Did you know that Lambeth has its very own Fringe Festival? It’s similar to the Edinburgh Fringe but you the shows are a lot cheaper and you don’t have to fork out £400 for a night at the Travelodge. Local venues include Vauxhall City Farm, White Bear Theatre and House of Neon. We frankly have no idea what House of Neon is, but well done for helping out.  Frequent readers are aware that we make recommendations to travel outside Greater Kennington very rarely and do so with a profound amount of caveats. However, there are interesting sounding shows all around Lambeth.

This year the Fringe is featuring over 200 shows (!) over 26 venues covering standup, dramas, cabaret, and dance to name a few. Some of these works have just come from an Edinburgh run, some are touring small Fringes, while others will be ‘Fringe exclusives’ and never again see the light of day. The programmer boldly states that plays are booked ‘that ask questions’. We noticed the tagline for one play asked  ‘Has the Virgin Mary ever visited you as a lamp’? Is this one such question?

We’ve been to a number of these shows and the standard is high and the venues are small. Many of the plays are topical while others serve as a refuge from the unforgiving outside world. Of course you might walk out thinking ‘what the hell was THAT’, but that’s half the fun. We have our eye on the play ‘Chair Woman’ with the following tantalising synopsis – “Patsy Darning has tried to leave the intense world of upholstery pageantry behind her. But when she gets pulled back in for one last job (padding out a chair on the new Presidential spacecraft), she finds herself caught in a cover-up that goes all the way to the bottom… “

Lambeth Fringe runs from 24.9 to 25.10 and prices vary. Most of the productions run for 60 minutes.