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Scotsman Announces Final Round of Fringe Firsts

The third and final weekly round of this year's Fringe First Awards were announced today (22 August 2003), where prizes are being doled out to five further productions. In total, 15 productions premiered at this year's festival have been recognised with Fringe Firsts (See News 8 Aug & 15 Aug, 2003). Of those, an overall winner will be named First of the Fringe Firsts tomorrow.

This week's winners are: Teo Castellano's Miami-set NE 2nd Avenue at Hill Street; Indian Ink's Pickle (pictured), based on the true story of a woman who married a dog, at the Assembly Rooms; the screen-inspired stage comedy Baby Jane or "show number 113" from experimental theatre group, The People Show, at the Traverse; The Birds of Sarajevo, La Fenetre's war-torn musings at Rocket@Demarco Roxy Art House; and en masse theatre's children's show about an ill-fated Victorian family, The Echo Chamber at the Smirnoff Underbelly.

The Fringe First Awards, presented by The Scotsman newspaper in conjunction with the Fringe Society, are the festival's most prestigious recognition for drama. They were established in 1973 when there was concern that the Fringe was not attracting the right quantity and quality of shows. The awards are announced weekly during the festival. There is no fixed number given and the only requirement for consideration is that the work must be new - having had no fewer than six performances in the UK, prior to the Fringe. This is the third year that an overall winner will be named First of the Fringe Firsts.

In a separate award, Guy Masterson's revival of 12 Angry Men, in which the jurors deciding the fate in a murder trial are played by leading UK comics, was voted the best show of the 2003 festival by 2,000 voters on the Fringe website. The 57th annual Edinburgh Fringe, the world's largest arts festival and now in its 57th year, concludes this Monday 25 August 2003.

- by Terri Paddock

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