The locals probably can’t bear the Edinburgh festival. Their solid, handsome streets are suddenly packed with needy thesps waving and flapping at them from every kerbside. ‘New interactive comedy quiz, starts in five minutes.’ ‘Award-winning monologue about growing up Chinese in Droitwich.’ ‘Stalin the Opera performed by tone-deaf choir.’ There’s a waggish actor who stands on George IV Bridge challenging passers-by not to take a leaflet. ‘When I hand out my next flyer I’m going to jump off the parapet.’ He’s there every day.
One of the first shows I sampled was Titania McGrath Mxnifesto (Pleasance Courtyard, until 25 August). Titania McGrath, the woke guru, demolishes the alt-left orthodoxy in 45 minutes of venomous satire. ‘I’m a simple Kensington girl,’ she announces dictatorially, ‘with a moderate trust fund and a thirst for justice.’ She plans to set up a new progressive party, Shame UK, based on the precept that ‘whiteness is rape’.
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