Thanks for accessing my blog! Over the last few years I have been visiting theatres in Scotland representing Fringe Review and building up our profile in Scotland before the annual jamboree that is Edinburgh! I shall be recounting tales, telling stories and reflecting upon all things fringe theatre that comes my way through this blog. I hope to be able to promote things and can be contacted through my email on CommuneArts@GMail.com if people wish to take offence, make comment or offer advice! All will be welcomed… In the meantime all opinion is my ain… naebody else’s… You can also follow me on twitter @CommuneArts.
Reviewing reviewing
What’s the point of reviewing in the age of the text message, trip advisor and as many online opportunities to vent your spleen as an angry meerkat would wish? (I have no idea what an angry meerkat would be doing reviewing anything, but they do go to the movies a lot…)
Due to a recent experience reviewing for another organisation I have been led to think very carefully about this very question. When I write for Fringe Review I think of myself reviewing as a peer. The idea that this would be read by legions of the population looking for a good night out, appears to me, to be a bit arrogant and misplaced.
The likelihood is that I will be most likely read by the industry and not by the public.
The industry or company may, however take my quotes and shove it on a poster, website or leaflet; my simple words might just reach their audience.
I still get a thrill when I see my own word on self said leaflet, website or poster advertising a piece that I liked. It’s not why I do it but, I do think it means that I contribute in some way.
For the other organisation, I was unable to keep to the word count and avoid making reference to plot points that I had not already mentioned.
I demurred to their experience and we agreed to part ways.
It may not be Shakespeare but I do have some insight into the written word.
They were right though – in their own way.
I was not keeping to their word count and I did reference plot points that I had not been mentioned.
I seemed to offer to leave and they accepted that offer. I didn’t offer to leave but that lack of understanding was, perhaps, at the heart of things.
The thing is, I don’t blame them. I don’t take rejection as a form of condemnation. I take the criticism because I criticise. For people who so do to suddenly have an attack of the ab dabs because someone said some unkind things about them is just bad form.
Overall, I did enjoy the experience, though my time for Fringe Review, trumps – if you will pardon the expression – all other experiences in helping the industry. I am grateful to be doing that. Who do I write for? If you are reading this it must be you, plot points may, however be inappropriately reference in the process.
And so it comes to an end…
It’s panto time – oh yes it is.
I hate panto – oh yes I do.
But I get the skill associated with it.
There is a brilliant array of people up and down the country who don a frock, sit under the big lights and provide for countless thousands of people their only visit this year to live theatre.
You can look at this as a half empty glass and be depressed that this is it; their only experience of live theatre is cross dressed dodgy jokes that are as funny as asking a female footballer if she twerks at an award ceremony.
Or you can applaud theatre for making entertainment that packs them in to theatre for at least one time in the year…
The revenue generated will allow that theatre to be more daring and put on more challenging work for the rest of the year due to the massive amount of income their cash registers are about to hear ringing through the till.
Am I more oh God it isn’t… than it’s behind you?
Well… my glass is always half full with bah humbugs…
Monday 17th December 2018
And looking back…
Friday 26th October 2018
It is now some time since the glam and the glitter left Edinburgh – did it ever arrive, I often wonder. It does seem some time since I began with an earnest Greek tragedy and ended with a man in a leather thong playing an accordion. We have left behind yet another year of hard work and graft from PR people with leaflets, front of house people going above and beyond last orders to make sure we all cram into their venues and performers who dreamt of Vegas and got a Leith floor upon which to sleep. I am now looking back to my experience once again with a little distance in my vision and to celebrate here are my daft awards for this year!
Let’s begin Belgian and big but with a little performance – The award for most people leaving a show goes to the Big in Belgium’s Another One. If that sounds quite harsh, worry not my Summerhall lovelies for the award for the only standing ovation I saw this year goes to… Another One… Divisive? Ironic?
