Having only just recovered from Camden Fringe, we were thinking we'd have a couple of quiet weeks. But then we realised Lambeth Fringe was around the corner.

So instead we headed south of the river to catch up with one of the festival organisers, Velenzia Spearpoint.

We discuss why the festival has been rebranded for this year, having previously been known as Clapham Fringe, why they cannot walk through Lambeth without looking at possible new venues, and try to push Valenzia to pick her favourite shows!

Lambeth Fringe opens 19 September to 20 October. Further information can be found on their website here.

We invited a group of artists who had shows on at this year's Camden Fringe to discuss the experience - what they learned from putting their show on, what problems they encountered, and why ultimately it was a worthwhile experience.

Participants:

Ruby Blue Tansey-Thomas

Zofia Zerphy 

Hassan Govia

Benedict Esdale

Jon Hague

You can find out more about the participants on our website.

Lady Montagu Unveiled promises us a blend of Gossip Girl, Bridgerton, with dashes of Hamilton. What's not to like about that combination.

Throw in Thesy Surface, an actor with some fine pedigree, including a recurring role in It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia as the rather disturbing and monobrowed Margaret McPoyle. But she's given up the glamour of working in America to bring her one woman show to Camden Fringe. She reckons Lady Montagu Unveiled will be the hippest historical stage memoir in town, and who are we to disagree?

The show comes to The Courtyard Theatre for three performances only - 23/24th at 8.30pm and 25th at 1.30pm. Further information and bookings available here.

We grabbed five minutes with Alice Motta during the recent Camden Fringe Launch Party, firstly as we needed someone to take a photo of our little team who were there, but also so we could chat about her show.

Find out about her show and why she has stopped using an actual bath in her set!

You can read more about the show in a fuller interview we did with Alice here.

We first spoke to sisters Rosa and Maya back at the start of 2022, when they were preparing to take their new show, Experiment Human to VAULT Festival.

That festival was unfortunately cancelled, but not to be

Two years on from it’s rather disrupted beginnings, Experiment Human is now an award winning show and

So it felt like a great time to catch up with two of our favourite people to find out how the show has changed and grown in that time, and whether this might finally be the time Benedict Cumberbatch finds himself in the audience face to face with himself on stage.

Experiment Human plays EdFringe 1 - 25 August, further information here.

There is also a London preview date on 28 July at Old Red Lion Theatre, tickets available here.

We first bumped into Anya Hope Birch as part of Act II Festival, where she was an Assosiate Producer. After bending her ear for an hour or so in the bar afterwards, it only seemed fair we should give her the chance to chat back on our podcast.

So that's how Anya, along with director Henry Roberts and writer Lucy Josephine, who collectively make up Mooski Theatre Company, found themselves as our latest guests, here to tell us all about their Camden Fringe show, Teach Me About Dying. It's a show that asks that all important question, what would you do if death turned up on your door unexpectedly?

Teach Me About Dying will be playing at Little Angel Theatre 20 - 24 August for Camden Fringe. Further information available here.

If you're going to call your show We Can Be Heroes, well, for many of us it's almost impossible not to follow that up with "just for one day" in honour of the classic David Bowie song.

But as Anna Krauze tells us, it has nothing really to do with that, but rather it's a newly written play about what it means to be a superhero. Which all sounds rather intriguing doesn't it.

Anna talks about the play that sees Peanut tell us about her brother, the superhero who was scared of the rain, thunder and just about everything else, so what makes him a superhero? We discuss this, why Edinburgh is still the aim for Anna, and what makes Camden Fringe such a great place to test out new work.

We Can Be Heroes plays at Lion and Unicorn Theatre from 12 - 14 August, more information and tickets available here.

We have a soft spot for gig theatre, at least gig theatre when it is done right. So when Rona Johnstone and Katie Slater got in touch to tell us not just about their Edinburgh Fringe bound show, Mary: A Gig Theatre Show, but also that they had done some research into gig theatre as part of their degree course, how could we not want to chat with them about it all.

So, as well as telling us all about their show, based on Mary Queen of Scots, they also talk about what they feel gig theatre is. We may also disagree a little on their definition but we do agree that it shows just how varied the genre can be! We also get very close to begging them to bring the show to London, because we all want to see it now!

Mary: A Gig Theatre show plays at theSpace for EdFringe from 12 - 17 August. Further information and tickets available here.

We're joined for this week's edition by writer Niamh O'Donnell, director Anna Millington and RamPage Theatre AD and producer Rachel McKay, who are bringing new show Cianalas to King's Head Theatre at the end of July as part of Camden Fringe.

Cianalas tells the story of a community’s resistance to mass evictions during the Highland Clearances – one of the darkest moments of Scotland’s history.

We chat about why that title, how they all became involved with the show, and why fringe theatre is something we should all be out supporting.

Cianalas plays 30 & 31 July at King's Head Theatre - further information can be found here.

Our latest guest is Jessie-Wren Jacobs, who is getting ready to take her show, This Porno Does Not Pass the Bechdel test, to Edinburgh Fringe. Although before then, she is making a quick stop off at Camden's Etcetera Theatre in July.

Describing her show as a feminist tragicomedy, Jessie-Wren tells us what the Bechdel test is and why it actually doesn't have a massive amount to do with the show anyway. We also discuss sex education, the issues of teens being exposed to porn from such a young age and how this feeds into the show, and whether the show is suitable for her grandparents!

This Porno Does Not pass The Bechdel test plays at Etcetera Theatre for one night only on 5 July, then Edinburgh Fringe Festival from 19 - 24 August. More information can be found here.