Trump, Diogenes, the Mitfords and Malaysian comedy: Edinburgh Fringe round-up

The Mitfords is a superb one-woman show by Emma Wilkinson Wright who focuses her attention on Unity, Diana and Jessica. In the early 1930s, Unity became Hitler’s lover and she lived in a luxurious Munich apartment confiscated from a wealthy Jewish family. The Führer, whom she nicknamed ‘Wolfie’, gave her the pearl-handled revolver with which she shot herself in the head shortly after Britain’s declaration of war. To carry out this bizarre act of self-sacrifice she chose a favourite spot in Munich’s English Garden where she used to sunbathe naked. In wartime Britain, Diana was held in Holloway prison and she complained bitterly about being separated from her baby boy, Max, and about the hefty sandbags that prevented daylight from reaching her cell. The lack of sun seems to have caused her more distress than the lack of son. Her sister, Jessica, tried to embrace Bohemian bliss in Rotherhithe but she struggled to cope without servants. ‘After hours sweeping the stairs I realised you have to start at the top and work down.’ This show is a must for Mitford connoisseurs who want to relive their favourite moments from the clan’s erratic history.

The Good Dad (A Love Story) is a harrowing yarn about rape and incest. The ironic title refers to a monstrous predator who impregnates his young daughter, Donna, on four separate occasions. Her family cover up these crimes but as Donna grows into womanhood she decides to take bloody revenge on the man who occupies three roles in her life: father, partner and rapist. Sarah Lawrie’s poised, nerveless performance is riveting.

The Briefing opens as a partisan rant by a pro-Dem comedian, Melissa McGlensey, who poses as a Trump fan in order to mock him. ‘Who can tell me what the “J” stands for in Donald J.