Concealed Ovulation and the Open Mind
August 25, 2009
Baba Brinkman’s “Darwin on the Fringe” blog presents an insider’s view of Edinburgh through the lens of Memetics, Evolutionary Psychology, and other Darwinian paradigms.
Twice in the past few days I’ve been approached by an audience member after the show and told “Hey, you won’t remember me, but I came to see your Rap Canterbury Tales in 2004, and it inspired me to start writing and performing spoken word poetry”. Both of these young people are regular performers competing in slams and getting known here in the UK, spreading memes of their own to new crowds.
Now, the pride I felt in learning this fact is of a different sort than the pride of a teacher watching a student excel in their field after years of patient knowledge-transfer. The teacher/student pride is more like that of a parent for his child, whereas the pride I felt was more like that of a man who learns that a one night stand he had years ago had unexpectedly produced a healthy and thriving offspring (thanks to the nurturing efforts of others). Read more
Fortuitous Speciation
August 21, 2009
Baba Brinkman’s “Darwin on the Fringe” blog presents an insider’s view of Edinburgh through the lens of Memetics, Evolutionary Psychology, and other Darwinian paradigms.
As an addendum to my previous entry about Genres and Cladistics, today my show The Rap Guide to Evolution was given a Fringe First Award from the Scotsman, and the first thing that entered my mind was: if we had listed the show as comedy, this would never have happened. The Fringe First Awards are for the best new stage writing at the Fringe and they only cover theatre genres, but not comedy. Of course, if I had listed as comedy I would have been eligible for the IF Comedy Award (or whatever it’s called this year), but I have no delusions; my show isn’t that funny. The performance would have been exactly the same, but some Scotsman critic would have been thinking, “I quite enjoyed that, shame it wasn’t a theatre show”. Read more
Genres and Cladistics
August 20, 2009
Baba Brinkman’s “Darwin on the Fringe” blog presents an insider’s view of Edinburgh through the lens of Memetics, Evolutionary Psychology, and other Darwinian paradigms.
Tonight Dizraeli and I performed as part of a spoken word and storytelling showcase at the Cow Café, which means the audience was treated to excerpts of both theatre and comedy shows. Whether a given act was classified as theatre or comedy was entirely at the whim of its producer several months ago, when the Fringe registration process was completed, and it was primarily a marketing decision. For instance, tonight’s show featured Rachel Rose Reid, Theatre, Luke Wright, Comedy, and Dizraeli and I from the Rebel Cell, Theatre, all performing spoken word and/or storytelling. Read more
Fickle Fans
August 16, 2009
Baba Brinkman’s “Darwin on the Fringe” blog presents an insider’s view of Edinburgh through the lens of Memetics, Evolutionary Psychology, and other Darwinian paradigms.
Ten days into the Fringe and one thing is certain, it’s a bumper year. Ticket sales are up, the streets are mobbed, and shows are selling out left right and centre. So far the Rap Guide to Evolution and the Rebel Cell have not been selling out but they are both getting strong daily audiences in the 80-100 range and gaining steam. Where have all the extra people come from? I was puzzled, until a friend and perennial Edinburgh resident pointed out that many of the locals who usually go on holiday overseas were probably forced to stay home because of the recession, so they are going to Fringe shows instead. Lucky us. Read more
Creative Menopause
August 11, 2009
Baba Brinkman’s “Darwin on the Fringe” blog presents an insider’s view of Edinburgh through the lens of Memetics, Evolutionary Psychology, and other Darwinian paradigms.
This is the first year I’ve been on the Fringe strictly as a performer and not a producer, and I am lovin’ it! In all four of my previous Edinburgh runs the intricacies of technical schemes, lighting, publicity, press tickets, scheduling, flyering, etc, all went through me. This year both the Rebel Cell and the Rap Guide to Evolution are produced entirely by SPL Productions, a talented and fun-loving bunch of guys who know each other from college and collaborate on theatre projects. The head honcho, Adam, coordinates everything with ramshackle virtuosity, and the upshot is that the shows are far more professional, the exposure and sales have been much higher, and I get to focus on performing and experiencing the Fringe rather than juggling miscellanea. Read more
Lekking at the Fringe
August 7, 2009
Capercaillie Lekking
Baba Brinkman’s “Darwin on the Fringe” blog presents an insider’s view of Edinburgh through the lens of Memetics, Evolutionary Psychology, and other Darwinian paradigms.
