger.
This is a play that asks to be listened to closely. It invites reflection without conclusion and brings together a team of artists who have taken time to build a story that feels both personal and political without overstating either.
Listings Information
Festival: Camden Fringe Festival 2025
Venue: The Courtyard Theatre, London
Dates: 3 to 6 August 2025
Time: 7pm
Running time: 55 minutes with no interval
Age guidance: Suitable for ages 18 and over
Links:
Camden Fringe: https://camdenfringe.com/events/echoes-of-empires/
Courtyard Theatre: https://thecourtyard.org.uk/whats-on/
PREVIEW
Prometheus NOW
Hangar 404 Theatre at Camden Fringe 2025
Prometheus NOW is a new work by Hangar 404 Theatre that engages with the enduring myth of Prometheus through physical performance, contemporary imagery and poetic fragmentation. It does not seek to retell the myth in any traditional sense but uses it as a lens to reflect on present tensions around knowledge, progress and technological power.
The performance explores what it means to live in a world driven by movement and acceleration. Rather than following a clear narrative, the piece unfolds through physicality and rhythm, drawing attention to the ways we remain in motion without direction. At its centre is a question about striving: whether our pursuit of more knowledge, more data and more control has led to any genuine sense of arrival or fulfilment.
The ensemble uses movement, stillness and visual layering to create a space where myth and technology meet. There is a focus on repetition and interruption, suggesting the recursive loops of contemporary life. Prometheus is not simply a figure from the past but a metaphor for the present, and possibly the future. The work opens a space to consider artificial intelligence not as science fiction but as part of the human condition now. What do we become when our own creations begin to outpace us?
This is not a show that provides answers or takes a firm position. It invites reflection rather than persuasion. The tone is neither didactic nor abstract, and humour appears at times without undermining the seriousness of the themes. Movement and text work together without hierarchy, allowing the audience to follow their own path through the material.
Prometheus NOW offers a quiet resistance to spectacle. It uses the stage to create tension rather than release, stillness rather than momentum. It asks whether myth still has a role in helping us see ourselves clearly and whether theatre can hold that kind of space without explanation or resolution.
Listings
Book here
Prometheus NOW
by Hangar 404 Theatre
Courtyard Theatre
40 Bowling Green Walk, Pitfield Street, London N1 6EU
August 1 and 2, 2025 at 20:30
Running time: 60 minutes
Age recommendation: 14 plus
Instagram: @hangar404theatre
