All American Scream & Pugilist Specialist, Shoebox Theatre, Thursday, April 6, 7.30pm

All American Scream: Welcome to The Average Joe Show, a good ol’ fashioned daytime sitcom with zinging one-liners and loveable characters all working hard on that freedom freeway named the pursuit of happiness.

Except that recently the world has pursued a terrifying, globalising and memetic transformation into something very grey indeed.

Joe’s life goes off the rails in existential crisis when the show reaches its happy conclusion and all that is left is an ugly land filled with cybernetic post-humans and trump-like revisionists, that reveal the inherent absurdity of all he held dear.

All American Scream is a genre-bending and off kilter, mind-warping piece with a pitch black sense of humour; deploying radical 4th wall-breaking sensibilities and surrealist costume as well as experimental live music and offbeat dramatics to tell a thought provoking story about the state of the world today in a cultural-analytical fashion. It’s heaps of fun.

Pugilist Specialist: Four highly trained US Marines are assigned a top secret mission to eliminate a high profile Middle Eastern leader.

Triple Fringe First winning, Pugilist Specialist won every major award at the Edinburgh Festival with this soaring and timely play dissecting the American military’s hunt for evil in foreign lands.

Tickets: £10.50 (students £5.50).

Antigone & Blooming Out, Shoebox Theatre, Friday, April 7, 7.30pm

In Antigone, the human being stands against the Universe and the bodies on stage tell about the struggle between the Law of Men and the Law of Nature, the crash between imposition and refusal.

A woman stands against the will of a tyrant: the visionary only can make the power fall down opening new perspectives.

The city of Tebe will heal only with sacrifice. Antigone wants to fight. Himmel Theatre offer her their bodies and voices from far away.

Blooming Out

Blooming Out is a clown show, interpreted by two Brazilian actresses, that explores in a light and comic way the most intriguing moments of the feminine universe. The fascination of beauty, girly plays, the first time putting on make-up, the body’s development including its feminine parts, arrival of the period, the first kiss, virginity loss, oppression and fear, maternity, love, demands and social taboos, work, happiness and growing old; these are some of the many fascinating and scary themes that build the story of this plot.

Blooming Out uses only non-verbal language, creating touching scenes of great power and beauty.

Tickets are £10.50 (£5.50).

The Homeless Panda, Shoebox Theatre, Saturday, April 8, 10.30am

Xióngm?o the Giant Panda wakes up to find that her home has been taken! Where will she go?

The monkeys say she’s too big for their trees, the porcupine thinks she’d eat all his food and as for the other bears, well…they just think she looks weird.

Xióngm?o must travel far & wide to seek new friends, see new places & ultimately, find somewhere to call home again.

With puppets & pageantry a plenty, The Homeless Panda is a family tale about looking past our differences & remembering that we all feed off the same stuff: love, happiness & bamboo!

Tickets are £5.50.

The Liquid Library, Shoebox Theatre, Saturday, April 8, noon

Liquid Library presents an afternoon of ambientnoisedronemusic(?) at the Shoebox Theatre.

Expect incense, coffee and earnest pretension.

Weird noises will start at 12pm

(Suitable for all)

Tickets: Pay What You Will (Free Entry but please click Buy Now to register)

Laughs With Tricks & Man of 1000 Farces, Town Hall Theatre, Saturday, April 8, 2.30pm

Laughs With Tricks sees comedy magician Stu Turner and comedian & ventriloquist Phil Reid come together for an hour of stand-up, magic and variety. Stu's offbeat act is sometimes silly, sometimes surreal, but always baffling and highly entertaining. Phil is a warm & vibrant comedian with a natural storytelling ability.

This two-man show combines traditional stand-up comedy, with hilarious magic and ventriloquism with audience participation. The pair have both worked all around the country in comedy clubs, cabaret, and theatre, and are combining their skills to bring this cracking hour of comedy and variety to Swindon!

Tickets are £10.50 (£5.50).

