The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest arts festival in the world, with over 3,700 shows. This year, Playbill is in town for the festival, and we’re taking you with us. Follow along as we cover every single aspect of the Fringe, aka our real-life Brigadoon!
Grace Aki admits that her solo show, To Free a Mockingbird, "gives my mother an aneurysm." It's because the subject is intensely personal, dealing with her family's journey from Japan to the American South. Watch Aki discuss the show in the video interview above with Playbill's Jeffrey Vizcaíno.
Aki is based in New York, and first performed the show there. It was comedian Alex Edelman (of Just For Us) who encouraged her to try out her material in Scotland. "He's like, you've gotta do the show at the Fringe...It's something you have to do as a solo artist, as a comic." It's been a "wild" time for Aki, getting used to performing for a more international crowd. But it's helped her learn how to make her show even better: "One woman stopped me in the bathroom yesterday. She goes, 'I didn't understand some of it.' I love that—it's helping me grow as an artist. And I love finding the things that make people tick, the things that are universal are shocking to me, and it's just a lot of fun. What a wild artistic experience that all of these people get to have universally!"
To Free a Mockingbird is currently running at the Royal Scots Club through August 24. Purchase tickets here. See photos from To Free a Mockingbird below.
Grace Aki
Grace Aki
Grace Aki
Grace Aki
Grace Aki
Grace Aki
