Edinburgh Fringe... Day 2

[note: this has been posted several days after the events it talks about ... In case you were wondering] 

Day two at the fringe. The day when I would pack in as much as possible....And we started early.

The Traverse theatre do a great thing to tempt people out of bed and to the theatre early... They provide bacon sandwiches and coffee along with a 9am play. It's a rehearsed reading rather than a fully staged play but don't let that put you off, the quality was great.  If you're ever at the fringe and willing to get up early check it out. Although I did have to ask for a bit more bacon in my roll. One rasher was a bit stingy for the huge bap it was put in I felt. 

We had some time before our next pre-booked show. All part of the plan to be able to discover stuff while we were there: through recommendations, being given an interesting looking flyer or even just ducking in somewhere random to get out of the rain (thankfully that last one never had to be inplimented).

So,using the very handy official iPhone app, we searched for what was on nearby. 

First we thought we'd check out a free  thing running at the venue of our next pre-booked show. All day they were running short films. Could be interesting.... But it wasn't the sort of short films I was expecting. They were more visual art pieces. Black and white, no dialogue, no real characters just grainy shots, weird camera movements and a soundtrack straight from the student horror film handbook. Not bad necessarily, but not what we really fancied at that moment. So back to the app we went to find another option. 

Now it's fair to say that most of what we had pre-booked were more my choices than Emily's. Sure there were things we both really wanted to see like Al Murray but I was aware there were things we had booked Emily really wasn't interested in and nothing that I wasn't interested in. In my defence to this I have been wanting to go to the fringe since I was 15, but never the less I still felt guilty which is why I didn't put up much of a fight when she said she wanted to go see the children's show "The Snow Queen". I would take this for the team   (After all i had managed to fight off a suggestion yesterday to go see a children's show, my reasoning being that with a child on the way we'll have much kid's theatre to come in our near future why subject ourselves to it now, and instead we ended up at the phenomenal -in both ort opinions-  Feral) 

My fears were realised as in general the plot lacked substance and the acting was hammy, over the top and with no subtly. And before I get shouted down with "yes but that's because it's for kids!" I've seen some really well acted children's theatre where the characters are developed and have emotional depth and the kids in the audience have loved it. The idea that all kids theatre needs pantomime delivery is one that should be stamped out as soon as possible. 

I did feel a bit sorry for the company though as they only had 5 in the audience. But that, I gather, is the way of the Fringe. You may get great word of mouth and packed houses or your advertising may fall flat, your flyers fall on blind eyes and you end up performing to your mum who has come up from wiltshire to show her support. 

Next up was a play by Oliver-Award winning Lucy Kirkwood: NSFW. I had booked this because I had read the script about two years ago. It had been one of my random play purchases from Samual French bookshop. Every so often I'll go into this wonderful shop in Fritzrovia, London and browse for 20 mins until I find a play I like the cover and synopsis of. Partly this is an always on hunt for something to direct, partly it's just entertainment reading pleasure. 

But a couple of years ago I had found NSFW (which stands for Not suitable For Work if you were unsure) and really liked it so when I noticed it was being performed at the fringe it went straight on my list. It's a play about the magazine industry and the negative culture towards women,  from both the men's and women's mags, inherent in it. 

It was a really well done production as well.

We had another big gap to fill now so back to the BBC area. Where we were treated to a free sample of a very funny show "one man Star Wars". Where funny man Charles Ross plays all characters, racing through the plot of the film at hyperspace speeds. I only wish I had time to go the full show. 

At this point i tried to get tickets to something that had been recommended to me. But it had sold out. I tried another of their recommendations, also sold out. The lesson here being if you really want to see something make sure you book. Sure it may end up with only 3 People in the audience but it also may sell out. So better safe than sorry. Defeated I returned to the pink tent and cheered myself up in the BBCs free greenscreen photo booth here are the results ....

I particularly liked the fact that they had a W1A one and, as I happens to have my staff lanyard with me, I could really look the part in the pic (I was directed to pull a "think your better than everyone else" pose by the way, that's not normally how I pose... No really) 

I rounded out the evening with two productions from The Lincoln company, the company formed from current students and alumi from the university of Lincoln's Drama courses. I used to go to lincoln (although I studied media rather than drama) and my sister currently IS studying drama there (though she isn't part of The Lincoln Company this year) so I defiantly had to go see some of their productions (they had 6 on at the festival) . I went for MoJo by Jez Butterworth, because I had heard good things about this play from when it was on in London, and the ridiculously long titled "The Cosmonaut's last message to the woman he once loved in the former Soviet Union" (hence forth refered to, for the sake of all our sanity, as simply "Cosmonaut").

I really liked MoJo. As a play it's interesting, tense and keeps you guessing. Shane Humberstone was the stand out performance of this piece and seemed perfectly at home as the smooth talking Potts. 