Best venue for this summer just has to go to Theatre Bath Bus. I loved it and the idea and they, like the one above get two awards as they are the domestic winners of most distance travelled as the Zenith Youth Theatre made such a massive journey – AGAIN!
They are, of course but mere amateurs in comparison to the team that brought us Holy Moses at the Quaker Meeting House, who brought their two young charges from the other side of the Globe – yep – New Zealand!
Most embarrassing moment of the Fringe for me was in DUPed at Sweet Grassmarket when my stomach refused to stop rumbling in the presence of one Joyce MacMillan and a very good piece of theatre…
Talking of noises… The best vibrating phone gag goes to the company who also had the best bare cheeks and had the smallest offstage dressing room in the studio at Zoo Southside and it was Istanbul: You’ll Never Walk Alone.
I do like a good set and for me the best use of torches in a gloom went to Uninvited at C Royale whilst the most hospitable venue whilst also being the newest on the block is PQA Venues where ye get free coffee for wearing an orange sash! Well seen it’s Edinburgh!
This year the Scots were hot and if I had to pick my favourite show then it has to be Square Go at Summerhall. This is not just because it was good but also because since the Fringe every person I have described it to says, it’s years since I heard that expression! Ah nostalgia, the Scottish obsession…
The very prestigious, at least in wur hoose, Best of the Fringe pick from my daughter goes to Comedy Sportz UK. OK she only saw two shows when usually it’s only 1 but she liked it very much. She was though, briefly in it so that might be a factor in her pick…
My best free show this year goes to Fat Chance with Dan Lobell at the Coffee House on the Royal Mile. Second time I have seen him, and I am already looking forward to the 3rd.
As I began by finding my top 5 tips for Youth Theatre – which one was my top 1? That would have to be The Red Shoes at Pleasance with Young Pleasance at the helm and YES I did see more than one youth group!
My favourite show of the Fringe this year is STILL Re:Production from White Slate Theatre at Zoo Southside. It was a play, was about a very real topic and was highly theatrical so all was very good!
Roll on 2019?
Day Six – Wednesday the 22nd August
This was my fifth day of reviewing but sixth day at the Fringe, and here I was getting in to the end of this year. There are a number of points during each Fringe experience that are important to me – the day with my 10 year old, the first show and the last one.
This year I had seen a decent enough beginning in Greenside at Nicolson Square, this year I was heading to Sweet Grassmarket for my last…
Would it be a worthy experience all round?
Would they answer my bleeding emails…
I begin with an LGBT based retelling of As You Like It. Now work that is LGBT is an interest of mine, thanks not only to my two LGBT children but also when running a Youth Theatre, I once did Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with 4 gay brothers…
But being worthy or representative of a minority is only half the issue in the theatre…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/ganymede/
From my first visit to Augustine’s it was to my first visit to Zoo Charteris…
I happen to really like the resurgence in puppetry and the way in which it is being used – Boris and Sergey and the Table being a couple of instances of late… Here we were in an old folk’s home…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/paradiso/
Time thereafter for a leisurely stroll to Summerhall, take a few phone calls, answer a few emails, get there early, sit and ponder, miss the start… Yup…
I wasn’t the only one and had this strange experience of seeing someone come in late, sit somewhere, move after 5 minutes to another seat and then get their phone out and play with it for the entire show – 2nd time that has happened this year…
And then a couple who were also late, came in and settled down, after ten minutes they left, then they returned to get their coats… I think I might be getting old… or maybe just older…
Erewhon was, however the first of my Scottish treats of the day and Magnetic North, for it was they, did not disappoint…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/erewhon/
Off now to another new venue for the year and also my first EVER visit to Gilded Balloon – the Museum. Second Scottish performance of the day and Grid Iron are an excellent company so felt really comforted that this was they…
The only negative was they over ran by 8 minutes…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/south-bend/
That over run was fatal. I had 15 minutes between the advertised end of South Bend and my next one but now had 7 minutes to get there… I made it in 9…
They didn’t let me in because it had already started. I was gutted as I had wanted to see Company of Wolves as I had missed their tour of Achilles round Scotland and had depended on the Fringe to see them… Not to be but we did review it…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/achilles/
It made my trek to Venue 13 a lot easier and getting to Venue 13 is always something that I want to do because I love seeing the new work they produce and present. So, this year didn’t disappoint…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/playhouse-creatures/
Out the venue and from one I know well to one venue to which I have never been – Dancebase.
