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Scotsman Announces Final Round of Fringe Firsts

The third and final weekly round of this year's Fringe First Awards are announced today (24 August 2006), with five shows being singled out for distinction. In total, 17 productions premiered at this year's festival have been recognised with Fringe Firsts (See News 11 Aug & 18 Aug 2006).

This week’s final winners are: The Pool (at the Gilded Ballon Teviot), Leaves on the Track’s drama about a day in the life of a Liverpool bookies; CoisCéim Dance Theatre’s dissection of modern marriage Knots (pictured - Aurora Nova); Goodness (Traverse), a new play from Canadian company Volcano in which a Jewish playwright traces his Polish family roots back through the Holocaust; Greg Coetzee’s rock opera about a South African anti-hero, Johnny Boskak Is Feeling Funny (Traverse); and Meeting Joe Strummer (Gilded Balloon Teviot), in which Nick Miles and Steve North play two lads whose 1977 lives are transformed by The Clash.

Winners from the past two weeks are: from week one, Black Watch, (I Am) Nobody’s Lunch, Particularly in the Heartland, Food, The Receipt and The Adventures of Tom Thumb (See News, 11 Aug 2006); and from week two, C-90, What I Heard About Iraq, Finer Nobles Gases, Sclavi - The Song of an Emigrant, Clean Alternatives and Tom Crean - Antarctic Explorer (See News, 11 Aug 2006).

All 18 winners are invited to the final Fringe First awards ceremony tomorrow (Friday 25 August 2006), where winners of this year's Jack Tinker Spirit of the Fringe, the Carol Tambor and the Amnesty Freedom of Expression Awards will also be announced.

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 more than six performances in the UK, prior to the Fringe.

The Edinburgh Fringe, the world's largest arts festival and now in its 60th year, opened on 6 August and concludes on 28 August 2006 (See News, 8 Jun 2006). The Fringe’s parent event, the Edinburgh International Festival, opened on 13 August and continues until 3 September (See News), 11 Aug 2006).

- by Terri Paddock

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