This finished at 8:45pm. We hadn't yet bought tickets to Cosmonaught but I knew they were available cheaply  at the half price hut which, according to google maps, was a 15 min walk away..... And it shut at 9pm. 

I wonder if this is a sprint many have done at the fringe in an eagerness to get some cheap tickets? I bolted down to the hut and JUST made it in time. I was literally the last person they served before shutting up shop. While there I also got tickets for the following day for The Addams Family musical. 

We actually then had a bit of time to kill before the start of the Cosmonouts after meeting back up with Emily (funnily enough my pregnant wife hadn't wanted to sprint down to the half priced hut with me) we for once had a leisurely stroll to the venue and a nice sit in it's charming courtyard area. This was C cubed venue and I would defiantly recommend checking out it's courtyard cafe at some point on a nice (non-raining) night if you're after a bit of atmosphere. 

Cosmanauts itself was a very surreal play. One of those ones where your not always sure what's going on but despite that it's fascinating. With eariy use of music and lighting that made it more about the mood than the plot. You either love things like that or you don't. If they are done well I do. Emily very much does not. 

But you can't please everyone. 

She did have one positive thing to say about it though: the Russian accents were very good. I would have to agree. Especially those of the cosmonaughts themselves. (One of who had also been in MoJo) 

So that rapped up our longest day at the fringe. In my head planning the trip I had imagined all days would have been packed like this.  practicalities stopped that idea but I hope one day I make it up for a whole week when I can have many days of very busy theatre going (although I may die of exhaustion by the end) 

Ed Fringe Day 1....15 years in the waiting. Losing my Edinburgh fringe cherry.

About 15 years ago, when we were teenagers, a very good friend of mine went up to the Edinburgh festival with her dad. It was the first I'd heard of this festival in the distant land of the Scot but based on what she told me when she came back i knew I too wanted to go. 

Unfortunately, due to a variety of reasons (although most of them being "money"), it's taken me till now to get here. But with a baby on the way in Jan (have I mentioned that? I don't think I have as I haven't blogged since I found out) I thought it should be something I'd better get off the bucket list  while it's easier. 

In a way I've gradually worked up to the  Ed fringe. For the last couple of years I've been attending the Camden Fringe in London. A much smaller (although growing every year) festival with a similar array of types of show: plays, musicals, stand-up, dance.  

So, this year I took the plunge: booked accomedation, flights and pre-booked some tickets to shows (making sure to leave room in my schedule to discover stuff while I was there)

And I've made it through my first day. And boy was it a long day! Up at 4am to leave the house by 5 to get to Gatwick and catch plane at 7am. We were in Edinburgh City centre by 10am already tired and ready for caffeine. But not before paying a quick visit to the half price hut to pick up a bargin. 

That Bargin was well worth it too. Tortoise in a Nutshell productions' "Ferall" was a brilliantly inventive show that used puppetry, multi-media filming, soundscapes and drawings to tell a moving tale of Britain's  seaside towns in decline. The puppet town (gradually built up piece by piece in the first third of the show) is expertly filmed live and projected up on a screen in such a cinematic way, utilising multiple camera, transitions between then as well as  pans and sweeps . It much have taken a lot of planning and practice.

Next up was a talk on Arthur Conan-Doyle which I can't tell you much about ..... Because I was mostly dozzing off during it. Whether this was due to my 4am start or the content of the talk I'm honestly not sure. 

Finally though we could check in to our accomedation. Which we promptly did and had a bit of a much needed siesta.

Back into town for the early evening we checked out the BBC area (checking up on my lovely employers). Their area is a really nice one to go to just to relax. As well as their main ticketed event tent they have the "pink tent" with seating, a small stage for a programme of free events and bookshelves full of books if you feel like whiling away the time. Also in their area are food stalls, a bar, table tennis and a free greenscreen photo booth that I defiantly plan on coming back to have a go at. 

They even had funky branded headphones to listen to the large outdoor  sceen they had. Look, here me in all my BBC branded glory, doing my bit for my employers.

We had pre-booked tickets to the evening for Al Murray. We used to watch his weekly show 6 or so years ago and always were in fits if laughter watching it. So it had been the first thing we had pre-booked coming here. We weren't disappointed. Al Murray was as ever very funny as the pub landlord character with ever so slightly out dated views who you'd be slightly nervous to have as a real friend and yet can't help chuckling along to many of the things he says. 

So, after that, at this point it was only 9:30. Part of the reason I had booked an early flight was to be able to pack a whole days worth of shows in... But we had been up since 4am and despite a couple of Naps through the day I do still have a pregnant wife who was starting to get a bit grumpy about me dragging her from venue to venue. It was time to call it an early night, and save the real packed day for tommorow......