Yet another Scottish performer this time in Andy Howitt. I knew Howitt because he took the 1978 Andy Gemmill goal against Holland in the World Cup – an iconic moment – and made it into a dance piece. I was stunned by this homage to Leigh Bowery…. Stunned…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/sunshine-boy/
Scotland was looking good – really good… now it was time to go for my third Celtic treat of the day…
I have to say, having known Finn Der Hertog – Director of the next show – from my days at Scottish Youth Theatre, and having been told by my son that this was exceptional, the march to Summerhall was a tough one – I was struggling to make it but make I was determined that I did…
On the way I bumped into me mate, Glyn Evans just outside Bedlam Theatre…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/square-go/
Can it get better or was that as good as it got? Well…. It was always going to be difficult to match some of what I had seen during the day but I was at Zoo Southside – I had seen an outstanding show there earlier in the Fringe… Hopes were high…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/there-she-is/
Out the Zoo and off to get Sweet… This was what the Fringe can often be about. A man playing the accordion in his leather thong… leading a thing, thong…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/accordion-fight-show/
and done… And time for my kebab…
You can find out why it is a kebab here: –
https://www.facebook.com/CommuneArts/videos/10155386685096503/
Next… My awards for the Fringe 2018… Bet you can hardly wait…
Day Five – Monday the 20th August 2018
Two days to go…
I arrive early, very early. On the basis that I have got to get here before the place gets busy I am parking by about 8am and off to wander. Time to take some photographs and remember Edinburgh looking very much like it did last year and the year before… Maybe I just pretend I took photographs this year and show off last year’s…
I then wonder what people would think if they realised that many of their afternoons were spent in Masonic Halls…
Venue for number one today is the Gilded Balloon Teviot which is my first – and only this year – visit… the irony of being a queue with children and mostly their mums as we wait to get into the Wine Bar for a kids’ show is not lost upon me…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/finding-peter/
I left swiftly afterwards at the end and wondered if maybe I had missed the book title for next week…
Next up I am off to see a show that is very worthy and made me feel sorry I couldn’t recommend it so you won’t see the review here. The company are very appreciative of me not placing the review up but are happy for the feedback. It was a pity because this is a bunch of young actors brimming with promise. I hope they come back…
As I leave it is time to wander across one of the bridges and off to the “other side”…
C Royale has been a few things in its time and had been run by someone else last year and the year before that but is now part of the behemoth of C venues. It’s my first visit to a C venue this year and it’s a brilliant one…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/uninvited-2/
Sitting waiting for it to start I am beginning to finalise plans for my final day and realise that I have nothing in for Just the Tonic or Underbelly. Shall I change that? Shall I include them in the mix? I determine to try but this is ultimately fruitless for a variety of reasons but it shows me, once again you cannot please the people all of the time when you cannot fit all of them in!
I am off along the street from one end to the other passing the Assembly Rooms and realise I haven’t seen anything there yet either!!!
New Town Theatre is my destination for something I have wanted to see for some time – the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas. As someone who is working with GDPR – there are days of no excitement – this one has caught my attention but it is also one where it fits into the schedule, so it is included…
Before we begin I am starving and my bag gets plundered for something soft and easy to eat… bananas… I am so healthy for just now…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/the-naked-blind-data-show/
And from there I am off for the second show that I will not review. Again, it is a comfort to not have to write and publish something hurtful and likely to be seen as unhelpful. The fact I have direct connections with artists that I critique when things are not as good as they could be is a real privilege that I do treasure. I do think it important that we remember our responsibilities towards people and artists and the craft… I am now halfway through my day… time for a real trek…
Greenside at Royal Terrace is one of the venues that I discovered early in my Fringe reviewing days and since then have tried each year to visit it. Like Venue 13 it takes effort and often it is rewarded with a decent performance. This time round I get not one but two decent young people performances – from the same group no less!
