Pleasance announces recipients of augmented Charlie Hartill fund 

The Pleasance Theatre Trust has announced it is providing £50,000 direct investment for six shows at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which is an increase from the usual four shows.

The Charlie Hartill fund is Pleasance’s flagship financial assistance scheme, offering unique and unparalleled support to theatre makers and comedians across the UK. It is named after Charlie Hartill, a former Pleasance venue manager who died in 2003. Established in 2004 in his memory, the fund provides opportunities to emerging comedians, emerging theatre companies, and UK-based Black, Asian, and Global Majority-led theatre shows. 

Past Charlie Hartill theatre winners have gone on to incredible successes. For example, the current New Diorama Theatre artistic director, David Byrne, won the fund in 2009 with his theatre company PIT, and in 2017, winners Unpolished Theatre toured to Australia and won an Olivier Award with their show Flesh and Bone. 

 The winners this year include Stroud and Notes, a queer-led theatre collective that won the 2023 Origins Award at VAULT Festival with Public – The Musical. The show follows four unlikely strangers who find themselves trapped together in a gender-neutral public toilet.

Other winners include the Thelmas, an award-winning female-led theatre company renowned for their previous Fringe hit Ladykiller, who present new piece Santi and Naz, which explores queer love, identity and loyalty against the backdrop of the partition of India.

The third winner is Elisabeth Gunawan and Created a Monster’s Unforgettable Girl about modern perceptions of child brides, while the fourth is November Theatre’s Pitch, which explores the relationship between football and the queer community. 

The Pleasance Comedy Reserve makes up the final two shows. There will be two Comedy Reserve shows for 2023, with a line-up featuring Abby Wambaugh, Ele McKenzie, Jin Hao Li, Kyrah Gray, Micah Hall, Shalaka Kurup, Vlad Ilich, and Will Robbins. 

The Pleasance Theatre Trust will also work with venues nationwide to identify, recognise, and fund extraordinary work from across the UK. More comedy, theatre, circus, magic, dance, kids’ shows, and much more are yet to be announced.