Pip Utton’s Farewell to Edinburgh Fringe
Rebecca Mahar talks to the great monodramatist.
Each year Edinburgh welcomes thousands of performers from across the world to the Fringe, from those just starting out to those with storied careers, and everyone in between. For the last third a century Edinburgh has, every Fringe, welcomed one performer who, over that time, has made a name for himself around the world as a celebrated – legendary even – monodrama performer.
To say that Pip Utton, has done all the biggies, from Hitler to Thatcher, Francis Bacon to William Shakespeare, from Lear to Dickens, is to undervalue the nature of his performance. Utton has been those people, in a series of monodramas that allow him inhabit them like a chameleon on a leaf.
Pip Utton in Bacon. Pic supplied.
Off the stage (and some years that wasn’t long, as he would perform three or four different shows a day) he has done everything that your normal aspiring actor does to get themselves noticed and bottoms on the seats of their venue. He’s also taken a more than usually active role in the governance of the Fringe itself.
Unlike many, however, Utton’s shelf is littered with awards, from the Spirit of the Fringe Award in 1998 for his breakout hit Adolf, to the Stage Special Award for Acting Excellence in 2015 for Playing Maggie. Not to forget a litany from beyond Edinburgh: Pip keeps a busy international schedule, but keeps coming back to Edinburgh where he served on the EdFringe board for thirty years.
After such an incredible run, Pip is hanging up his dancing shoes: 2026 will be his final year performing at EdFringe, and he’s back for one last time with a repertoire of three shows over only eleven performances, each part of Pip Utton’s Farewell to Edinburgh Fringe. Æ was lucky enough to chat with Pip about his farewell tour, his history at the Fringe, and his advice for up-and-comers.
exciting
Of course, we must begin with the inevitable question: how does it feel to be back at the Fringe for one final year?
“It’s always exciting to be approaching performing at the Fringe. Even after more than thirty years I’m still looking forward to it with as many nerves as ever. But of course this year will be different. So many goodbyes. Not really looking forward to that.” But, Pip says, this isn’t a complete retirement: “I’ll still write and tour but be more selective about where and when I perform.”
Pip Utton in Playing Maggie. Pic Andy Doornheim
The nerves might be as present as ever, but with so many years of Fringe experience behind him, Pip shares how the festival has changed: “In 1992, my first year, when the Fringe was still in black and white, I had no mobile phone (hardly anyone did), no PC or laptop, no Google and the ‘flyer’ was the essential means of communication. Hardly any small company had PR (I still don’t, and still unsure what it is). There were far fewer reviewers or reviews, printed news was still king. Now online reviewers are legion and absolutely everything has become far more expensive.
“Perhaps the biggest change, and it is a very positive change is the emergence of the PBH Free Fringe and other similar models. These really do give an opportunity, especially for the struggling beginners, to perform at the Fringe. Peter should be very proud of what he started.”Not all change has necessarily had a universally positive impact, though. “The big shows of today that have enormous capacity were far fewer,” and while those large-capacity events have their own value, “The Fringe Society prided itself of being the centre of all the Fringe info, including the Box Office. But in today’s Fringe, venues have so much more impact on performers and punters. I am a little unsure of the Society’s relevance to performers today, especially small scale like myself.”
But even in an ever-changing Fringe where sharp questions surrounding the pricing-out of working class artists and access to opportunity must be asked, some things have stayed the same. “It is still chaotic,” Pip reflects, “When you scratch beneath the commercial surface, you find crazy, inventive, exciting, wild folk who are having a fun time; a fun time that might change their lives. They are the Fringe’s heartbeat.”
economies of scale
Back in the nineties, Pip was one of those wild folk doing something exciting. By contrast today’s Fringe is awash with monodramas, plays performed by a single actor. As to why that might be, “there is much more monodrama than when I started, partly driven by economics of scale. The Fringe is now eye-wateringly expensive for anyone considering performing there. But just one person? just about doable, but tougher each year.”
The economics of scale in this form also collide with unique opportunities, and ways to slip into the theatre industry that can make it more accessible to those with nontraditional backgrounds. “I’m not a trained actor, and I came into the profession with no CV or experience. Monodrama gave me the chance to write for myself, and I’ve been lucky. Adolf propelled me into the touring world, and I am still in it. I’ve had – and am having – a fabulous time around the world, like an international strolling player.”
Pip Utton in Before I Forget I Love You, I Love You. Pic: Supplied.
This year Pip has strolled back to the Fringe with three shows: Bacon, who Mrs Thatcher described as ‘that dreadful man who paints those horrible pictures’, The Hunchback of Notre Dames, which finds Quasimodo keeping vigil over the lifeless body of his Gypsy love Esmeralda, and Before I Forget I Love You, perhaps his most personal script, about the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s disease.
