Today I finally saw Anna's play "The Exquisite Corpse" and was really pleased that I really liked it and it prompted lots of discussion about what all of the four of us who saw it thought was going on - the concept is that 15 scenes, not necessarily at all related, are shown in a randomly selected order which changes their meaning, tone and connectivity. Not that I was expecting any less of course - the show's already received a 4 star review from Three Weeks and I think it's likely to do at least that well with other reviewers over the coming days.
Unfortunately, as happens every fringe at least once the combination of theatre and unusual levels of cabin fever (houseguests!) came to a (relatively benign) head in the sort of conversation that leaves me irate that anyone who does not live in Edinburgh thinks that a visit every August equates to a knowledge of what the city is like the rest of the year. I get into this vortex of frustration at least once a year whether with my houseguests or strangers around town who consider a regular visit to the festival to equal residencey.
I do reserve a special anger for the small subset of people who insist on over dramatic greetings in the streets as if the whole city is a little London-on-holiday theme park. If the red bellied fry up eaters on the Costa del Sol are a working class embaressment to Britain I would suggest that the Londoners air kissing and slumming it with baffling superiority in Edinburgh in August should be seen to exhibit just the same sort of tunnel visioned shame for anyone living in the South of London.
Obviously this frenzied sense that everyone owns a piece of my adopted home is one of the more predictable side effects of living in this city with a World famous festival. It can obviously be fabulous but there are lots of negative side effects ranging from virtually unusable buses (depending on the route), raided shelves at Tescos (leading to scenes resembling the bread lines in the old Soviet bloc), dubious tap water (several times in recent years the drinking water has been declared "safe" but closely resembled a sample from a grotty pond) to a perpetual and extreme sense of extreme claustrophobia (even outdoors - the meadows looks like a particularly unruly mass barbeque when the sun comes out). And that's before you even touch the weird appearence of poor quality but expensive food and drinks venues, the booking out of all your favourite (and usually drop in friendly) restaurants, 20 minute queues for bathrooms... And the excreble (and humourless) street artists.
I'm not saying I can't deal with my home's freaky flipside but every year it takes me most of the month to get used to it. At the same time I get, somewhat inconsistently, enraged that each year the festival seems to get less and less national coverage - which seems odd since there is no qualm about covering local music and arts events elsewhere especially when they are in or near London. Scotland rarely gets arts coverage at any time of year so it seems especially sad that the reporting seemingly peeked with the Perrier and stand up glory days of the mid nineties. At least online coverage is now starting to gain in respectibility - a pleasant change since my earliest EdinburghGuide days when internet journalists were only just starting to make a mark on the press offices. Although something about the festival must be appearing on BBC2 on Tuesday night's Culture Show as they were filming (and substantially delaying) last night's patchy but mostly funny and charming Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre show.
The problem really is just that I picked such a lovely and (normally) equisitely middle class and interesting but discreet place to call home. I'm very happy here all damn year so I think it's understandable that I get rather overprotective and hacked off by the fair weather friends that flock for the month of August and a few days at Hogmany. At least I get a super birthday pressie come September 1st... They all fuck off home and leave us to our happy all year round menu of culture, classiness, usable wifi and just the few handfuls of japanese tourists and hen nighters to deal with...
Showing posts with label edinburgh fringe festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label edinburgh fringe festival. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 August 2008
Saturday, 11 August 2007
More fabulous fringe, rainy days and the end of a musical era...
Last night we saw a very different pair of shows albeit only 1 degree of Sue Perkins apart:
Rhona Cameron (8pm Dining Room, Gilded Balloon Teviot)
This was the show we were booked into the 2for1 version off last weekend and were rescheduled due to overbooking. Rhona hasn't done a live stand up run for the whole festival in absolutely years and, as far as I recall, it's been a good 6 years since she was here at all (for a one week run) but she has been gigging and also writing novels. Nevertheless the overwhelming feeling here is one of rustiness and extreme nervousness which seems to mostly manifest itself as aggression towards the audience. Often I've seen a hostile audience be turned into a warm receptive one but it's rare that I've seen such a positive supportive crowd become quite uneasy by, in the main, a strong batch of material. The delivery was just so aggressive and London-centric that it was a bit off putting but its nothing a few less nervous and good adaptive editor couldn't fix. This long into her run though Rhona should have sorted this out already. At 2for1 I wasn't disappointed but I'm not sure the same could be said for the majority of the audience who'd paid their 12.50 for this odd hour.
