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Days 3 & 3.5: Thoughts on Shows 14-22

Terri Paddock is the Editorial Director of Whatsonstage.com. She saw 22 shows – and counting – in three-and-a-half days during her trip to Edinburgh at the start of the Fringe festival.

As I previously blogged, I’m still catching up this week with some day-by-day thoughts on the shows I managed to see (and a few I didn’t) while in Edinburgh.

Day 3

This is by far my most frustrating day at the Fringe and it leaves me worn out and depressed by the end of it. Read more

Day 2: Thoughts on Shows 8-13

Terri Paddock is the Editorial Director of Whatsonstage.com. She saw 22 shows – and counting – in three-and-a-half days during her trip to Edinburgh at the start of the Fringe festival.

As I previously blogged, I’m still catching up this week with some day-by-day thoughts on the shows I managed to see (and a few I didn’t) while in Edinburgh.

Day 2

Does a press launch count as a show towards my Edinburgh tally? Well, let’s settle on showcase and chalk it up anyway. On Saturday (2 August), I almost miss the Pleasance press launch as I’m running late thanks to PC problems. I arrive at the Grand about half-way through, at the same time as Observer diarist Veronica Lee and we slip in at the back. We’ve missed the extract from Steven Berkoff’s ON THE WATERFRONT – which I’ll be seeing after lunch anyway – and a series of stand-ups, but we’re in time for Pleasance director Anthony Alderson’s heartfelt speech, Philip Escoffey’s mind-reading (which encourages me to book for his show the next day), an inaudible scene from Shams’ Black Stuff (“one to miss”, whispers Veronica) and some amusing compering by comedian Stephen K Amos. The finale is a performance from the The Aluminium Show that gives me Blue Man Group flashbacks. It’s a shiny, visual treat. Dancing slinkies (as opposed to slinky dancers) ripple their coils to a thumping beat, metal snakes inflate with air until they reach their full length (“it’s like watching an erection”, I whisper back to Veronica) and rocket over the heads of the audience. I’m sure there’s an ejaculation joke in there, but I’ll leave it to your imagination. Read more

Day 1: Thoughts on Shows 1-7

Terri Paddock is the Editorial Director of Whatsonstage.com. She saw 22 shows – and counting – in three-and-a-half days during her trip to Edinburgh at the start of the Fringe festival.

Thanks to a host of IT problems, my online access was crankily intermittent at best and wholly non-existent at worst in Edinburgh. As a result, I’m horribly behind on the blogging front. But I’ll catch up this week with some day-by-day thoughts on the shows I managed to see (and a few I didn’t). Read more

Mattress matters, cow-tipping & light sleepers

Terri Paddock is the Editorial Director of Whatsonstage.com. She’s seeing 22 shows – and counting – in three-and-a-half days during her trip to Edinburgh at the start of the Fringe festival.

Because I’m cheap and didn’t want to pay for a hotel – and was frankly too disorganised to book one far enough ahead anyway – I arranged a month or so ago that I’d stay with my director friend Owen Lewis while in Edinburgh. Owen has two shows on the Fringe this year and is staying in digs with two women performers. Was he sure there’d be a spare bed? Yes, he was sure. Read more

Life’s a beach … but diary planning isn’t

Terri Paddock is the Editorial Director of Whatsonstage.com. She’s seeing 22 shows – and counting – in three-and-a-half days during her trip to Edinburgh at the start of the Fringe festival.

Not only have I managed to secure just a measly four days out of the office during Whatsonstage.com’s summer “downtime” – two for a long weekend in Sardinia, two for a long weekend in Edinburgh (as I mentioned before) – but I’ve got them the wrong way round.

I returned Monday night from Sardinia and am heading off tomorrow afternoon for Edinburgh. But clearly I should have booked Sardinia post-festival in order to recover. Any peace and relaxation I gained on the beach has already disappeared. In truth, I never really switched off as, part way through my indulgent beach-read novel, I was gripped with the panic of not having figured out my Edinburgh schedule yet. Out came the stack of press releases I’d packed along with my sunglasses. Read more

Better luck than Bridget Jones

I don’t go to Edinburgh every year, but every year I do go, I wish I did. Last year, in a moment of madness, I opted to forgo the Fringe in favour of a romantic getaway to France with my then new boyfriend. By the second day of said French mini-break, I realised that I’d made an exceedingly bad decision – both about the festival and the man. I vowed never to make that mistake again, and certainly not this year (with no boyfriend to stand in the way). Read more

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