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/roxy-likes-cats/
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/the-way-out/
The Royal walk from the Terrace to Mile is taken to visit a new venue that was once run by C. Ironically after I have got to Royale today I get to one that they left off and no longer promote/manage.
Pauline Quirke has fashioned a new career out of drama academies up and down the UK and whilst I may not have the entire academy structure running through my DNA because I ran a non audition based youth theatre for 16 years, the PQA academies, like the PQA venue is particularly impressive. Here it is host to free coffee for reviewers – ya dancer!!!! – and a double act once of its time and now on hard times…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/job-cher/
Out to Bedlam!!! Run by the University of Edinburgh students this has a connection, like the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas to the fact this is an academic city. It’s a full house and the overspill of the queue into the street, snaking down the road is something you don’t always see in Edinburgh – here it means we are likely to be in for a cracker.. and we are…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/even-hotter/
But the night is not yet over, and I am off to the Pleasance Dome for my last show… and what is it called? It’s called…. My mouth fails me but I am able to blurt out enough stupid Bon Jovi lyrics that make sense to the box office that I get my ticket and, as a hater of musicals, I go in for a treat… no seriously it was an absolute treat…
Before we begin we have three people hog the seats at the end of the back row. Resolutely refusing to move there are people trying to find seats in a packed night before settling for splitting up because they can’t get past this trio of monkeys or climbing over the elderly sitting at the row end. Politeness only goes so far for some and they manage to barge past the three bookends. It is then, just as we are about to start the three of them move! I swear to God… fortunately I was soon singing and not raging…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/weve-got-each-other/
And so, another day goes by, and I meander to the St John’s car park, get the car and get out of there. A stop at McDonalds for coffee and I am ready for the hour long drive back hame… One more day to go… Wednesday the 22nd August…
Day 4/ Day 3 of reviewing – Thursday 16th August
The day begins by arriving in Edinburgh early. It is muggy – a Scottish word meaning, summer… I have time to kill – not always the way at the Fringe so go a walking… it takes me up and round the old town and along to see what is on at Assembly Rooms, find Hill Street and Gilded Balloon Rose Theatre. For this shall be my next visit – review day 4 – round all them… maybes.
One of the problems of reviewing at the Fringe each year is not just the sheer volume of shows but the number of venues. You get to see 40 shows but you may have only visited a dozen or so venues. The idea of getting your head round anything remotely like an artistic venue policy is just daft. I am therefore just making sure that the ones I would like to see are not being missed because a venue or two has not been visited…
Today I have issues with one venue – Sweet Grassmarket. Two days ago, I emailed about a couple of shows today. There was no reply. I had emailed the wrong person. Yesterday I emailed all the people on the mailing list we held. No reply so far. There was a mobile number. I phoned it this morning, it rang out. I calmed down and thought maybe there is a number on edfringe. There is not. I emailed my editor, Paul. I emailed all the email contacts again.
I got on with the day.
Days tend to get anchored round one or two shows that I have identified that I want to see. I can get an email over the year that is enticing or a demand in the last few weeks that is sufficiently desperate but my criteria is simple – if I think I would like it, I seek it out; if it’s a new company, I want to review it; if it’s new work I want to see it; or If it’s a company I have seen before, ditto…
I start with Big in Belgium. Over the last few years there has bene a steady rise in curating certain groups, the Canada Hub, Made in Scotland and Big in Belgium being just three.