Eurobeat: Almost Eurovision (9.45pm, Pleasance Grand, Pleasance)
In stark contrast Eurobeat was absolutely fan-fucking-tastic!!
An hour and a half, every member of the audience assigned a country, flags, clackers, live text voting and 10 phenomenal Eurovision parodies made this the most infectiously hilarious and enjoyable thing I've seen at the fringe in absolutely ages. A particular unexpected treat was the fact that Eurovision-obsessed Mel Giedroyc was playing co-host and there was a little recorded intro from His Greatness Sir Terence of Wogan. The campest numbers (Estonia's "Together Again" being my personal favourite), an unbelievably energetic cast w0rking their way through amazing parody Eurovis numbers with spectacular cheography and the genuine each-night-is-different twist of the audience picking the winner (ours pickes Ireland) made this an affectionate and loving mockery that hit all the right spots for me and the 5 folks Heather and I convinced to join us. It's so very very very good we're looking for a good excuse to go back again - this time in spangled with flags and proper insane levels of participation. Fabulous.
In other fringe review type news it seems I forgot to mention a show we saw last week:
A Conversation with Edith Head - Susan Claassen (6.15pm, Assembly@Hill Street Theatre)
This is a classic fringe theatre kinda production - one person monologue (well sort of a Q&A format but with feeder lines from a plant in the audience constituting most of the Q), great quality character acting and a show well honed from lots of runs in small but lovely theatres (like it's home for the festival in the Studio of Hill Street Theatre). However much of the charm of A Conversation with Edith Head comes from it's old fashioned style. Susan Claassen, on realising she was the utter spitting image of Edith Head with only a paur of glasses and the addition of the highly individual bangs (that's a fringe for those of you unconverted to that lovely American phrase) required. Thus a show was born and a truly staggering amount of research has been undertaken. Claassen doesn't so much act the part as channel the very spirit of Edith as she discusses her life behind the scenes as the costume designer to all the most golden decades of Hollywood's golden era. References to Head's sexuality and plaguerism are a little overplayed and those staged questions rather unneccassary but overall this is a joyous hour for any fan of those fabulous glamerous films from the 30's to the 60's which which Heads designs are most sonomous. Claassen is astonishingly good and, as long as your prepared to show your film geekdom and hang out with the predominently pensionable audience, this is well worth your early evening hour.
And finally... I awoke today (just before the excellent Hardeep Singh Kohli covered Fi Glovers presenting duties on Saturday Live) to the news that Factory Records founder and all round Manchester music scene supremo Anthony Wilson had died at the age of 57 of cancer.
Aside from admiring his prescient band-signing talents I have to also admit that Tony Wilson was a key figure in my late night tv watching as a telly obsessed adolescent (I can't recall it's name but Wikipedia suggest it might have been The Other Side of Midnight and later I certainly watched Remote Control with odder than odd clut character comic Frank Sidebottom on unlikely sidekick duties). Having never seen 24 Hour Party People I'm now feeling it is the appropriate thing to do but perhaps the documentary on Joy Division, Control, playing next week at EIFF 2007 will be a fitting piece of viewing in memorium.
Rhona Cameron (8pm Dining Room, Gilded Balloon Teviot)
This was the show we were booked into the 2for1 version off last weekend and were rescheduled due to overbooking. Rhona hasn't done a live stand up run for the whole festival in absolutely years and, as far as I recall, it's been a good 6 years since she was here at all (for a one week run) but she has been gigging and also writing novels. Nevertheless the overwhelming feeling here is one of rustiness and extreme nervousness which seems to mostly manifest itself as aggression towards the audience. Often I've seen a hostile audience be turned into a warm receptive one but it's rare that I've seen such a positive supportive crowd become quite uneasy by, in the main, a strong batch of material. The delivery was just so aggressive and London-centric that it was a bit off putting but its nothing a few less nervous and good adaptive editor couldn't fix. This long into her run though Rhona should have sorted this out already. At 2for1 I wasn't disappointed but I'm not sure the same could be said for the majority of the audience who'd paid their 12.50 for this odd hour.
