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The festival was planned and posters printed before the election was called, so there’s been some serious rewriting since. Safe bets include four exceptional comedians – Ahir Shah, reprising last year’s award winner Ends; Hannah Gadsby returning to stand up after breaking Netflix with Nanette in 2017; Rose Matafeo, who redefined rom-coms for TV with Starstruck and always mesmerises and Sophie Duker, Taskmaster winner, who’s chatting sugar daddies. Theatre sees Slow Horses Jack Lowden in a new play by controversial playwright David Ireland about an alcoholic looking for a sponsor and two musicals about Gwyneth Paltrow’s skiing accident. Politics arrives with former MP Mhairi Black’s Westminster confessional and fake Tory MP Rosie Holt’s defiant Why We Were Right. Fringe legends Forced Entertainment return with a show that’s essentially one scene – a customer ordering a drink from a waiter – repeated until it becomes a nightmarish farce. Like the politics stuff, essentially.
