Getting media coverage is a key aim for many people and companies performing at the Fringe, either to help with ticket sales during August or to help build profile beyond the Festival, or both. Many shows have people on their team responsible for reaching out to the media or they hire a publicist to help with that task.

But many venues also have press offices that support their companies in this domain and are a key contact point for media and reviewers wanting to see shows. Jen talks through her role.

CLICK HERE to read today's TW:DIY interview.

Beetlemania: Kafka For Kids (Full Sail Productions / Nick Williams Productions)
You know you've done children's theatre right when you have an audience made up of 95% adults, 5% children, yet everyone is crying with laughter. Especially when your audience is laughing at a woman having trouble controlling a group of rowdy, invisible people... in Finnish. But don't be fooled by the silliness, this is Kafka we're dealing with - it's sombre, it's about suffering, it's about flying puppets made of cardboard. Wait, what? In a production that stretches the bounds of what can be told to children, 'Beetlemania' will have you laughing at everything from pineapples to obscure Czech authors. I've read Kafka in the original German, and it wasn't anywhere near as good as this.
Pleasance Dome, until 26 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Ela Portnoy]

COMEDY

Edd Hedges: For Eva, From Forever Ago (RBM Comedy)
In September 2017, Edd Hedges received a text that changed his life, he tells us. The tension builds over the hour as he recounts anecdotes about his fears and foibles - from awkwardness with girls, accidental adventures and a broken car stereo, we come to understand this floppy-haired raconteur. Naturally unconfident, he's the first to admit that being on stage is a somewhat terrifying experience. He's almost too apologetic, but it's his endearing character that makes his storytelling so engaging. Don't expect a laugh-a-minute ride here, because it's the journey he takes you on that's most important. Hedges builds the layers so that when we reach the end, finally discovering just what that message said and why it was so significant, it's his finest moment.
Gilded Balloon Teviot, until 26 Aug.
tw rating 3/5 | [Daisy Malt]

Elf Lyons: ChiffChaff (Mick Perrin Worldwide in association with CKP and InterTalent Group)
Replete with her usual sense of fun and playful clowning, Elf Lyons' latest show is a musical about the economy, delivering her own hilarious version of expertise. Through mime, dance and song she's here to educate us all about the beauty of fiscal policy, and the whole thing is ridiculously daft. Rewording some favourite musical hits, Lyons frolics around the stage using a selection of props that are surprisingly relevant to economic concepts, including inflatable dolls that prove to be multi-purpose. Although a little knowledge about economics will help make some of the jokes tickle that bit more, it's certainly not a prerequisite. If this were how economics was taught to us in school I think we'd all have achieved top grades.
Pleasance Dome, until 27 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Daisy Malt]

Felicity Ward: Busting A Nut (Phil McIntyre Entertainments Presents)
Having taken a year off from the Fringe, Felicity Ward is back with a sparky show that merrily swaggers along without a specific theme; instead she fills in the gaps for us on what she's been up to in her time away. Holidays, getting married, living with the in-laws (who, she gleefully informs us, will be in the audience the following night) are all playfully explored with superb wit and a delivery that is both manic and measured. She unapologetically jokes about her nearest and dearest, but it's all drawing on a love of their quirks and on how, in reality, she's got just as many of her own. It's a solid, polished hour of entertainment that proves why Ward remains a Fringe favourite.
Pleasance Courtyard, until 26 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Daisy Malt]

Jacob Hatton: Ozymandias (Jacob Hatton)
Jacob Hatton wants to be the Pope. Kind of. He dons the hat and begins forgiving the audience for their imagined, trivial transgressions before setting off on an ambitiously rangy journey. It features extensive audience interaction, props, daft bits and a message of sorts, namely to say nice things to people while they're still here to hear them. The earnestness and the whimsy don't always cut together as smoothly as they might, but it is a bold, bold choice to be so determinedly among his congregation at a time of day when they're not even properly caffeinated, never mind lubricated. For that, and for a very silly bit with a dinosaur mask, may your morning blessings be upon him.
Just The Tonic at The Caves, until 26 Aug.
tw rating 3/5 | [Bruce Blacklaw]

The Kinkens (Pip Hambly)
Burrow deep enough into the subterranean caverns of Edinburgh and you will find a strange and wonderful creature. Her name is Kinkens, a radio show host who invites questions from her listeners. Endearingly inept, she soon finds herself hopelessly and hilariously out of her depth. Incorporating elements of movement, clown and dance, along with music and speech, 'The Kinkens' skilfully treads the line between comedy and tragedy and handles, with the lightest of touches, the heaviest of existential questions: who are we? Why are we? Pip Hambly's physical performance is minutely observed, her comic timing impeccable. Those who prefer their genres served neat, be warned: this is a defiantly uncategorisable piece with a quiet power that creeps up on you.
Just The Tonic at the Caves, until 26 Aug.
tw rating 5/5 | [Geoff Mills]