I have had a strange relationship with Belgian Theatre and am a massive fan of the work of Kabinet K after seeing them at the Tramway a few years ago. This morning a curio… One where it got a one man standing ovation and a number of walkouts…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/another-one/
Out of Summerhall I glide and the weather begins to turn. I say turn, if it is not already gloomy… the Space at the Royal Mile is next and the beginning to my Space adventure – it’s going to be very beautiful…
First up is a young company I had seen before. Last year, the Edelweiss Pirates, this year something quite different…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/eight/
On leaving the Space I got an email from Sweet and Paul. Sweet say – got it and email THIS person from now on. Pauls says flash yer badge at ‘em…
It’s easy to get grumpy if people don’t get back to you but the only people who suffer are the artists – unless your review ain’t all that good… But all is good, and I get to see a fantastic show.
Now the walk in brings me into a queue with the doyen of Scottish reviewing Joyce MacMillan. I have followed her work for years and love her style of writing and reviewing. I believe I have to up my game here… fortunately the work was equal to us both and for the first time in a very long time I am in the company of an award winning show…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/duped/
My next show is also in Sweet so I have nowhere to go but out for a coffee and try to sort the rumbliest stomach I have had for a while… I hope I did not disturb the actor, John McCann too much. A sandwich, and a coffee later and I am ready for my next slice of Fringe theatre.
As I go back in, I muse on where I should sit. As a reviewer I ain’t paying and know that some reviewers like a seat where they can see everything. I always skulk towards the back believing that the paying punters deserve the best seats in the house. If I cannot review from a restricted aisle seat then someone who goes to far less theatre than I shall struggle to enjoy the experience. I am at the back of a busy show this afternoon.
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/spaces/
Out of Sweet feeling happy with the world and I am off to another Youth Theatre show that I had mentioned along with Parker and Snell and Young Pleasance and Zenith – all of which I had reviewed. This year I had made the effort to see as much of what I had recommended as possible. It was a worthy visit to the Space at Surgeon’s Hall for the first time this year in what was my 17th show and 14th venue!
Before I go in I have a starrer… Now I don’t get many of them but over the years the orange lanyard attracts a crowd like a fringe veteran. They ask questions and are generally polite – though one year an angry performer gave me a hard time about reviewers… Here it’s do you work for the fringe? Have you seen anything good? What would you recommend? And then they sit next to me in the show…
http://fringereview.co.uk/?s=dib+dib+dead
Back along the road to Space at the Royal Mile??? Not me. I go all over the shop in a wide loop because “I know where I am going” Clearly, I don’t but extra exercise never killed me yet… I got there and passed the complete cast of the previous show on the way #awkward…
I had looked forward to seeing this show and got something to ponder from it.
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/departure-date/
I was really looking forward to my next show. Dan Lobell and his wife have got me to review a couple of times – including today by being charming and keeping in touch. Dann is also seriously good. I was far from disappointed…
Before I went in we joked about the glitz and the glamour of the Fringe, Danny was carrying his show’s sidewinder in from the Royal Mile at the time… His wife was on her way up to do the music and lights…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/danny-lobell-fat-chance/
The day was getting better. There were no bad shows today but I had seen a few crackers in my previous visits so was hopeful that, as the gloom descended more I would be better placed to become a cheer leader for theatre. Danny had lifted me and the next how was going to rocket me skyward. Football, the greatest comeback in modern football history – what could go wrong… actually nowt…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/istanbul-youll-never-walk-alone/
Thing were getting seriously tasty and having had a slice of Northern Irish politics earlier in the day I was ready for the authenticity of a voice from East Belfast. This is a cracking show and one that left me and all the rest breathless…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/east-belfast-boy/
I leave Summerhall having managed to walk the length and breadth of Edinburgh with a spring in my step. Space at Triplex last.