Tonight Dizraeli and I performed our first of many after-hours cabaret shows, the staple of Edinburgh. We were part of “Crème de la Underbelly” at the Cow Café, the last of about a dozen other comedy and music acts, each strutting our stuff for ten minutes in front of a rowdy crowd of about a hundred non-paying audience members. Non-paying? Yes, the beauty (and horror) of the Fringe is that everyone who has a show will happily take any free after-hours cabaret gig offered, since there are so many shows on and it is simply the best way to draw a crowd. The venues offer free cabaret showcases every night, most of it quite excellent entertainment, and many audience members are savvy enough to not waste their time and money going to a show unless they’ve at least seen a ten minute excerpt as a sample of its quality. Read more
The Secret Life of Sperm, and Fringe Promotion
August 2, 2009
Baba Brinkman’s “Darwin on the Fringe” blog presents an insider’s view of Edinburgh through the lens of Memetics, Evolutionary Psychology, and other Darwinian paradigms.
The front page of today’s Independent on Sunday features a fascinating headline: “The Secret Life of Sperm”, concerning a recent discovery about the structure of human (and mouse) sperm cells. Unlike the egg, which contains most of the functioning parts of the cell, sperm have only tightly-packed coils of DNA in their “head” and a powerful molecular “motor” in their flagella or tail, but no cytoplasm, nucleus, mitochondria, etc. It has long been thought that sperm cells simply wiggle their way along until they meet the egg, and the first one to squirm its way inside is the winner, delivering its genetic package for the egg to use in the cell division that creates the fetus. Read more
Darwin on the Fringe
July 30, 2009
Baba Brinkman’s “Darwin on the Fringe” blog presents an insider’s view of Edinburgh through the lens of Memetics, Evolutionary Psychology, and other Darwinian paradigms.
The behemoth known as the Edinburgh Fringe looms just a week away, and there is a certain scent in the air, barely discernible: it’s the smell of artists sweating. The Fringe bills itself as “the world’s biggest arts festival”, and it certainly is, but its size is mainly a product of its function as the world’s biggest arts market, and the artists participating know (or should know) that they are the goods on sale. Without the anticipated presence of the buyers (promoters), the sellers (producers) would never invest their own hard-won resources in mounting shows to bring the goods (artists) to their market stalls (venues). If the Arts were Sport (and to some degree they are), then the Fringe would be the Olympics (including the qualifying rounds). Read more
Introducing WOS’s 2009 Edinburgh Bloggers
July 25, 2009
For the 2009 Edinburgh Festival, we’ve appointed a collective of more than a dozen bloggers to give you a broad, insightful and highly entertaining perspective on life on this year’s festival frontline.
FRINGE PRACTITIONERS
- BABA BRINKMAN – Baba is a rapper and performer returning to the Fringe for the fifth time. His previous Fringe hits include The Rap Guide to the Canterbury Tale and The Rebel Cell. This year, he’s reviving The Rebel Cell (Underbelly’s Hullabaloo, 7-31 Aug) and also presenting his new show The Rap Guide to Evolution (Gilded Balloon, 8-31 Aug). Both are being produced by the team behind Fringe and West End hit Into the Hoods.
>>Click here for Baba’s blogs - COLIN HOULT – An acclaimed writer-performer who recently appeared in Al Murray’s Multiple Personality Disorder (ITV1) and the play Pete and Dud: Come Again (West End), Colin makes his Fringe solo debut with Carnival of Monsters (Pleasance Courtyard, 8-31 Aug). The new show – combining theatre, comedy and storytelling to evoke a strange twilight world of inimitable creations – follows sell-out runs for Colin as one half of comedy double act Colin & Fergus, and last year’s action-terror-comedy-adventure Zimbani. (What’s more, Fergus of Colin & Fergus is also blogging for us this year about his solo debut – scroll down…)
>>Click here for Colin’s blogs - CHRIS GRADY – Chris was undoubtedly our most prolific and committed blogger from Edinburgh 2008 so we begged him to return this year. When not blogging, he’s the programme director for the Musical Theatre at George Square, working closely with the University of Edinburgh and Pleasance Theatres. The three-auditoria venue, now in its second year, is the first space dedicated totally to musicals at the Edinburgh Fringe. Grady is also the founding chair of the professional theatre network organisation Musical Theatre Matters, which runs the Musical Theatre Matters Awards. Now in their third year – and sponsored by Whatsonstage.com – the MTM:UK Awards are the only prize-giving specifically dedicated to the musical genre at the world’s largest arts festival. Click here to read our recent festival countdown interview with Chris, and visit the theatre’s listings page for further details about the George Square programme.