Sara Barron: For Worse (PBJ Management)
It's quite hard to resist spoilery gag-sharing for this review. But you know what that means: the gags are *good*. So, that stipulated, Sara Barron wants to tell us about moving here to the UK, getting married, having a child, being conflicted between American positivism and British reserve and, er, the sex play she wrote when she was too young to know anything about sex. With the obvious exception of the latter, it's maybe well-trodden ground, but Barron certainly owns it, and the room. This is a candid and - more importantly - well written, beautifully delivered and damned funny show, with a finely judged dose of gleeful filth alongside some pointed truths about being a mother, a wife and a lover.
Just The Tonic at The Tron, until 26 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Bruce Blacklaw]

DANCE & PHYSICAL THEATRE

The Artist (Circo Aereo and Thom Monckton)
Thom Monckton's artist is chaotic and silly - or so he would have you believe. Though he has a few near misses with a staple gun, and becomes easily distracted by everything from a bowl of fruit to an annoying leak, everything is perfectly planned to deliver hoots of laughter and squeals of delight from the audience. At points it starts to feel a bit circuitous: will he ever paint that picture? But when he finally does, it becomes a clever and entertaining finale. My 7 year old co-reviewer came out beaming and said: "he must have practiced that a lot". She's right - Monckton is an assured, confident performer and it feels like he's having a lot of fun playing the part, too.
Assembly Roxy, until 27 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Marni Appleton]

Casting Off (Sharon Burgess Productions and A Good Catch)
A fusion of spoken word and circus, 'Casting Off' is a quirky take on age, wisdom and the circus that is life. An intergenerational performance, Slip (alongside Pearl and Knit, of course) is perhaps older than your average circus performer, and I will now conjure her astonishing performance in my mind every time my mother suggests she's too old for something. As agile as each other, the three ladies bound around the stage, lifting each other up both physically and metaphorically. The story reminds us that whatever we do, we can still learn. Ending with an aerial performance that had a woman behind me repeatedly exclaiming "oh my goodness!" it's a jolly show with a great twist on conventional circus.
Assembly George Square Gardens, until 26 Aug.
tw rating 3/5 | [Daisy Malt]

MUSIC

The Roseberry Trio (Kirsty Howe, Alasdair Hill, Janice Gibson)
A well considered programme and beautiful playing by these musicians from the Kingdom of Fife made this a very relaxing afternoon of chamber music, including the world premier of 'On Wancombe Hill' - written for The Roseberry Trio by Edinburgh composer Nigel Don. The repertoire was wonderfully apt for the venue, including old friends Mozart and Poulenc in addition to less familiar works. Alongside oboe and piano, it showed the french horn at its most biddable rather than brassy; although it did loom briefly out of the pastoral idyll of 'On Wancombe Hill' to vividly portray The Cerne Abbas Giant. I was charmed by the modesty and good humour of this accomplished trio, and impressed by their formidable musicianship.
St Andrew's and St George's West, 10 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Louise Rodgers]

We Are (Adaawe)
Fringe frazzling you? Then this is your show - the performers' energy is infectious. We drummed (drums were provided), we clapped, we cheered! This strong, all-women African drums and vocal group from Los Angeles were inspirational and inclusive - beautiful, powerful voices telling stories about other women making extraordinary, world-changing decisions. Their positivity and storytelling reminded me of 'The Moth Radio Hour' radio shows, only with beautiful singing and expert drumming and, just when I thought there should be dancing - the dancers appeared! Interesting ideas were aired and I switched between being thoughtful and being rather a cool drummer several times. The vocals were first class and the genuine camaraderie between audience and musicians warmed my heart.
Just Festival At St John's, until 25 Aug.
tw rating 5/5 | [Louise Rodgers]

THEATRE

(even) HOTTER (Transgress)
Using a series of interviews with women and trans people about their bodies, Mary Higgins and Ell Potter (aka HOTTER) have weaved together a show about embarrassment, insecurity, love and dancing. They tell their own stories and those of others, drawing on an impressively broad range of experiences. Gradually they reveal more and more of themselves to us, at times physically leaning on each other for support, committing wholly to being courageously, profoundly honest. Some segments go on too long, some reference points are oddly dated (remember Robin Thicke?) and sometimes the whole chaotic jumble feels like it'll collapse - but it doesn't, and by the end you and a bunch of strangers are dancing onstage, and everyone just looks so happy.
Bedlam Theatre, until 27 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Jon Stapley]

Fallen Fruit (Two Destination Language)
For decades, it has been the writers who experienced the tumult of 1989 as citizens of former Soviet countries - Christa Wolf, Herta Müller - who have told most powerfully what it feels like to have your identity ripped from you, your history and your country deleted and overwritten. Katherina Radeva's charming one-woman play is in this vein. Her performance is warm and heartfelt, as she shows us aspects of her life in communist Bulgaria, from gaudy anti-capitalist game shows to clandestine queer love. Much of it is engaging, but the whole can't help feeling a bit aimless. Each time it threatens to add up to something more, it dissipates again, a mélange of half-connected thoughts.
Summerhall, until 26 Aug.
tw rating 3/5 | [Alexander Hartley]