Eurobeat: Almost Eurovision (9.45pm, Pleasance Grand, Pleasance)
In stark contrast Eurobeat was absolutely fan-fucking-tastic!!
An hour and a half, every member of the audience assigned a country, flags, clackers, live text voting and 10 phenomenal Eurovision parodies made this the most infectiously hilarious and enjoyable thing I've seen at the fringe in absolutely ages. A particular unexpected treat was the fact that Eurovision-obsessed Mel Giedroyc was playing co-host and there was a little recorded intro from His Greatness Sir Terence of Wogan. The campest numbers (Estonia's "Together Again" being my personal favourite), an unbelievably energetic cast w0rking their way through amazing parody Eurovis numbers with spectacular cheography and the genuine each-night-is-different twist of the audience picking the winner (ours pickes Ireland) made this an affectionate and loving mockery that hit all the right spots for me and the 5 folks Heather and I convinced to join us. It's so very very very good we're looking for a good excuse to go back again - this time in spangled with flags and proper insane levels of participation. Fabulous.
In other fringe review type news it seems I forgot to mention a show we saw last week:
A Conversation with Edith Head - Susan Claassen (6.15pm, Assembly@Hill Street Theatre)
This is a classic fringe theatre kinda production - one person monologue (well sort of a Q&A format but with feeder lines from a plant in the audience constituting most of the Q), great quality character acting and a show well honed from lots of runs in small but lovely theatres (like it's home for the festival in the Studio of Hill Street Theatre). However much of the charm of A Conversation with Edith Head comes from it's old fashioned style. Susan Claassen, on realising she was the utter spitting image of Edith Head with only a paur of glasses and the addition of the highly individual bangs (that's a fringe for those of you unconverted to that lovely American phrase) required. Thus a show was born and a truly staggering amount of research has been undertaken. Claassen doesn't so much act the part as channel the very spirit of Edith as she discusses her life behind the scenes as the costume designer to all the most golden decades of Hollywood's golden era. References to Head's sexuality and plaguerism are a little overplayed and those staged questions rather unneccassary but overall this is a joyous hour for any fan of those fabulous glamerous films from the 30's to the 60's which which Heads designs are most sonomous. Claassen is astonishingly good and, as long as your prepared to show your film geekdom and hang out with the predominently pensionable audience, this is well worth your early evening hour.
And finally... I awoke today (just before the excellent Hardeep Singh Kohli covered Fi Glovers presenting duties on Saturday Live) to the news that Factory Records founder and all round Manchester music scene supremo Anthony Wilson had died at the age of 57 of cancer.
Aside from admiring his prescient band-signing talents I have to also admit that Tony Wilson was a key figure in my late night tv watching as a telly obsessed adolescent (I can't recall it's name but Wikipedia suggest it might have been The Other Side of Midnight and later I certainly watched Remote Control with odder than odd clut character comic Frank Sidebottom on unlikely sidekick duties). Having never seen 24 Hour Party People I'm now feeling it is the appropriate thing to do but perhaps the documentary on Joy Division, Control, playing next week at EIFF 2007 will be a fitting piece of viewing in memorium.
Friday, 10 August 2007
More fringe, less hair please
Well today is another showtastic day. And we say one yesterday but it was god-awful in the "lots of hats mould" (if that makes no sense I can highly recommend looking out for reruns of Bruce Morton's Comic to Comic interview with Chris Green (Tina C) for Radio Scotland). Not recommended. Anyway here's the fringe bit, everything else afterwards...
The Queef of Terrance - Olivia Poulet and Sarah Solemani (5.40pm, 10Dome, Pleasance Dome)
This was the god awful show. Two gals who've taken "renaissance literature and tv presenting" at their polytechnic combine both in this spoof pilot chat show. Only it's really not nearly as much fun as it thinks it is. All three actors are very employable and not at all bad but the writing is atrocious (and I suspect writers and actors are one and the same on this one) and the attempt to crowbar topical stories in is cack handed as it pulls all the humour out. Not that it would have to, it just does here in the realm of relying on comedy accents and hairdos rather than funny material. At £8.50 a ticket it's not cheap enough to forgive and since we saw it a week into it's run I'm more than a little horrified that they hadn't tightened up timing or rejigged the material a bit. NOT recommended. With bells on.