I had been in a strange email exchange with them about this show. It moves times during the run like it thinks it’s at the Traverse so when I had wanted to see it, it had not been available to see last week. The email I got from the venue had been a warning – turn up 15 minutes before the show or we shall sell your ticket… again it is easy to get grumpy and I try my best not to… I just moved dates and a really sweet young lady sent me an email to say yes that’s fine look forward to seeing you then. My equilibrium with the world was restored but I made sure that I had collected my ticket early – I turned up about 12 hour early just in case…
Girl World was last for my day and it was a decent end to the day: –
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/girl-world/
And all done…
Just my son to pick up. He had come through by train – too tired for my shenanigans of leaving early and getting here early but wanted a lift home. No problem say I and we arrange to meet at the Pleasance. He is coming from Summerhall and whilst, like a dad would, I wonder about whether he has charged his phone, bought the charger I recommended so that he could keep in touch during the day and whether he knows I mean THE PLEASANCE and not the Dome like once before he walks right past me as I am wearing a beanie hat – not dad chic apparently…
MacDonald’s and home and Day 4 of being at the Fringe, Day 3 of reviewing done., next Monday the 20th, which as I type is tomorrow…
Day 3 – Sunday 12th August
I return with my helper in toe.
My youngest – child number 7 – Cerys, each year picks a show for us to go and see but this year I have put in an extra one – just for me. She is a dancer and though only 10 years old is pretty caught up on dance. We book in – or rather I book into see Backup at Summerhall.
Before that I meet up with Jenna from White Slate. This is a great opportunity to talk through what they, as a company, have been up to in bringing Re: Production to the Fringe. Here’s what we had to talk over…
Then Summerhall and Backup. Cerys said she kinda liked it but would rather have had more dance bits in it. Hard to argue with her expertise but I still thought it pretty darn fine myself…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/backup/
We got out and then went off to Kiwi Hut for lunch.
Many years ago, my son, newly graduated professional actor and 24 year of age, was with us all in Edinburgh to see some Fringe. He was a lot younger than 24…
Ciaran cried and cried and cried because we decided to go to Pizza Hut, outside of Pizza Hut… Since then and every time one of us has gone past it, comment has been made. This time round Cerys renamed the Pizza Hut on North Bridge in HIS honour…
Having had pizza and ice cream at Kiwi Hut… it was time to find the next venue, Fireside and ComedySportz UK.
This was my first free show of this year and Cerys had picked it!!!
Having managed to escape her wrath because I forced her to see the earlier one it was now about her choices. The venue was one I had never visited to great to bag a new one…
It worked and worked well… it may not get a Comedy award but no less worthwhile for that!!!
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/comedysportz-uk/
And so off we pop for another year…
Though for me now the choices for Day Four are being made…
Thursday the 16th on ye come…
Day 2 – Thursday the 9th August 2018
And so, we begin the long haul of 10 shows that is my Thursday. First off is to pop into Brew Lab and see a man I see more often than my brother – Fringe Review editor Paul Levy. It being a year since we last touched base, there is much to talk over from the new categories for this year to taking yer offspring to the Fringe.
It includes me fessing up to my first error of the season…
I was due to be at the Fringe on the Monday and NOT the Thursday. I had built my day round Monday. Then ended up at Edinburgh on the Thursday… One of the productions I wanted to see – their run ended on the Wednesday…
I had bagged the show Punk Rock, on our Master List and was suitably sheepish… so apologies to the Arts One Drama Company…
On to the day ahead…
I begin my Fringe 2018 at Greenside at Nicolson Square with The Odyssey of Homer.
Some Greek tragedy for breakfast… Yum…
But before that I get to the venue to realise that I have left my bloody lanyard in the car. To get out of this show and down to the car and off to the next show is going to be tight… I need this to end promptly… As it turns out it finished a full 25 minutes early… I thank you…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/the-odyssey-of-homer/
It was just as well that my first show ended early…
Try finding the bloody Theatre Bath Bus…
I got all the way to Summerhall before turning back and then getting past the tents again to find the darn thing in amongst the trees.
