ZOO, Gilded Balloon, Traverse Theatre and Dance Base have announced a full programme for MultiStory, a new Edinburgh Fringe venue for 2021. Based in the city centre at the NCP Castle Terrace Car Park, this new outdoor venue overlooking Edinburgh Castle will host comedy, theatre, dance, family, music and poetry performances from 6-29 August this summer.

The offering of shows at MultiStory includes mainstays of the Fringe, like Sunshine on Leith (performed by Captivate Theatre) and Audience Precipitation by comedian Jason Byrne (The Jason Byrne Show, Live at the Apollo).

Alongside this, there will be Fringe debuts from legendary Edinburgh drag queen Alice Rabbit with Alice Rabbit’s AYE-Cons, Scottish actress Leah McCrae (River City, Gary: Tank Commander) with her sell-out comedy show My Big, Fat, Fabulous Diary.

Former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and musician John Sampson will perform together in a show newly created for 2021, celebrating the return of the Fringe.

Scottish band Shooglenifty will make their first live appearance in their hometown since storming the Edinburgh International Festival in 2019, and Dirty Protest (How to Be Brave, Sugar Baby) return to the Fringe with Double Drop, an amalgamation of 90s English rave culture and Welsh Eisteddfod, with original music by BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winners 9Bach.

Alongside Jason Byrne, comedy acts include Scotland's best and much loved stand-up comedian, Fred MacAulay, performing Fred MacAulay and Friends joined by some of the UK and Scotland’s favourite comedians such as Maisie Adam, Chris Forbes, and Susie McCabe. Also, Glasgow-based writer, actor and viral TikTok comedy star Paul Black will perform his sketch show Worst Case Scenario.

Traverse Theatre are presenting A Play, a Pie and a Pint. The two plays are Aye, Elvis by Morna Young, an alternative love story about escapism, identity and a Doric Elvis, and Chic Murray: A Funny Place to put a Window by Stuart Hepburn, a comedy on the triumphs and tragedies of the glittering but flawed life of unique Scots comedian, Chic Murray. Both originally produced with Glasgow Lunchtime Theatre at the Oràn Mór. Class Act, Traverse Theatre’s flagship schools project that was due to be staged in 2020 will be finally seen on stage at MultiStory with a selection of pieces created by young people from across Edinburgh.

Dance Base are presenting Celebrating Okoe, a tribute to a great drum master by African Groove Collective mixing Ghanaian rhythms with Scottish Jazz spirit for an explosion of kpanlogo grooves and incredible dancing with Tom Bancroft,  Thomas Annang, Adie Baako Elias and guests, while Booker prize winner Ben Okri OBE (Changing Destiny at the Young Vic) and Edinburgh-based choreographer Charlotte Jarvis bring a world premiere Starting From First Position movement and spoken word reflecting on life’s constant demand for improvisation.

Also presented by Dance Base is Slanjayvah Danza and Dance Ihayami’s Shiva’s Camino, also featuring Amy Geddes on live fiddle, a celebration of how culture crosses borders, told through feisty percussive flamenco, Scottish step with Sophie Stephenson, Indian classical, glamourous Bollywood, all fused with contemporary dance, and Eowyn Emerald Barrett’s Your Tomorrow is an entertaining and deeply intimate look at the impact of Parkinson’s disease and the power of human connection. Dance Base will also be hosting Dance Base unwrapped, a combined programme of live, immersive, digital performances and installations in their nearby Grassmarket studios which will also be available through the MultiStory website.

The MultiStory family programme includes Return to the Fringe! by Funbox (creators of The Singing Kettle). Helen Eastman and Alex Silverman’s musical Bicycle Boy, bicycle-powered, eco-musical for children and their families will also be performed, as will Kapow’s Rapunzel, a classic fairy tale for families with a pantomimic twist.

The new festival hub will be sponsored by Edinburgh’s favourite local brewery Innis & Gunn. MultiStory will host food and drink stalls from the Pitt, Edinburgh’s pioneering, independent street food market.

Most shows are on sale now here: www.multistory.scot 
Other shows will go on sale at www.multistory.scot later this month.