>>Click here for Chris’ blogs - EDMUND DIGBY-JONES – Another Fringe alumnus, Edmund is appearing this year in the world premiere of The Play About Charlotte (C soco, 7-31 Aug), care of Dark Horse Theatre. Set in 1968, Hannah C Patterson’s play revolves around the gifted Cathy, whose battle with mental illness is alleviated only by her close friend and muse Charlotte. Edmund has patented his technique for flyering on the Royal Mile…
>>Click here for Edmund’s blogs - FERGUS CRAIG – The winner of the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year 2009 award and star of Channel 4’s hit comedy Star Stories admits to still watching Neighbours and happily takes audiences on a very personal guided tour around Ramsey Street in his new solo show Carnival of Monsters (Pleasance Courtyard, 8-31 Aug). The new show follows sell-out runs for Colin as one half of comedy double act Colin & Fergus, and last year’s action-terror-comedy-adventure Zimbani. (What’s more, Colin of Colin & Fergus is also blogging for us this year about his solo debut – see above…)
>>Click here for Fergus’ blogs - HANNAH SPENS-BLACK – Hannah hasn’t let the fact that she’s an Edinburgh virgin daunt her from mounting four new productions with her Tangram Theatre Company (www.tangramtheatre.co.uk): Almost 10 (Pleasance Courtyard, 8-31 Aug), Art House (Zoo, 8-31 Aug), F**ked (Assembly @ George Street, 8-31 Aug) and The Origin of the Species (Pleasance Courtyard, 7-31 Aug). Hannah trained as a chartered accountant with Deloitte and then worked in the Young Vic finance department, before joining Tangram full time.
>>Click here for Hannah’s blogs - JENNIFER ROWLAND – Jennifer is a Los Angeles-based playwright whose US credits include The Indians are Coming to Dinner, The School Plays and Ice Girl in Bungalow B. She makes her UK debut, and her first trip to Edinburgh with the world premiere production of The Contest (Gilded Balloon, 8-30 Aug), fresh from a critically acclaimed, sell-out US run. Set in New York’s art scene, the play charts the journey of three characters from hopeful youth to disillusioned adulthood over 15 years.
>>Click here for Jennifer’s blogs - LISA WELLS TURNER – Lisa returns to Edinburgh this year with the world premiere of The Opposite of Waiting (Venue 13, 8-30 Aug), her new physical theatre solo show, which combines movement song and text. Locked in, Rebecca dreams of escape and adventure. Who are we and who do we feel we should be? Lisa’s previous self-penned show, an adaptation of Iphigenia was mounted at Zoo Venues in 2006. >>Click here for Lisa’s blogs
- MARK MATTHEWS – Mark, an Australian actor and director, is the course director of the Sydney Theatre School. He’s bringing a cast of his graduate students to the Fringe with This Mortal Coil (Quaker Meeting House, 10-15 Aug), which was devised by the group through a Mike Leigh-style of improvisation. It’s directed by Mark who also penned the script. This is the first time Mark has brought a production to the Fringe (although he attended as a visitor last year) and, for most of his cast, it will be the first time they have ever left Australia.
>>Click here for Mark’s blogs - SAMMY J – Following an extended sell-out season in Edinburgh last year and a stint at the West End’s Leicester Square Theatre, Sammy J in the Forest of Dreams (Udderbelly, 14-30 Aug) is back at the Fringe ahead of a UK tour. In the cult-adult-comedy-musical, Sammy J and his fellow puppeteer Heath McIvor embark on an adventure in a magical forest with a cast of 14 puppets.
>>Click here for Sammy J’s blogs - TRIONA ADAMS – A former showbusiness agent – and still an occasional Whatsonstage.com reviewer – Triona has written and performs the new one-woman show Nun the Wiser(Gilded Balloon, 8-31 Aug), in which she tells her own true, and truly hilarious, story of how she swapped premieres for prayers and spent a year in a nunnery trying to get into the habit. The experience was also Triona’s inspiration for the BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play The Lemon Squeezer, premiered earlier this year.
>>Click here for Triona’s blogs
WHATSONSTAGE.COM
- MICHAEL COVENEY – Whatsonstage.com’s chief critic and contributing editor will be at the festival from 7 to 16 August and blogging regularly – as well as reviewing and tweeting.
>>Click here for Michael’s blogs - WOS EDITORS – Whatsonstage.com’s other key editorial staff – editorial director Terri Paddock, deputy editor Theo Bosanquet and Scotland editor Joe Pike – will also be contributing to a joint blog.
>>Click here for the WOS Editors’ blogs
EIF: 14 August-6 September
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