Day -7
August 24, 2009
Hello. Are you alright? Yeah, I’m alright. Good. How are you? Bit tired, you? Bit tired yeah. Not long now though is it? No not long now. Looking forward to going back? Yes and no, you? Same really. Yeah. You got some good reviews though. Yes, that was nice and you did. Yes, that was nice. Going out tonight? No, don’t think so, probably watch a DVD or something. Flight of the Living Dead? Probably. How many times you seen that then? 3 or 4. You must like it. …no. Not really but its the only one I got you see. Oh. Fancy seeing a show? Not really, bit tired. Yeah I’m a bit tired. yeah. yeah. Bye then. Bye.
That was an example of the kind of conversations that are currently rife in the Edinburgh Performer community. And we are a community, Snake! relentless fatigue and sorrow. Cheese nightmares and sore backs. Still its been a mountain of fun. Read more
Height
August 17, 2009
Hello. After a good 12 hours in the land of Nod, hanging out with various hefallumps and reenossery, I feel I am almost ready to face the world at last. There are still two weeks to go and this could be considered a daunting prospect to someone as sorely cream crackered as myself but no, on I struggle. I’d like to say that performing every day here is like being in a war zone but its not really is it? You don’t get shot at or bombed, occasionly someone might not laugh when they are supposed to but that’s at best only a mild wound.
Myself and the monsters were very much amused by a review of the show in the National Student which was generally very pleasant and nice. The baffling bit was where the reviewer pointed out that might transformations from character to character was slightly scuppered by my height. ???!!!?? I think next year we’ll need to bring out some stilts and try the old shoes on the knees routine. Ho hum….Not much to say now. Tomorrow will be laden with lucious prose I promise.
ta ta.
Day something: Bawdy. Spoon. Darius.
August 13, 2009
Howdy. A great gig last night with Fergus for Amnesty International, doing some classic Theatre Group. 
Like climbing into bed with an old lover, first we were tentative and gentle, then more daring – spicing things up and finally going at it no holds barred. Right in front of the audience, who drooled and slavered like farm animals. A nice gig and I am proud to be in the same bunch of placard-holding celebrities as Anthony Head and Darius.
Saw Nick Mohammed’s show. Wonderful stuff. He really is the new Mr Spoon and I followed him right to his moon and back. Everyone see it. It’s phenomenal.
I realise I haven’t actually said much about my show, Colin Hoult’s Carnival of Monsters, on this blog. Modest to the last. I am really very proud of it and you should all come. Rather than spoil it for you, as it’s full of surprises, I will simply give you some quick samples:
- ‘I chose the correct bush’
- ‘Bill! I need that bowl for my bottom’
- ‘If pushed, I would describe our sex life as regular and thorough’
Day 5, Burns. Back. Bacon.
August 9, 2009
I hate my back. It has turned on me, viciously, the ungrateful swine. At some point either climbing over the audience, riding on a tricycle or throwing myself to the floor, I have damaged it. It is a most uncomfortable feeling. Especially when you try to do something simple like walk and you literally can’t remember how this was ever acheived. Still the show must go on as Freddie Mercury sang “Inside my back is breaking, my make up may be fading…” etc. Read more
Day 1, Fish. Prudence. Nick.
August 5, 2009
I am ending a very long day with a disappointingly piss poor fish supper. This is the only part of my first day at the festival I haven’t enjoyed. I began with a delicious egg and mackerel breakfast. “Crikey”, I thought, “could this get any better”? But get better it did. 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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