If you didn’t get chance to be there, DSW member Jeff has very kindly given us the lowdown on his experience of theatre, arts and comedy at Edinburgh this summer:
I’ve been a Fringe aficionado for many years now, having started attending probably around 2002.
Each year, the number of venues grows . The list of sites being made into ad-hoc stages has become overwhelming, and coupled with the ‘big business’ venues such as the Under and UdderBelly, and the Pleasance in its many forms, you could be forgiven for taking a look at the extensive programme each year and running away screaming.
Travel from the Midlands is easy by train, but the ticket prices are astronomical unless you can book at the right time in advance, armed with a suitable railcard.
The most economical way to travel for more than one person is simply by car, which is how you would find me in the first few days of August – rumbling up the A1 with the windows open, the wind streaming through my last remaining strands of hair, and Johnnie Walker’s rock show offered up as an audible gift to the motorway gods of the north.
Accommodation in the City Centre is similarly opportunistic. Out of curiosity, I scanned the usual hotel sites and was entertained to find simple rooms for a night starting around #250, with some of the real comedians asking more than #3000
I myself favour staying out of town.. Musselborough, Burntisland, and this time around Dunfermline – which Google maps would have you believe to be too distant, but in fact was a 20 minute drive after breakfast.
Parking the car in Edinburgh Waverley station cost #8 per day and was well worth it, the more ‘above ground’ parks (especially near the castle) being vastly more.
About the Castle: Edinburgh Castle is a magnificent edifice, and well worth a visit in the winter.
During the Edinburgh festival , however, it is festooned with scaffolding and flags of various kinds.
These take months to put up and months to take down, so there is along period when it isn’t the tourist view that appears on the millions of shortbread tins that line the shop shelves up and down the High Street (aka ‘The Royal Mile’ – so named for the distance between Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood House)
The Royal Mile itself is dotted with small alleyways leading away and down on both sides – ‘Closes’, some of which are famous in their own right, such as Mary King’s Close, and Fleshmarket Close which is the title and setting of a Rebus novel.
Attending Fringe shows correctly needs to be run like a military campaign – properly project managed.
The walking distance between areas of the town means that your itinerary needs to take account of venue , eating , and gradient as much as start time.
Big names need to be booked early, but there is a seat-of-the-pants thrill in having a day or two at the mercy of the ubiquitous leaflets which will press A5 adverts to you as you walk about.
Just pick up a leaflet, spin on your heel and march into the back of some tar-stained pub where you may find a secret treasure, or an act only a mother could love.
Now and then you will find yourself sharing a coffee shop with a face you saw on a 4 foot billboard just around the corner. It depends upon the artist whether they like to be recognised or left alone.
This particular visit, I was keen to attend a morning show : the White Room Theatre’s ‘Big Breakfast Bite Size’,
which offered a rotating menu of 3 sets of 10 to 15 minute plays for around #15, which included a welcome coffee, croissant, and strawberries to boot.
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The majority were of a high quality, (having earned their places in cold reads and test performances ) and I very much enjoyed seeing what could be done by a cast of 6 plus a stage sparsely populated with furniture that Oxfam would have refused. Including the inevitable moth-eaten chaise longue.
Most impressive was that the cast , as a repertory group, had memorised the lines to perhaps 12 plays each.
The fringe is a loss making event for almost all the artists, after travel, accommodation, food and venue hire is taken into account. So the inevitable low attendance at some events is sad.
But like climbing a mountain or swimming in the sea on New Year’s Day, folk do it for the experience.
Not all the acts are present through the whole period, so again if there is a specific show you need to see, plan, plan, plan.
That said, the first Monday/Tuesday after the Fringe opens are traditionally buy-one-get-one-free days, and the artists during the first couple of weeks are still pretty bright eyed and bushy tailed, so my personal tip is to attend earlier in the month than later, and to develop the fine art of walking at pace through a crowd of enthusiastic student types dressed as Norse Gods , singing Disney tunes acappella, or wandering around with plastic baby dolls glued to the forehead.
All human life is here.
Jeff Tullin