Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Epic Economics : What Would You Protest About Today?
Dimis Michaelides
Genre: Political, Storytelling, Theatre
Venue: Paradise in the Vault
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
A canter through an interesting selection of economists, neatly capturing the essence of their respective hypotheses whilst sprinkling a few quirkily humorous asides, tossing in a few protest songs and rounding it all off with an invitation to audience members to scrawl the thing they want to protest about, or draw to our collective attention as Dimis Michaelides delivers a passable rendering of “The Internationale”.
Quintessentially quirky. Quintessentially Fringe.
Review
The concept of a useful economist is surely an oxymoron. Take this example : a surgeon, an engineer, and an economist were arguing about this and whose profession was the oldest. The surgeon claims medicine is oldest because Eve was made from Adam’s rib. The engineer counters that engineering is older because God created the ordered universe out of chaos. The economist simply smiled and asked, “And where do you think the chaos came from?”
OK, so that’s one of the very few jokes that even features an economist and probably the only one where the economist has a decent punchline. But it’s a useful icebreaker for what surely is the only play about economics at the Edinburgh Fringe, Dimis Michaelides’ catchily titled Epic Economics : What Would You Protest About Today?
Part autobiographical, part exploration of what economists have done to the world since Adam Smith’s theory that markets work for the benefit of all when everyone just works for their own interest emerged in the late 1700s, it’s probably one of the more esoteric, abstruse, cryptic shows doing the rounds this year.
Take the splendid looking breakfast that Michaelides is tucking into, seated at his kitchen table in Paradise at the Vault’s intimate Annex space. OK, it’s lunchtime, but, as he explains, these days he’s free to do what he wants, when he wants and with whom or what he chooses – a kind of free life nirvana which would appeal to disciples of Hayek and Friedman, perhaps.
However, Michaelides’ breakfast provides a useful lesson in the connections we’ve come to rely on in order to function in today’s world. The oats in his porridge were grown on a Scottish farm, processed in a Scottish factory and sold by a local convenience store. The spoon he’s eating it with came from China, the honey and milk from sources nearby but his his coffee is from Brazil – all packaged and delivered to a location from which it can be purchased and consumed. One breakfast turns out to involve a whole lot of people and some interesting logistics.
Michaelides speaks with some authority, given his background as an alumnus of the London School of Economics (full disclosure, so am I) and who had a glittering career working for a number of prestigious economics institutions, authored a number of publications and has now found time to create something comprehensible with humour out of a subject most feel is too complex to get their brains around. The man likes a challenge.
Thus follows a canter through an interesting selection of economists, neatly capturing the essence of their respective hypotheses whilst sprinkling a few quirkily humorous asides, tossing in a few protest songs (well known to some of the cohort in the room) and rounding it all off with an invitation to audience members to scrawl the thing they want to protest about, or draw to our collective attention as he delivers a passable rendering of “The Internationale”. Little doubt as to which side of the political spectrum our engaging speaker leans towards. Somehow, I don’t think Mr Michaelides is likely to feature on Nigel’s Christmas card list. Farage, Nigel Farage, come on, stay with me please.
Michaelides tells a good story, aided in no small part by Lia Haraki’s inventive dramaturgy (never thought I’d use that adjective in relation to a show about economics), direction and lighting design. True, the dialogue does move from the nerdy (for any economist) to the quirky to the just plain strange but it just about all hangs together, largely due to Michaelides eye for a good punchline.
The “what would you protest about today” bit was a nice way to reach out, involve the audience and wrap up the play, inviting us to write our protest/idea on a bit of (recycled?) cardboard and scatter it over the stage as Michaelides delivered a rendition of “The Internationale”, with which a few enthusiasts joined in with commendable gusto.
Sure, economists have a lot to answer for, particularly the damage their theories appear to have caused over the last fifty years or so as it’s becoming abundantly clear that unchecked capital accumulation fuels inequality and entrenches wealth concentration (Piketty’s words, not mine).
But it’s oft forgot that it was the economist John Maynard Keynes who the architect of the UK’s publicly funded arts structure, through the formation of the independent, Treasury funded Arts Council of Britain. Arms-length funding was subsequently devolved to England, Scotland and Wales and the model copied around the globe to the benefit of countless millions. And storytelling is a key element in binding communities together, like that here at the part publicly funded Edinburgh Fringe. Perhaps economists do have some use, after all.
