Best of This Week’s Edinburgh Blogs – 28 Aug 2009
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London's West End
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28 August 2009
Every week our theatregoer reporter Corinne Furness trawls the web to find some of the best gems from the myriad theatre-related blogs and condense them into one easy-to-read “Best of the Blogs” round-up each Friday. This month’s it’s all been about Edinburgh. This is her final Fringe festival instalment…
With less than a week before the end of the Festival, bloggers were keen to look back on their Edinburgh experiences, piecing together what exactly happened after weeks of cramped flats, late nights and self promotion.
On Whatsonstage.com’s festival site, Chris Grady considered the importance of maintaining momentum even in the final weeks while Jennifer Rowland reflected on what she had learnt during the course of August. For Edmund Digby-Jones, however, it was time to discuss two of the major features of Edinburgh: flyering and not remembering what happened the night before.
Flyering continued to be a favourite topic for bloggers elsewhere too: it was Marc Hogan’s turn this week as he considered his finely-tuned technique and the terrors (and success) it has given him.
The Fringe Review, meanwhile, took on the issue of reviewing at the Fringe, posing the question as to what exactly a five-star rating means when, as anyone who has braved the Royal Mile will know, every show seems to have one from somewhere. Finally, Phil King looked to the future and posed the question that would be so easy to avoid answering: what happens next?
“I’m finding a lot of companies hitting that pain threshold. The cathartic process (or joyous or painful process) of creating the show, getting the first audiences in, appealing to the press, reading the first reviews, and finding your way to the late late night bar – these are all hopefully achieved now.”
“According to the critics, I have either written a ‘well-crafted moving script’ or I’m not fit to write for daytime television. I think we’ve had a little bit of everything – the good, the bad and the hilarious. Certainly I know a lot more now than I did three weeks ago.”
“Later pointed out to me by colleagues that I had turned 21 at midnight, so any hope of remembering what might have occurred was folly. What I’m going to do with the spoils of the night – a shoe, a wheelbarrow and a badger – remains to be seen.”
“It makes me sad to think people don’t read the views under the star ratings, though I can’t say I really believe it entirely. There is probably a good deal of star-gazing going on, and I do sense that the star-rating system is starting to defeat itself, as star-inflation drives the value of stars down further and further.”
“There is nothing harder than walking up to complete strangers who already have 30-50 flyers in their soggy hands and you have one minute to convince them that they should pay to see your show.”
“Shows can have an amazing festival, burn brightly, and never be seen again. Everyone hankers after news that means the show can live on, be that in terms of a direct transfer, extra rehearsal space and time or simply a small gesture of goodwill in the direction of improving the show for future audiences.”
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