To add to my woes and stress can I just pass on a small gripe, when you are standing as theatre makers and someone in a bright orange Fringe lanyard is walking round and round you, please make eye contact and talk to them. Find out if they are there and circling your show for a reason. Don’t keep looking away…
Eventually the herring fence was cracked, my appearance without a ticket understood and I got in yeah! It was overall a worthy experience…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/female-transport/
Straight out and off to George Square Theatre I went. I had spent my extra time, once I had found the Bus, trying to work out where the George Square Theatre was as there was a 10-minute gap between the end of my next show and getting back to the bus! I went from the worthy to the well worthy as a couple of Scottish women made my morning…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/ill-have-what-shes-having/
It also finished early meaning – was it me? – and I had more than 10 minutes to make my next bus stop… I had recommended this in my top 5 Youth Theatre picks for 2018 but knew it was a bit of a gamble so here was what I thought…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/lift/
Now Zenith are a company of whom I had been aware every year that I had been at the Fringe. Their Zs on the back of their jumper/hoodies stood out. I was keen to recognise the massive presence and effort they had brought year on year. I have seen a few of their shows over the years and admired their chutzpah.
This year they excelled. They brought, on a trailer, a bus from Bath to avoid the usual costs – sheer genius if you ask me…
What did not impress me though, in this 20 seat venue, was the guy next to me on the phone the whole time… Am I just getting old? I don’t think so…
But so onwards to the next which was another of my youth theatre picks and one I was looking forward to seeing as again I had seen them before and loved them the last time…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/the-red-shoes/
That made my day go a little better and I was able to reflect on how, sometimes, reviewing the worthy, day on day, can be very tiring. You need a few good “hits”. With the bus as my theme, I was about to be hit with the second of three…
Out the Pleasance and off to Zoo Southside I went. This is another venue I like and this time round I got the highlight of my day…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/re-production/
White Slate are another company I have followed for years and years – 4 to be exact – since their first show in 2014 which was exceptional. I decided I needed to talk more directly to them and fired off n email to get an audio interview – up soon!
It had been a few Fringe since I was last in the Quaker Meeting House, so I found myself expectantly there and little did I know that I was about to get a slice of something rather special. This is an incredible example of how the Fringe brings disparate groups together. This is really special. It was not the best I was going to see but the two young people got me. They were from New Zealand! Thousands of miles away from home and they were well worth my journey.
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/holy-moses/
What didn’t delight me so much was the strong whiff of body odour. Having walked like a dervish from one end of Edinburgh to the other you get worried about how you smell… When you get a nose of BO in any place your paranoia kicks in. I got the smell and spent half of the show trying to work out if it was me…
It wasn’t but I still felt a tad worried.
I was now off to a Hungarian based group with Moldovan/Tatar music underneath a story based on Ukrainian folk tales. Integration in action…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/my-land/
I felt it was time to call it a day and retire for 2018 from reviewing in Edinburgh as I had been blown away for the third time today… surely downhill from here on in…
I was ready for some rest… 30 minutes in the darkness in a container, pretending to be a plane… who could possible feel that was weird… In Edinburgh… In August…
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/flight-2/
I ended the night with late night comedy with a French/Canadian/American citizen which rounded off the multicultural day that I was having!!! What a blast!!!
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2018/carla-saves-america/
And so it was time to write them and stick them up on the website – within 48 hours…
Next – Sunday, Cerys, aged 10 and me and two shows to see…
Sunday 6th August 2018
Day One 2018
And so, the Fringe begins… I begin this year by my annual visit to Edinburgh on Sunday the 6th August, to pick up my Fringe pass. I always look like some frightful warning to children in my photograph, but this is simply to ensure people can tell who I am rather than worry that I might upset the audiences… To be fair, I think if they saw the picture it would do little to comfort them…
I always take my youngest with me, Cerys, and this year rather than a quick drop in and run away I decide it is time to have a wander and so we do…
Parking on a Sunday is a hell of a lot easier and avoids me having to sell her to white slavers to pay for it and we do outside, YES OUTSIDE The Pleasance. Fringe Central first and non-gender toilets with a 10 year old…
As I am walking regaling her with tales of previous years when she interrupted actors who thought they could hide envelopes in plain sight, she got up onstage with one show to help in a magic trick and when she performed the Flamenco we do a few theatres and pick up a few programmes.
