Monkey Bars, Rainbow, Songs of Lear & more scoop final Fringe Firsts

Seven shows picked up awards, including the Unicorn Theatre’s Monkey Bars, a verbatim piece about childhood, at the Traverse Theatre – which marks the Traverse’s fifth Fringe First this year.

Summerhall, which picked up an award last week for The List, landed a further three gongs for The Shit, an intense monologue, Jenna Watt’s Flaneurs, a play about violence in public places, and Song of the Goat’s Songs of Lear, a musical cycle based on Shakespeare’s masterpiece.

Fishamble’s The Wheelchair On My Face at the Pleasance Courtyard, Thread by Nutshell’s at Assembly St Mark’s and Sell a Door and Boxed Cat’s Rainbow at Zoo Southside complete the list of award-winners. by Emily Jenkins (Zoo Southside).

This brings the total number of 2012 Fringe Firsts to 18, five of which were handed out in the first week of the fringe and six of which in the second.

Theatre Uncut, also based at the Traverse, were also awarded a Spirit of the Fringe award.

The Fringe First awards were established 39 years ago to encourage new writing to head to Edinburgh – this year over 500 shows were eligible.