Natasha Tripney's Poem for Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024

Natasha Tripney, a writer and international editor at The Stage, crafts her annual cut-up poem from the pages of the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme.

Make sure to check out her previous poems from 2023 and 2022, as well as our other blogs on this year's Edinburgh Fringe from Mobius' Senior PR Account Manager Elaine Jones and Senior PR Account Executive Lorn Elvin.

After the pandemic. Following a cancer diagnosis. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash. A life unspools. In a walk-in freezer. In a shipping container. In a closed park at night. In the midst of a family tragedy. In the heart of chaos and conflict. In the stoned soul of Scotland. In a far-flung future. In a new age of inequality. In a world on the brink of transformation. Suspended between heaven and hell. Overrun by robots. Illuminated by flames.

As the race intensifies. The world’s greatest spirit medium. An insecure YouTuber. A working fisherman. A retired optometrist from Utah. A Romani countess. A cardiothoracic surgeon. A serial house-plant killer. A nicotine demon. A real-life troll. And her flamboyant Serbian mother. Navigate heartbreak. Navigate loss and love. Covered in baby vomit. Thrown into limbo. Shattered by revelations. Haunted by voice messages. Trapped in a basement. Trapped in time. Facing sabotage. Descending into savagery. Refusing to be silenced. Struggling to adapt to city life. Saddled with her own hallucinations. With his pride dented. Their tumultuous relationship unfolds. His tweets go viral. Her father relapses. His world falls apart. She teeters on the edge of adulthood. She flees her marriage. Her sense of self deteriorates. Tempers flare. Moral lines blur. Is he willing to compromise? Where does this leave her? Is it possible to have it all? Anything's worth a shot.

A gang of four-year-olds. A team of young co-workers. A brooding artist. Two undertakers. Three female football players. Four queer women. Five law students. Six people on the periphery. Seven teenagers (and a Barbie doll). With murder on their minds. With a singular ambition. On a quest to leave behind a legacy. Attempt to kidnap Jermy Corbyn. Armed with a single torch. Who is trying to catch who?

A shamanic journey. A helter-skelter nosedive. An extinction-level story. An uplifting whirlwind. A cross-cultural comedy. An adrenaline- fuelled retelling. A topical rollercoaster. An absurdist two-hander. A high-energy cocktail. A fresh new folk horror. An AI/human love story. With a sprinkle of fairy dust. Inspired by a Hungarian gangster dad. Encompassing Irish folklore. Exploring polyamory. Exploring bisexuality. Exploring queer identity. Exploring the darkness within. Revealing layer upon layer. Deeply relatable. Joyously unrestrained. Riotously funny. Playfully anachronistic. Accidentally historically accurate. Hilariously tragic. Tragically obvious. Utterly Scottish. Spanning 25 years. Set to a disco soundtrack. Told through everyday conversation. Told in reverse. Featuring a live band. With an undercurrent of grief. Not for the easily offended. Performed by Slavic actors. All in 60 minutes. There will be audience participation. Is this still a good idea?

Are we worth saving?

It’s about what comes next.

You can join in.

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