You can understand why Rose McGowan might want to leave this planet behind her. She grew up in and then fled a cult, fell into the arms of another cult (as she describes Hollywood), survived sexual assault and endured the abuse that came with leading the #MeToo campaign against it. Small wonder she created a place to take refuge: Planet 9, where orbs shimmer and we’re all free to become our best and most beautiful selves. But on the basis of her new show, one doubts whether many will come along for the ride.
The show and album that take us there were created alongside her memoir, Brave. The latter gave vent to her anger; the former is more optimistic. “We don’t have to be so earthbound in our thinking,” McGowan tells us, barefoot and stately in a white Grecian robe. This “visuals, spoken word and singing” show features tracks from her album with video she has made herself, spliced into a sermon about escaping our psychological shackles and realising our potential to be free. “Not to sound like a Californian hippy”, she says at one point. That is exactly how she sounds.
Which isn’t a problem in itself: Californian hippies have plenty to teach us. But McGowan seldom escapes their most cliched expressions. “Take my hand / Sail in air / On solar flares,” she speak-sings to ambient electronica, while blissed-out visuals pulse and swirl onscreen. Her voice is strong but wayward: she can hold a note, but it doesn’t always sound like the right one.
Morning shows
Bout
Summerhall, 10.20am, until 25 August. Read the review.
Comète
Assembly Checkpoint, 10.30am, until 26 August
Are We Not Drawn Onward to New ErA
Zoo Southside, 11am, until 25 August. Read the review.
Bystanders
Summerhall, 11.40am, until 25 August. Read the review.
Afternoon shows
#HonestAmy
Pleasance Dome, 12pm, until 26 August. Read the review.
Sea Sick
Canada Hub @ Kings Hall, 12.30pm, until 25 August
Algorithms
Pleasance Courtyard, 12.45pm, until 26 August
F Off
Underbelly Cowgate, 12.50pm, until 25 August. Read the review.
Fishbowl
Pleasance Courtyard, 1pm, until 26 August. Read the review
The Accident Did Not Take Place
Pleasance Courtyard, 1pm, until 26 August. Read the review
Vigil
Summerhall, 1pm, until 25 August.
Beach Body Ready
Pleasance Courtyard, 1.10pm, until 26 August. Read the review
Collapsible
Assembly Roxy, 1.20pm, until 25 August. Read the review
For All I Care
Summerhall, 1.30pm, until 25 August. Read the review
I’ll Take You to Mrs Cole!
Pleasance Courtyard 1.45pm until 26 August.
Art Heist
Underbelly, 1.55pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Like Animals
Summerhall, 2.15pm, until 25 August
The Happiness Project
Army @ the Fringe, 2.20pm, until 25 August
Beat
Pleasance Dome, 2pm, until 26 August. Read the review
Spray
Assembly Roxy, 2.35pm, until 26 August
Ada Campe and the Psychic Duck
The Stand’s New Town theatre, 2.50pm, until 25 August
Anguis
Gilded Balloon Teviot, 3pm, until 26 August. Read the review
All of Me
Summerhall, 3.10pm, until 25 August. Read the review
George Fouracres
Pleasance Courtyard, 3.30pm, until 25 August. Read the review
If You’re Feeling Sinister
Gilded Balloon, 3.45pm, until 26 August. Read the review
Scottee
Assembly Roxy, 4.05pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Lola and Jo
Assembly George Square, 4.15pm, until 25 August
First Time
Summerhall, 4.15pm, until 25 August
The Incident Room
Pleasance Courtyard, 4.30pm, until 26 August. Read the review
Typical
Pleasance Courtyard, 4.30pm, until 25 August
Everything I Do
Summerhall, 4.30pm, until 25 August
The Last of the Pelican Daughters
Pleasance Courtyard, 4.40pm, until 25 August. Read the review
The Chosen
Dance Base, 5pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Daniel Kitson
Stand Comedy Club, 5pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Scream Phone
Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, 5pm, until 26 August.
Four Woke Baes
Underbelly Cowgate, 5.05pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Parakeet
Roundabout @ Summerhall, 5.05pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Superstar
Underbelly Cowgate, 5.30pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Janine Harouni
Pleasance Courtyard, 5.45pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Daddy Drag
Summerhall, 5.45pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Snare
Pleasance Courtyard, 6pm, until 26 August. Read the review
Tom Parry - “Parryoke!”
Pleasance Courtyard, 6pm, until 26 August. Read the review
Evening shows
Who Cares
Summerhall, 6.20pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Tom Rosenthal
Pleasance Courtyard, 6.30pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Pops
Assembly Roxy, 6.35pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Toyko Rose
Underbelly, 6.55pm, until 25 August
Kai Samra
Pleasance Courtyard, 7pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Sophie Duker
Pleasance Courtyard, 7pm, until 24 August. Read the review
Jack Rooke
Assembly George Square Gardens, 7.30pm, until 24 August. Read the review
The Afflicted
Summerhall, 7.30pm, until 25 August
The Wild Unfeeling World
Pleasance Courtyard, 7.30pm, until 25 August
John Robins
Pleasance Courtyard, 7.30pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Zoë Coombs Marr
Monkey Barrel Comedy, 7.30pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Lucy McCormick
Pleasance Courtyard, 8pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Traumboy
Summerhall, 8.10pm, until 25 August. Read the review
London Hughes
Pleasance Courtyard, 8.15pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Huge Davies
Pleasance Courtyard, 8.15pm, until 25 August
Josie Long
Stand Comedy Club, 8.20pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Camille O’Sullivan Sings Cave
Pleasance Courtyard, 9.15pm, until 25 August
Simon Brodkin
Pleasance Courtyard, 9.30pm, until 24 August. Read the review
Musik
Assembly Rooms, 9.40pm, until 24 August. Read the review
Courtney Pauroso
Underbelly Cowgate, 9.40pm, until 25 August. Read the review
Jamie Loftus
Pleasance Courtyard, 10.45pm, until 26 August
Catherine Cohen
Pleasance Courtyard, 10.45pm, until 24 August. Read the review
Diane Chorley
Assembly, 11.00pm, until 25 August
Spank!
Underbelly Cowgate, 11.55pm, until 25 August
Times vary
Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran
Traverse, until 25 August. Read the review
Enough
Traverse, until 25 August. Read the review
Crocodile Fever
Traverse, until 25 August. Read the review
How Not to Drown
Traverse, until 25 August. Read the review
Burgerz
Traverse, until 25 August. Read the review
Baby Reindeer
Summerhall, until 25 August. Read the review
Ahir Shah
Monkey Barrel Comedy, until 25 August. Read the review
Arthur
Your home, Edinburgh, until 25 August. Read the review
Daughterhood
Summerhall, until 25 August. Read the review
Until the Flood
Traverse, until 25 August. Read the review
Roots
Church Hill theatre, until 25 August. Read the review
The Patient Gloria
Traverse, until 25 August. Read the review
It’s frustrating, because I’d guess the real McGowan, the one she relaxes into when she’s not being her best, astral self, is more entertaining company. We get fleeting glimpses: the odd sardonic laugh or frank aside. More often – wafting around like a refugee from 1970s sci-fi – she’s stilted: words blandly intoned, hands curiously rigid like the astral winds changed direction while she was doing yoga.
This is clearly a meaningful project for her, one that has helped her survive, she says, the last three traumatic years. Good luck to her. But audiences might prefer more earthly pleasures.
At Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, until 18 August.
