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Spoken Word

Spoken Word Shows

Have a look through our selection of Spoken Word Shows! We are sure To have something you'll want to see in Edinburgh this August - from children's shows to cabaret; standup comedy to tragic drama. There's something for everyone at the Free Festival!


List Shows: By Name | By Start Time


Shows sorted by Show Name

A Poet's Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse

A Poet's Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse

Spoken Word

A Poet's Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse

Spoken Word

AUG 15-19 at 12:30 (60 min) - Free
The Place / The Baird

2019... the economy has crumbled, politics has turned our society on its head, the apocalypse is here and what we need is a strategy to help us cope, survive and thrive. But most importantly of all, we need that strategy to be delivered to us through poetry. Join the Four Poets of the Apocalypse: Emma Ireland (Contributor to Runner-up 2018 Saboteur Awards), Spike Pike (Veterans for Peace UK), Sophie Sparham (Writing East Midlands, BBC Radio 4, Ted X Talks) and Mike Took (A real writing talent - EdFringeReview.com) for A Poet's Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse because, let's face it, we are ...


A Talking Therapist's Blues

A Talking Therapist's Blues

Spoken Word

A Talking Therapist's Blues

Spoken Word

AUG 1-6, 8-13, 15-20, 22-23 at 12:30 (60 min) - Free Ticketed
Brass Monkey / The Cinema Room

Its raw. Its from the heart. It will enter your soul. Prepare to be bewitched! PoetTess is a Psychotherapist. She is also a Word Spinner. Accompanied by accomplished Blues musician, Isaac Bacon, she shares a spellbinding story of love and loss, life and death and above all, redemption. In defeat she learned to fly, you can too. Dark humour and punchy pros. Truly Inspirational. ...


Dangerous Adventures

Dangerous Adventures

Spoken Word

Dangerous Adventures

Spoken Word

AUG 22-25 at 12:00 (60 min) - Free
Finnegan's Wake / The Back Room

Her travels in some of the world's most dangerous places have been embellished and transformed into adventure thrillers by new British novelist Ruth Elliott-Smith. She talks about her life and work, and tells what inspired her to use her real-life experiences as a basis for her creative writing. Her heroines are feisty, assertive protagonists who very often find themselves rescuing the heroes from life-threatening perils. Hear how real life mirrors fantasy in her first two novels, The Sword, about war in the Middle East; and El Dorado and the Amazon, about the cocaine cartels of Colombia and...


Matt McGuinness: We Are What We Overcome

Matt McGuinness: We Are What We Overcome

Spoken Word

Matt McGuinness: We Are What We Overcome

Spoken Word

AUG 11-17 at 18:15 (60 min) - Free
Sofi's Southside / Upstairs

Fresh from a successful UK tour, uplifting, anthemic tunes punctuate stories and conversation, shedding light on mental health with self-deprecating honesty and dark humour. Matt takes a good look at how men in particular deal with mental illness as he explores his own experiences with it, with plenty of time to continue the chat afterwards. 'At times this show is like a series of small polished TED talks on mental health, parenting, humanism and love, but these are punctuated by poetic songs loaded with meaning and metaphor' (NailedMagazine.com). ...


Our Man

Our Man

Spoken Word

Our Man

Spoken Word

AUG 19-25 at 18:00 (60 min) - Free
The Raging Bull / Cellar

Our Man is a one-man show by award-winning British-Cypriot writer Jamie Thrasivoulou. The show explores themes of class, masculinity, mental health, addiction, criminality, suicide, and consequence; framed within the climate of neoliberal Britain. The show contains narratives of men no longer here to tell their stories, as well as those struggling to survive in a system rigged with Tory austerity. This collective experience delivers many harsh truths within this hour-long verse play in which no stone is left unturned. As a man who has battled the system, ended up lost in it- only to be tos...