Kevin, King of Egypt & The Accidental Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Saturday, April 8, 7.30pm

Kevin, King of Egypt tells the tale of escaped psychiatric patient Kevin Haggerty, who is not pleased about his diagnosis, even less pleased about being on a section of the Mental Health Act and distinctly upset about being told he is not the reincarnation of an Egyptian pharaoh. On his way to Egypt, via the Tesco Express, he stumbles across the nemesis to all his plans: Millie – a six year old with a mouth like a sandblaster. Together they embark on a journey that will change both their lives forever.

The Accidental Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

When Sherlock Holmes unknowingly murders his own client, the game is on to track down the criminal mastermind who did it - Holmes himself! But does Watson's rent have anything to do with this accident? Has this case been secretly planned by a narrative genius? And could Moriarty's hunger for new detective fiction fuel a global terror plot of unimaginable proportions?

Satire maestros ,Tobacco Tea, bring you this witty and absurd take on Arthur Conan Doyle's creation for the 3rd year running. Expect extraordinary plot twists, metafiction, twisted logic and "almost unparalleled entertainment!"

Tickets are £10.50 (£5.50).

The Missing Easter Egg, Town Hall Theatre, Sunday, April 9, 10.30am

Princess and her Mum live happily on their farm. Princess has a beautiful singing voice, her Mum doesn't. One day they get a visitor and all is not as it seems. Who is this mysterious lady and what does she want?

Come and watch The Missing Easter Egg and join in with the fun! There will be lots of singing and dancing for all!

Tickets: £5.50

A Shoebox Full Of Songs, Shoebox Theatre, Sunday, April 9, noon

Yvette, Becci and Janice present a cornocopia of songs from the 17th Century - 20th Century, shoehorned into an hour of delight.

(Suitable for all)

Tickets: Pay What You Want (Free Entry but please click Buy Now to register)

A Snap Musical & Only For Now, Town Hall Theatre, Sunday, April 9, 2.30pm

In A Snap Musical Ellen is a millennial trying to find her way in the world. She knows that there's more to life than ordering Dominos in bulk and drunk crying to Radiohead, but she isn't quite sure what it is. But then, she discovers an app that has the power to change absolutely everything. With a simple flower crown, she can go from a 6 to a strong 8. But are all her problems really over? Is life really as simple as just filtering out the boring stuff? Come along to find out - through the medium of song.

Only For Now

In or out? Red or blue? Hot or not? The public will decide. An amusing new musical, exploring what can happen when the world of politics meets celebrity culture.

Stage Coach Performing Arts Swindon Further Stages students (aged 16-19) are excited to take part in their first Fringe Festival. They can't wait to share Only For Now, a brand-new show including a variety of musical theatre and pop songs.

Tickets are £10.50 (£5.50).

Listen & Anglichanka, Town Hall Theatre, Sunday, April 9, 7.30pm

Listen

Written by Matt Fox, performed by TS Theatre

Everyone knows being a soldier is hard. Everyone knows that warfare is nasty...but if you've never seen a dismembered body up close then you can't possibly, truly understand.

For those who've witnessed the worst things imaginable, the world can never be the same again; and for those that haven't...the least we can do is listen.

Matt Fox's new monologue is a stark, brutal and savagely honest exploration of what modern warfare really means, and is performed in this year's fringe by Swindon theatre's own enfant terrible Peter Hynds.

Anglichanka

Anglichanka (Englishwoman in Russian) is an exhilarating new comedy show about living in the former Soviet Union in the 90s and returning after 18 years as the first UK comic to perform comedy in English and Russian.

Including diary extracts, the consequences of drinking hardcore vodka, studying opera and using outdoor loos in -20 temperatures, we see how Russia has changed and what we need to know about Putin and the country described as ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma’. ‘True comedy genius...on our list of newer stand-up comedians not to miss in 2016’ GQ Magazine.

Tickets are £10.50 (£5.50).

To book tickets for any of these Fringe performances, call 01793 524481 or visit swindontheatres.co.uk.