Liverpool show Raves R Us gets prime month-long run at Edinburgh Fringe before West End debut

Award-winning Liverpool show Raves R Us has been given a prime month-long run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, before making its West End debut.

The show, which celebrates rave culture, dance, and the joy of ‘losing yourself in the music’, will play at Underbelly Cowgate – one of the four main festival venues – from August 5-30.

That’s before heading to London for its first performance there in September.

Mike Dickinson, co-author and director of Raves R Us from Naughty Corner Productions, says:

“It’s the biggest thing for us so far.

“We’ve headlined the Outdoor Circus Stage at Glastonbury for five years on the run with the show and we’re grateful that Glastonbury keeps asking us back. 

“But Edinburgh is where we started with Raves R Us in 2022 with just 11 shows which we began selling out, and it will be great to see where it can go.”

As for its West End debut, Mike adds:

“That’s just crazy.

“Playing in the West End is something we’ve always wanted to do, and we didn’t think it would be with this show.

“And it’s daunting but amazing too. It’s such a prestigious thing to happen and it’s really exciting.”

Raves R Us, written and directed with Adam Nicholls who also plays the lead role, blends immersive theatre, comedy, club culture and pure rave mayhem, and invites the audience to step into a euphoric late night experience which promises pounding beats, tons of energy, and a ‘full throttle trip through the spirit of underground nightlife’.

In the show, Toys R Us has closed down for good leaving Charlie and his mates unemployed, depressed and searching for an escape. So … they have an abandoned warehouse, an abandoned nation … and they decide to put on a rave.

Mike, who’s also head of first year at LMA in Liverpool says:

“We created Raves R Us about seven years ago after reading a news article about people who tried to put on an illegal rave in an abandoned Toys R Us and we thought it would make a really good, immersive show where the audience becomes part of it.”

“We’re always changing it round with new songs and new gags as the world changes.  But, that said, at the same time we want to take people out of the world because that can be a pretty naff place at the moment, so this is just the best night of escapism.

“It doesn’t matter whether you grew up in the golden era of warehouse parties or just want to experience the sweat-soaked thrill of a proper rave, it doesn’t matter how old you are – when we did it as Shakespeare North Playhouse last year we had a 70-year-old who loved it! – it’s just a celebration of music and freedom.”

After the Fringe, Raves R Us – produced by Naughty Corner co-owner Trisha Duffy – will play at Underbelly Boulevard in Soho on September 4 and, after that?

She said:

“We’d love to do the full Fringe Festival circuit and may even go abroad to festivals in Prague and Adelaide in Australia.

“People think it’s like reheating nachos, that we’re doing the same show, but it does change and so many people still want to see it!”

Mike is also celebrating the success of LMA at the Edinburgh Fringe this year with five shows from the theatre school – three of them from Liverpool – at theSpaceUK, thanks to an ongoing partnership with the Scottish capital venue.

At LMA, students train with industry professionals and develop work through real-world creative projects designed to prepare them for careers across the performing and creative industries. The LMA x theSpaceUK Graduate Scheme forms a key role, giving emerging theatre makers the opportunity to develop and stage original productions at the world’s largest arts festival.

Now in its third year, the programme invites graduating companies from LMA’s Liverpool and London campuses to pitch original theatre concepts at LMA’s YOU Festival, and a panel including industry professionals and representatives from theSpaceUK selects productions to go on to Edinburgh.

While the scheme traditionally selects one production from each campus, the standard of this year’s proposals led theSpaceUK to invite five graduate productions to take part. The three from Liverpool are Bite by Anovian Productions, Knot at the Moment by To & Fro, and Scallyw*nkers by Surely Not.

Also making her Edinburgh Fringe debut is Hannah Rose Curtis, a Chester based creative who studied Musical Theatre Performance at The Hammond and who won the first ever Creative Corner Festival at The Epstein Theatre in Liverpool earlier this year and which was organised by Naughty Corner Productions, now the Epstein’s resident company.

My Beautiful Brain is an autobiographical one-woman play following the journey of Hannah, a young woman with dyslexia, as she navigates her way through life – without being able to read the map!

Mike says:

“We want to create opportunities for people to show their work to a wider world, and it’s great that so much amazing stuff is being produced.”

Find out more about the show at Edinburgh Fringe here.

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