Next to see:
Rhona Cameron, Teviot Gilded Balloon, 8pm tonight
Eurobeat, Pleasance Grand, 9.45pm tonight
Failed States, Pleasance Dome, 3.20pm, Saturday? (we haven't booked but we'll probably head there)
Tony Blair the Musical, Teviot Gilded Balloon, ?? Sunday
And then the film festival really gets going...
In the mean time Heather wants a new haircut and seeing myself in the mirror just now I would say I need one quite severely...
Watch this space for more fringe, film and t'other updates...
The Queef of Terrance - Olivia Poulet and Sarah Solemani (5.40pm, 10Dome, Pleasance Dome)
This was the god awful show. Two gals who've taken "renaissance literature and tv presenting" at their polytechnic combine both in this spoof pilot chat show. Only it's really not nearly as much fun as it thinks it is. All three actors are very employable and not at all bad but the writing is atrocious (and I suspect writers and actors are one and the same on this one) and the attempt to crowbar topical stories in is cack handed as it pulls all the humour out. Not that it would have to, it just does here in the realm of relying on comedy accents and hairdos rather than funny material. At £8.50 a ticket it's not cheap enough to forgive and since we saw it a week into it's run I'm more than a little horrified that they hadn't tightened up timing or rejigged the material a bit. NOT recommended. With bells on.
Next to see:
Rhona Cameron, Teviot Gilded Balloon, 8pm tonight
Eurobeat, Pleasance Grand, 9.45pm tonight
Failed States, Pleasance Dome, 3.20pm, Saturday? (we haven't booked but we'll probably head there)
Tony Blair the Musical, Teviot Gilded Balloon, ?? Sunday
And then the film festival really gets going...
In the mean time Heather wants a new haircut and seeing myself in the mirror just now I would say I need one quite severely...
Watch this space for more fringe, film and t'other updates...
Monday, 6 August 2007
A weekend at the fringe...
Wow! A busy weekend of fringe shows with 2 for 1, preview and free tickets (ie cheap ones) being the primary reason for seeing 6 shows in 3 days:
Friday night was...
Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical (5.45pm Udderbelly)
Super tongue in cheek little farcical porn-inspired musical. Highly recommended though maybe not all more genteel viewers will get all the dirty references...
Saturday was...
Kendras 30th birthday picnic on the meadows which was much fun. Followed by...
Binari: The Spirit of the Beat (artist: Dulsori, 7pm Old College Quad)
This freebie to uni staff (a special deal for the first few performances to get the numbers up a bit I think) featured lots of enormously enthusiastic drumming from the group Dulsori which was only slightly upstaged by the raver throwing some fabulous acid house shapes to the traditional Korean beat. I was very pleasantly suprised and Sarah and George, who had joined us for it, seemed to like it too.
Sunday was... insanely busy!!
From James Bond to Alexander - Jeremy Engler (12.10pm C Soco Urban Garden)
Offered film memories from a fairly youthful behind the scenes chap whose clearly more keen in front of the camera than playing with the technogeekery that generally earns him his living. It was a pretty good show though and with only 5 people sat in a rain-soaked tent whilst the rest of the venue was still under construction and a loud banjo show could be heard throughout it speaks wonders that we were all feeling warm and happy at the end of the hour...
Minor Spectacular - Plested and Brown (4.20pm Pleasance Dome (well one of the Potterrow Pleasance rooms)
Was a fantastic show which we only saw due to having decided to spend the afternoon using the free uni wireless in Potterrow whilst we waited out the next show - when we were flyered and offered a free ticket we hit very lucky indeed. Plested and Brown are two expert performers and an extraordinarily versitile set (which Anna would love) brought loads of characters to life in fabulous fringe style. Get your tickets now!
