Will Edinburgh Still Keep Waiting for Godot???
August 10, 2010
All pupils of the City of London School, the nod/nod first performed a version of Waiting for Godot last term… in their school toilets. After brilliant feedback nod/nod arranged to take their production to the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe. A licence was sought and granted from the Beckett Estate, but after unexpected publicity in the national press their licence was withdrawn at the last minute and so, £800 in the red and with a pining to still perform, a new version of Beckett’s classic has been written by 17 year old director Harry Michell entitled Still Waiting for Godot; in part homage to the original and in part a boisterous response to the Beckett Estate’s heavy handed approach. Read more
In for a Penny, In for a Pound – Or a Thousand???
August 9, 2010
The State We’re In is being performed at the Edinburgh Suite from the 6th-31st August (excluding 18th) between 12:10 and 13:20. It is part-funded by ‘a pound’ appeal that went viral; emails asking people if the issue of eroding civil liberties in the UK was worth a quid, to get it a platform at Edinburgh Fringe, and raised nearly a grand!
Michael Byrne (Coronation St/ Indiana Jones/Braveheart/Z-Cars/Yes Prime Minister) plays the main role based on peace campaigner Brian Haw who has camped outside Parliament for EIGHT years. It is his moving story but also reveals the erosion of civil liberties in the UK over the last ten years.
The play had a reading (with Samuel West and Racquel Cassidy) last year, but this is its first full production and as such is the world premiere at the Fringe.
- Anna Maysey
An Ex-Editor Treading The Boards- Safe???
August 8, 2010
A new career is never easy, but for John McColl, switching from a hack to potentially being hacked can’t be a particularly pleasant change. Now, as the lead male in Ella Hickson’s Precious Little Talent, the ex-editor at the Edinburgh Evening News is almost certainly aware of the pressures upon him, having been a reporter and editor on various daily, Sunday and evening newspapers for 30 years.
That’s not to say he’s not come across these pressures before – in 2008 he performed in Saint Joan and To the Cross at the Fringe (Theatre Alba) and was also in the film Lapse, 2009. Not only this, but John has kept is hand in on the writing side of things by penning not one, but four plays, all of which have been or are being performed.
Provided McColl’s ex-colleagues are kind to him, I don’t see any reason why he would have problems in his newly chosen career – unfortunately, journalists and reporters are not best known for their kindness!
-Anna Maysey
Twitter Lets You Review???
January 1, 2010
A new website is making it easy for any theatre-goer to become a reviewer now as social networking site Twitter allows status updates to join forces with EdTwinge.
www.edtwinge.com uses “real time updates” from various Twitter accounts in order to rank performances based on “noise” (the Twitter rating for how many mentions a show gets) and “karma”- how positive or negative the mentions are. Those shows with the most “good karma” are then put on the top ten of the EdTwinge main page.
Creator Deirdre Bunting said: “It’s the perennial festival dilemma – what to do when faced with so many marvellous, colourful characters to purvey. That’s how EdTwinge was born.”
-Anna Maysey
Do You Have Free Hour for Lynx on Sat???
August 27, 2009
The premiere of a new English-language translation of The Hour of the Lynx, the 1991 play by leading Swedish dramatist Per Olov Enquist, was meant to have a run at this year’s Fringe, but the Critical Mass production was cancelled after the last-minute withdrawal of one of the performers.
However, if you’re free this Saturday 29 August, you can still catch it – for free! A rehearsed reading of the 80-minute piece is being held at 3.15pm in the Nightclub space at the Gilded Balloon Teviot in Bristo Square. Original cast members Helen Rutter and Oliver Senton will be joined by Scottish actress, writer and Scotsman Kate Copstick, who replaces Dillie Keane. Read more
Just How Bad Was Last Year’s Box Office Crisis???
August 25, 2009
With the publishing of accounts for last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it becomes apparent just how dire the consequences were of the new box office system.
The system, designed by IT company Pivotal Integration, was suspended the day after it went live, tickets were late and several shows were overbooked. The system was replaced, extra staff were hired and Pivotal went into administration mid-August.
Accounts show that for the year ending 30 November 2008, the amount spent over the income was £882,407 which put the Fringe Festival’s Society teetering at the brink of a very big black hole. Read more
What’s the Funniest Joke on the Fringe???
August 24, 2009
Well, according to over 3,000 comedy fans who voted in the second annual Dave Award for the Funniest Joke of the Fringe, it’s “Hedgehogs – why can’t they just share the hedge?”.
The gag, from comedian Dan Antopolski, received 18 percent of the overall votes from a shortlist compiled by Dave judges. Read more
Can You Find a Minute’s Peace at the Fringe???
August 5, 2009
The Festival of Spirituality and Peace have launched a campaign this year to have a min
ute’s “silence and reflection” every day at 1pm throughout August. In other words, during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Victor Spence, co-director of the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, says “Our daily news is full of updates on conflict and people are often at a loss how to respond to these events. One thing anyone can do at a personal level is to stop and reflect, and the Minute of Silence for Peace is a perfect opportunity to do just that.”
The likelihood of all “Fringers” stopping to take a minute and think about world peace is pretty slim given the level of alcohol going around, but fair play to Victor Spence and his co-workers.
-Anna Maysey
Mills the Musical: Top Show or Definite No???
August 5, 2009
After being challenged on his Radio 1 show, DJ Scott Mills has (with the help of his Radio 1 listeners) written and composed a musical to be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2009. Whilst this is a noble endeavour, it begs the question- can he pull it off?
Due to widespread publicity on the radio and free tickets, there are no longer any tickets available for the three performances (11th, 12th and 13th August) and as such the show will also be broadcast on the Radio 1 website, along with sneak previews, behind the scenes shows and Scott Mills will be performing in his regular spot on Radio 1 broadcast live from the Fringe! If you are really desperate to go and see this make or break show, more tickets are available for free on the day of each show from the Scott Mills the Musical ticket booth in Pleasance Courtyard between 12 noon and 10pm.
To see the preparations for this show, go online to http://bbc.co.uk/blogs/scottmills to see the auditions and listen to a few of the (admittedly) rather amusing songs.
- Anna Maysey
Beaten to the Punch: First Fringe Fight???
August 5, 2009
Edinburgh is a well known battleground between comics and punters, but we didn’t expect the first blows to be traded before the festival even started!
Russian comedian Denis Krasnov’s tongue-in-cheek brand of comedy must be taken with a pinch of salt, but it was too much for one punter last week at a preview show for his Edinburgh Fringe show in Fulham. Read more
EIF: 14 August-6 September
Advertisement