Each is simply described in the Fringe programme as “one of three favourites.” Given Pip’s long backlist of shows to choose from, of course we need to know: why these three?
“These here are the ones I am most asked to perform again (except for Adolf and now Lear). Also they are emotionally challenging to get right, but when I do get it right, it is for me, very very special. I think they are just right for small intimate spaces such as the one I’m performing in.
“All three benefit from the closeness of the audience, which I hope makes the performance a shared experience. I also considered Playing Maggie and At Home With Will Shakespeare, both of which I love playing.”
Shakespeare
Keen-eyed readers will note two Shakespeare mentions in Pip’s last answer, and so it is here that I must break detached journalistic character (as I did the first time I reviewed Pip) and ask, as a Shakespeare scholar, actor, and obsessive myself: why Shakespeare? Why Lear?
“I think that as both an actor and a writer, the opportunity to speak some of the most beautiful English words ever written is irresistible,” Pip shares, “And we know so little, almost nothing about him. Mind-blowing to have read so many books about Shakespeare, most of them claiming knowledge of his life with absolutely no foundation in truth!
Pip Utton is At Home With Will Shakespeare. Pic: Supplied.
“Then I became hooked by Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare; my paperback copy is less than two hundred pages long. I read it over and over and still dip into it. It hasn’t made me a Shakespeare scholar (I don’t think I ever could be). But I find it so exciting to pretend to be him.
“As for Lear. I’m getting older and so Lear is the greatest challenge, and I don’t think that anyone else is going to cast me as Lear. I also believe that Shakespeare wrote some very fine monodramas but had to pad them out with other characters in order to make a living!”
I follow this with a dreadful question, but one I’m sure anyone familiar with Pip’s career must be curious about. Of all his shows, if he had to choose one, which one, and why?
impact
“I sometimes think that my favourite is the one I’m performing at the time. I think that’s a good thing,” he answers first, with a reasonable dodge, but then goes on, “If I had to drag just one out of the cupboard to perform it would have to be Adolf. It probably isn’t the best script but it has such an impact even now, thirty years since first doing it.
“It is a tough journey for both the audience and for me, especially when the wig and moustache come off and the audience are at first unsure what or who, they are watching. I have never played anything that has such power.”
Pip Utton as Churchill. Pic: Supplied.
Returning to things again and again is a theme of this interview, and as Pip continues to return to older scripts in front of new audiences, he reflects on what’s compelled him to keep coming back to Edinburgh year after year.
“The EdFringe in August is a melting pot of dreams and ambition and creativity,” he says. “Of course the old troupers like me keep returning, but the Fringe I love is driven by the younger, perhaps more naïve dreamers who make the Fringe crackle with enthusiasm and energy. It’s very addictive, being part of it.”
When asked what one piece of advice he would give to Fringe-goers given the chance, he at first demurs, “Don’t ask old stagers like me for advice. Your Fringe world is your own to make.” But with such a wealth of accumulated perspective, this resistance doesn’t last long.
For the emerging artists bringing work to the Fringe for the first time, “Don’t be hard on yourself if things don’t go as you hoped. Keep at it, next year could be better,” and for all those taking to the stage at the Fringe, “As a performer, believe in what you do and believe you can do it as well as anyone, but also believe that you can learn to do it better. Believe that you can make a difference. Believe that the star system is crazy and by having the guts to actually stand up and invite criticism is incredibly brave.”
give things a chance
To the punters, Pip offers, “As an audience member, please be kind, give things a chance. Romeo wasn’t written in a day. You can be part of the growth and talent of the fringe.” And if Pip could ask his audiences from over the years one thing, as performers so seldom get to put questions to those who watch, he wants to know: “What made you come see me in the first place?”
In a sea of monodrama, Pip Utton is the lighthouse. The chances remaining to see him at EdFringe are few, but the rewards are many: whether you’re a long-time fan or entirely new to Pip, there will be a show and something in it for you. It is his intense and vulnerable humanity that sets him apart, no matter who he’s playing.
If you manage to snag a ticket for one (or more) of his farewell shows, remember that you can leave a review on the EdFringe website, and there consider answering Pip’s question as part of his send off: what made you come to see him in the first place?
Pip Utton’s Farewell to the Fringe
The Green at Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33), 60 Pleasance EH8 9TJ
All performances take place at 12.15pm and last an hour.
Bacon
Wed 19, Sat 22, Wed 26, Sat 29 August 2026.
Tickets and details: Book here.
The Hunchback of Notre Dames
Dates: Thur 20, Sun 23, Thur 27 August 2026.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Before I Forget I Love You, I Love You
Fri 21, Tue 25, Fri 28, Sun 30 August 2026.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Read previous reviews of Pip Utton’s performances here: At Home With Will Shakespeare and King Lear.
Pip Utton in Adolf. Pic: Andy Doornheim.
ENDS
