Edinburgh Fringe

Great Shakes & not so great shakes.

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Y’know I really should do my blog earlier in the evening but I always allow myself to get sucked into catching up on the other blogs I follow …… two hours later! I procrastinate by reading the Procrastinator’s Day Off, oh the irony!

Anyways, old Shakey, how many ways have I seen thee? Let me count the ways. As straight no-messing-about productions go I’ve not seen many, Coriolanus was memorable, Venus & Adonis less so but for the venue it was in. Hamlet I’ve seen as a Panto, performed on a bouncy castle and something called Fat Hamlet, which I have absolutely no recollection of!

I do have a fond but vague memory of A Midsummer Night’s Dream re-write where the set was just a huge old sofa in a student flat; they sat on it, sprawled on it, clambered over it, hid behind it. Yep, the sofa was the star.

Then, of course, there’s the Scottish play. In 2000, we had the one man retelling of it with Homer Simpson taking the lead. Checking back, apparently I also saw a Japanese production of it that year, you might think that one would have stuck in the mind! More memorable was Macbeth Pruned & Henry V Pulped by the Flying Pig Theatre way back in 1997. Henry V was done Tarantino-style but it was Macbeth as a “if it can go wrong it will” amateur theatre show that was hilarious. We bumped into the cast two nights later queuing  for another Macbeth retelling, they were very happy to hear we’d enjoyed as they didn’t seem too positive, but just as we’d buoyed them up, the show we all saw deflated them again.

That would be Elsie & Norm’s Macbeth. See, Norm wasn’t taken with all that flowery stuff Shakespeare came out with, so he’d rewritten Macbeth, proper northern stuff, like, and with wife Elsie and various cuddly toys they were going to perform it to us. If my memory serves me right Banquo was a large cuddly panda (with added sheet as a ghost) and yes, Fleance was a small panda. But the most interesting Fringe history fact is that Elsie was played by Pip Utton! Yes, he who is known for his brilliant monodramas playing such as Adolf Hilter and Maggie Thatcher. A quick look in this year’s programme shows he’s doing his Greatest Hits, methinks he won’t be including Elsie, but he should!!

Oo , I nearly forgot, in 2002 at what was the Gateway Theatre on Elm Row, in a small, very hot room, about a dozen folk sat with binoculars to watch Tiny Ninja Theatre presents Macbeth. The actors were dime store figures and inch high plastic ninjas, Mr & Mrs Smile as Macbeth and his Lady were particularly good. Though the audience couldn’t help a chuckle or two, the cast played it very straight, bit of a juxtaposition. I was very sorry the company didn’t return to the Fringe.

There’s only one other company I really have to mention when it comes to Shakespeare at the Fringe, but I’ll leave that til breakfast.

How would you like your Shakespeare, madam?

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As you can imagine there’s plenty of Shakespeare at the Fringe, in all manner of states, pruned,  punked, as panto, in the park, on bouncy castles, and occasionally the odd straight down the line, no messing, performance of the bard’s work.

Probably the first company who took pruning the Bard to a new art form were the Reduced Shakespeare Company. I never actually saw that show, but in 1996 I saw them perform The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged). I did see them again, no idea which show it was, I just remember a rousing song of “Everybody hates the French” which pops back in my head every year around the time of the Six Nations Rugby. Anyway, I digress…

In any year there’ll be a variety of takes on the likes of Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this year take your pick of two Comedy of Errors. One is by a “vibrant young cast (who) bring the story right up to date”, the other is “Shakespeare meets Ska, Two-tone and Rudeboy”, all sorts for everyone. Personally I reckon Mr S would have approved of these adaptations  (so long as he saw some royalties!)

I do like to try to see something of Shakespeare each year, makes me feel cultured, y’know. Besides that endeavour,  since 2002 I’ve had Shakespeare for Breakfast once each Fringe – it starts at 10 o’clock in the morning, that’s ridiculously early when I’m on a day off work. S4B are a great company and though I don’t “recommend” shows generally (more on that later), this is one show that is sooo Fringe, go see!

Well, it’s very late so I’ll say toodle-pip, more on old Shakey next time.

 

Put on the wellies, slap on the suncream, glug some cider

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It’s Glastonbury time again! These days we can dip in and out of it with all the BBC coverage without suffering trenchfoot or sunstroke or being woken in the early hours by someone stumbling into your tent.

Ah, all the hordes on the hillside for the headliners at the Pyramid Stage. First time I went as a young moose back in ’87 we could drive right into the site and pitch our tent by the car on that hillside. I remember it had been raining before we arrived so by 6 o’clock Thursday evening the ground was already well churned up from cars getting stuck. Glastonbury mud, there’s really nothing quite like it. The trick is to just accept it as part of your being, it’s gonna be with you til at least the following Monday night, revel in the squishiness.