In the meantime, I get a text from Venue 13 – the audio interview I wanted to do is ON and I shall have to make my way there to get Daz James after we are done doing our “rounds”.
The reason for getting programmes and seeing posters is simple…
Every year Cerys is given some control over what we go and see. The last time I picked our Sunday show, I got it wrong… I get reminded EVERY YEAR….
So, this year I tell her she should pick.
As a dancer I think she should come with me to see some dance and she thumbs the Dance Base programme.
Everything she wants to see is on at the wrong date…
She thumbs the Zoo programme… nope…
In the meantime, we go to Space at Surgeon’s Hall and as we are talking of the I Hate Children, Children’s show, there he is, the guy from THAT show, promoting it…
Cerys didn’t recognise him but I did and gave him an enthusiastic review on the spot.
The long walk to Venue 13 follows and the audio interview is here: –
On the way back and after a teacher style lesson on the genius of Robert Ferguson, next to his statue, Cerys tries the Fringe app and finds a show!!! Travel back to Glasgow, via Subway of course, and I find another show – a dance one we shall also go and see… I am taking my life…
I shall post how well that all goes after Sunday….
In the meantime, I have 10 shows and 8 venues to get through tomorrow… or it is not TODAY – Thursday the 9th – it is the night before Fringe Day 2 – and I quake with fear…
Monday 21st May 2018
Lights are likely to go off all over Europe… AGAIN…??
All over Europe lights have gone off in the latest battle…
We may need someone like Churchill to come to our rescue, but it is more likely to be a Caryl than a Winston.
Before we get to the Brexit exit there remains one wee bit of business and regulation that is required to bring things into line with each other – energy through the light bulbs.
To be precise – energy through the lighting and illumination upon which many of our theatres truly depend.
If you look hard enough, there has been much written about the changes to law affecting the use of Tungsten light bulbs. Theatres were granted an exception as it would have shut many of them down had it come into effect for theatrical buildings. It has meant that the delay has left a few people sleeping cos it was a temporary delay and not a permanent one
There is now a move on to get all European light bulbs, energy efficient and nice to the environment. It leaves theatre professionals presenting environmentally friendly work on a stage and arguing the opposite off it. Ironic? Perhaps…
What it may mean for big theatres is serious enough as the environmental option comes with a hefty price tag whereas the green busting offensive weapons of mass panic are dirt cheap. Imagine if it had to include the theatres where Fringe events happen…
That would multiply the artistic Armageddon tenfold – would it not?
A fringe where there would have to be proper due regard to the theories and the practices of itself before moralising at the public? Who would have thought… Mind you if there is one way to utilitarian the size of Edinburgh…
Saturday 12th May 2018
Lead on MacDuff!!
It’s that time already? Is it? Having been out a few times this year to review – nowhere as many as I would like – it is time to receive all those bleeding emails about shows that are NOW on sale at the Edinburgh Fringe. It’s freaking MAY for Gawd Sake!!!
OK I have been getting them for the last few weeks but still… It’s hardly time to hide the Easter Eggs I bought cheaply in the cupboard for next year, before I have to start thinking about how to get into the Traverse for their shows this year!
Oh Gawd…
Recently I did get an offer to get back onstage this year – not at the Fringe – but they realised that I might have the Fringe to fit in and their August dates were cutting things quite fine for me, so they thought better of it…
For me, the Fringe annually is a bit of a trek and certainly a fest. To be trying to separate me from my cash at this point in the hope I get a cracker of a show to go and see in 4 months is a bit of a stretch but you have to admire chutzpah, determination and blind hope.
I shall have a wee look. No I shall…
I shall download the app.
Already done…
I have re-joined the Fringe Society.
Cheap deals and 2 for 2 offers… Eventually…
I am getting quite excited. Not very excited but quite excited. In Scottish terms that might just equate to being intrigued in an Agatha Christie remake.