The same enthusiasm can't be reserved for:
Tony! The Blair Musical (6.45pm C+1, Chambers Street)
This dire public schoolboy effort suffered inordinately from having been over-promoted (mainly catching the fancy of the media due to the presence of Ian Duncan Smith's son). Although a barber shop quartet of former tory leaders was genius, the rest of the show was dire. Giving us a 10 year retrospective of Blair is perhaps a challenging mission for an hour even if written by adults but these guys can't have been much over 20 and clearly had minimal interest in politics as they had timelines in a dire mess, no idea of how to handle the fact that they were performing in Scotland (easy jokes were missed on that one frankly) and just did not have the brains for the task. They had seen all the Bremner and Alastair Little parodies and that was all as it was like kids playing grown ups rather than genuine satire of any form. The score was passable (except for some oddly Gilbert and Sullivan numbers which didn't seem to fit in) and the singing ok but the one female star was fully atrocious and the boy playing Tony by far the weaker of the male leads. The whole effect was so much worse for being in an excruciatingly warm and crowded venue full of people who seemed to be genuinely loving it. I can only assume they are friends/family of the cast or very stupid tories. I am a hell of a long way from a Blair fan but dammit if I didn't feel he was worth a much more intelligent going over than this!
Next we were supposed to be seeing Rhona Cameron but some sort of freakish ticketing issue meant they were 8 people too many so we gladly accepted the Gilded Balloon's offer to exchange our tickets for another night (who would turn down 2for1 for full prive tickets on a better night?!) AND free tickets to that night's:
Karen Dunbar show (8.30pm, Gilded Balloon Teviot Debating Hall)
We went in with no expectations (although I did diss thoroughly the idiot who tried to edge her way into our 400+ person queue thinking it was for Jerry Sadowitz since what little I knew of Dunbar marked her comedy pedigree as substantially more desirable than scatological Sadowitz) but were enormously pleasantly suprised. Next year we'll probably even pay for tickets to see Dunbar. Her comedy is genuinely very funny, well observed, refreshingly non-cruel (a particular bugbear of Heather's) and highly entertaining. If it was a little generic then at least she had the good taste to do it enormously well. Would be nice to see her be a tad more personal but I suspect I can see good financial and audience-related reasons for keeping it general or personal only in a childhood sorta way. Again, highly recommended.
And then... after 72 hours of running about fringe venues and cafes, eating crappy food and catching up on phonecalls as we waited for shows we collapsed, nursed Sunday's sunburn and thought of the horror of the fact that work started in 9 hours time...
And more than 9 hours later I'm just about making it through the day by being caffinated and sugared to the hilt. Roll on our next 4 fringe shows (Conversations with Edith Head - tonight 6.45 Hill Street Theatre; Rhona Cameron - Friday 8pm Gilded Balloon Teviot Dining Room; Eurobeat - Friday 9.45pm Pleasance Grand; Tony Blair the Musical - Sunday ??pm Gilded Balloon Tevit), whatever else pops up through the month (The Sound of Music Drag Show sounds good), the art gallery shows (we've done a good but weirdly curated Naked exhibition at the Portrait Gallery but have Picasso and Andy Warhol, David Batchelor: Unplugged to do plus a few others), a week+ of annual leave (am going to book more I think) and the true insanity of the film festival (my press pass confirmed and my retrospective tickets purchased I'm ready to go)...
Have a fab festival and do let me know what you've seen and what looks good!
Friday night was...
Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical (5.45pm Udderbelly)
Super tongue in cheek little farcical porn-inspired musical. Highly recommended though maybe not all more genteel viewers will get all the dirty references...
Saturday was...
Kendras 30th birthday picnic on the meadows which was much fun. Followed by...
Binari: The Spirit of the Beat (artist: Dulsori, 7pm Old College Quad)
This freebie to uni staff (a special deal for the first few performances to get the numbers up a bit I think) featured lots of enormously enthusiastic drumming from the group Dulsori which was only slightly upstaged by the raver throwing some fabulous acid house shapes to the traditional Korean beat. I was very pleasantly suprised and Sarah and George, who had joined us for it, seemed to like it too.
Sunday was... insanely busy!!