After that I returned twice more in ’89 and ’90, spending more time in the comedy tent. There I saw the rather scary Chris Lynam finish his act by marching up and down the stage with a lit firework up his bum, really, I wasn’t hallucinating! I also saw him do the banjo duel from Deliverance on tubas in one of the music tents. Friends were duly enticed along when he turned up in Edinburgh in a Fringe venue on the Cowgate.

The last time I went the Madchester sound was seriously taking hold, and I hated it. I remember one night someone in a nearby tent kept playing the same few tracks by the Happy Mondays et al through the night. Now I was a dawn riser and so rose with the sun, enjoying a short while of peace and solitude and much snoring. Then I decided it was my turn to share the music – so I put on Iron Maiden’s Phantom of the Opera, loud. Cracking track that is.

The secret love child of Brian Cant?!

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Ok, so I know he’s not but that’s what my buddy and I both said as we left after seeing Felix Hayes in The Pickled King back in 2003 and when he returned to the Fringe in 2006 with two shows, nothing we saw dissuaded us of this fact. They look similar (well, two eyes, a nose and a mouth) but the essence was the same. Essence? Have you ever met someone who was so incredibly like someone else but as much inwardly (if not more) as outwardly in appearance? That to me is the essence and Felix’s smile, his infectious almost childlike joy in absurdity was so Brian Cant.

The Unsinkable Clerk was a great romp of a play but Them with Tails was absolutely wonderful, so good we went twice! Them with Tails was improvised stories for kids, and out of the mouths of babes came weird and wonderful suggestions, things beyond the reasoning of rational adults. We did later contemplate how funny an adult version of the show would be but decided that what made it so good was the totally innocent suggestions which made for some tricky storylines, as opposed to a too-knowing adult crowd who would be trying too deliberately to set up laughs.

There’s a little game I sometimes play, Desert Island Fringe Shows, where I’m shipwrecked with various Fringe shows, well sometimes I go for the companies so that they can put on other shows and other times it is just the one show they have to perform over and over again! Either way Felix Hayes would be there.

An inner child mourns

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Like many others of a certain age I felt a strange devastation at hearing the news that Brian Cant has died. He was one of those reassuring voices of my childhood, along with Oliver Postgate, narrating some of the best children’s programmes in the golden era of children’s television. His on-screen antics on Play School and Playaway were wonderfully silly and now looking back, rather quaintly British and Python-lite.

I had the great pleasure of seeing the great man on stage at the Fringe in 2007. Phil Jupitus and he had a lovely cosy chat along with extracts from Trumpton, Camberwick Green and Chigley and if my memory serves me right I think there was an audience vote to pick an episode from one of the three series to be screened at the end. I can recall the atmosphere in the room, it was a total love-in, there was so much palpable affection in the air for this man, he did seem genuinely touched by the standing ovation by his adoring fans at the end.

Thank you Brian Cant for being part of my life  💛

A wee rant about the last night of the Fringe

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I was going to bring this up sooner or later, and tonight’s the night. You may be aware that the Fringe started seventy years ago when a few uninvited companies decided to turn up in Edinburgh when the Edinburgh International Festival was on and they put their shows on anywhere they could on the fringe of it, and the rest as they say is history.

Well up until two years ago there was a big fireworks display after both the International and Fringe festivals had finished and most had gone home. It almost felt like a thank you to the good folk of Edinburgh for putting up with the hullabaloo of August. The day had moved a few times over the years but for quite sometime was nicely ensconced on the Sunday after the Fringe finished. Tickets are sold for people to sit in Princes Street Gardens or you can stand in the streets to watch forty five minutes of fireworks to the music of the Scottish  Chamber Orchestra.

For years my Fringe buddy and I had our spot in the Gardens, and many of the folk around us came back to their same spots, we all chatted about how our years had been, had our picnics, then settled back for the fireworks. Champagne corks could be heard going off all over the place, down from us one group always marked where they were with a large red umbrella with white hankies tied to it. Of course, to be sure of our spot at least one of us would queue for around two hours then hurtle along with camping chairs. It was a great tradition and we loved it, a beautiful setting, perfect view, orchestral music and the sheer power of the blasts of the fireworks, magnificent!!

Then they introduced Priority tickets, where they would be allowed in the Gardens half an hour before the other ticket holders. Now when this was brought in, space in the park was already getting squeezed because, well, trees grow and spread, so many parts that had previously been fine were no longer fine, people were having to move when they realised they could no longer look up and see sky. As people competed for smaller areas it meant many felt compelled to pay the extra money. Grrrr!! Boo Virgin bloody Money!

