1,346 Shows on Offer at Edinburgh Fringe '99
Date: 28 June 1999
The programme for this year's outing of 'the world's largest arts festival' is now available online. The 1999 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, now in its 52nd year, takes place over three weeks this summer, 8 to 30 August and features 14,562 performers from 607 companies producing 1,346 shows from around the globe. More than 300 of this year's acts are from England and Wales with 172 from Scotland, 52 from America, 20 from European Union countries, seven from the Far East, six from Eastern Europe and Russia, six from Australia and one from the Middle East.
Fringe acts fall into eight categories - children's shows, comedy and revue, dance and physical, musicals and opera, talks and events, theatre and visual arts. Theatre comprises the largest category with 514 productions, including 295 brand new debuts and a long list of world, European and British premieres.
Renowned for providing space for controversial productions, the 1999 Fringe looks unlikely to disappoint. Those set to cause a stir include How to Make a Human Being, which explores the issue of human cloning and the future of 'designer babies', and the first Fringe performance of Fanny Hill, the banned 18th century classic examining the decadence of Hogarth's London. Millennial fever won't be ignored as subject matter either. The numerous productions tackling it include Dream.2000, a game show taking place in the last 60 minutes of 1999, and It's Not the End of the World, a new play about Nostradamus, written by and starring Richard Herring.
The programme will also feature 23 different versions of Shakespeare including a Caribbean Tempest, Romeo and Juliet seen through the eyes of the nurse, a Merchant of Venice replete with gender wars and discos, and Edward Petherbridge, seen last year in the RSC's Krapp's Last Tape, as the playwright himself.
More than half a million people plan their August holidays each year around a trip to Edinburgh. Though commonly seen as one single festival, the event is in reality six different festivals - the original Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, the Military Tattoo, the Jazz Festival, the Film Festival and the Book Festival - of which the Fringe is, by far, the largest. For further information, contact the Edinburgh Fringe on +44-131-226-5257 or visit its website at www.edfringe.com.
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