From James Bond to Alexander - Jeremy Engler (12.10pm C Soco Urban Garden)
Offered film memories from a fairly youthful behind the scenes chap whose clearly more keen in front of the camera than playing with the technogeekery that generally earns him his living. It was a pretty good show though and with only 5 people sat in a rain-soaked tent whilst the rest of the venue was still under construction and a loud banjo show could be heard throughout it speaks wonders that we were all feeling warm and happy at the end of the hour...
Minor Spectacular - Plested and Brown (4.20pm Pleasance Dome (well one of the Potterrow Pleasance rooms)
Was a fantastic show which we only saw due to having decided to spend the afternoon using the free uni wireless in Potterrow whilst we waited out the next show - when we were flyered and offered a free ticket we hit very lucky indeed. Plested and Brown are two expert performers and an extraordinarily versitile set (which Anna would love) brought loads of characters to life in fabulous fringe style. Get your tickets now!
The same enthusiasm can't be reserved for:
Tony! The Blair Musical (6.45pm C+1, Chambers Street)
This dire public schoolboy effort suffered inordinately from having been over-promoted (mainly catching the fancy of the media due to the presence of Ian Duncan Smith's son). Although a barber shop quartet of former tory leaders was genius, the rest of the show was dire. Giving us a 10 year retrospective of Blair is perhaps a challenging mission for an hour even if written by adults but these guys can't have been much over 20 and clearly had minimal interest in politics as they had timelines in a dire mess, no idea of how to handle the fact that they were performing in Scotland (easy jokes were missed on that one frankly) and just did not have the brains for the task. They had seen all the Bremner and Alastair Little parodies and that was all as it was like kids playing grown ups rather than genuine satire of any form. The score was passable (except for some oddly Gilbert and Sullivan numbers which didn't seem to fit in) and the singing ok but the one female star was fully atrocious and the boy playing Tony by far the weaker of the male leads. The whole effect was so much worse for being in an excruciatingly warm and crowded venue full of people who seemed to be genuinely loving it. I can only assume they are friends/family of the cast or very stupid tories. I am a hell of a long way from a Blair fan but dammit if I didn't feel he was worth a much more intelligent going over than this!
Next we were supposed to be seeing Rhona Cameron but some sort of freakish ticketing issue meant they were 8 people too many so we gladly accepted the Gilded Balloon's offer to exchange our tickets for another night (who would turn down 2for1 for full prive tickets on a better night?!) AND free tickets to that night's:
Karen Dunbar show (8.30pm, Gilded Balloon Teviot Debating Hall)
We went in with no expectations (although I did diss thoroughly the idiot who tried to edge her way into our 400+ person queue thinking it was for Jerry Sadowitz since what little I knew of Dunbar marked her comedy pedigree as substantially more desirable than scatological Sadowitz) but were enormously pleasantly suprised. Next year we'll probably even pay for tickets to see Dunbar. Her comedy is genuinely very funny, well observed, refreshingly non-cruel (a particular bugbear of Heather's) and highly entertaining. If it was a little generic then at least she had the good taste to do it enormously well. Would be nice to see her be a tad more personal but I suspect I can see good financial and audience-related reasons for keeping it general or personal only in a childhood sorta way. Again, highly recommended.
And then... after 72 hours of running about fringe venues and cafes, eating crappy food and catching up on phonecalls as we waited for shows we collapsed, nursed Sunday's sunburn and thought of the horror of the fact that work started in 9 hours time...
And more than 9 hours later I'm just about making it through the day by being caffinated and sugared to the hilt. Roll on our next 4 fringe shows (Conversations with Edith Head - tonight 6.45 Hill Street Theatre; Rhona Cameron - Friday 8pm Gilded Balloon Teviot Dining Room; Eurobeat - Friday 9.45pm Pleasance Grand; Tony Blair the Musical - Sunday ??pm Gilded Balloon Tevit), whatever else pops up through the month (The Sound of Music Drag Show sounds good), the art gallery shows (we've done a good but weirdly curated Naked exhibition at the Portrait Gallery but have Picasso and Andy Warhol, David Batchelor: Unplugged to do plus a few others), a week+ of annual leave (am going to book more I think) and the true insanity of the film festival (my press pass confirmed and my retrospective tickets purchased I'm ready to go)...
Have a fab festival and do let me know what you've seen and what looks good!
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