Now at this point I should also point out the August Bank Holiday is not a bank holiday in Scotland, for most it is just another working day, so when, two years ago they announced it was being moved to the Bank Holiday Monday, let me assure you many of the locals were NOT happy! It was no longer a leisurely afterthought when the city was more peaceful again, just another thing to be rushed.

So I was peed off at the changing of the day but, but, AAARRGH it’s the last day of the Fringe!!! I also like to finish the Fringe on a high, as I’m sure all the shows that are still on until the final Monday night would like to as well! Now the poor blighters have to compete with a huge fireworks display. The end of the Fringe fizzles out as it is, some shows finish on the Saturday,  some on the Sunday, just the diehards carry on until the very end, valiantly flyering anyone around to see their last show (that is how I met the magnificent Will Seaward four years, but more about him next time).

Two years ago I did go back to the Gardens with a different friend and just sat in a random spot. I took a wander up to where I had previously always sat to find that none of the other regulars were there either, quite sad really. Afterwards we went to see Will at midnight to finish the Fringe properly. Last year I went to shows then just popped on to the top of the Mound to watch the fireworks before heading off to more Fringe bars and William’s spooky storytelling.

It was the end of an era, the end of my love affair with the Fireworks. I will probably always wander along and stand to watch at least some of it, but as with many lovely things a big money-grabbing organisation came along and took away the joy. But I’ll always have the memory of the wine, the strawberries, the music and the big bangs.

Perusing the Programme

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Make yourself a pot of tea and get the biscuit tin out or open a bottle of wine, this will take a while! If you’re a Fringe novice I would advise you not to try to do it all in one go, it takes practice. Always mark up potentials (you’ll never find it again if you don’t) and maybe mark if it’s a definite, an um-not-sure, a check out the company’s website, a wait for reviews, an only worth the preview price or if it appears listed at the Half Price Hut.

Then go through it again, maybe do it from back to front this time, or alternate categories. Leave it by the loo, peruse it on those long visits when you’ve nothing else to do!

Now here’s where it’s  good to have a spare programme to hand. Go through and cut out all the potentials from the spare, and if you have a Fringe buddy go through your choices together  (and hope you have at least a few matches). I had a good Fringe buddy for many years, we had so many matches it made the compromises on our other choices not seem so bad as we respected each other’s taste and trusted it to lead us to right. Though he’s no longer around I still do this, it’s easy to move bits of paper around to see what will fit where, throw a choice in the bin after a glance at their website, keep tabs on shows you haven’t yet committed to.

Or you can do none of the above and wing it! I’m afraid I need much structure in my life, like a good boy scout I like to be prepared!

 

It’s oot!

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It’s out and I’ve just finished my first trawl through the Edinburgh Fringe Programme. Immediate thoughts – it’s looking quite good, I’ve already earmarked about 60-70 possibilities, this will be whittled down later and more will be added with each trawling. A few definite must-sees for me are Goodbear, Sleeping Trees, Aidan Goatley, the wonderful Thom Tuck and Shakespeare for Breakfast. Oh, and after a year off, I’m delighted to see that once again This Arthur’s Seat Belongs to Lionel Ritchie at 2pm on Saturday 19th August. Well worth walking up the hill for, and the show will go on in almost any weather!

One omission from this year’s programme are the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, regulars at the Fringe for the last ten years or so. I’ll miss those little chaps, think Abbott and Costello as socks and a tad ruder! They have plenty of stuff on YouTube worth a look, including a duet with Dean Friedman of his classic Lucky Stars (if you’re old enough to remember it from 1978 check it out).

Ah such is the Fringe, shows come and shows go.

 

I ❤ Manchester

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Just thought I should say a few words about the terrible atrocity earlier this week. My heart goes out to all the people affected by this, all those for whom this was their first concert, all the parents who will now worry even more. So many will be hit by the emotional shrapnel of this bomb.

Manchester is a great city, full of lovely friendly people, who will not be cowed by this and, as has been seen in the press, will rally round with that defiant, bolshy northern spirit that will always prevail. Adam Hills was spot on, as usual, on The Last Leg, maybe as an Aussie he can view how the British react with a slight distance.

When something like this happens I wonder how many will subconsciously become wary of crowded areas, how many may always be wary of attending events? Edinburgh in August will be packed with peoples of many nations and religions celebrating the arts in all forms. I hope people will feel able to come and enjoy themselves, though we may all have a slight wariness. After all, if a pop concert full of young people is not offlimits, then ??? I shudder to think.

I ❤ Manchester,  I ❤ life.