The first winners of this year’s prestigious Fringe First Awards, celebrating high-quality new drama at the Edinburgh Festival, have been announced by The Scotsman newspaper today (10 August 2012).
Among the winners is Mark Thomas Bravo Figaro! at the Traverse Theatre, where Mark Thomas talks about his dad – a full-on rough, but hard-grafting working-class Methodist, Thatcherite builder from south London – and the difficult relationship he has with him.
The final two Fringe Firsts announced today were awarded to: All That Is Wrong at the Traverse, the third part in the trilogy about growing up from the award-winning Belgian company Ontroerend Goed behind Once and For All…, Teenage Riot and last year’s highly controversial Audience; and Why Do You Stand There in the Rain? from the students of Pepperdine University, telliing the story of the march of the Bonus Army, waging a national campaign for food, work and justice.
The Fringe First Awards 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, with the next round winners being announced next Friday. There is no fixed number given and the only requirement is that the work must be new – having had no more than six performances in the UK, prior to the Fringe.