Picking out for the Pick
August 27, 2009
The thing about the fly-past is, when it goes overhead whilst I am in the bathroom, rinsing off Eve Lom ( … ), for a second it sounds like the hot water heater has suddenly revved up to maximum velocity and is going to explode. ie. Yes, another night in ! Read more
Edinburgh ague
August 22, 2009
Blleeeeuuuugggghhhhhh – we are poorly sick. No sniggers or snide glances please, this is not self-induced chronic hangover but nasty cold and runny tummy. But, best foot forward spit spot and all that I have not missed a show and have been smooched by a porn star – ahh, Edinburgh. Read more
Rain, sun, show, rain, sun, takeaway, sun, show …
August 17, 2009
Oooh, the rain it raineth nearly everyday! But it is not stopping the tattoo which is battering away on the cliff (and it is a cliff isn’t it? Still excited to look down a city street and see a cliff, it’s like the British Athens, brilliant.) Anyway… Read more
Apricot picking with Linda Marlowe
August 12, 2009
Our day off ! After a splendid night of partying with the whole of Festival Highlights, we all have a lovely day off to be spent climbing Arthur’s Seat, reading Waverley novels in a quaint cafe and taking in a minimum of 24 shows. This was the plan …
Much of the day has been spent in bed and in wandering dolefully around the Lothian Rd buying tea towels and chips. But, just as the pipes began skirling up in the castle (and ohmigod I have a freaking heart attack every time the fireworks go off over the kitchen), we had a wee adventure. Read more
So very very tired
August 9, 2009
… and not even here a week. Ate chips on the way home and was chatted up by a skinhead with 50 earrings who got quite peeved when I refused a drink at the lap-dancing club around the corner… the glamour, the glamour!
Resolutions: to rise early, read papers with coffee in smart cafes, visit galleries and museums, see many many shows, get to the shore, take refreshing walks and cook healthy nosh. Will let you know how it goes. Meanwhile, off to the Loft Bar for a French Martini or two.
Who are all these people, everywhere ?
August 7, 2009
The Festival has certainly kicked off now with the squares and streets seething with people. Lovely nunny show yesterday with a gorgeous audience laughing away. One spectacular laugher I thought was a chum of mine (who else would find me, Spam and hahas so funny?) but no, was a bone fide member of the glorious public! Madam, for you and your helpless giggling, many thanks. Read more
Hot Cross Nun (there’s a pun born every minute)
August 4, 2009
Hullo ? Hullo ! Is this working ? Is it on ? Are you receiving me ? – over. Papa can you hear me ?
Just over 24 hours in and I have already broken most of my Edinburgh rules: spent money, eaten out, drunk out, stayed out … the only thing I didn’t do was take a taxi. 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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