PRESS RELEASE for immediate release May 2025
There is a distinct chill to the Fringe’s popular Spoken Word category this year, with five out of 13 entries offering audiences the chance to scare themselves silly.
Several new authors are making their debuts at this year's Fringe, appearing alongside a number of returning long-time favourites, and with a mix of new and established material on offer, there is sure to be something for everyone.
Those in search of thrills should seek out And Other Creatures by award-winning Cypriot storyteller Polis Loizou. His tales from hot countries include cases of things that go bump in the cold, dark night, and girls who transform into demon fox spirits…
Popular Fringe regular Ian Gregory brings us not one but four, chilling original ghost stories in A Boy Called Thunder. Meanwhile in Buckets of Blood - Fairy Tales Not For Kids, Eden Ballantyne asks what Red Riding Hood was really running from and why Cinderella's glass slipper was full of blood when she got it back. Another Fringe regular, Chris Neville-Smith, takes a look at the shadowy figure of Dr Coppelius, giving the sinister creator of the well-known doll, Coppelia, a chance to tell us his tale. The ghost stories get local as the Graveyard Knitting Club explores Derbyshire folklore and ghost stories, through the guise of two gossiping ghosts, during their weekly knitting club in Paranormal Accounts With The Graveyard Knitting Club.
Audiences will also have the chance to meet several local authors and poets. In her new book, Kathryn Ecclestone questions whether one of the town’s most famous residents really disliked Buxton. Her event Vera Brittain and Buxton – A Different Story promises to draw on Brittain’s letters and her unpublished diary. Pete Brown, alter ego of new author Alec Ingham, talks about his debut crime novel, Artefact, which is set in a museum while in What It Is To Be Blue, life-long Manchester City fan, Bill Cronshaw, shares his views on supporting football in general and City in particular.
Not one but two local writing groups bring us a range of short stories and poems: Chapel Arts Creative Writing Group, featuring award-winning writers, is celebrating the anniversary of St Thomas Becket Church and Chapel-en-le-Frith in 800 Years and Counting offering two different performances of their stories, folktales, poems, monologues, mini-plays and more. Buxton Spoken Words will meanwhile perform their interpretation of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas alongside a selection of their own poems and stories in Excerpts from Under Milk Wood.
After sell-out performances in the UK, Jane Collier returns to the Fringe with Mary Queen of Scots: Elizabeth and the End examining the fascinating sisterhood of two queens as their turbulent relationship finishes violently at Fotheringhay.
In a fascinating look at anxiety and its many perspectives, Dean Tsang asks: ‘Is it OK to lose control?’ Join him as he lets a wheel of poems decide in his show entitled Our Anxious Measurements.
In a more light-hearted vein, The Glummer Twins are back with their blend of stand-up, spoken word, comedy and music from the Beat Generation in The Beat Goes On.
Fringe Marketing officer Stephanie Billen says “it’s a real treat to have such an exciting range of new local talent as well as so many returning favourites. I’m really looking forward to seeing them all in action”
To find out more, Fringe-goers can pick up a programme, see www.buxtonfringe.org.uk or download the free Buxton Fringe App.
The Fringe wishes to thank High Peak Borough Council, its Fringe Friends and the town’s many Fringe supporters and venues.
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