Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Queer Folks’ Tales
Turan Ali with the Scottish Storytelling Centre
Genre: Queer Comedy, Queer Theatre, Spoken Word, Storytelling
Venue: Scottish Storytelling Centre
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Queer Folks’ Tales is a lively and highly regarded LGBTQ+ storytelling event featured at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Now in its third year, this show brings to life queer experiences through a rich array of storytellers from Edinburgh, Scotland, and beyond. Hosted by Turan Ali, an experienced BBC producer and acclaimed storyteller, the show includes a blend of funny, touching, and sometimes startling narratives based on the real lives of LGBTQ+ individuals. These stories explore queer history, identity, culture, combining humor, emotion, wisdom, wit and insight.
The evenings showcase a broad spectrum of queer voices, including writers, comedians, and performers representing various backgrounds, ages, and cultures. Stories range from intimate personal memories to dramatic poems and songs, all reflecting what it means to live openly and truly in queer communities. It has achieved legendary status and is part of a year-round programme and not only at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Review
Turan Ali, our host for this evening of queer storytelling, proudly announced this is a two-hour show, a rarity at the under-an-hour Edinburgh Fringe. The fomat follows its year round style, with a few differences for the Fringe. Five main guests get a decent amount of time to share their very personal stories with a fairly full house at the Scottish Storytelling Centre.
Turan Ali commands the stage, is an endearing host with a sharp satirical comedy edge. He plucks witty one-liners from the air with ease, but his golden skill lies in his life-won wisdom and erudition which he shares fluently and with a generous heart The audience quickly lean in realise that, even after two hours of a joyful evening of emotional depth mixed with gentle light-heartedness, that they haven’t leaned back! This is a content-rich show, full of diverse material. Most of the guests have shows at the Fringe. For example, LGBTQIA+ Northern stand-up comedian Jane Postlethwaite is at the Fringe with Jane Does Comedy.
Anna Falcon’s #1Mexican in Estonia is a late night standup show. Morgan Rees brings some work-in progress to Monkey Barrel Comedy, and the evening is rounded off by James Barr, whose James Barr: Sorry I Hurt Your Son (Said My Ex to My Mum) plays at Underbelly.
Some of these are more anecdotal in their story-style and content, while others are deeply personal stories told more specifically as storyelling-style with more clearly structured narratives, shattering in content, powerfully related . The variety is a key virtue. Being the Fringe, I felt some of the guests veered a little too far into their stand-up routines, and that is only an issue because the quality and storytelling roots of Queer Folks’ Tales is not really about gags, payoffs and punchlines, but about storytelling. That said, the overall balance of the show still prioritises stories well told, shared with heart and delivered with charisma and talent. Hope London was the royalty of the evening for me, and the only guest who doesn’t have a show at the Fringe. She told a beautiful tale with simplicity and gentle power before sharing a gem of a song as well.
Other features include micro (shorter) tales from our host, and my favourite was a hilarious recounting of events in Vienna. I will share no spoilers., but bit of sweet and very funny icing on this rich fruit cake of an evening. James Barr rounded off the main guest contributions with a raconteur style that delivered a gentle narrative, both darkly comic and heartbreaking.
We were also invited to submit our own audience micro stories into a basket and as many as possible were read out by Turan and the guests throughout the show. Everyone can be a storyteller here, and many willingly were. It is a sign of that audience leaning in that not all could be read out, there were so many.
The still ongoing much longer narrative of the struggle and emergence of all of the letters and symbols in our world of LGBTIA+ is acknowledged and important messages are shared, such as ths still existing reticence in the storytelling world of the “B” (bisexual) folk. There are still challenges, opportunities and urgencies here.
As a “Hetty-ally”, I deeply appreciated and enjoyed Queer Folks’ Tales. I felt a welcome visitor and also quickly at home. There were many “Non-queers” on the audience. hands shot up in response to a early-in-the-show poll.
This is a priceless variety show that welcomes a variety audience. It is a legendary event that runs beyond the Fringe, thrives and develops. It is outstanding for its stand-out host, format, variety, playfulness, high quality, calm courage to be two hours long, its welcome, pacing and freshness. But most of all it is deeply serious in its intent, and successful in its realisation.
