Edinburgh Ramblings

Home and dry.

Never have I been so wet, so cold and so tired in Edinburgh as in the first week of this festival. The rain was relentless, the wind howled and the theatre just kept coming. I love it.

As ever we managed to convince audiences to spend a little time with us for both ‘Vertigo’ and ‘To avoid precipice cling to rock’. Both casts fought hard to avoid small houses, believe me, flyering in the rain is not fun for anyone. Tom and Philippa received a great five star review from ‘What’s On Stage’ (who I think really know their stuff), so that helped a lot and the Babolin Theatre girls just became an unstoppable force of nature. Defying the weather, they battled up and down the royal for hours talking to people about what excites them about their show, engaging with audience members like seasoned professionals. They even sold out on the last performance (selling 90 tickets), that’s not easy at a festival which has an average audience of under 10…

Overall though, this years festival felt a little bit like the rain had dampened it down. I found it very hard to get excited about lots of the work that I saw. I only saw a couple of really stand out pieces.

I think that maybe, MAYBE the fringe is losing its way a little bit. There is a lot of the same and not a lot of really exciting work going on. This is great for the likes of RashDash theatre, who I am a long term fan of. They are able to turn up, be brilliant, sell out from day one, get five stars in the Scotsman and win a Fringe First. They stand out a mile because of the bravery, quality and power of their work and I applaud them for that, but where is everyone else? Where are the other options? A great fringe would feature 30 RashDashs for me. I miss the days of the Aurora Nova, I miss the days when the Traverse sold tickets for under £10 so you could afford to see more of their excellent program, I miss the days when Little Bulb just showed up in a tiny hotel room in an unknown venue with a gem like ‘Crocosmia’ and wowed everyone.

What’s more, the best shows that I did see were all shows connected to my region, I could have just stayed in Cambridge or gone to Pulse in Ipswich to catch some of the best work in the country, I’m not complaining, I’m bloody proud, we are very lucky to have so much talent in and around the east of England, that’s worth highlighting, brilliant work like ‘The oh F—K moment’ (supported by East to Edinburgh), ‘2401 Objects’ by Analogue (upported by the New Wolsey), ‘The Alchemystorium’ by Gomito (ex- Cambridge), ‘7 Day Drunk’ by the wonderful Bryonny Kimmings (Junction Associate), ‘Scary Gorgeous’ by Rashdash (Helen from Cambridge, scratch here regularly- now leeds), ‘The quiet act of destruction’ by the inspired New Art Club (about a cambridgeshire town), State of Flux, Dan Canham, Isobel Cohen are just some of the companies and people I have seen in Cambridge over the past couple of years developing their work.

The fringe needs a shake up, I’m sure that will happen, the BAC and the forest fringe have fought hard to mix it up recently, but things will have to change or the quality will all disappear, we want more international companies, more selective programming from the big venues and more companies braving the wind and rain and financial ruin of Edinburgh or all that will be left will be a bunch of students shouting on the mile about their new production of ‘Hamlet on speed set inside the mind of a 9 year old’. – this was offered to me. Deadly.

I’m not bitter, I’m just still a bit damp…

I’m sure some of the highlights of the fringe will be coming to Cambridge over the coming year, keep an eye out for theatre made in this region, because it’s pretty good stuff. Good luck to everyone still going, week three is all about the Bristish Council, Gecko Theatre are talking all about the new show 'Missing' this week, good luck to Amit and the gang.