Upcoming performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe have been given awards supporting artists to partake in a Summerhall Fringe run – The Mary Dick Award, The Autopsy Award, and The Meadows Awards and the Edinburgh Touring Award. With a host of engaging, boundary-pushing work hitting on the biggest themes of the time, Summerhall is proud to support and celebrate the following artists.
This year’s Autopsy Award, made possible by Allan Wilson, goes to Glasgow-based performance maker, poet and self-professed foodie Sean Wai Keung, presenting the intimate performance that isA History of Fortune Cookies, alive theatre and spoken word cooking performance. Performing to 10 audience members at a time, Sean blends the history of the fortune cookie with his own real-life experiences as a mixed-race person whilst baking the iconic after-dinner dish for his guests.
In association with Birds of Paradise, Summerhall presents the Mary Dick Award to clowning artist Kathrine Payne whose first solo work,plewds, is a clowning piece parodying trauma parading shows. Combining pop culture and drama with a blend of clowning and drag, plewdsis a distinctly Queer comedy show surrounding Kathrine’s experience of abuse in a Queer relationship. plewds runs at Summerhall’s Old Lab throughout this year’s Fringe.
Two Meadows Awards offer a supported run to Artists of Colour basing their practice in the UK, with a total bursary of £10,000. Presented with this award is BAFTA nominee Yolanda Mercy for her latest show Failure Project, exploring the fragility of life and what it’s like to be a woman in modern day Britain. The show has a full run in Summerhall’s Anatomy Lecture Theatre.
Sharing the Meadows Award is artist Lula Mebrahtu (aka LULA.XYZ) , bringing her show OommoO – I am a Walking Universe. Exploring AfroFuturism through the East African lens of a first generation immigrant, Lula’s latest piece focuses on the body, and how every traumatic experience is etched into the fabric of our DNA.
The Edinburgh Touring Award goes to Darby James and QuietRIOT’s musical adventure Little Squirt,after a phenomenal run at Melbourne Fringe 2023. This one person musical cabaret follows Darby’s experience of sperm donation, from Facebook ad to genetic questionnaires, medical screening and psychological evaluation. Little Squirt is on throughout August in the Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Summerhall
Tickets on sale now via summerhall.co.uk
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 